Kitchen Home Organizing with the Neat Method Will Help You Eat Clean

Looking for inspiration to clean up your diet and start cooking delicious Clean Cuisine?

If you are serious about committing to eating clean, one of the most important first steps you can take is to clean up your pantry and organize your kitchen. Believe it or not, the simple act of home organization in the kitchen will help get your mind in gear and reinforce your pledge to care about the foods you put into your body.

And it doesn’t hurt to try and make your kitchen and pantry as beautiful as possible either! Think about how inspiring it is to walk into a Williams-Sonoma store or a Sur La Table. I don’t know about you, but the first thing I want to do whenever I walk into either culinary store is start cooking. And, if I am going to go to all of the effort to cook I want to make sure the food I prepare is every bit as healthy as it is tasty.

For the longest time I have been saying that if people just got back into the kitchen and started cooking we would have such a healthier society; a home cooked meal is inevitably going to be more nutritious – and more delicious – than anything you can buy premade at the grocery or from a restaurant. And now, one of my favorite authors, Michael Pollan, released his most recent book titled Cooked: A Natural History of Transformation, where he makes a good strong case that taking control of cooking may be the single most important step anyone can take to help make the American food system healthier and more sustainable. Without question, cooking will open the door to a more nourishing life; I don’t think anyone can argue with that.

But nobody wants to cook in a disheveled, dirty and disorganized kitchen. That’s why I believe it is of utmost importance to create the kitchen of your dreams. And dreamy doesn’t need to be fancy or ultra-pricey either. It does need to be neat and tidy though…

A Clean & Organized Kitchen – Where to Start?

I am the first to admit I am not the best at home organizing and I have never had a kitchen or pantry structured in a way that truly inspires me to cook the way walking into Williams-Sonoma or Sur La Table does. However, since we are in the process of building our dream home I decided I would enlist the help of a home organizing professional and set my pantry and kitchen up the right way right from the start.

Introducing the “Neat Method” Home Organizing Solution

NEAT Method specializes in home organization that brings comfort, efficiency and style to your home. They are located all across the US and I am very fortunate to have had them recently launch in South Florida, right in my backyard, under Marissa Hagmeyer’s leadership.

It just so happens that the kitchen is Marissa’s favorite space to organize! According to Marissa, “The kitchen is the room in the house where we (NEAT Method) find our impact is exponential. The changes we make and organizing solutions we implement, often help the individual/family make healthier eating choices and even save money!”

Marissa will be helping me organize my new home kitchen and so I asked if she could share a few of her kitchen organizing secrets on Clean Cuisine. It all started with a trip to her favorite store…the Container Store!

Neat Method Tip #1: CABINETS

A quick tip for your cabinets is to make sure they aren’t too full! If you can’t see everything you shouldn’t make another trip to the grocery until you have figured out some Clean Cuisine recipes you can make using what you already have.

Marissa loves the 3-Tier Bamboo Expanding Shelf from the Container Store because it makes it much easier to see each and every label so no spice goes unnoticed.

Neat Method Tip #2: PANTRY

Make more room in your pantry for Clean Cuisine superfood bulk ingredients (nuts, dried beans, dried whole grains, whole grain pastas, dried fruit, shredded coconut, hemp seeds, chia seeds, etc.) by storing your dried goods in these OXO BPA Free Pop Containers. This will keep your food fresh, concealed and easy to find.

Neat Method Tip #3: REFRIGERATOR

The key to a tidy fridge is categorizing! While drawers make it easy to keep all of your fruits and vegetables together, the rest of the fridge can become a clutter fest. Create categories for yourself and tell your family, even label the lip of the shelves. That way you will never spend another 5 minutes searching for those hemp seeds for your morning smoothie.

If you have the Clean Cuisine book, you might also have the recommended vegetable soup, cooked whole grains, “sauces that make the meal”, salad booster and fresh nut milk stored in your fridge – `but what are you storing these Clean Cuisine staples in? How about giving healthy and safe Fridge-X Silicone Storage Containers by Ceramcor a try! While FridgeX is lightweight, these 100% green storage containers are made for heavy-duty performance. They won’t leach, chip, break or stain. And, they are built to withstand extreme heat and extreme cold – each piece can go directly from oven to freezer! Whether you want to cook in the oven, microwave or toaster oven, you can do it all with FridgeX Silicone Storage Containers and I promise they will help keep your fridge organized and tidy.

And finally, whether in a cabinet or pantry your containers should be labeled so they are quick and easy to locate. NEAT Method just released these adorable, and FREE, downloadable labels. These are sure to help make your kitchen efficient and of course NEAT. I promise you will want to cook more often.

For more information on how you can experience the NEAT Life contact Marissa at 630.750.3774 or via email at marissa@neatmethod.com.