Your Home Knows When You're Running on Empty: Bathroom, Fridge & Pantry Reset | Ep 11

Get a peek inside a professional organizer's real bathroom, fridge, and pantry — how Elyse sets up her skincare counter, preps veggies for the week, and organizes her pantry so healthy choices are always within reach.

You're rushing through your morning routine, your bathroom stuff is scattered, the fridge is empty, and you can't even grab something quick on your way out the door. It’s obviously a chaotic morning. But it might be something more…

When life gets overwhelming, self-care is usually the first thing to go, You can see it written all over your bathroom, fridge, and pantry. These three spaces aren't just rooms in the house. They're a reflection of how well you're actually taking care of yourself right now.

In this episode of Tame the Chaos, professional organizer Elyse Metzger connects the state of these three spaces to your daily habits and long-term well being. She shares simple, low-friction shifts to make taking care of yourself easier.

• Why your bathroom, fridge, and pantry tell the same story
• How to organize your bathroom counter for a smoother morning routine
• Fridge and pantry organization tips that make healthy choices effortless
• The real reason self-care routines fall apart (it's not a willpower problem)
• Why home organization isn't about aesthetics — it's about energy

🎙️ Tame the Chaos is a podcast about the mindset side of organizing and what it really looks like to create a home (and a life) that works, hosted by San Diego professional organizer Elyse Metzger. New episodes every other week.

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Transcript

There are three spaces in your home that reveal how well you're actually taking care of yourself. One is where you nourish your body from the outside and the other two are nourishing your body from the inside. This is your bathroom, pantry, and fridge. These spaces hold your daily micro habits. And those micro habits, they compound over time into how you feel, look, and show up in the world. Today, we'll be making those connections, and I'll be giving you some practical tips on making these spaces more efficient to work for your daily life. I'm Elyse Metzger, and welcome to Tame the Chaos.

The problem is we separate these areas in our mind. The bathroom is about hygiene and the pantry and fridge are about food. But when you look at these areas and how they're set up, they're actually telling the same story. They're telling the story about how you're taking care of yourself right now. When life gets busy, some of these areas can fall through the cracks. In the bathroom, we may throw half-used products into the back of a drawer, never to see them again. It's an area for self-care, but most of us just rush through, not even being present or really thinking about what we're doing most of the time. It's just an in and out and on to the next thing.

The pantry and fridge are where our food choices live. And when you're in a rush, you just grab whatever is there. Not necessarily the most nourishing thing. I mean, your fridge might have leftovers from two weeks ago or maybe a half bag of wilting spinach. We are what we eat. It's just not a saying. The food in your house is your daily fuel. When you don't have good choices, you don't make good choices. This doesn't happen because you're a mess or a disorganized person. It happens because you're most likely depleted. You're probably busy living your life focused on other things. Life gets busy and the current state of our home often shows it. These three spaces reflect the habits of your long-term health and well-being.

Just a few days ago, I had a self-realization. It was in the morning. I had just gotten my son breakfast. I had taken like a five-minute shower. I was starving. I was solo parenting those few days while my husband was out of town. I had a busy packed schedule of course and I hopped in the shower for like I had like 5 minutes. I had like no time to get ready and I was realizing this is crazy. I am not even thinking about what I'm doing. I literally have 10 minutes to myself before my really, really long day of work and responsibilities. I just felt really chaotic. I didn't feel settled. I felt like I was rushed.

I thought to myself, "Okay, I need a reset". I was running on fumes. I didn't have my skin care products where they normally are. They were kind of scattered, so it was taking me longer to get ready, put my sunscreen on, and also we didn't really have much in the fridge, so I couldn't just grab something. Usually, I'll grab like a protein drink or something if I'm running late and can't actually put together like a proper breakfast. And we just didn't even have that. And I just I remember this morning, it happened recently. These were all the small things that were happening to make me feel like I was neglecting myself in a really big way. Obviously, I wasn't nourished for the day. I was starving. I had like 10 minutes to get ready, which I prefer to have a little bit more time downtime. I like slower mornings. It gets me ready for the day. And I did not have that. And I know that this happens occasionally. We all have those mornings. It's a normal thing.

But I realized that it was happening more than normal. So, I definitely needed a reset in these spaces. When life is overwhelming, self-care is often one of the first things to go. You can see it in your bathroom, fridge, and pantry. I want to be clear, this is not about a Pinterest perfect pantry, fridge, bathroom. It's not about color-coded labels. It's about creating conditions where taking care of yourself is easy. You're not going to eat the vegetables that are shoved in a bag thrown in the back of the crisper drawer. It takes effort, a lot of effort to dig out those veggies, if they're even still good. And you're not going to wash your face every morning and night when your face wash is thrown in a drawer and you have to dig through other products. It's a huge effort just to do one task. We're already tired from the day. The system isn't the point. It's removing the friction to make it easier to take care of yourself.

I'm going to give you just a couple of practical tips. It's something to get you started thinking about these spaces and how to make them function and work for you. I know that these tips might sound really obvious. Not all of them are necessary, but implementing a few here and there where you see that particular space depleted will help you.

