You've often heard of the kitchen being the heart of the home, and so it is. It is the very soul of your home - it keeps your family nourished, good conversations often start there, parties usually end up there, and it's just a popular place for kids to hang out (cookies aren't usually kept anywhere else). So here are some tips to ensure that the chi in your kitchen supports the harmony needed and wanted in the rest of the home.
1. Tackle the fridge. Spring cleaning time isn't the only time to do this - make time twice a month to take care of this puppy. Pull out anything with fuzz on it and discard. Ditto for anything that is green or grey that didn't start out that colour. Check the expiry dates on your dressings and sauces and discard as necessary. Organize your drawers so that fruits and vegetables are easy to find. I'm not advocating labelling dates on everything. If you're honestly going through this at least twice a month, you won't find a shrivelled-up apple in there by surprise... ever! Finally wash it inside and out - even the rubber gasket around the seal. Now anytime you have a guest, you won't be embarrassed by the dried gunk on your shelves, and they'll be reassured that they can actually eat your cooking without worrying about food poisoning.
2. Tackle the freezer. Remember the last time you did this (maybe you were moving) and you had to throw out food that had freezer burn? What a shame from three fronts...1/ your pocketbook, 2/ if it's meat, some animal gave up it's life to nourish you and you didn't even bother to eat it and 3/ the environmental impact to package and transport the food that is now wasted. Pull everything out onto your counter and clean out the freezer just like you did the fridge. Sort out the food on your freezer into sections and before you put it back into the freezer, make a quick meal plan for the next week (or more if it's a big freezer) and plan to eat through ALL of that food. Don't worry, your food will NOT thaw out as you do this because I'm talking QUICK plan. If you have 22 pieces of meat in your freezer then you know you over three weeks of freezer food to plan for (unless you count on one night a week eating out & or having leftovers). Organize your vegetables accordingly to the meal plan and then everything back into your freezer with organization in mind - fruits in one section, vegetables in another, separate chicken, pork, beef and fish as well.
3. While we're still at the meal plan, now make it more formal with a full plan, post it on your fridge, and add the items you need to complete it for this particular week to your weekly shopping list. OK, we're not talking about being completely a freak about this - feel free to switch around one day for another, but we are talking about eating through the food in your freezer so it doesn't get wasted. Now I think if you're a Morman, I understand that the requirements of your religion be that you have food ahead for a year, but I presume you have a series of cold cellars and freezers and are well organized to boot.
4. Finally (for today) tackle the cupboards you keep your food in - cereal, canned goods, etc. For the canned goods, if they're dented they're compromised and need to be ditched. If there's rust that you can see on the outside of the can, what do you think you can't see on the inside of the can? Got opened boxes of bran, or graham crackers, or cereal that you've not touched in eons? You know what to do. Check out anything like extra dressings or sauces that may have expiry dates on them. Yep... they expire even if they're not opened. Ditch, ditch, ditch. Take a look at your food plan - can you avoid some of the things on your weekly shopping list by just eating out of your cupboard? Before you put everything back into your cupboards, clean and wash them out, and also wash the tops of all your cans. Why? Because once upon a time, your canned vegetables were on a pallet in a warehouse, which is a fun place for rats and mice to hang about, and where there's rats and mice, there's their awful offal. So... for the cans you now have in your home, clean them, and for the future ones you bring into your home from the grocery store, clean them before putting them away.
At the very least, now you're feeling a little better about the food you have in your house - you know it has nourishment value for your family. Going forward, for the most energy bang for the buck, consider the sources of your food purchases. The 100 mile limit that environmental advocates have been talking about for a few years now is a terrific start. Not only are you not paying the money for the transport of food, you're supporting your own local food suppliers, and lowering the environmental costs of that food transport. You're also ensuring that the nutrient value of your food is high because it didn't take so long to get to your house.
Everything has chi (energy) - and with your food, you want good, high quality chi. Obviously a bag of half rotten beans in the bottom of your fridge don't only look horrible, but they attract bad chi. Enough said... you've made a good start on good chi for your kitchen. More tomorrow...
