Can a disorganized kitchen sabotage your weight loss?

Disorganization is a distraction and will cause you to feel overwhelmed, stressed, and stuck. When you are trying to lose weight, these are the last things you want to feel. What happens when we are stressed and overwhelmed? We eat to feed our emotions. Being organized in your kitchen will help you in your weight loss journey.

Here are 6 steps to an organized kitchen

1. Take everything out of your food closets. Everything must come out!  If you want to really get organized, you must do this. You can’t just shift items around. You won’t know what is hiding in the back of the food closet until you take everything out! As you begin to empty, be sure you are looking at expiration dates and throw away food that is expired
2. Re-evaluate how you function.  What do you see that may not belong? Is it your children’s paperwork from school, tools, sports equipment, mail, or clothes?  My advice: If it is not related to appliances, cooking or food and you don't use it every day, get it out of the kitchen!
3. Transform your space. Once your food pantry is empty, you now have this empty space that you can transform to your liking. Take a minute to think about how you want to function in this space. Think about often you grab certain foods and which shelves you want your breakfast foods or snacks on.  Think about what your trigger foods are and where those are placed in your food closet.  
4. Maximize your space. Think about what you are storing in your kitchen that doesn’t need to be there, especially if you are short on space and have a small kitchen. If you are short on space, items need to fit like a puzzle in your space. Get the most out of your space!
5. Organize your containers. If you are preparing your food for the week, you will need containers to store the food in. Be sure this area in the kitchen is organized, because you want to be as efficient as possible in your kitchen.
6. Set up working systems. Getting organized is all about setting up working organized systems that will not only get you organized, but keep you organized. You want to be efficient and productive in your kitchen. Set up systems that will work for you and your family. The simpler the system, the easier it will be to maintain.  Streamline. Simplify.

Knowing what you have and where everything is will help avoid buying duplicate items at the market. Everything is categorized, labeled and you will be able to see everything in your closet. Having an organized kitchen will help you in your weight loss journey.