7: Organize Your Way to a Healthier Kitchen with Tomesha Campbell
They say that the kitchen is the heart of our home. It is the place where you eat, where you hang out, where you get a drink and many times, where you start and end your day. So it is no wonder that this area plays a big part of your life. For our guest today, we brought in an expert, Tomesha Campbell, who is an experienced and certified health coach to share how an organized kitchen can help you improve your quality of life.
Where to find Tomesha Campbell online:
https://www.instagram.com/enhanceblackwomenshealth
The Organized & Productive podcast is brought to you by The Organized Flamingo and hosted by Stephanie Y. Deininger! For those of you who love the thought of organizing & being more productive, but don’t know where to start or constantly up against hurdles that don’t let you advance the way you want to, this podcast is for you!
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Review the Transcript:
Stephanie
They say that the kitchen is the heart of our home. It is the place where you eat, where you hang out where you get a drink, and many times where you start and end your day before going to bed. So it's no wonder that this area plays a big part of our lives, right. So that's why I brought in an expert Tanisha Campbell, who's an experienced and certified health coach to share how an organized kitchen can help you improve the quality of your life. The visuals are important in the kitchen. Yes, but so is the functionality of how you use your kitchen, especially if you're trying to meet certain health goals. But just in general, right, just having an organized kitchen will give you the inspiration to want to spend more time there to cook more, or maybe just to enjoy your time when you're in your kitchen. So I thought Tanisha was the perfect person because she makes living a healthier lifestyle so accessible, and gives you great actionable quick tips that will help you with your healthy lifestyle, but especially in the kitchen. So when I met Tanisha back in the day and clubhouse, which is a social audio app, I quickly realized how smart and powerful she was. And she has a wealth of knowledge, especially in the fields of healthy living. So like I said she was just the perfect person to have this conversation with on how you can organize your kitchen Yes, but also how to organize your kitchen so it can lead to a healthier lifestyle. Tanisha is a certified nutrition coach, a precision nutrition level one certified coach, and autoimmune paleo certified coach. He is currently based in Watertown, Massachusetts with her rescue dog, Penny Deena. So let's get started with our conversation with Tanisha. Welcome to the organized and productive podcast with the organized Flamingo. I'm your host, Stephanie, a professional organizer and productivity expert, ready to explore the right organizing and productivity solutions for you. Yeah, well, then let's go. Hey, Tanisha Hello, Hello, friends. Thank you for joining us today on this very important episode on the importance of having an organized kitchen, that it's much more than the bins and just having it be pretty and having it be like a magazine cover. Because our kitchens are the most one of the most important rooms in our home. Our kitchens are the heart of our home, if I if I say so myself, it's where your day begins where you eat, or you hang out. It is a social hub of the whole family. And it's a go to place. So that is such an important place for of your everyday living. And so today, I really wanted to talk to you. Because you understand the what people have to go through when it comes to daily living like it's the kitchen, it's the everyday use, but also the importance of it being organized for an everyday person, not just for a person who's trying to style it like having it be organized, or just art of a common folk like me, who wants to lead a healthier lifestyle. And so I'm super excited for this conversation. So let's talk about why it's even important to have an organized kitchen, when you're trying to lead a healthy lifestyle.
Tomesha
I love this question. And first, thank you so much, Stephanie, for having me on the show. I'm really excited to be here. And I will say one of the things that I learned early on when I actually made the decision to start focusing more on my nutrition and eating is organizing my kitchen. And the reason why is because it's the one thing that if you do this step, it will actually make it more difficult to come up with an excuse of why you can't, you know, cook meals or why you can't grab different things that are easily accessible. It's like when you organize your kitchen, it actually takes off away the stress of what in the world am I going to eat? And we can talk a little bit more about some other things you can do. But really, when you think about organizing, I look at it like how can you walk into your kitchen and not get anxiety and start thinking well, I don't have this or I don't have that. It's like when you know exactly what you have on hand. It takes away that those excuses that we happen to have, it's too difficult or it's so much easier just to order out.
Stephanie
That is so true about the anxiety of entering any room but especially the kitchen because you go in and you don't even know where to start, like where do I start and so I'm assuming that can lead to grabbing things that may not be part of the your health journey or healthy lifestyle you're trying to leave because it's just easy. So let's talk about easy easiness because I think that's the part that causes that anxiety right for a lot of people what are some tips that you would give people to ease into organizing their kitchen so that it doesn't become this overwhelming project?
