It’s Not Just What You Eat but Where You Eat It
Check out all of Lea Schneider's helpful home and kitchen columns at Organize Right Now.
 

Sometimes we laughingly call some of those “senior moments,” while we sadly acknowledge that it is not all that funny.

The average person spends a good deal of time each day looking for things that they have but they don’t know where they have them. Much of that time is related to the kitchen, hunting through drawers, pantries and recipe books or digging through stacks on the kitchen counter.

There may be a connection between the state of your kitchen and the health of your brain. An article that came out this week provides us with the fuel to get motivated and find the time to become more organized.

In summary, being organized may help us avoid Alzheimer’s disease.

The Associated Press article said that "a study of the elderly shows that those who see themselves as self-disciplined, organized achievers have a lower risk for developing Alzheimer's disease than people who are less conscientious."

In this study, by Robert Wilson of Rush University Medical Center in Chicago, they found that those with the highest scores have a personality they call conscientiousness. This personality has an 89 percent less chance of developing Alzheimer's. The study had people rate themselves on how well they keep their belongings neat and clean, how well they pace themselves to get things done on time, if they work hard toward goals and in they strive for excellence in all the things they do.

It is quite possible that that conscientiousness personality provides some kind of protection or necessary exercise for the brain. Other past studies have shown activities such as working puzzles with a lower risk of Alzheimer's.

In reality, isn’t getting and staying organized in your kitchen like playing with a book of puzzles?  As you “play,” you are deciding which of these items do not belong with the others and how to fit all the pieces into the puzzle. You are keeping track of what you need, when you need it and what needs to be done next.

This study is further motivation to get organized when we find ourselves making organizing excuses that we have too much stuff, no time to deal with this stuff and no place to put all this stuff. Getting and staying organized might truly change your quality of life.