When it comes to the chaos of everyday family life, one of the major stressors I hear about from my clients is the perpetual question of what to make for dinner. As in all things organized, planning and preparation can go a long way. And meal time is no exception.

If you need some guidance and help with meal planning, check out the following resources:

Plummelo.com

If you’ve got a stockpile of recipe ideas, but need a little help organizing your menus and grocery lists, Plummelo.com is a free site that helps folks organize their recipes and get their food lives in order by letting users:

•  Have a central, online recipe box to upload all personal recipes and collect recipes from the web.
• Use a browser button to automate recipe collection from top recipe sites
• Create automatic shopping lists based on the recipes they want to cook, with ingredients categorized based on the aisles in which they’ll find them.
• Better plan meals and shopping lists, and prevent needless supermarket trips or time spent wondering “what’s for dinner.”

 These days, saving money is even more of a priority than ever, so I asked if Plummelo can help users find coupons based on the shopping list it generates. A representative from the company responded,

“As for coupons, you’ve certainly anticipated one of the directions we will be moving in.  We’ll be linking coupon software to both the recipes and the shopping lists so folks will have coupons based exactly on what they want to shop.  We just got access to the coupon technology, we just need to implement it and hope to have that piece up in the next few weeks.”

With Plummelo, there’s no more handwriting shopping lists, losing family recipes, or keeping miscellaneous recipe folders around the home.  Plummelo essentially simplifies a lot of the hassles that go along with recipe collection and food shopping.

E-Mealz

E-Mealzis an amazing (and cheap) source for done-for-you meal planning. For just $1.25 per week you can choose from one of 26 different meal plans. All of these plans are designed with your whole family in mind, even the specialty plans created for low-carb, low-fat, points diets and vegetarian options. They also have plans for just two people. And you can even choose your plan based on your specific grocery store and have a meal plan based around the items on sale that week!

And for just $1.25 you are getting many hours of recipe and menu planning, price shopping, and recipe testing. You get the daily menu PLUS an itemized grocery list organized by grocery sections in a 1-page chart. Some of the features of E-Mealz include:

• Dinner menu is concisely organized in a one-page chart (no long recipes or printing several pages – just one sheet to keep up with in your kitchen!)
• No wordy instructions – just to the point and easy to follow at-a-glance (for the harried Mom!)
• All the side dishes are included in the menu and grocery list
• Grocery List includes an extra column for you to add “Other Groceries I Need”
• The TOTAL COST of your grocery list is given at the bottom (except for the Any Store plans). They work to keep the grocery total at a $75 average.
• Necessary staples are listed and organized by meal #
• Want to eliminate a meal? Just cross out each grocery item on the grocery list with that corresponding meal # beside it. (Takes just a minute!)

(Disclosure: Although I do subscribe to E-Mealz, they are also a featured affiliate sponsor of VirtuallyOrganized.com. If you plan to subscribe to E-Mealz please click on the above link or on the sidebar link. It is because of income from sponsors like E-Mealz that VirtuallyOrganized.com is able to offer you free organizing resources, tips, and ideas!)

Menu Plan Mondays from OrgJunkie.com

My organizing friend and colleague Laura (“The Organizing Junkie”) has a great free resource for menu planning ideas. Each Monday over 300 ladies share what’s on their menus for the week. It’s a wonderful opportunity to keep your menu planning efforts on track week after week, not to mention the many great ideas and recipes that come from reading the menus of the many other participants.

Anyone who blogs is welcome to post their weekly menu and link it to her weekly posts. I’ve never participated in the link up, but I’ve definitely browsed the menus to add some new ideas to my arsenal of menu plans.

So how do YOU plan your family meals? Please share any additional resources in the comments section below!

Simply yours,
Debbie

In addition, after nearly 20 years as a vegetarian, I’ve taken the plunge and gone vegan, cutting out all animal products from my diet. There have been a few groans from my meat-eating hubby and vegetarian/non-vegan kids, but I’ve been doing my best to make as many family-friendly vegan dishes as I possibly can.

Along the way I have rediscovered my love of cooking. But I’ve also come across some new tools and gadgets for the kitchen that I’d love to share with my Virtually Organized readers.

Glasslock Food Containers from Snapware

Along with more cooking comes more leftovers. (Not a bad problem to have, as they come in really handy when I’ve spent too long at the pool and don’t have time to cook.) My new favorite product for leftovers is Snapware’s Glasslock line.