Tomesha
I love the fact that you talked about ease because I remember when when I first started like organizing my kitchen because I always have to tell people like I've lived in an apartment for many, many years as an adult you know, obviously as a child to live in a house But the reason why I want to start here too is because one of the things that you can easily do is figure out what's the one area that you struggle with the most. So for me, it always used to be like cooking. So one of the things I did was I was like, I organized my spices, which may seem so simple and so easy, but the reason why you want to do something like that, because now I know, I have my basil, I have my garlic powder, I have my honey powder. And I chose different spices that I know that I like to use a lot. So even if you're someone like me, who's maybe not the biggest fan of cooking, but if there's certain things that you can easily grab and start creating different meals, or maybe if you're someone who's like not into cooking, you'd be like, well, how can I organize my fridge? So how can you make sure that you have your cold cuts, or your cheeses are different, or your Manage your little condiments, they're easily accessible for like you and your family. So it takes away that frustration or that sometimes overwhelm that we experience because you can look at it and say, if nothing else, if my brain doesn't have the capacity to do anything else, I can grab a couple spices, maybe some ground beef and make something or I can grab some bread some lunch me and make a sandwich. So like how can you make it easy for yourself just to start?
Stephanie
Yeah, grab those comfort foods and taste and flavor. So that yeah, you can just start from there. Okay, so let's talk about. So that's the comfort of it. Let's start there. But then, how would you recommend somebody to do like a big audit of their kitchen? Like a big take everything out? Or would you say ease into it? Like, what are some easy tips that you would give people that are trying to declutter and organize the kitchen.
Tomesha
So I'll give people two sides of it, because there's those who can do the kitchen clean out. And that actually doesn't make you feel overwhelmed. So if that's you, what I would recommend is when you think about like cleaning out your kitchen, before you think about purchasing anything, kind of go through your your refrigerator, your freezer and do these steps and pull out the things that are actually expired. That's like the first and foremost thing because spices do expire people. So it's like, pull out all that stuff that expires and what I like to have as a notebook next to me, so let's just say I pull out, oh, I have garlic, I have onion powder, I have you know, basil that expired. And I know that these are products I want to use again, I'll just write them down just in my little grocery list to sit there and say I'm gonna buy more of this. And then you can do the same thing with your pantry, you can do the same thing with your fridge. And then there's also enlisted with that one of just like, in and of itself, kind of figuring out what you no longer need. And then write down like, Oh, these are the things that I want. So that's kind of first date is thinking about the expiry things. Then the second kind of thing I like to help people do is think about the stuff that you don't ever use. Because I have this habit too of like finding a little recipe, and then I grab it, and I have too much of something. And it's been years and I never use it. Those are some things that you like, it's not expired, but you're never going to use it. So you might as well just toss it or if it's something that's unopened, you can definitely give it away, maybe if you're close to a neighbor, and you know, they like to use something like, you know, bread crumbs, maybe you can get, you know, pass it along to them. So that's kind of like the first thing of people who can just go to the kitchen, clean out, clean out everything in your kitchen, create a list of different things you want to buy, and then start putting that into your kitchen. And this is kind of before you've been thinking about like, well, do I want to buy organic versus like traditional, that's a different conversation, but just kind of the basics, then for other people who that can be very overwhelming for, you can do more of a step by step process and say what are the things that you kind of use often, and it make it more slower. So obviously, I would still recommend going through pulling out all the expired things. But rather than jumping forward into buying a whole bunch of new stuff, what you would do is buy by recipe. So let's just say I know next week, I want to plant eat three different recipes. So then I would just buy whatever products or I need for that recipe, whether it's stable shelf stable things are obviously things that aren't shelf stable. So those and then you'd slowly build up your pantry, you slowly build up your fridge or kitchen. So those are just the two you have the one side who's like getting rid of everything completely cleaning. And then you have the one side that needs to do a slow and steady approach. There's nothing wrong one is not better than the other.
