Summer brings a bounty of fresh and nutritious produce and the opportunity to adapt to healthy summer eating habits.
But a messy and cluttered kitchen can put a damper on the best of culinary intentions, making even the easiest task of whipping up a simple salad a Herculean task.
To avoid such hurdles, along with the changing summer, you need to refresh not only your diet but also your kitchen.
A kitchen set up to suit seasonal needs lets you indulge your unexpected moods for healthier dishes and random cravings by making it functional and more inspiring.
Improving kitchen efficiency also plays a part in helping you maintain your health, by making healthy choices easily accessible.
Here in this post, you will find a few simple kitchen organizing tips that will not only organize your kitchen but also encourage you to make healthy food choices more often.
Just a quick heads up – some of the links here on this blog are affiliate links. Meaning that, if you purchase anything through these links, at no extra cost to you, I may earn a commission. I suggest only the products and services I personally use or believe to benefit my readers.
10 Simple Tips for a Summer Bedroom Refresh
7 Kitchen Organizing Hacks for Promoting Healthy Summer Eat
1. Declutter and Clean
Purge Expired and Unhealthy Items
The first step that comes when organizing your kitchen for healthy summer eating is to declutter and thoroughly clean it.
Any expired and unhealthy food packages that might be hiding away in your kitchen are only seen when you execute a deep clean of your kitchen. The jar of olives stashed at the back or the half-used box of crackers can easily slip your mind. So, go through your pantry, fridge, and freezer to find and discard any items past their expiry date.
Take this opportunity to ditch any sneaky unhealthy snacks that you always crave at midnight and swap them out for nutritious, whole foods like nuts, seeds, and healthy snacks.
Deep Clean
Now that you have made space and purged any unhealthy and expired items, get ready to clean every nook and cranny.
Give a thorough wipe down to your shelves, drawers, and surfaces. Clean and organize your pantry containers, spices, and condiments, and make sure they are easy to find and use. Wipe down your appliances, like the microwave, refrigerator, and coffee machine. A tidy kitchen is more inviting, which makes it easier to find what you need and make all those healthy summer recipes.
Image Credit to Brooke Lark on Unsplash
2. Stock Up on Fresh Produce
Prioritize Seasonal Fruits and Vegetables
Summer brings an abundance of fresh produce. Seasonal fruits and veggies are more flavorful as they’re harvested at their prime.
In this season, local farmer’s markets and grocery store sections are filled with colorful, fresh fruits and veggies, so stock up on them.
Prep Ahead
Once you’ve stocked up with seasonal produce, now wash, chop, and store them in clear containers. To simplify the healthy summer eating process, prepping your veggies and storing them in an easy-to-access container can make a world of difference.
Imagine opening your fridge and seeing a rainbow of ready-to-eat fruits and veggies every day. Plus, you don’t have to play “guess that leftover” every time you open the fridge.
Prepping ahead also saves time during the week when you want something healthy to grab on the go.
3. Optimize Storage Space
Use Clean, Airtight Containers
To store your veggies, grains, and nuts, invest in clear, airtight containers. It makes it easy to recognize inner content, keeps it fresh, and organizes your pantry as well. But make sure to label the container with content and expiry date if you accidentally don’t want to sprinkle expired quinoa on your salad.
Maximize Fridge Organization
Your fridge is where you keep foodstuffs that can easily expire, but without proper organizing, they spoil easily.
Spinach can turn into a sad, wilted clump, and leftovers of a once delicious dinner can morph into an unidentified science experiment if left for too many days. Sometimes, you have to dig through the entire fridge to find the strawberries you bought yesterday.
When you organize your fridge with clear containers, bins, and baskets to make it easier to see what you have at a glance, you no longer frantically search for things you want or forget about until they are spoiled. An organized fridge saves you time and stress and helps to promote healthy summer eating as well.
Utilize Vertical Space
If you are short on space, trying vertical storage or shelves can help you maximize the use of limited space.
Using tiered organizers for cans and jars can fully utilize your pantry space. A vertical storage solution also keeps your kitchen neat and organized even without using up your entire counter space.
4. Plan Your Meals
Weekly Meal Plans
A weekly meal prep saves you a lot of hassles. Instead of spending hours in the kitchen attending to pots and stressing over daily cooking, you can spend your day lazily, while enjoying the summer vibe.
A well-thought-out meal plan can maintain a healthy diet throughout the week, as you are in full control of what goes into your food. When hunger hits, you can reach out to these cut and prepared healthy snacks.
Grocery List
Based on your meal plan, compile a grocery list with seasonal produce and other healthy foods and support healthy eating habits. A well-organized grocery list will save you both time and money at the store and keep your kitchen stocked with healthy options.
Quick Tip: Make sure to go grocery shopping on a full stomach. When your stomach is well-fed, it helps you keep those tempting snacks out of your cart.
Image Credit to Andy Chilton on Unsplash
5. Create a Meal Prep Station
Dedicated Prep Area
Setting up a dedicated prep area for the cooking process makes your healthy summer eating a less trouble-free task.
An already set up and assigned area makes a difference in your cooking efficiency. Like a coffee station with shelves and containers to store coffee beans, filters, and mugs or a chopping and prepping area where a cutting board is already laid out, and all the knives are within reach. So you are not darting around the kitchen when you make a salad next time.
This way you can much more easily maintain a tidy workspace when you handle the task at their designated area instead of continuously moving around the kitchen.
Invest in Quality Tools
Investing in quality kitchen tools like a set of good knives, benders or essential gadgets completely changes your cooking experience. These culinary equipment can make your meal prep process faster and more enjoyable as well.
6. Make Healthy Snacks Easy to Access
Setting up a healthy snack station is a good way to promote healthy eating habits. You can be mindful here and only pick nutritious foods like nuts, seeds, dried fruits, and whole-grain crackers which are easy to access and a healthy grab-and-go option.
It makes healthy choices easier whenever you crave something. Instead of hunting down the bag of chips, you reach for this healthy and fresh goodness.
7. Hydration Station
To continuously replenish your water intake and keep yourself hydrated, stack your refrigerator with grab and get fresh spa water bottles or sugar-free juices ready.
Keep a pitcher of infused water with fruits and herbs like lemon, orange, cucumber, and mint in the fridge. It’s a refreshing alternative to sugary drinks you chug down like coke and lemonade and also urges you to stay hydrated all day long.
8. Keep it Fun and Inspiring
You can take your healthy summer eating goal a further extra step and make it a fun activity. Display health recipes on a bulletin board or magnets on the fridge. It’s like your own Pinterest board right in your kitchen.
Make your weekends a family meal planning and prep affair. It is a fun way to introduce healthy eating to your kids and spend time together.
Get Your Kitchen Summer-Ready!
When you have a well-organized kitchen that caters to your seasonal must-haves, meeting your healthy summer eating goal becomes easier.
Using these effortless kitchen organizing tips, you can create an efficient, inviting kitchen that makes you enjoy and also makes healthy eating as convenient and appealing as possible and turns it into a joyful part of your summer routine.
