With her easy smile, charismatic personality, and colorful content, it’s no wonder that Lisa Schechter’s venture, “Lis on Life” has taken off in just a few months. For years, Lisa has nurtured her passion for finding or creating the best of everything – food, flowers, fashion, vacation venues, wellness plans, and gifts and sharing her finds. With Lis on Life, her recommendations are now being shared beyond her many friends to reach thousands of followers on Instagram.
Lisa is known for her beautiful food displays and delicious meals. Her challah is famous, not only for its soft texture, but for the innovative shapes and toppings she devises. Her fruit boards are art, and her meal planning is impeccable. Since she’s not only preparing food, but also arranging and photographing her projects, her kitchen needs to be functional and fully stocked at all times.
Over the past several months, I’ve worked with Lisa organizing her office, children’s rooms, linen closets, game closets, sentimental items, basement, and her digital space. The only area we never touched was her kitchen…until now.
Over the past several months, I’ve organized several kitchens with my colleague, Lara Metz. One of the issues we’ve been seeing repeatedly is the duplication of items in the refrigerator and pantry. Here’s our advice on how to avoid this in your kitchen:
Start by purging all of the foods that have expired in both your refrigerator and pantry. This should be done on a weekly basis prior to going to the grocery store. Then, in an accessible area, store a pad or a white board to keep a running list of what needs to be replaced. Let your family know that this is everyone’s responsibility, not just yours, so even children are in the habit of adding to the list when they take the last bag of pretzels.
In order to maintain organization, group all similar items together. In both the kitchen and pantry, there should be zones for different food categories. In the refrigerator, take advantage of built in compartments. For example, put all fruit in the fruit drawer and produce in the produce drawer. Then, store your products in straight lines with like items one behind the other.
Use organizing products that will make your refrigerator and pantry functional and look great. Here are some of our favorites:
White taper bins can be used to corral individually wrapped products. For example, if you have multiple types of tea and tea bags, store these in a bin along with a jar of honey. Use another bin to store snacks like chips and pretzels.
Pantry bins are helpful to separate items and keep them them neat.
For storing dry goods like cereal, flour, and sugar, I recommend using canisters like these .
If there’s a hard to reach corner in your pantry, consider a Lazy Susan.
Studies suggest that people reach for what they see first, so to encourage wellness in your home, position fruit and healthy snacks at eye level.
Get Hooked! Hooks are incredibly useful when it comes to storing jewelry. They are the optimal way to store long necklaces to ensure they don’t get knotted. Invest in beautiful decorative hooks to match your jewelry!
Clear it Up For very small items, a clear plastic storage unit is a neat way to store and survey all of your jewelry. Try one like this. And you may want to fill one compartment with extra earring backs…just in case you lose one.
Don’t’ forget: visibility is key! If you don’t see what you have, you won’t wear it!
Hang On There are many attractive jewelry-specific “trees,” stands, and “hands,” that are neat jewelry storage solutions, and often quite beautiful.
Dress It Up Drawers are a visually pleasing way to view all the jewelry you have, and also keep it out of sight when not needed. Try a small dresser with many shallow drawers.
Don’t Get Board Straw and cork boards provide a way to survey your jewelry all at once and prevent knotting.
Serve It Up A pretty way to organize jewelry on a dresser or armoire is in small teacups or dishes. This is especially helpful for the go-to earrings, bracelets, or watch that you wear daily.
For The Closet Try a hanging jewelry organizer like this one.
Do-It Yourself For a different approach, bulky bangles can be stored on simple paper towel holders, or even empty glass bottles!
Outside The Box There are alternative ways to artfully hang your jewelry, while also repurposing household supplies in a more artistic way. Try using picture frames, utensil organizers, or even doorknobs for creative approach.