Glasslock is made of tempered safety glass with a locking, plastic BPA-free lid. The containers are airtight, leak-proof and microwave safe. And because they are glass, nothing stains the containers.

What I love best about Glasslock is that my leftovers can go straight from the refrigerator into the microwave without having to transfer them out of a plastic storage container first. (Plastic in the microwave in a big no-no!). That means fewer dishes to wash, which is always a plus in my book! They come in a variety of sizes (1.4 cups to 7.5 cups), which makes them perfect for all your food storage needs.

I’ve also been using these containers to pack our lunches when we head out on summer adventures, and I can honestly say they do not leak at all.

Snap ‘N Stack from Snapware

Another great product that I have discovered from Snapware is their Cookie & Cupcake Carrier. This versatile storage container includes 2 reversible inserts: one side is for cupcakes, the other is flat and can hold up to a 1/4 sheet cake.

This 2-layer container is awesome for transporting goodies to parties, picnics and potlucks. If you only need on one layer, just leave the remaining layer behind, pop on the lid and go.

I’ve mostly been using this container for storing my homemade goodies at home. I haven’t yet used the cupcake option, but since I’ve been recently been addicted to Food Network’s show, Cupcake Wars, I’m sure it will only be a matter of time before I fill the cupcake insert with more vegan goodies for my family.

Giveaway!!

So, want to get your hands on your own Glasslock containers and Cupcake Carrier? Snapware has graciously offered to give away a set of each to one lucky Virtually Organized winner!

Just click here to visit their site and learn more about the Snapware products. Then come back to this blog post and tell me what you think. To earn extra entries, tweet about this contest or post the link to your Facebook profile and leave additional comments with the links to your shout outs. Just be sure to get your comments in by midnight EST this Friday July 30th

Good luck!

Simply yours,

Debbie

Stress . . . Annoying, Isn’t It?

Guest post by Michi Story, known also as the KenZen Coach. KenZen is Japanese for harmonious mind, body and spirit. A mom of an almost four-year-old boy, Michi draws upon this, her Japanese heritage and her training as a wellness coach, personal trainer and health & fitness specialist to help other busy moms learn how to better manage their stress, get fit, lose weight, have more energy, and create more work/life harmony. Since organization, or the lack thereof, often goes hand-in-hand with these other life issues, I invited Michi to guest post and discuss one of the biggest factors of household disorganization. . . stress. Click here for Michi’s words of wisdom . . .

Organizing Rules are Meant to be Broken

Wouldn’t it be great if I could just spew a few organizing rules, you implement them, and from here until eternity your home is “perfectly” organized?

That’s the frustrating thing about organizing, though. It is not an exact science.

The other day, I was helping a client organize her kitchen cabinets. Our goals were to increase work flow, maximize cabinet space, and purge or relocate all the unnecessary or unrelated items we discovered. Things were going well until it came to the putting-it-all-back stage. Find out how breaking the “rules” made things work so much better.

Bedroom Storage Tips

Often our bedrooms are the last place we organize. But a clutter-free bedroom can be such a retreat at the end of a busy day. Sure, organizing the “public” spaces in your home is essential, but don’t neglect your bedrooms, or yourself. Everyone deserves a calm and peaceful place to rest and re-engergize. Click here for tips for your bedroom . . .

Enjoy this blast from the past!

Simply yours,

Debbie

This week’s helpful Link of the Week is StillTasty.com. Still Tasty gives you the answers to these questions for thousands of items. Just type in the food or beverage in question and within seconds you’ll know if that week-old cottage cheese is edible or not.

StillTasty.com is the ultimate shelf life guide for all your kitchen products. Not only do they give you keep or toss advice, but they provide tips for storage, too.

By the way, according to StillTasty.com, that cottage-cheese can be kept one week after the date on the container, but only if the package hasn’t been opened yet. Once opened, it must be used within 5-10 days, regardless of the date on the container.

If cleaning out and reorganizing your refrigerator and freezer is on your to-do list this week, Still Tasty will help you decide what you can safely keep and what needs to be tossed.

Simply yours,

Debbie

Why should you bother organizing a pantry that is usually hidden behind closed doors? Well, for starters, keeping this area more efficient can make the dinnertime rush a little less stressful. It can also save you money (no more buying duplicates of items because you didn’t see something hiding in the back of a cluttered pantry).

Start at the top.

A systematic approach to your project will keep you focused and on track. Start at the top shelf and work your way down as you purge, clean, and re-organize.

Remove the invaders.