Stephanie
I absolutely love this. Okay, I'm gonna dive in a little more because I love Okay, so the podcast as a whole is made for, for people to know that there's different ways to achieve the same results, depending on your personality type, depending on where you're at in life. And so that's like the whole theme of the podcast. And so you mentioning how there's those two super easy ways that you can approach it is just awesome and brilliant. So, everyone if you're listening, you can definitely do this. You can you can achieve it in different ways. Okay, so now Alright, so let's say somebody chose this okay? They're like okay, this one sounds a little bit but this path of let me just buy as I need, and then start decluttering to start the decluttering process like after right let's let's say we go down that path. What happens if they're living with people that aren't on the same path as they are? Because these both options are easy peasy for maybe the person who was ready. But what happens when The individuals that you live with that may not be ready.
Tomesha
This is a good question because I actually have dealt with this too, because there's been times where I've lived alone most of the time. But there's also times where I've had roommates who live with different family members. And this is kind of one where it's a little tricky if it's family. But one way to navigate it is you can select one person who's going to in the family, whether that's you or someone else who's going to be the designated, this is how everything gets organized in the kitchen. And I know it kind of make up some of us who are like me type A like that. That's not where it should go. But it's just the decision, you make that decision that that one person however they choose to organize it, that's how everybody in the house is going to organize it because it, it leaves out the overwhelm. For my family, my stepmother was the organizer. So in her words, like get off the kitchen, I'm going to put at when we go grocery shopping, I put everything up and where it is, is where it is. Now I didn't always agree with him, I didn't always agree my brother were like this is you should put this someplace else. But because we just chose her as the one person that organizes. Now if you have somebody like a roommate situation, it's gonna be a little trickier because obviously you don't can't really, it's a different situation to navigate. So one way that I did this in the past is like, my roommate had her cabinets, and I had my cabinets. And we didn't touch. Now we shared the fridge, she had her side of the fridge, and I had my side of the fridge. So we navigated in that way of like mine was a nice little organized side, hers was the hot mess. But it helped us be able to kind of get through the house and know there's certain things we had to do the same with like, anything that was like cookware, you know, whatever she decided it was where we put it just because it was actually like her apartment and I was moving in. But that's kind of where you can navigate is like, one having that conversation with people. Because sometimes you'll be surprised is when you designate one person, no one else wants to kind of do that anyway. So they may actually in a family be like good, you could be the person to organize it because I don't care, you know, or you could be in a situation where maybe there's one person who really like you, it's really important to you. And you can say Well, the reason why it's important to me is because this makes it easier for me to grab different things or I'm not able to reach it because I'm not you know, I'm I'm shorter than your whatever the different reasons are. So those are kind of two ways to kind of navigate those.
Stephanie
That is so true. Especially we don't always think about the access of the individual. Actually, my husband and I are going through this right now. He wanted to put stuff in one particular cabinet and I go, he you know, he's like 656 fours. So and I'm not I'm five, six. And so I go, it makes sense to you. And yes, normally, typically, that could be a great place. But I have to go get myself a stool every time to get it. And this is like an everyday cabinet, right, where I keep my vitamins and stuff. So you're so so right, like, not just thinking about the things that we eat and the customs that we all how we cook, but also the access to the items when you're living with other people. Yeah. Okay, so let's talk about what if you're not a cook? Okay, so we've been talking a lot about the recipes and the shopping and like having the things where they need to be when you're cooking. But what happens when you're not necessarily a cook, but you are trying to lead a healthier lifestyle when it comes to your food and eating habits. What are some tips you would give to people and how they can navigate and organize their kitchen, when they're not necessarily cooks and buying all the spices and buying all the things.
Tomesha
I like this question too. Because if you're somebody who either you're not a huge fan of cooking, or maybe some people just don't have the space or the appliances to do this, one of the things that's important, you still want to have some type of calendar system I would say so that you have an idea of the different foods you're going to be eating per week. And the reason I say this is I know some people aren't into leftovers. So if you're one of those people who's like, I don't really have to worry about that too much. Because I'm not big into leftovers, you have less you don't have to necessarily worry about like fridge base, our you know freezer space. But if you are someone who maybe you eat out a lot more, maybe you might want to actually invest in like actual Tupperware, or different food storage containers so that instead of just keeping it in a container that it comes in, because those are all different shapes and sizes, sometimes they spill, I like actually moving things to my own food storage containers, and then I'm able to kind of see, when it comes to leftovers, I noticed that things tend to not go bad as much because you're actually paying attention to how much you're consuming throughout the week. So you know, like, oh, I have this much chicken leftover at this much rice leftover. So that's something to kind of think about. And then there's also you might be a person who leverages more freezer space. So you know, if you are in a home that allows you to have a deep freezer and you can actually because my dad was really big on this as well like he liked a lot of freezer meals and he there's still and there's lots of actually lots of healthy freezer meals you can buy or if you're someone I also actually like doing food delivery sometimes. So sometimes I'll have you know the the food delivery service where they prepare all the food for you. And then I'll just stack it in my freezer and say like, okay, these are going to be my meals for this week, or these are my main meals for next week. So that's something to think about too. If you don't like to cook you still want to have some type of organized organization system so that you can still grab it and go because because that's probably even more of a reason for you to want to eat out if it's like oh, I don't I don't cook so I don't have anything like no, you can still get packaged. Things You can still get, you know, things that you can either make really quickly microwave or even put in the oven, or toaster oven.