So, the bathroom, the bathroom represents self-care. The daily rituals that add up over time, skincare routines, vitamins, the quiet minutes in the shower, the ones that I missed all last week. These habits seem really small, but they definitely add up over time. Since 19 years old, I have been washing my face in the morning before bed religiously. I have a very strict skincare routine and I think it's paid off from being consistent. But staying consistent means that I had to keep my things organized so it was easy for me to keep up with that habit. When our bathroom is chaotic, we skip routines. We don't take that extra five minutes. Instead, we neglect ourselves because the space isn't set up to support us.

The first practical tip I have for you for the bathroom is the bathroom counter reset. Anything that you don't use on a daily basis does not need to be on your counter if you can help it. You can make an exception for something that you use weekly or every other day like retinol or maybe a face mask that you use once a week. There are different types of organizing styles. So, there are people who like things out on the counter and people that like things put away and people who like a mix of both. And I personally am a person that likes both. I like to have some things put away, but the things I reach for every day, especially in the bathroom, I really like to have on hand on my counter. Plus, we don't have a lot of storage space in our bathroom. I really like using the counter to put my daily skincare items. What I do is I have a little like pedestal marble dish on my counter and I just make it look pretty with all of my skin care products.

The second practical tip is function over sorting exact items. And what I mean by this is usually when we organize we sort like items. For example, in the bathroom, this is where I always use this rule is function over sorting exact things together. Some of us have lotions for the daytime and the night time. Since I am a skin care enthusiast, I do have quite a bit of skin care products. I have products that I use during the morning and then products at night. So when I use my function over sorting, I will put my morning face wash, my morning serum and eye cream and morning moisturizer all together on my little pedestal on my counter along with my sunscreen. All of my nighttime products like my night creams, my night face wash, maybe some masks that I use at night, and my retinol all go in a different area on my counter.

All right, and moving on to the fridge and pantry. This is how we nourish our bodies. When these spaces are set up well, healthy eating becomes really easy. When they're a mess, convenience wins, and convenience isn't always nourishing.

Practical tip number one, make it pretty enough to eat. Now, I don't normally go around telling people to buy bins and get canisters for everything, but in this case, it's something that I do suggest if your pantry is struggling and you have no motivation to keep it organized. Personally, I really like oatmeal in the fall and winter time and in the warm weather months, I like yogurt. And I love to top them with all of the toppings like the goji berries, chia seeds, we need oats, all of the things. I like using canisters for that. And again, I want to clarify that I don't want you to run out and buy all of these bins. But if there's one spot in your kitchen to decant anything, I would decant the baking products in your pantry or cupboard or wherever they are or toppings and things that you use on a regular basis. That is what I would suggest decanting if you decanted anything in your kitchen.

Number two, front and center rule. So mostly in your refrigerator, it is easy for things to get lost in the refrigerator. This is definitely an obvious one, but a reminder to you that anything that is eye level is obviously the easiest to see and grab. So, put your healthy, good, nutritious food in those spots. And this goes for you, which your adult height, but also for your kids. I put healthy carrots in the door of my refrigerator on the level of my son so he can easily open it and take out his snacks from there. I know that some like food experts say that you're not supposed to put like your milk in the door and other things like dairy because when you open up the refrigerator, it cools down. Um, but anyway, everything's worked out for me so far.

The third tip for your refrigerator and pantry is to prepare. Again, this is another obvious suggestion, but it really does help when you take a day to cut up all your veggies, maybe make breakfast like egg bites or something that you can throw in the fridge and reheat again easily during the week is something that'll help you so much make better choices. And for veggies and fruits, it doesn't have to be like an entire garden in your refrigerator. I usually pick one or two vegetables and one or two fruits and have those for the week. The fruits I really won't cut up. I just have in there to wash because those kind of go bad. But with like celery and carrots, I love carrots. So, I'll take a Sunday or even a Saturday. I will cut them up, put them in a canister with water because that's how they stay fresh. And put them in the fridge. It's so easy to take out during the week. The extra like 10-15 minutes that it takes me to do it is so worth it during the whole week.

Self-care doesn't have to be spa days and bubble baths. It can be a bathroom cabinet that makes your morning routine easier. Healthy eating also doesn't have to require meal preparation. It can just be putting the good stuff in the front of your fridge and pantry so it's easy to grab. The goal is to make systems simple so taking care of yourself becomes easy. Small shifts here and there, even tiny ones, will compound the way that you feel over months and even years.

Some questions to get you curious. When was the last time you enjoyed your bathroom routine instead of rushing through it? What's cluttering your bathroom that you don't even use? What does your pantry or fridge say about how you're nourishing yourself lately? What would you need to change for self-care to feel easier instead of like another thing added to the list? You deserve spaces that make taking care of yourself easier, not harder. Your future self will thank you for setting these systems up today.

This week, I want you to while going through your daily routines, notice in any of these spaces if there is something that could be improved. Maybe you notice that something is working against you or something is working really well. When you open your fridge, your pantry, you're in your bathroom getting ready for the day during your routine, ask yourself, is anything in here making it easier or harder to take care of myself? Pick one of these areas, the bathroom, pantry, or fridge. Focus on that and choose one thing that you can improve by making that space more efficient. Take a couple days at first to just notice and then take that micro action to adjust the space a little bit to make it easier to take care of yourself. Remember to be easy on yourself and do what you can. Remember, progress over perfection. Taking action, even if it's small, is better than doing nothing at all. If this episode resonated, please share with a friend who you think needs to hear it. There's more to come, so be sure to follow so you don't miss the next episode. I'll see you next time.