Remove all items that simply do not belong in the kitchen pantry and place them in a large bin or even a laundry basket. But do not take the time now to return them in their appropriate “homes.” The idea here is to stay focused on the pantry project and not get distracted with other areas. Once the pantry is complete, you can take a well-deserved break and return later to deal with returning the invaders to their rightful homes.

Purge! Purge! Purge!

Check the freshness dates on all your opened and unopened items, discarding those that are past their expiration dates or are questionable, at best. Next, remove any items you either do not plan to use or do not like anymore. Make sure that everything that is left is something you can see yourself using in the near future.

Kitchen Spices

Now that all the holiday cooking and baking are done, it is time to give your spices an overhaul. While old spices will not necessarily spoil your meal, they certainly will not provide maximum flavor. Visit the McCormick Spice Company’s website,  for advice on how long to keep various spices and help deciphering expiration codes and “best by” dates. Their annual T.O.S.S. program, “Toss Old Spices Seasonally,” can guide you through the process.

I recommend this pull-down spice rack from ($19.99 at The Container Store) to try and maximize your higher pantry shelves or add more functionality to a tall kitchen cabinet (I have one in my own kitchen, and I wouldn’t store my spices any other way!)

If you have a spare drawer in your kitchen (preferably near your stove or work area), you might want to consider moving your spices out of the pantry and closer to where you actually use them (freeing up some space on your pantry shelves at the same time). This clear in-drawer spice rack ($11.99 at The Container Store) keeps spices easily accessible on its three angled tiers.  

Store things how you use them

Once you go through all the shelves, arrange your items in categories, or stations, that make sense to you and your family and how you cook and eat. Maybe you have baking, canned food, and snack sections. Maybe you get more specific and have a cookie section, a cake section, a soup section, a canned fruit section, a candy section and a cracker section. It is your pantry, so make it work for you. This Deluxe 4 Tier Pantry Baskets Door or Wall Mount organizer ($94.99 at Organize.com) is a great way to categorize your food, while also adding more shelving space to your pantry.

Containerize

Not all items need to be placed in containers, but for some items, it preserves their freshness and can maximize your space. For example, storing flour and sugar in airtight plastic containers makes them stay fresh longer.

Individually wrapped items that come in boxes (i.e., granola bars, instant oatmeal packages, microwave popcorn) will take up less space if you designate a basket or bin for the items and empty the contents of the boxes into the container. This allows you to both view your supply and know when it is time to replenish. It also helps avoid the common problem of partially empty boxes of fruit chews or granola bars taking up valuable shelf space.

Check out my review of the Rubbermaid Easy-Find Lids for some container ideas to keep some of your pantry staples fresh, easy to find, and well organized.

Re-stock your supplies

Once you’ve got your pantry clean and organized, make sure it’s well-stocked . . . there’s nothing worse than being half-way through a recipe only to find out you’re missing a key ingredient (and yes, I’m unfortunately speaking from experience ) A few months ago I featured a post by guest blogger Kelly Whalen from  the ¢entsible life who detailed everything you need to know about How to Stock the Pantry. Check it out for a list of ingredients you should have on hand.

There are many more organizational strategies you could implement in your pantry project, but if you manage to get the simple steps above completed, consider yourself one step closer to completeing your spring cleaning.

Simply yours,

Debbie

Recently, Rubbermaid sent me their brand new 6-piece interlocking drawer organizer set, which is set to hit the stores in the next few weeks.

 They also gave me a second set to give away to one lucky Virtually Organized reader. But before we can get to the fun stuff, I thought this was a great opportunity to offer some tips and ideas for organizing that infamous junk drawer.

To begin with, I really don’t like to call these catch-all drawers “junk” drawers. After all, it really can become a self-fulfilling prophecy.

So instead, I prefer to call these babies “utility drawers.” But before you get to a functional, organized utility drawer, you need to go through the organizing process.

Step 1: Empty out the entire contents of your former junk drawer.

 Step 2: Take a deep breath and start sorting the junk into categories (think “like with like”). Make sure to include the “trash” pile and the “belongs elsewhere” pile. Now, everyone will have different needs when it comes to what they want to store in this new utility drawer, but for this kitchen version, some of the categories included pencils, paper, extra/neighbor’s keys, tools, paperclips, and hair tools (if you’ve got little girls, you know that sometimes it’s easier to quickly do their ponytails right before they run out the door for the day).

Step 4: After figuring out what you’re left with, the next step is to assign each category to a container, or in this case, one of the Rubbermaid drawer organizers.

