Blisshaus in the Press

  With more time at home and our general lifestyles evolving over the past few months, I’ve been organizing and refreshing all the rooms in our house to fully utilize our space. I’ve color-coded our bedroom closet, rearranged the playroom, and even sorted the pantry… but one space I’ve yet to tackle is our refrigerator. At first, it felt very intimidating to not only organize my refrigerator, but also style it in a design-forward way that’s pleasing to the eye—that is, until I discovered Blisshaus and their exceptional tips and tricks. The experts at Blisshaus share 7 steps that will transform your entire refrigerator in 30 minutes: 1. The Leftovers ShelfOne of the golden Blisshaus rules is to dedicate specific sections of your refrigerator for distinct purposes. For leftovers, the Blisshaus team recommends a bottom or mid-tier shelf so you can see at-a-glance what leftovers remain. I’ve found this unbelievably helpful as my refrigerator has been quite disorganized in the past. Select 6-8 matching glass storage containers to fill with leftover food—the trick here is to keep things uniform. Wipe down your designated shelf (I like to use a mix of ½ vinegar, ½ water for this), and dry well with a clean towel. Tip: Get enough containers to fill an entire shelf (and keep them there so that they are clean and at-the-ready, even when empty). This will prevent anyone in your home from wedging pickle jars or carrot bags on your designated leftover shelf.   2. The Condiments Door Next, empty the top shelf in your door of all bottles and jars. Wipe down the surface well and dry it off. Corral all your condiments onto that single shelf in the refrigerator door. The door shelves on my Thermador Refrigeration Column are exceptional because I can fit two rows of condiment bottles and still see everything all at once. I like to turn all the bottles so their labels face out for a clean, organized look. Tip: As you move your condiments back into the refrigerator, check their expiration dates, and throw away any dated food.   3. Vegetable Vases Thermador sets you up for success with in-door produce bins and brilliant lighting. The fresh produce bins are climate controlled—perfect for housing a fresh farmer’s market haul. The Blisshaus experts recommend sorting vegetables by color: one bin for greens and yellows, and one bin for reds. Sorting vegetables by color provides another layer of organization and is so visually appealing. Every time I open my refrigerator door, I feel a sense of calm just looking at the beautifully arranged produce. Tip: Place your long, stalky vegetables such as celery, asparagus, or leeks in vegetable vases—use Blisshaus jars or simply clean glass pasta sauce containers. Fill the jars with 1-2 inches of water as you would a flower bunch and place your tall vegetables upright like a miniature bouquet. Try this with fresh herbs, too!   4. Snack Station & Smoothies Set up a section for fruit, vegetables, and snacks in glass jars. Blisshaus recommends sorting your snacks this way: -Sliced carrots and celery sticks (keep submerged in water for an extra snap!)-Pre-sliced vegetables such as sweet peas, jicama sticks, etc.-Fruit such as apples or grapes snipped into tiny clusters-Cut cheese into cubes or snackable slices-Keep nuts chilled in the refrigerator for a refreshing afternoon snack Tip: Set up ready-to-go smoothie jars with chia or flax seeds (seeds keep much better in the refrigerator rather than the pantry) in your Half-Gallon Bin so a healthy, delicious snack is always at-the-ready.   5. The Dairy Section BlissHaus experts recommend choosing a dedicated section for your cheeses. Most stores will wrap cheese in individual plastic wrap when you buy a block (we love to use beeswax as a substitute for plastic wrap). Once at home, place your cheese on parchment paper or in a glass food container for an organized, fresh look. Blisshaus also recommends storing milk in glass bottles for a cohesive, beautiful design—there are many local dairy options that ship milk bottles in this way. Tip: Save a little space in your refrigerator by purchasing non-chilled farm fresh eggs locally. Store them in a ceramic bowl or wooden basket (if you buy them non-chilled out of the nest, there is no need to refrigerate eggs).   6. The Party Shelf While entertaining, I love using a Blisshaus trick to create a stunning shelf with chilled beer or wine. I like to line up craft beers or bottled drinks in a row like a grocery store would, with labels facing out. Create two or three full rows of bottled beverages for the full effect. Tip: An Under Counter Refrigeration Unit will free up additional space in your refrigeration column, and will store your bottles at the perfect temperature.   7. The Protein Shelf One of my favorite tips from the Blisshaus team was to transform the bottom shelf in my refrigerator into strictly a shelf to store meats. This makes preparing a meal much easier as I always know where my meats are placed and keeping meats on this shelf safeguards all your other foods from drips and spills—plus, the bottom shelf is the coldest, so your raw meats stay fresh the longest there. Tip: Pay close attention to the temperature that specific meats should be stored at and adjust your refrigerator’s temperature accordingly for best results. For more incredible tips and tricks, visit Blisshaus on Instagram here: https://www.instagram.com/blisshaus/ We want to see your beautiful, organized refrigeration columns! Share your “before and after” photos with us in the comments or on our social channels: www.facebook.com/thermador, @ThermadorHome and @Thermador.   — Published by Thermador | Author Natalia Elko | August 6, 2020 | Photos by Wiebke Liu, Blisshaus

