Is your kitchen cluttered? You may be self-sabotaging your own weight-loss efforts.
Which is actually failing you – Willpower or Clutter?
While diet and exercise are vital, your home environment also plays a big role in helping you slim down. AND, it’s an easy “without equipment” fix, too!
Here’s a few student examples to consider before you begin your own reorganizing:
How does this photo make you feel:
…Compared to the feelings you experience from this one?
Which one looks more like YOUR kitchen? If you identify with the first one, there’s a reason why your diet may be failing you.
Clutter and Motivation
Clutter is really damaging to diets. It drives people to think, “Everything else is out of control, so why shouldn’t I be?” and they throw away all care to make room for comforting junk food.
Because who wants to take the time to prepare a nice meal in a kitchen that requires a bulldozer to remove countertop clutter?
Probably no one.
So you choose an easy, fast meal – but convenience always comes with a price!
Assess Your Space
Take a look around your kitchen,
- Are pots and pans often left out?
- Do your cupboards overflow with mismatched tupperware?
- Is your pantry full of stuff you bought and never use?
- Do you have a home for every kitchen item? (how often do they stay in that home?)
If you find yourself going to the grocery store and picking out all these lovely ingredients for a nourishing meal, then coming home and losing all motivation… clutter is probably why.
As Marie Kondo often encourages; “Tidying up helps to calm you down.”
What can I do?
As we progress in our knowledge of what does and does not work for dieting, we’ve learned that places – such as cluttered offices or disorganized homes – can be modified for our overall benefit.
This means we can change the spaces we spend the majority of our time in, to help us control our food intake. Intentional design is steadily becoming an important solution in helping us lose weight.
Here are a few tips to get you started:
(Learn the rest of Sherry’s methods in the Organize Your Kitchen course)
Manage Your “Breakfast Zone”
What’s in a Breakfast Zone?
This is where you’ll keep your family’s morning favorites. This can include bread, peanut butter and jams, honey, cereals, etc.
A good idea to save space here is to use large containers for cereals. They often take up less space than bulky boxes and will stay fresh for a lot longer!
Set Up Your “Meal Prep Area”
This area will likely be close to the sink, or where you feel is the natural place you like to prepare meals.
Group your prepping utensils together and store them in a nearby drawer or cupboard that will be dedicated to preparation supplies. Included here are also aluminum foil, zip bags, and the like.
Tame Your “Tupperware Turmoil”
Ah, the dreaded drawer of chaos. Everyone’s least favorite, but often-used space!
The easiest way to keep it manageable is to keep it separate. Use a container for lids and sort them from largest to smallest. Use another container for kid’s dishes, lunch thermoses, etc.
Stack the rest of your containers with similar shapes. Ex: square containers stacked from largest to smallest, then another stack for rounds, and rectangles.
Happy Home, Happy Life? Studies say so
Without needing to say it, I’m sure we all know that a beautiful, clean home will never negatively impact our lives.
But clutter on the other hand… There are not only physical difficulties that come with it, but mental health problems too.
If you found these tips helpful, check out Sherry’s Organize Your Kitchen course! This 8-module (plus a bonus!) was designed to help you lessen stress and boost your health by learning the principles of managing clutter and restoring a sense of order to your home.
