Organizing Kitchens, Pantries, Menus and Meals
By Lea Schneider, Professional Organizer

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Lea Schneider

©2011 Professional Organizer - Lea Schneider is the author of Growing-Up Organized: A Mom to Mom Guide available at Amazon.com.

Lea provides one-on-one organizing advice via phone and email through Organize Online division at her company website, Organize Right Now.

Her advice is featured here at What's Cooking America in a monthly column. You may have read her expert organizing ideas in Woman’s Day, Natural Health, College News, and Better Homes and Gardens Kids’ Rooms magazines and newspapers. She is a member of the National Association of Professional Organizers and the Association of Food Journalists.


Growing-Up Organized:
A Mom to Mom Guide

by Lea Schneider



Crazed by clutter? Frustrated because the kids can’t find things? Getting out the door in the morning drives you mad? You need:
Growing-Up Organized: A Mom to Mom Guide

Growing Up Organized will help you get started, map out a plan, and learn how to stay organized with everything from bedrooms to closets to homework time.

Purchase your book and learn more at Organize Right Now!


Contact Information:

Lea Schneider
Organize Right Now LLC

Member National Association of Professional Organizers
Pensacola, Florida


Website:
Organize Right Now

Telephone:
1-850-477-2582

 

 
 


 


Getting Organized Leads to Saving Money and Time

Getting organized is all about living simpler and making things easier. The bonus is it often leads to saving money. Lea Schneider's kitchen organizing columns tell you how to organize the many things that relate to kitchens, menus, meals, and special food events.
 



Christmas and Thanksgiving Help:

Big Meal Doesn't Have To Equal Big Mess
Organizing for Clean-Up Makes for an Easier Holiday

Christmas kitchen secrets of the organized
Suggestions to help you make holiday entertaining look easy.

Organizing Holiday Tablescapes
Beautiful table settings or tablescapes, which combines the words table + landscape, begins with a bit of organization. Organization and creativity go hand-in-hand. Nearly every creative project begins with some kind of planning, organizing or gathering. A beautiful holiday table is no different.

Paper or plastic for holiday organization?
Holidays mean more recipes and groceries! Turn the kitchen chaos into calm.

Prepare for the Holidays - Head Back to Basics in Organizing
With the holidays fast approaching, you could probably use a little help in making your kitchen tidy and getting it organized. Getting organized in the kitchen means getting down to the basics.

Quick! Make your kitchen welcoming
Kitchens are a company magnet. Make yours welcoming with these steps.

Storing Fine China - Store Your Fine China for Ease of Use
If setting the Thanksgiving table was just too much trouble – or if you were relieved that you didn’t have to drag out your good dishes - maybe your storage needs tweaking.

Storing Table Linens - Organizing Linens Takes the Wrinkle out of Entertaining
Don't wait for company. Get your table linens finally organized.
Begin organizing by gathering all your table linens from this spot and that. Open them up and decide if they are still good to use.

Thanksgiving Organizer
Minimize turkey day stress with this checklist. How to pace out your food chores.

 

Kids in the Kitchen:

Creating A Child Friendly Kitchen 1
Organize a child-friendly kitchen. Teach the basic kitchen skills they will need.

Creating A Child Friendly Kitchen 2 (Tips for working with kids in the kitchen)
There tips will help you work with your kids in the kitchen - without going crazy!



Kitchen Time Management:

Cool Cooking Tips for Too-Hot-to-Cook Days
When you are looking for ways to cool off on hot days, I know you turn right to organizing. While you might think that is crazy, there are some great organizing ideas that can help you cool off in the kitchen or at meal times.

For dinner tonight - A plan!
How to develop a plan for feeding the family.

Four Steps to an Organized Clean
Make a clean break with kitchen grime with an organized cleaning routine.

Got a minute? Ten minutes, one hour and more kitchen organizing ideas
You can get something done no matter how much or how little time you have.

Is cooking dinner at your house like juggling eggs?
Do you keep moving clutter from here to there? How to focus and finish.

Mise en Place - Begin Cooking with Mise en Place
A cooking time saver - and stress reliever - by lining up your cooking.

Six Mistakes Keeping You Disorganized
If you made a resolution to be more organized in the New Year, you are in good company. That is one of the top ten New Year’s resolutions. Keeping that resolution becomes a lot easier if you can avoid some of the common organizing mistakes.



Organize an Emergency Food Pantry:

Get Organized Today for an Emergency Tomorrow - Emergency Food Pantry
Don't wait for disaster! Organize your pantry for an emergency.

 

Organizing Food:  Fridge, Freezer and Pantry Ideas:

Avoiding Old Mother Hubbard's Cupboard
Stop reaching into the cupboard or pantry and coming up empty handed.

Getting ahead with your lettuce - Using fresh bags and green bags
Throwing away produce is like pitching out money. Learn to make your produce last longer.

Ideas for organizing snacks - Stop wasting dollars on stale snacks
Check out these tips to maximize your snack dollars.

New Year’s resolutions should start in the pantry
The key to keeping some of your New Year's resolutions lies in the pantry.

Organize my leftovers
Make the most of your food by making the most of your leftovers.

Pantry Organizations - Managing Your Extra Staples
What’s the solution for storing extra condiments and staples?