“The kitchen is the heart of the home,” explains Wiebke Liu, “It’s where we nurture our bodies with food and our minds with family time.” Through her company Blisshaus, Wiebke provides eco-friendly pantry solutions and services to families across the country and helps make this central space as sustainable as it is comforting.  Inspired by the jars of fresh food that had neatly lined her grandmother’s cabinets during her childhood, Wiebke decided to entirely rid her kitchen of plastic when she renovated her home in 2016. Soon after, she realized the positive impact this change had on the health and well-being of her family, and she left her position as a senior executive at a Fortune 500 company to create Blisshaus and empower others to do the same.  “Cluttered cabinets prevent families from finding inspiration to cook healthy and delicious foods together,” Wiebke points out. As a result, many turn to processed foods and miss out on the bonding time awarded by cooking together and the nutrients that fresh ingredients provide. “Plus, just walking into a messy space causes mental stress,” Wiebke confesses. The simplicity of Blisshaus transforms cooking from a stressful chore to an activity that connects families. “As a result of Blisshaus, families prepare meals together more often, nurturing their bodies with home-cooked dishes, strengthening emotional bonds by spending time with each other, and enjoying mental peace in the neat, clean space,” Wiebke says, “It’s amazing how Blisshaus leads to not only more beauty in the home but also more joy.”  When families choose Blisshaus for their home makeovers, they’re also making a shift that benefits the planet tremendously. “Our Blisshaus kitchens allow families to break their plastic addiction,” Wiebke shares, “We’re choking our planet to death with our plastic waste, and, in the end, top-down regulations can’t be relied on to heal our planet. We need to ignite the fire in each and every one of us to live lighter and more beautifully on this earth. Blisshaus makes this way of life fun and simple.” The environmental issues we face today are daunting, but reducing our reliance on plastic is one small way we can all make a big difference. Wiebke challenges readers to try to ditch plastic for a month. “You’ll see how eye-opening it is. This one rule can lead you to a whole new way to thrive!”   — Published on July 10, 2020 Article By  Taylor Mercuri | July 10, 2020 | Photos by Wiebke Liu, Blisshaus

RedFin heard about Blisshaus purging plastic from every corner of the home. They asked us for our bathroom tips. We love reading the scoop and tricks of the trade by all these wonderful home organizers!  It takes a (giant) village to clean up homes and the planet - one kitchen, one bathroom, one home at a time. xoxo Wiebke & Crew