What I really like about these organizers is the rubberized bottoms that help prevent the contents from shifting too much when you open and close the drawer. I also like that they are completely separate, which allows for a very flexible and customized arrangement.

To help ensure the maintenance of this newly organized drawer, each compartment gets a label. Obsessive? Maybe. But I swear by the power of labels for keeping an organizational system flowing smoothly. Plus, just because you know and remember that the right drawer is for “tools and quick fixes,” it doesn’t mean that the rest of your family members do.

Have you made a New Year’s resolution to get organized? If you’ve fallen behind on this goal because you’ve found organizing an entire house, or your entire life, just too overwhelming, try starting small with this junk drawer project.

To help you on your way, Rubbermaid is giving me an additional set of drawer organizers to give away to one lucky Virtually Organized reader. To enter, leave me a comment below to let me know which junk drawer in your house you plan to organize. For additional entries,  Tweet  about this contest and join my Facebook Fan Page, Virtually Organized by Debbie, and let me know about it in your comment below. I’ll announce the winner on February 3rd.

Simply yours,

Debbie

Stocking the pantry can be the key to eating healthy on a budget. Keeping it organized keeps you from buying that 3rd bottle of ketchup just because you didn’t see the one in the back of the cupboard.

Our kitchen has no pantry and many of our cupboards are unusable due to the lack of shelving, or shelves that are falling apart. The previous owners did a remodel and while it looks okay on the outside, the insides of the cabinets are atrocious.

We use one cupboard for storing spices and baking supplies. We use another cupboard for dry goods and canned goods.

A friend mentioned the idea of using shelving in her coat closet to store extra pantry items. This was a perfect idea for our house because the hall is right off the kitchen. The closet has floor to ceiling doors, and 2 large, long shelves above the hanging rod.

The Stocked “Pantry”

I’ve been purchasing extras of our staples on sale, as well as buying in bulk. I occasionally purchase things from a local buying club, Frontier, or by the case at our local whole foods store (they offer a 10% discount on cases). I also try to stock up when I am near a Trader Joe’s because they have many of our must-have items at rock bottom prices. (Ketchup for instance is $1.79 for 24 ounces, and is considered a staple because it gets the kids to eat greens.)

How to Stock your Pantry:

Before you go shopping this week take some time to go through your cabinets, fridge and freezer so you can catalog everything you have on hand.  You may find you could eat of your pantry for a month, like FrugalGail on Wesabe. (what would you do with the savings?)

If you find some expired items here is a handy guide to tell what is safe to eat.

EXPIRED GOODS LIST

Use By: If it’s past this date it is not safe to use. If you are getting close to the date, either use it up immediately, or freeze it if possible. “Use By” is usually found on meat, poultry and some packaged fruits and vegetables.

Sell By: If it’s past the due date on an item that says “Sell By” you usually have 7-10 days before it truly goes bad. Again, use it before you lose it, or freeze it if possible. This is seen most often on milk and other dairy products.

Best if Used By: After this date the product will taste different according to the manufacturer.  You should also assume loss of vitamins and minerals. I would use it up ASAP if you are past the expiration date.

Most importantly if you’re in doubt, THROW IT OUT!

There are markets that specialize in selling past-date items for low prices. We have one near our home. I find these are a great way to stock up on snacks when we are going on a car trip, or feeding a large crew, but I generally don’t find the trip is worth my time. Even if I’m “only” spending $7 on 20 different snack items, that’s $7 I could instead be using to purchase better quality food which is more bang for my buck.

Next write up your own list of staples. Mark Bittman wrote a list on essential items in a real food kitchen. There’s also a post on Wesabe where members are sharing their grocery staples.

My staple list includes:

