5 Tips for an Allergy-Friendly Kitchen

When reorganizing your kitchen, your family members’ food sensitivities and food allergies can present a bit of a challenge. You’ll need to be aware of cross-contamination issues and prepared in the case of medical emergencies. Since there’s so much to keep in mind, it’s easy to get overwhelmed when creating an allergy-safe kitchen.

However, in this simple guide, we explain several tips to design a kitchen for those with food allergies and sensitivities. Keep reading to learn everything you need to start creating the allergy-friendly kitchen of your dreams.

1. Understand the Allergies

To make an allergy-friendly kitchen, it’s important to understand the severity of the food allergies in your home. Some allergies might be more serious and require a kitchen free of cross-contamination, such as celiac disease. Meanwhile, other food sensitivities like lactose intolerance simply involve the person’s dietary choices.

2. Organize Based on Needs

Once you learn more about the seriousness of your family member’s allergies, you can start figuring out the kind of organization that will keep them safe. For example, if your child needs limited exposure to tree nuts, you’ll want to create a kid-friendly kitchen with allergen-free refrigerator and cupboard drawers they can reach. 

3. Use a Grocery List

When dealing with food allergies and sensitivities, another way to keep your kitchen safe is with a grocery list. It’s helpful to add this printable food substitution and grocery list to your refrigerator so everyone who shops for food knows which items to get. In addition to making your kitchen more allergy-friendly, using a grocery list helps you stay organized.

4. Keep Your Space Clean

One of the most important tips for creating an allergy-friendly kitchen is to keep it clean. Disinfecting surfaces regularly can help prevent cross-contamination for family members and guests with food allergies. Not only will cleaning up make your home more allergy-safe, but it will also make your kitchen look better.

5. Post Emergency Contacts

Keeping a list of emergency contacts handy is important for everyone, but it’s especially important for kids with food allergies. If your child is home with a friend or babysitter and you’re not around, having this printable allergy emergency contact sheet on your refrigerator can give you peace of mind in the case of exposure to allergens.

Renovating your kitchen with food allergies and sensitivities in mind can feel like an overwhelming task. However, simply by following these tips, you’ll be able to create a kitchen that’s both organized and allergy-safe. 

How to Organize Your Life and Home and Improve Your Wellness

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Is it possible to improve your health and mental stability by organizing your life and home? Absolutely yes. A clean, organized and clutter-free home can reduce a lot of stress and give you a much clearer outlook on life. So how can you organize your life and home and improve your life satisfaction? Here are a few easy ways to declutter, tidy up and relax:

Create good habits

If you truly want to improve your life, home, health and wellness, it’s crucial to adopt healthy habits. If you pay too much time to bad habits, they will drain you of your time, money, happiness and health. Examine your current habits and see how you can ditch bad ones and replace them with good ones. Once you figure out what kinds of habits you can benefit from, do your best to include them in your daily routine. If you've been through a period of adjustment like a divorce or separation, then these new additions to your routine will become healthy habits that will help you organize your life, fill you with motivation and leave no space for distractions.

Follow your instincts

Many people take others’ organizing tips and try to follow routines and habits that do not fit their lifestyle. Just because someone else wakes up at 5 am, practices veganism and does not watch TV, it doesn’t mean that these habits will benefit your life as well. If you’re a night owl who loves steak while watching movies, why give that up? Listen to your instincts and adopt habits that fit your natural preferences. By being realistic, you will actually benefit from your new lifestyle and switch to new habits long-term.

Organize your diet

Your diet is a huge part of your life, so it also needs to be inspected if you want to organize your life better. Pay special attention to your fridge and pantry and put healthy items in the foreground. You can also start planning your meals and reduce the amount of takeout and missed meals. With meal planning and necessary vitamins and supplements, you will not only make healthy eating easy and simple, but also improve your health and fitness. Once good eating habits and supplements become an everyday thing for you, you can go further with meal prep and make your diet even more practical.

Declutter your home

Creative chaos might work for some people, but in most of us, it awakens stress, confusion and feelings of overwhelm. With a few easy decluttering tips, you can quickly tidy up your home, open up the space and allow your brain to think more clearly. Once you declutter, it’s also important to find a home for each of your items and adopt a habit of always placing items in their place. This habit will prevent future mess and cut time for cleaning, giving your more time for relaxation and self-care.

Invest in storage

To keep clutter out of your surfaces, it’s crucial to invest in storage solutions that will keep loose items under control. It’s easy and cheap to put up shelves, add a few cabinets to your home office and invest in closed storage for the kitchen and living room. And with dual-purpose items, like ottomans with under-the-seat storage, you can double the usefulness of your furniture.