Stephanie
Yeah, and I love the the part where you said, putting things in your own containers, transferring it over, I know that's one extra step. But if you are more of a takeout person that buys kind of in bulk for a couple of days, so that you can eat them for two, three days, they don't have to stay in the same container and came in maybe you something that would make sense to you. You actually like grab, put it in, reheat it, wherever you're going to reheat it, it's just much easier. So yeah. Okay, so let's talk about what happens for those dietary needs. So we're kind of transitioning into, you know, more specifics, but it happens, and it happens often. So what happens if you have dietary needs, whatever those may be, and you feel overwhelmed with having to remember all the things like having, especially if you're living with it, different individuals who may have different dietary needs. But what are some ways that people can get organized when they have, they have to grab different things for different family members, including themselves because of their dietary needs. This is
Tomesha
really a good one to one of the things that I found helpful. And this doesn't work for everybody. But one of the things that this actually does work for everybody that I'll say something that doesn't. So what what gets really helpful is I have gotten into the habit because I am person who has different dietary needs, for instance, like corn, and now I realize I have like an egg allergy. So I have to be really careful about different products. So I'm very big on when I'm in a store, I actually do read the ingredients list. Now, obviously, there gonna be some ingredients that are going to be more you know, scientific, but for the most part, I try to get more natural ingredients when I can. And I say that because what you can also pay attention when you're looking at whatever brand is there's certain brands that I'll go for more often than others, I can't always remember the names in it. So I'm like, I'm not going to name different ones. But if there's certain products that you notice, like work really well for you, or your family, or our chin to be something, something that falls within those dietary needs. That's something that I kind of go to certain types of brands. And then this is where I'm going to mention the thing that isn't necessarily applicable to everybody. But there are different online retailers that I like to go to, you probably heard of different ones. And they specialize in certain type of dietary needs. For instance, maybe you're someone who follows who's lactose intolerant. So they'll you'll be able to search on the internet and be like lactose free products when you're gluten free, or you're or you're vegan or vegetarian. And that's something that I like to do too, because then the online makes it a little bit easier. Obviously, there's shipping costs that come with that. So it may not necessarily be accessible to everybody, depending on your economic situation. But it is something that you might want to look into is sometimes going to that online retailer, and then seeing if your local store actually buys offers that too, because sometimes they do sometimes the price, I'm actually amazed at some products I used to buy online and like oh, they actually have it in my local store now, so I'll buy them more often.
