We often hear "You are what we eat." I’m going to take you a lot further today, and say that not only is this very true, but we are also how we eat and where we eat. So when we order our kitchen and regularly engage in certain food practices we order ourselves and consequently generate more harmony in our lives. Here are the top eight tips that my clients find most helpful when I work with them to reorganize their kitchens to create physically and spiritually nourishing spaces:

1. Take the four steps to simple.

Certain techniques of living, certain environments, certain modes of life, certain rules of conduct breed serenity. Simplicity is one of these. It fosters inner harmony and serenity. And the less we have the simpler our lives are, for everything we own owns us. So follow these steps to end up with a clutter-free kitchen. That means a kitchen that only contains tools and food you use and eat.

• Evaluate.

Do this by being a visitor in your own kitchen. After helping clients prepare their homes for sale, I often hear "It looks so good! Why didn’t I do this when I still lived here?" The answer is that many of us take our homes for granted. When getting ready for a move, we view our homes in the way a potential buyer would look at it. Then we see all the little things that we ignore on a daily basis - the pile of clothes meant to go to charity, the double-stacked books on the shelf, and the awkward living room layout. Step into your kitchen pretending you are a seeing it for the first time with the eyes of a visitor. What do you notice that you don’t like? Now make a plan to change those things.

• Sort.

Empty out all of the cabinets and decide what you really use and put like items together. This will keep you honest with yourself. "Oh, wow, I have 12 wooden spoons and five tea sets."

• Purge.

Get rid of items that you don’t use, own too many of, or are so worn out they need replacing. Use these three tests. Would you feel good about handing that over to a guest to use if they were in your kitchen? Would you replace the item if your house burnt to the ground? Have you used it in the past year? If the answer is "no" to any of these, toss or donate it. If your kitchen is suffering from cookbook clutter use the sticky-note test. For the next six months, every time you make a recipe from a certain cookbook, mark the page with a sticky note. At the end of the trial, donate all the books without sticky notes in them. Nowadays, you can find heaps of recipes online. Do you really need to take up so much space with all those books?

Ask yourself is you are holding on to any kitchen items that you are not using for any of these reasons.

companionship: That cracked bowl reminds you of your grandmother. Take a picture of it, and toss it.

unfulfilled goals: You want to keep that juicer because you really want to juice every week. But you don’t.

someone else’s view of who you should be: Your mother was a major baker and believes you should be too. But you’d rather spend your spare time biking.

old belief system or obsolete need: You used to cook rice regularly. But now you don’t eat as many carbs, so you don’t need that rice steamer anymore.

If any of these reasons ring true for anything in your kitchen, maybe now that you can identify the cause, you can let go of it.

Do as Lao Tzu instructs us:

"In the world of knowledge, as

Every day something new

is added. In pursuit of the Tao, every

day something is let go."

If you buy a new can opener, get rid of the old one.

• Containerize.

Locate like items together. Use containers. Put the items and food you use the most often in places that are easier to reach. Station items near to where you use them. I was working recently with a client who had their toaster in the kitchen closet. When I inquired how often they used it, she informed me that it was "every morning" and proceeded to tell me that they took it out of the closet every day, plugged it in, used it, and then returned it to the closet. Does anyone smell a big time suck?

2. Label everything.

Go crazy with your label maker. Hit up shelves, the inside of drawers, your frig compartments.

Once you have designated specific places in your kitchen for certain items, labeling them will speed up the process of putting items away as well as finding them when you need them. After all that decluttering you did by sorting, purging, and containerizing, you don’t want your spaces to revert to their former state of chaos, do you? Labels are your best friends for maintaining your organized spaces. And everyone in the home can help maintain your new order when they know where things belong.

3. Acquire some effective solutions.

• Wonder Drawers

These IKEA (http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/50149353) boxes are oh so versatile if you need to add storage space to your kitchen. You can stain, paint, or decorate them any way you wish. You can hide away all sorts of items in them. That way the space always looks tidy and organized.