Pantry Organizations - Stock Up On Staples
No matter if you are a seasoned chef or starting your first apartment, it’s great to have a checklist for staple items you should have on hand.

Where’s the Beef? Managing your most expensive grocery items
In this economy, making good use of meat purchases is really important!



Organize Grocery Shopping:

A Strategy for Battling Your Grocery Budget
Here are some tricks to help you save money on your grocery budget.

Clues for the coupon clipper
Learn how to organize those coupons you always meant to use.

Organize my hunger pain
Walk in circles in the grocery store? Learn how to organize your shopping trips.

Organizing for savings
Put organizational skills to work to stretch those grocery shopping dollars.


Organize Herbs and Spices:

Some spicy ideas
Great ways to organize your spice cabinet.

You couldn’t possibly be outdated. Could you?
You don't have 15-year-old spice - or do you? Check it out here.



Organize Kitchen, Cabinets, and Drawers:

Change your kitchen along with your hair color
Change your kitchen organization to match the way you live now.

Dealing with Kitchen Downsizing - How To Downsize and Organize Your Kitchen
Moving to a smaller kitchen can be a large task. Downsizing is possible!

Desperate for Cluttered Kitchen Help
My friend’s cabinets are so jammed with things that I don’t even know where to begin and how to get her organized. I am clueless for ideas on where to start in for her kitchen.

Hard-to-use Lower Cabinets - Get ideas for maximizing your space
Maximize the space you have by making the best use of your cabinets.

Is your kitchen really too small??
Here are some tips to make the best of that too-small feeling kitchen.

Keeping your resolution to get organized
Keeping your resolution about getting organized is possible. Learn how here.

Motivation for Organizing: It’s not just what you eat but where you eat it
Looking for things all the time? Here's a health motivation to get organized.

Organizing on a Dime - Creating Order in Your Kitchen is Priceless
Push me in the general direction of an everything-in-here-costs-a-dollar type store and I’m happy.

Out of Room in the Kitchen - Think Out-Of-The-Kitchen for Storage
You’ve pulled things out, rearranged, shoved them back in, and you just can’t make everything you want fit in that kitchen. The first piece of advice you probably received was to pare things down. However, if you are like me, then you like to entertain so that advice just isn’t reasonable.

Prepare for the Holidays - Head Back to Basics in Organizing
With the holidays fast approaching, you could probably use a little help in making your kitchen tidy and getting it organized. Getting organized in the kitchen means getting down to the basics.

Sliding Drawers for Lower Cabinets
It's easy to update older cabinets with the addition of drawers.

Ten Organizing Ideas for Your Kitchen
Ten little things that influence the big kitchen organizing picture.


Organize Recipes and Menus:

A bride’s recipe for disorganization
Organize recipes from the printer - from magazines and from Mom.

Conquering menu madness
Does "What's for dinner," drive you mad? It's time to get menus that work.

Cooking for two - A baker’s dozen of tips
Your really can cook for two and find variety.

For dinner tonight - A plan!
How to develop a plan for feeding the family.

How to Manage Five Easy Nights of Family Meals
I’ve worked out a great formula for thinking about meals.

Nine more months of lunch packing
Nine months of lunches are easier with a bit of lunch-packing help.

Organization of School Day Breakfast Menus
Try some new techniques to make breakfast smoother and less stressful.


Organize Special Events:

Book Club and Dinner Just Go Together
If you are sitting around and chatting, you’ll soon want to be sipping and nibbling. Books provide lots of opportunities for inspiration and creativity.

Christmas Holiday Notebook Keeps You Organized Year after Year
Feel confident about holiday cooking by creating a holiday notebook.

Family Reunions - Organizing Family Reunion Meals
Check out these steps that walk you through planning family reunion meals.

Go Team! Get Organized for a Tailgate Party
Tailgating is fun when someone has organized for the event. It can be a lot of fun and it doesn’t have to be a lot of work.

Hot Tips for Organizing Grilling
Getting barbecue supplies organized helps keep the fun in grilling out.

Organizing for Instant Entertaining
The start of football season, to me, indicates the start of the entertaining season. It’s really fun to plan for company. Drop-in company can be the opposite of that. It can be pretty stressful. So you really can be ready for drop-in company and turn it from stress to fun. It’s time to tackle organizing for entertaining.

Organizing your buffet supper - Planning ahead creates a great gathering
Organizing your buffet makes the gathering smooth. Learn good flow tips.

Perfectly planned picnics
Making picnicking easier. See our checklist to keep in your picnic basket.


Tackling Kitchen Clutter:

Going green can sometimes mean going crazy
Learn to organize your kitchen to handle recycling without making clutter.

Keeping A Clear Out The Clutter Promise
Promising to clear out the clutter is a common New Year’s resolution. In fact, getting organized is one of the top New Year’s resolutions.

Paperwork’s anything but a laughing matter
Papers piling up on your kitchen countertop? Learn how to corral those.

Ten "Next To" great kitchen organizing tips
Get organizing with this simple method. Learn about the "next-to rule."

The junk drawer holds everything but junk
An organized junk drawer is worth its weight! Organize the things you need.

Whisk those gadgets into shape
Learn ideas for those hard-to-organize and unusually shaped necessities.