Stephanie
We had an episode, I think it was episode two, but we talked about digital organizing versus its space organizing. But the point of this is that in today's world, that digital world, like your grocery list, like your online grocery store, you can go ahead and like pre plan your list, like you said, and just look up the ingredients ahead of time, so you're not out the store or you don't or you know where to put them when you get home. And you can kind of pre plan ahead of time. I know that's an extra step. But especially if you have a dietary needs, that way you can kind of work, work that in into your system, like use online tools that are already available for these retailers. And then use that for your advantage when you bring your groceries and all of your food home. Okay, so let's talk a little bit just kind of the last hour, I know we didn't talk, touch a lot about groceries and whatnot. But let's talk about some of those tools that you like to use to stay organized within your kitchen, whether they're to get your groceries and food or once you're in the kitchen, like what are some of your favorite tools or apps, or actually physical items that you can't live without in your kitchen in your pantry to stay organized. Yes, there's
Tomesha
so many different ideas. So I'll probably start with an I cannot remember the name of this app because I don't currently use it. But I used to when I was getting building this habit is there's this organization app where you can actually write down everything and your fridge or your pantry and I used to do that every single week. So that could be a lot for some people but it's helpful in the instance of when you kind of see it and you know I have this many spices or I have this much meat or I have this this much vegetables it can be helpful so that you know when you're making your grocery lists each week that you you don't have to or if you go out and you're like oh do I have this or not you can have something on hand because I don't always remember, you know how many things of onions I have. So that can be helpful too is if you could find an app that lets you create your actual pantry digitally that way you're able to have it with you at all times. But for more practical for most people, I actually just like to alphabetize things. I start kind of like with my spices but I also have a height thing just because there are some cabinets are taller than Other ones, we were talking about that earlier. So I do like to kind of say I have a shelf on my cabinet, that's all baking goods. And I like to actually put it by height. So that I can see this is I have this much flour, I have this much, you know, nutritional yeast or whatever different things this much baking soda, and then I have a shelf, that's just all snacks. So whenever I need my teas, or I want some nuts, and I can easily grab those snacks, that's my snack shelf. And then I have a shelf that separate for my dog, she has her own snacks too. So I have her own little snacks shelf as well, so that when I need to grab her different dog treats or grab her medicine, I'm able to easily do that too, which, you know, for some people that could be relevant, maybe you have different things that you like to give your kids, you know, at different hours of the day, like maybe the sugary stuff you put at the higher shelf, because you're like, you're not going to get that at the end of the day. But maybe you want to have something a little bit less sugar during the afternoon. And then tools wise, there's actually one thing that I got this and I forget it's a cart actually, it's a rolling cart because one of my friends, I didn't know that you could, I'm forgetting the name of an island, she bought an island but I didn't want to have to buy a huge island to put in time my kitchen. So instead I just got a rolling shelf. And what I liked about it is that's where I put some of my canned goods that I go to because I use a lot of coconut milk in my mini my recipes, I like to make my own sauce. So I have my rolling carts because it's easily accessible, I can roll it to me and I put all my little basket of vegetables and stuff on there. And that's predominantly like the one area I use mostly in the kitchen. And then when it comes to my drawers, I actually have a drawer that I have for all my cooking gear. So different cooking utensils that go too often are on top of my kitchen counter. So like my with my spoons, but then things that I might use less often. I put inside two different drawers one is like my drawer where I have like different things if I want to make shish kebab randomly one day or then I have another drawer where you know all my forks and knives. So hopefully that answer your question.
Stephanie
Yeah, no, brilliant, I mean, it gives you options to wear it especially if you have a tighter space that gives you the Grab and Go concept that we really love that that's easy. And you can switch it out as needed. If you're in a baking month, you know, especially during the holidays, little people make a little bit more, that's that grab and go items, which I think is always super genius, especially if you have a tighter kitchen that doesn't allow you as much space to display everything all the time. So I think that's awesome. Okay. All right. So with that being said, I hope everybody enjoyed this episode to Misha is full of tips, especially with healthy lifestyle, healthy eating, and bracing your body and all those wonderful things. So to be sure, I'm going to ask you one more question. And then we'd love to hear where we can find you. But my question for you is if you had to choose one magazine, like what is your favorite magazine of all time, the one that was a go to is a go to that you that inspires you that you really like to read? This is a
Tomesha
good question I've ever think about a magazine, I probably it might be self or help one of the two like I'm in between both of them because they do have like recipes, they have workouts and articles. So I'm like, those are my two strong ones that I like bounce between.
Stephanie
They're inspirational love. Yes. Okay, and where can people find you? Well, you can actually find
Tomesha
me at Tisha Campbell on Instagram. That's where I mostly hang out. Definitely my story. So probably what I am cooking, that's probably will you'll find any recipe or, you know, sometimes recipe failures, things happen. The kitchen is definitely going to be over there.
Stephanie
Awesome. We'll go find to Misha over on Instagram for more inspiration, more tips, and all that good stuff. It was so good to see you. And have you on at the today's episode. Thank you so much, Misha, and until next time. Thank you for listening to the organized and productive Podcast with your organized Flamingo. If you enjoyed today's episode, I would love it if you leave a rating and review on your favorite podcast player. It helps with letting people know that we're here. For full show notes and resources head on over to the organized flamingo.com/podcast Happy organizing