Create a budget

Organizing your finances is a crucial part of organizing your life. With a stable financial situation, you can reduce a lot of stress and boost your health and living environment To create a good budget, plan how much money you can spend each month on the mortgage, bills, food, car, entertainment, etc. It’s very important to track your spending and stick to a good saving plan. To reach good financial stability, try to save between 20 and 30% of your paycheck.

Measure your progress

Tracking your progress is crucial for staying motivated to organize your life and home. It’s not easy to track organization, but it’s possible. For instance, with a monthly or weekly review, you can study your past behaviors and tweak your new habits to create a more efficient system of organization. It’s also possible to compare your decluttering skills using photos of your home and measure your diet success by monitoring your health and weight. 

Once you learn how to organize your life, you will get to enjoy a cleaner home, better budget, healthier body and mind and stable relationships. Good organizing will minimize overworking and multitasking and give you more time to dedicate to things that truly matter.

6 Ideas for Organizing Pet Supplies

Whatever pets you have, you almost certainly have some supplies for them, such as food and treats, toys, cushions, covers, brushes, and collars. The more pets you have, the more items they require. However, the problem is how to organize them. Dogs’ collars, for instance, are the simplest to manage. You could simply put them on hooks or a shelf. You might want to store toys in baskets, crates, or drawers if you have them. Examine these 6 ideas for organizing pet supplies if you want to make your life simpler and more organized.

1. Determine what to keep, donate, or discard

Decluttering is an essential phase in the organizing process since it allows you to reduce the quantity of stuff you own by evaluating what you truly require. Experts suggest getting rid of any worn-out goods and giving any unwanted equivalents. For instance, you don't need seven collars for one dog.

The pandemic is undoubtedly a perfect time to give things away. Many charities are searching for donations. You could check the websites of your local animal shelters and rescues to see what products are on their wish list. By decluttering your items, you could free your space and get extra space for storing your pet's essentials. Furthermore, you could use decorative bags and baskets, be creative and make colorful shelves. Moreover, don't hesitate to rent a storage unit if you find yourself running out of space.

2. Storing pet food

Pet food might be challenging to organize. It is something you want sealed to keep fresh. However, sometimes, a pet food bag is larger than your pet. Therefore, storing it seems to be a big problem. You will certainly need some assistance at this point. Some of the services related to storing items are what zippyshelllousiana.com provides, as they offer climate-controlled storage, on-site storage, and portable storage. Check their services if you need to relocate and are worried about storing your own and your pet's items.

Fortunately, some storage containers are perfect for storing pet food. You can keep pet food in a huge storage container on wheels. Namely, it can be put anywhere in your home. You could roll it out when you need to refill the containers. 

When it comes to types of containers, bags are definitely not suitable for storing. They frequently leak and are challenging to fit everywhere. You might want to purchase a plastic box with a lid that is the proper size and form for storing your pet's food and water dishes.

While pet supplies organizing ideas are essential, what's genuinely crucial is keeping dog food fresh. Here are a few unusual dog food storage ideas.

• Select an airtight container that will fit in your cupboard.

• Store food in a snugly fitting container.

• Vintage canisters might provide a charming touch to your kitchen if you want to be creative.

• Look at dog food stations that include bowls as well as food storage.

3. Find space in your home for storing pet supplies

Keeping pet supplies organized is much easier if you can store everything in one spot. A good first step might be to gather your pet's supplies such as food, toys, leashes, sweaters, and medication and place them in one location. It's helpful to have a visual representation of how many things you truly have. It could be on a shelf in the laundry room of your house, for instance. You might store pet brushes, grooming tools, and other miscellaneous pet items in a basket, so you always know where to look.

Moreover, before you begin filling your pet supplies basket with items, be sure that they are things that you require. Ensure to toss or give away any belongings you no longer need, such as a puppy collar your dog has outgrown or a leash you never use because it's too long. Make sure you only store items for your pet that you genuinely need and utilize. After all, living with a pet in an apartment might get too crowded even if you hang on to essentials only.

Interesting ideas for organizing pet supplies

You could collect all the toys and place them in one large and accessible storage container. A charming bone-shaped storage container or a huge bone-shaped basket are two adorable options for dog toys. You may move toys to different rooms, but having one central spot to take things from and put things back in makes it easy to know what you have and immediately notice and dispose of damaged toys.