Meanwhile, if you have any specific questions, please contact us at www.whisperingpath.com. We can help you with the daunting task of applying all the principles of feng shui to your home.
Gaylle & Wendy,
www.whisperingpath.com
1. Tackle the fridge. Spring cleaning time isn't the only time to do this - make time twice a month to take care of this puppy. Pull out anything with fuzz on it and discard. Ditto for anything that is green or grey that didn't start out that colour. Check the expiry dates on your dressings and sauces and discard as necessary. Organize your drawers so that fruits and vegetables are easy to find. I'm not advocating labelling dates on everything. If you're honestly going through this at least twice a month, you won't find a shrivelled-up apple in there by surprise... ever! Finally wash it inside and out - even the rubber gasket around the seal. Now anytime you have a guest, you won't be embarrassed by the dried gunk on your shelves, and they'll be reassured that they can actually eat your cooking without worrying about food poisoning.
2. Tackle the freezer. Remember the last time you did this (maybe you were moving) and you had to throw out food that had freezer burn? What a shame from three fronts...1/ your pocketbook, 2/ if it's meat, some animal gave up it's life to nourish you and you didn't even bother to eat it and 3/ the environmental impact to package and transport the food that is now wasted. Pull everything out onto your counter and clean out the freezer just like you did the fridge. Sort out the food on your freezer into sections and before you put it back into the freezer, make a quick meal plan for the next week (or more if it's a big freezer) and plan to eat through ALL of that food. Don't worry, your food will NOT thaw out as you do this because I'm talking QUICK plan. If you have 22 pieces of meat in your freezer then you know you over three weeks of freezer food to plan for (unless you count on one night a week eating out & or having leftovers). Organize your vegetables accordingly to the meal plan and then everything back into your freezer with organization in mind - fruits in one section, vegetables in another, separate chicken, pork, beef and fish as well.
3. While we're still at the meal plan, now make it more formal with a full plan, post it on your fridge, and add the items you need to complete it for this particular week to your weekly shopping list. OK, we're not talking about being completely a freak about this - feel free to switch around one day for another, but we are talking about eating through the food in your freezer so it doesn't get wasted. Now I think if you're a Morman, I understand that the requirements of your religion be that you have food ahead for a year, but I presume you have a series of cold cellars and freezers and are well organized to boot.
4. Finally (for today) tackle the cupboards you keep your food in - cereal, canned goods, etc. For the canned goods, if they're dented they're compromised and need to be ditched. If there's rust that you can see on the outside of the can, what do you think you can't see on the inside of the can? Got opened boxes of bran, or graham crackers, or cereal that you've not touched in eons? You know what to do. Check out anything like extra dressings or sauces that may have expiry dates on them. Yep... they expire even if they're not opened. Ditch, ditch, ditch. Take a look at your food plan - can you avoid some of the things on your weekly shopping list by just eating out of your cupboard? Before you put everything back into your cupboards, clean and wash them out, and also wash the tops of all your cans. Why? Because once upon a time, your canned vegetables were on a pallet in a warehouse, which is a fun place for rats and mice to hang about, and where there's rats and mice, there's their awful offal. So... for the cans you now have in your home, clean them, and for the future ones you bring into your home from the grocery store, clean them before putting them away.
At the very least, now you're feeling a little better about the food you have in your house - you know it has nourishment value for your family. Going forward, for the most energy bang for the buck, consider the sources of your food purchases. The 100 mile limit that environmental advocates have been talking about for a few years now is a terrific start. Not only are you not paying the money for the transport of food, you're supporting your own local food suppliers, and lowering the environmental costs of that food transport. You're also ensuring that the nutrient value of your food is high because it didn't take so long to get to your house.
Everything has chi (energy) - and with your food, you want good, high quality chi. Obviously a bag of half rotten beans in the bottom of your fridge don't only look horrible, but they attract bad chi. Enough said... you've made a good start on good chi for your kitchen. More tomorrow...
Meanwhile, if you have any specific questions, please contact us at www.whisperingpath.com. We can help you with the daunting task of applying all the principles of feng shui to your home.
Gaylle & Wendy,
www.whisperingpath.com
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