Spring is here, even if you’re still seeing snow on the ground where you’re at. It’s that time to come out of your cave from the winter and stretch your legs. You might be cleaning out your garden beds and planting seeds so you can enjoy the bounty from your hard work during the Summer and into Fall. Your body is ready for a little clean up, too! Spring is a wonderful time to take on some new habits and do a little Spring cleaning on your health!
While you’re doing some Spring Cleaning around your home, don’t forget to address your kitchen!
Your pantry and fridge are basically what your food calls home until it’s consumed. When was the last time you really did a good clean up in those areas? Not just cleaning out the old stuff that’s been hiding in the back for months, but cleaning out those junky foods that are doing nothing for your health and replacing them with better, healthful options!
So, if you have decided it’s time to clean up you diet for your health, let’s get a game plan together for creating a place for all the new, clean foods you’re going to be enjoying from here on out!
Pantry Clean Out
If you don’t have a traditional pantry in your kitchen, this will just be the area where you keep most of your non-perishable foods, or those that don’t require refrigeration.
Here are some simple steps to clean this space out to make room for healthier foods:
- Pull everything out of your pantry and sort into 3 categories: Keep, Toss, Donate.
- How do I know it’s something to keep? Scroll down to the bottom of this page to download my kitchen checklist!
- If it’s a perishable item, it will probably need to be tossed. Expired foods need to be tossed as well.
- If it’s non-perishable and the date is still good, you can set that aside to donate to your local food back. Find your local food bank here. I recommend checking with them to find out what items they accept.
- Now that you’ve got everything separated that you’ll be keeping in your pantry, decide how you’re going to store these items so you can easily find them and use them up before they go bad! I recommend heading to Pinterest to gather some ideas. I like to have some baskets that I can keep some like items together. For example, at the bottom of my pantry, I have a large basket that I keep onions, potatoes, sweet potatoes and squash in.
Fridge Clean Out
You’ll basically follow the same steps here that you did for your pantry. You will likely have more things to toss vs donate since they’re mostly perishable items.
If you have items that are not expired, but you need to get rid of them, ask a friend or neighbor if it’s something that they can use. This will help limit the amount you’re throwing out. If you want to go “last supper style” on some of these foods, by all means, I won’t tell you no!
Now that you have a clean slate…
It’s time to focus on the fun part! What new, healthy foods will you be adding to your kitchen for you and your family to enjoy? I have a handy checklist that you can download at the bottom of this page! It’s filled with tons of healthy foods that are great for both your fridge and your pantry. By all means, you don’t need EVERYTHING on this list. This is just a guide to help you decide which foods are the most healthful to have in your home. Once you’ve downloaded the checklist, you can check all the items that you currently have, and review what items you’d like to add!
Next week I’ll be sharing some healthy food swaps to show you how you can use some of these foods from the Kitchen Checklist to replace your old favorites!
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