Why I keep scissors in the fridge

When your life is busy and you also have a mind that’s easily distracted – it’s a great combo for time wasting, running late and a constant state of hurry (cue anxiety). So how did putting scissors in the fridge help make my morning routine easier, faster and help get me out of the house in time?

I work full time, I manage a household, I try to look after my body, I generally take a lot on. And whilst no two days are ever exactly the same, there are some part of my routine I definitely repeat most days – like making my breakfast smoothie.

Side digression - there are a couple of things you should know about me for this all to make sense. Firstly, I am a compulsive organiser and neat freak - I like all stuff to be stored neatly away with stuff of the same ilk. For example, ALL supplement powders should live in the pantry, in the tub labelled ‘Supplements”. All vitamins should live in the kitchen cupboard, in the container labelled ‘Vitamins’. Makes sense, yes. This order brings me much joy and my house is full of it! Secondly, I have a very busy brain. My brain sees things and generates ‘ToDo’ thoughts everywhere I go, everywhere I look, all of the time (read my story ‘Brain orders are a thing’ on how I managed to stop these thoughts from taking over my sanity and my life).

Let’s take a look at making my morning smoothie. This typically consists of frozen berries, vitamins, supplements, fibre, nutmix, water and blending it all up in the whizzer thing. The process generally involves retrieving all of these ingredients from their various designated (and labelled) locations throughout the kitchen. E.g. supplement powders from Supplements Tub in pantry, Vitamins from Vitamin Tub in cupboard. Going to these locations knowing that these items will be waiting there is very pleasing for me!

At some point I will retrieve a bag of frozen berries from the freezer.

And here’s where things tend to go a little sideways. The new bags of berries are always hard to open - I need scissors. So I grab a pair from the kitchen utensils drawer (because kitchen scissors are a utensil and this is where they must live). And while I’m there I’ll give the kitchen utensils drawer little tidy up…. I see some soda stream bottle tops in the drawer… I think it would be a go idea to fill up some bottles and put in fridge for later (hot day today)… I go to a different kitchen cupboard to get soda stream bottles… oooh will just give that cupboard little tidy up… oooh I see the glass bottles I’ve been meaning to make kombucha with so get these out for later… I fill up soda stream bottles and make sparkling water… I pop kettle on, might get started on making kombucha.

Fast forward – making smoothie has somehow taken 45 minutes instead of 5, I’m running late, rushing and f#cked off! Again!

Using a couple of the Hello Better Lifestyle techniques, I have implemented a couple of very small changes that broke this pattern of brain distraction and made my morning smoothie process (and entire morning routine), easier, faster and ‘better’.

Firstly, I got over my compulsion for storing all stuff of similar ilk in the same place (e.g. all supplements must live in the Supplements Tub). Instead, I looked at all the DIFFERENT things I use to make my smoothie and I put them all TOGETHER, in the one tub - this feels like pairing mismatched socks to the compulsive organiser and neat freak! Yet it also makes a whole lot of sense. In the fridge (same place as the freezer where the berries are), I now have a ‘Smoothie Tub’. It comes out at smoothie time and it has all of the things I need to make it. Including - a second pair of kitchen scissors just for opening my berry bags. Boom.

So how has this helped make my smoothie routine easier faster and better? And help get me out of the house on time?

Firstly, I don’t spend the time getting all the things out of all the different places to put in my smoothie (and putting them back again later). Secondly (and most impactful for me), when I don’t have to retrieve the ingredients from all the different places, it significantly reduces the opportunities for my brain to see things, have a random great idea and get distracted.

My morning smoothie now gets made in under 3 minutes (including clean up) and I am much better at getting myself out of the house on time!

This example incorporates our concepts of ‘By My Side’ and ‘Multiply Me’. Contact us if you’d like to learn more about how to make some of your life easier, faster and better!