• Simple Shopping

Declutter your entrance-way and/or kitchen cabinets of all those plastic and paper bags and go green all in one simple step. Invest in a set of these cool looking shopping bags (www.envirosax.com) that handily role up to fit in any purse.

4. Make "Do it now" your mantra.

For example, when you’re done reading the day’s paper, don’t leave it on the kitchen table or counter. Think "Do it now" and immediately bring it to the recycling bin. If you only handle something once you are saving time and reducing clutter. That goes for dirty dishes too. Build time into your nightly routine to wash the dishes. Wash up as you cook. Waking up to a clean kitchen is refreshing.

5. Employ a grocery list.

To keep your kitchen running smoothly, always have what you need to make the meals you want, and avoid having too much of any item, create a grocery list by store of the items you buy regularly. Print it out weekly, and post it on the frig. Let everyone know that if they use up an item they are to draw a check box in front of the item. And add any extra items to the list when you plan out your weekly meals. Then when you shop, you’ll zip around the store, shopping with more confidence. Engaging everyone in the process also leads to more involvement from others in meal planning and frees you up to do other things.

Email me at transform@living-harmony.org if you want a grocery template that you can modify.

6. Congregate for community building.

It’s the people and the process that count, and it’s about the sharing of meals not the appliances and tools in your kitchen. I once heard on the radio that many Japanese kitchens have one knife. And even the 12-year-old boy knows how to wield it in so many different ways. That’s why only one is needed. Bring less stuff, and more people, into your kitchen.

Saint Francis de Sales said that "Often time (sic) our stuff and the choices we make with our time get in the way of these relationships." He was referring to our relationships with God and others. We have invented new evils to drag us away from being present to those people right in front of us. Our stuff can distract us from what is really important. Our kitchens and various places we eat at home and away from home are ideal spaces in which to reclaim being present to those closest to us. Think of how many times in the Bible you can read about Jesus sharing food or a meal with a group of people, an individual, or his disciples. It is an intimate act with spiritual dimensions.

If you want to bring some more harmony to your home, ditch the attempted multi-tasking in your kitchen. There is nothing more unmindful as trying to do more than one task at a time. Instead of chatting on the phone when preparing dinner, connect with a family member about their day as they share in the meal making. If you’re a couple, plan dates in the kitchen, sharing a cocktail as you whip up a dish you experienced while on vacation.

Share the cooking fun with your kids. If you start involving them when they’re young, they’ll find it fun, resulting in them being really helpful at meal time. Even small tasks can make a big difference. Instead of your kids using magic markers while you cook, hand them a spoon. Teach your son to mix ingredients. You are imparting a life skill as you share an experience with them. I joke with one of my friends who is a stellar chef that her boys will be preparing gourmet meals for us when we are old and grey. And it’s a direct result of the fact that she cooks with them all the time. Her four-year-old makes pancake batter from scratch on his own.

Study after study shows that those with strong connections to others are healthier and live longer. So involve everyone for a kitchen with warmth and a life that feels full.

7. Delineate your space.

Even when I work with clients in wee studios in the city I let them know that their space will serve them better if we design it so there are sections that are reserved for certain activities. This is because all items, and thus spaces, hold energy. So, for instance, if you allow heaps of bills to pill up in your kitchen, when you are cooking, you will encounter mental jabs saying, "When am I going to get to those bills?" That nagging question won’t serve you well when it’s time to make dinner. It will only result in a distraction and stress. Stick with food prep and eating in your kitchen. Taking on specific tasks in certain designated areas makes for a more peaceful, productive life.

8. Pray together before you eat.

No matter what your belief system, the simple act of taking time to be thankful for the food you are about to eat is centering.

Tomorrow start practicing one of these tips you aren’t doing now or take on one of the tasks I mention and you’ll be on your way to a kitchen that will feed your body AND soul.

Erika Salloux, CPO® -

Living Harmony, LLC -

24 Harvey St. -

Cambridge, MA 02140 -

617.945.0704

© Copyright 2011. All rights reserved. Living Harmony, LLC.