4. Portable storage containers

As you can expect, there are several instances in which you will want more storage. Regardless of how large and roomy your home is, chances are you'll need extra storage space for your belongings at some point. It is where portable storage units come in handy. Namely, they may be beneficial in the process of decluttering any household. Moreover, by using portable storage units, you could have everything nearby. If you need an object urgently, such as dog medication, you will not need to rush or worry about where it might be. Aside from that, there are several more instances in which they might be helpful. Here are some of them:

• Practicality

• Affordability

• Mobility

• Able to be delivered to the location (in case you are moving)

For instance, you could store pet food in a huge, portable, plastic storage container. Not only would it fit perfectly in the cabinet, but it would also keep the food fresh and keep the "crunch" factor from being lost due to humidity. This is much better than using bags since they are less suitable and handy.

Moreover, you could categorize pet items with plastic boxes in various colors. Cat pills, dog meds, and grooming supplies, for example, might have their own container. It makes them easier to locate and avoids drug mix-ups. Furthermore, the colors might add life and happiness to your apartment.

Final thoughts

When you take a moment to imagine yourself in your pet's paws, organizing pet supplies becomes a lot of fun. Would you like to have access to the toys? Or to find your leash easily? Is your food as fresh as it possibly can be? Rest assured that these storage solutions will make your pet's life easier as well. Therefore, make for an easy life with your pet by considering these ideas for organizing pet supplies.

6 Tips to Organize a Party in Your Home

Throwing a party in your own home gives you the ease of being able to clean and prepare well ahead of time, and lets you really show off your hosting skills. It can be a bit of work to pull it all together for one special day, but in the end it’s all worth it to have the good company of friends and family together under your roof. We’ve got some great tips to help you organize a successful party in your home that will definitely impress your friends!

Start Planning Early

When organizing for a party in your home, it helps to start thinking about details as much as three to six months ahead of time. Will there be a theme to your party? What is your budget? How many people do you plan to invite? What kind of decorations will you want? Will your party be casual and call for disposable plates, cups, and utensils? Or, will you want to elevate your party to a more classy level with rented glassware, plates, and tables? Setting these types of details will give you goals that can be slowly achieved, instead of making a stressful time of last minute organizing. Leading up to the party, you can keep your eye out for decorations and accessories in stores you go to that might fit with your party theme. 

Declutter & Clean 

When you have guests at your home, you want them to be impressed with the level of cleanliness, your stylish home decor, and the effort you’ve put into organizing for the party. Start with the basics by making sure your home is free from pests, clutter, and is cleaned from top to bottom. It may be best to clean your home within the week before the party, so everything stays clean. That means dusting, vacuuming, mopping floors, washing rugs, cleaning kitchen appliances, and making the bathrooms sparkle. A few air fresheners here and there never hurt either!

Pre-Prep Food

One big part of planning is determining what you’ll be offering for food. Choosing catering is always a good idea, because it takes a load of work off your plate. However, you could also go with offering just appetizers and finger foods, request your friends to each bring a dish potluck style, or buy and make all the food yourself. If you go with the latter route, it’s best to purchase all the food several days out from the party date to ensure everything is fresh. On the day before the party, you’ll want to pre-prep as much food as possible. For example, get your appetizer trays ready to whip out on the day of the party. Peel, chop, and dice any fruits and veggies ahead of time. Prep or marinate your meats the night before so they’re ready to cook. You could also ask a few friends to come over early the day of your party to help you prep food and complete any last minute decorating.  

Stock Drinks for Everyone

Everybody loves a good party with adult beverages on hand. When creating your guest list, think about what everyone likes to drink and try to accommodate the majority. You may want to have some beer, seltzers, wine, and cocktails available. And don’t forget about the guests who don’t drink or who will be designated drivers. Have a variety of non-alcoholic beverages like soda, ice tea, lemonade, plenty of water, and maybe even some non-alcoholic beer.

Organize the Music Playlist

When you're mingling with friends and enjoying the hard work you’ve put into your party, the last thing you want to be messing with constantly is the music. Either create a music playlist on an MP3 player, or choose the perfect station on a music app like Pandora. If you don’t already have a subscription to a music app that cuts out commercials, a free trial that will give you hours of uninterrupted music is a house party essential.   

Plan for Some Simple Entertainment 

While hanging out with friends, eating, and drinking is often a good time by itself, a few games and a little entertainment can really add to the fun. Some entertainment ideas for an outdoor house party might include cornhole, horseshoes, and Kan Jam. Indoor activities that are fun for a group are giant jenga, card games, darts, twister, and drinking games. Many drinking games are super simple and don’t require many accessories to play. Think beer pong, flip cup, never have I ever, and most likely, to name a few. 

Don’t forget to send your invites out at least a month ahead of time, so your guests have plenty of time to plan to attend. Set an RSVP date as well, so you will know how much food and supplies you’ll need for the party. Yes, every party takes money and lots of effort, but when you see everyone having a good time together, the work all becomes worth it. Good luck in throwing a killer house party!