• oils (first press extra virgin olive oil, safflower oil, and coconut oil)
• butter (organic salted, organic unsalted for baking)
• nuts (raw almonds, walnuts, pistachios, peanuts)
• dried foods (banana chips, raisins, dried fruit mix for trail mix)
• spices (sea salt, pepper, cinnamon, nutmeg, mace, ginger, sage, ground rosemary, mustard, cumin, and more)
• sugars (confectioner’s, white, and light brown)
• sweetners (raw local honey, agave nectar, organic maple syrup, molasses)
• flour (all purpose unbleached, whole wheat, various gluten free flours)
• baking soda, baking powder
• organic cereal (for trail mix, and the occasional harried breakfast)
• canned beans, and dried beans I like to keep canned ones on hand for when I’m in a pinch)
• canned coconut milk
• chunk tuna in water with salt
• canned organic tomatoes (or can your own)
• organic tomato paste (Trader Joe’s now sells this for super cheap)
• in-season veggies and fruit from our local market, or farmer’s market
• carrots which are a year-round staple
• frozen veggies (whatever extra we get from the garden or farmer’s market, as well as green beans and organic roasted corn from Trader Joe’s)
• frozen fruit (wild blueberries, and pineapple tidbits from Trader Joe’s)
• beef (we buy a beef share so we have a variety of cuts and ground beef)
• salmon (wild caught Alaskan salmon)
• chicken (whole chickens and frozen chicken breasts)
• bacon or sausage are occasional treats
• brown rice
• quinoa
• organic pasta
• organic popcorn (best and cheapest snack EVER)
• organic tortilla chips

What are your staples? How do you organize your pantry or kitchen? I still have a lot of things I want to do that I haven’t accomplished in organizing our kitchen, so I would love to hear your ideas.

Kelly

Until recently, I had an assortment of plastic containers in a deep kitchen drawer, some of which were originally intended for take-out soup from our local Chinese restaurant and others that I’ve acquired here and there. Although I always kept them well contained and organized, the various sizes and shapes of the containers and lids did present some storage challenges. First, the multitude of sizes made it impossible to properly stack either the containers or the lids. My way around this was to store all the lids upright, wedged between a container and the side of the drawer. It was a manageable system, but even I have to admit, it wasn’t ideal.

A few weeks ago, my new friends over at Rubbermaid, Lauren and Jim, came to the rescue and sent me a huge, all-in-one set of their Easy Find Lids storage containers. The set includes red-lidded every day containers, innovative Produce Savers, stain resistant Premier containers, and the new extra-secure Lock-its.

Wow! What a difference! My uneven containers have all found their way to the recycle bin and I have been converted to the ways of the amazing Easy Find Lid!

For starters, all of the lids snap to the bases. (The Saver tray for the special produce saver container even snaps to the lid before it stores!)

The lids and containers for the various products are all interchangeable, too, so if you invest in the various styles, you don’t have to worry about which lid has to go with which base: the 3 cup lid fits the 3 cup container, the 5 cup container AND the 7 cup container, so you have less lids to try to put on before you find the right one.  Gotta’ love a product with built-in flexibility! 

One of the fundamental principles of sorting and storing objects is to keep “like with like.” Rubermaid has this problem covered, as all the lids easily snap to each other for efficient, compact and stable nesting of the products. That saves you tons of cabinet or drawer space.

Here is my “after” drawer (there are actually MORE containers in here than before!). Isn’t it just beautiful? And now I have some added “found” space in the drawer, too!

With summertime now upon us and fresh fruit and veggies so abundant, I have to add to this review my 2 cents about the Rubbermaid Produce Saver,  which not only prolongs the shelf life of your produce, but saves you money, too. I ran my own experiment, placing a few strawberries in a regular, sealed plastic container and the rest in a Produce Saver container.  The special venting and saver tray in the Produce Saver helped my berries last a full 2 WEEKS longer than the traditional container! I honestly thought it was just a gimmick, but let me tell you, that Produce Saver is GREAT!

If you want to give the Easy Find Lids a try for yourself.  Visit Rubbermaid.com beginning June 1 and enter the coupon code 0902 to save 10% on your online purchases. Let me know what you think. And if you come up with any creative uses for these handy containers, be sure to share your ideas here at VirtuallyOrganized.com!

Simply yours,

Debbie

All this being said, though, I was sure to stop by the Ziploc® booth at the 2009 National Association of Professional Organizers (NAPO) conference last week. Besides handing out free samples, they also distributed an extensive tip sheet of ideas for organizing your household with Ziploc® products. And I have to admit, some of the ideas were pretty creative. The following is a list of some of the more unique and helpful ideas on their tip sheet. If you have any additional ideas, be sure to hit the comment button below and share your brilliance. 

1.  Seal important papers (or copies of the papers) in a Ziploc® Bag, place it in an airtight plastic container, and store in your deep freeze. In a fire, the freezer is usually the last thing to burn. (Yes, storing a copy of the deed to your house alongside your pork chops and ice cream is a little “different,” but if you don’t have a fire-proof safe, this is a creative alternative!)

