If you're trying to eat healthier, one of the best things you can do is remove temptation and make eating healthy foods easier.
One of the best ways to do that, is to declutter and organize your kitchen and pantry with those two goals in mind.
Now let's get into it!
10 Ways to Declutter & Organize Your Kitchen and Pantry to Eat Healthier
**DISCLAIMER: While some of these tips may be new to you, many of these may seem like no-brainers or are things you already know. However, it's not what you KNOW that helps you be healthier; it's what you DO. So be sure to implement these if you want to see a difference in your health.
Declutter unhealthy foods. If you really struggle to eat and shop healthfully, try throwing away all your "good" unhealthy food as a reminder to yourself that these items are actually rotten for your body. This will be quite a jarring experience, so be patient with yourself. But this is important. Don't skip! This should also help you with the following...
Commit to not re-purchasing unhealthy items. Commit to not wasting any more money, space, or time on unhealthy foods. Do not add them to your shopping list. Do not grab them while at the store no matter how tasty they look. Remind yourself of your goals and walk on by to the veggie aisle.
Put out healthy food where it's easy to grab and see. Put fruits and veggies out in a bowl on the island and keep healthy snacks out on the counter in clear containers.
Hide unhealthy food. Put unhealthy snacks, candy, and other foods that you are not going to declutter in a cupboard up high out of sight. But the more you declutter the better.
In your pantry, make your healthy food the most visible. If you have an open shelf pantry, put healthy foods at eye level in see through baskets / containers. Then put unhealthy foods above eye level in non-see through baskets (just be sure to label them).
Hide unhealthier foods behind and underneath healthier options. In the fridge, put fruits and veggies at eye level. Store the cows milk behind the almond milk and the bacon behind the broccoli. In the freezer, store the frozen fruit for smoothies on top of the frozen pizza and the chicken and fish on top of the pork. Organize so what you know you should be eating is the easiest to pull out.
If you tend to over due it on the butter or oil when cooking, put a healthier option at your finger tips. Put a healthier oil out on the counter such as avocado, coconut, or olive oil and keep the oil and butter you want to use less often out of sight and as far from the stove as possible.
If you add salt to too many things. remove the salt from view. Put the salt shaker from the table and the salt grinder by the stove in the spice cupboard.
Keep lots of healthy easy-to-eat options around your kitchen. For every category of unhealthy food you have, make sure you at least also have one heathy option. Always reaching for the frozen pizza? Freeze some healthy meals so you have something easy to eat when you're too tired to cook (store them on top or in front of the pizza as mentioned in step 6). Tend to over snack on chips? Make sure you are also stocked up on dried fruit, granola bars, and nuts (store these out in cute glass jars on the counter as mentioned in step 3 and put your chips in a high cupboard as mentioned in step 4). Drinking too much soda? Make sure to keep some 100% juice in the fridge as well (you know the drill... store the healthier drinks in front at eye level and the soda in a low drawer or in the back).
When the organization fails, remember to declutter. If your kitchen is organized optimally for your health, you can still fail if you are keeping around too much junk food. Throw out the junk food and re-commit to not buying it.
Love these tips? Tell me your favorite in the comments below.