2.  Every month hang a 1 quart size  Ziploc® Freezer Bag inside a kitchen cabinet door to stow all incidental receipts. At the end of the month, date, seal and store the bag.  You’ll never lose another receipt. After a year, it’s okay to toss ‘em (I’d rather see my clients discard unnecessary receipts right away and file the keepers in a more detailed system. But if you MUST keep all your receipts and you haven’t gone paperless yet, this method can keep them contained; and it’s better than no system at all.)

3.  Keep seasonal/holiday wreaths clean and safe in a  Ziploc® Big Bag. (This is a tip I really like. The bags are much cheaper than wreath containers, and you can use the bag’s handles to hang the bag in your storage area, keeping it safe from getting crushed and better utilizing your vertical space.)

4.  Make sure puzzle pieces stay together by zipping them up in a Ziploc® Bag that is easy for children to open and shut. (I would also include the picture of the finished puzzle, to make putting the puzzle back together one step easier for kids.)

5.  Store skeins of yarn in a Ziploc® Flexible Tote or Big Bag. Cut a hole and feed yarn out for no more tangling. And it’s cat-proof! (You can use this for twine in your utility area, too, with a smaller bag.)

 6.  After opening large bags of pet food, cat litter, charcoal, fertilizer, ice melt, etc. place them in the right sized Ziploc®  Big Bag and seal it up. (No more spills and it’s easy to tote.)

 7.  Heading to the beach? Take a Ziploc®  Big Bag to hold rocks, seashells, sandals, wet towels, inflatable beach toys, etc. without water and sand spilling in the car. (Good for day-tripping adventures, too.)

 8.  Need to stop painting in the middle of a project? Place the brush in a Ziploc®  Bag, seal and freeze. (Just remove the brush one hour before you start painting again.)

So what ways have YOU used Ziploc®  Bags to get better organized? Hit the comment button below and share your ideas (But beware, clearing off your desk by dumping all the papers in a bag and stashing it in the closet does not count!)

Simply yours,

Debbie

That’s the frustrating thing about organizing, though. It is NOT an exact science.

The other day, I was helping a client organize her kitchen cabinets. Our goals were to increase work flow, maximize cabinet space, and purge or relocate all the unnecessary or unrelated items we discovered. Things were going well until it came to the putting-it-all-back stage.

“Where does this need to go,” she kept asking me as we worked through the various items that would remain in her de-cluttered kitchen. Each time I offered her a few options, based on how often she used the item, where she used the item, and what she used the item for. For instance, most homeowners I work with rarely, if ever, use their bread machines. So I encourage them to either get rid of this appliance all together, or store it out of the way and not within their “prime real estate” kitchen space.  My client last week, however, makes bread on a weekly basis. So to make things easy, we stored it in a base cabinet below the counter where she always plugs it in. Since she had previously been storing it in the hall closet among her family’s coats, shoes, and mittens, she loved the idea of now having it more accessible.

Next, we started putting back her extensive spice collection. “Oh, I know what to do here,” she said proudly. “These need to be alphabetized, right?” “Well,” I cringed.  “Not necessarily.”

Now, others may disagree, but in my opinion, there is no written-in-stone rule that says collections like spice containers have to be alphabetized just because the items have names and labels. Of course, it is an option. But there are other ways to organize them, too. It all depends on how you think about them when it’s time to retrieve them and put them away.  For instance, I categorize my spices according to how I use them: Spices I use almost daily are together at the front of my spice rack. All those I use for Mexican dishes are together, and those I use when I cook Italian food are grouped together. Baking spices are all stored together, too. And those rare, only-use-once-in-a-while spices are also grouped together and “living” in the back of my spice rack. When a recipe calls for cumin, I know to look in the Mexican group. If something needs a dash of pepper, I know it’s right up front with my frequently used spices.

As my client and I continued to assess where her remaining kitchen items should now be stored, I was gradually able to teach her that while the re-organization of her kitchen was solidly based on proven organizing theories and methodologies, ultimately the kitchen had to be functional according to the needs of her and her family. There isn’t one right answer or rule for how to organize because what works for one, may be completely unmanageable for another. It’s all about organizing YOUR space for YOUR needs, YOUR goals, and how YOU need to function, whether that means alphabetizing your spices or categorizing them.

In the end, we actually combined methods to organize her spices. She liked the idea of grouping the spices according to function, but within each group we placed the jars in alphabetical order. But now she knows to think of organizing in terms of what’s right for her, not by what rules she should be following.

So what organizing rules have YOU broken lately?

Simply yours,

Debbie