Blisshaus pantry jars were an essential part of the 2017 HouseBeautiful Kitchen of the Year, designed by Jon de la Cruz for the 40th Annual San Francisco Decorators' Showcase. For the Kitchen of the Year, de la Cruz focused on beautiful functionality by combining his expertise in cooking with his deep knowledge of design history. The space features multiple stations for cooking, baking, breakfast and family dining — as well as innovative storage and display ideas. Drawing his inspiration from the most essential ingredients in any dish — salt and pepper — de la Cruz chose a black, white and gray palette using vividly modern applications to redefine the timeless kitchen into a beautiful, but highly usable, space. Everything Within Reach "Every square inch of the kitchen's T-shaped footprint had to be considered and utilized," says de la Cruz. Shelving by Grothouse serves as a transparent pantry while the glass Blisshaus jars allow families to see what they have, use it and buy less, reducing waste while resulting in savings, according to the company. Open-Shelf Pantry Grothouse's extra-tall black-walnut shelving "emphasizes the 12-foot ceilings," de la Cruz says. Blisshaus pantry jars and custom labels complete the shevles. Vernon picture lights by Hudson Valley Lighting.     Including an Appliance Lift The hydraulic mixer lift takes the muscle-straining work out of raising heavy tools from their drawers to the counter. With a push, it descends back into its storage spot when it's no longer needed. The Blisshaus baking pantry makes retrieving your cookie ingredients as easy as lifting out the mixer.    A Functional Pot Rack-Turned-Art Piece When a space has tall ceilings, you need a little drama up high, too. Partnering with an artisan, de la Cruz designed the custom rack for maximum convenience — each pot is hung with its lid, so no need to dig through cabinets for its mates. Polished nickel globe bulbs by Troy Lighting intermingle for additional lighting, a must over an active prep space. Our Blisshaus funnels also find their perfect home on the gorgeous pot rack.   So Much Smart Refrigeration The Thermador 36" Refrigerator and Freezer Columns each feature totally intuitive TFT control panels and temperature-controlled ThermaFresh drawers which independently control the temperature to keep food fresher, longer. Even better: the Open Door Assist system, which allows cooks to press or pull on the door for it to pop open, paired with soft close produce bins for a little touch of luxury. Blisshaus jars and fridge containers make it easy to store your fresh produce, meats, cheeses and leftovers for a perfectly appointed fridge and freezer.   House Beautiful's 10th annual Kitchen of the Year takes place at the San Francisco Decorator Showcase in the Pacific Heights neighborhood of San Francisco, California. Designed by Jon de la Cruz of DLC-ID, this year's kitchen is a 625-square-feet space with amazing architectural details (12-foot ceilings!), amazing open pantry shelves, a beautiful mix of new and old materials and so many windows. 5 Minute Video Tour of the kitchen with Jon de la Cruz: "Partnering with the best-of-the-best was really a privilege" ... the honor is all ours, Jon!      Video: Editor in Chief Sophie Donelson walks through the space with designer Jon de la Cruz  Sophie and Jon dive into the Blisshaus breakfast pantry station HouseBeautiful's very own Editor in Chief, Sophie Donelson, introduces Blisshaus   check out the Smores Pantry, too   This story originally appeared in the October 2017 issue of House Beautiful. Photos by Jonny Valiant

Wiebke Liu of Blisshaus is “on a mission to clean up the world, one kitchen at a time,” she says. Over the past two years, she has transformed kitchens in locations as far-flung as New York and Illinois. In California, she overhauled the Goop test kitchen for Gwyneth Paltrow and worked on projects in Santa Monica, Manhattan Beach, and Griffith Park, as well as on the Berkeley kitchen of organizing guru Shira Gill. It all started two years ago, when, after remodeling her kitchen in her Crocker Highlands house in Oakland, California, she found herself obsessed with re-creating her German grandmother’s pantry. “I couldn’t bring myself to put the same old junk in the cabinets of my new kitchen,” she says. “So I decided to re-create my grandmother’s pantry. She was like a Downton Abbey character, an impoverished German aristocrat. Her kitchen was all jars; she canned her own cherries, baked Christmas cookies sheet after sheet in order to keep the house warm. Her thriftiness came out of necessity. “The experience unleashed the German tree hugger in me,” she continues. “I used only containers made from glass and natural materials in my pantry and decanted everything. My friends and family started asking me for help on their own projects, and I realized I could do this as a business.” Blisshaus is focused on “making sustainability simple and stylish,” she says. “I aim to live a near zero-waste, near plastic-free life. But any little change in habits helps. Even if we can reduce plastic consumption by 50 percent, it’s a win. Living your life through that one design lens, trying to skip the plastic, shifts the way you cook, eat, and entertain.” Join us for a look at Wiebke’s own kitchen: Photography by Maria Del Rio, courtesy of Blisshaus. Above: One of Blisshaus' pristine, streamlined kitchen in the Oakland. Blisshaus offers three on-site pantry organizing packages, starting with a more basic package and going up to a full-on pantry assault: “Our home organization gurus will come to your home and give your kitchen a Blisshaus makeover,” Wiebke says, “We clear the required shelf space, give the cabinet interiors a good scrub, and set up and fill the jars for you. (We can also help declutter and organize your shelves and drawers).” See a gallery of reorganized spaces here.   Above: Blisshaus zen; the Nerd stools are by Muuto. Above: Wiebke also offers pantry kits for homeowners up to tackling their cabinets on their own, starting with a 50-piece DIY Core Pantry Kit, which includes pantry jars and labels, recipe cards, shopping lists, and set-up instructions. Above: A Set of Two Jars ranges from $12 to $30. “Our glass jars are the key to the streamlined Blisshaus look and feel,” Wiebke says. “They seal airtight and will keep your food fresh.” The jars come in five sizes, from mini to jumbo.  Above: Blisshaus offers five different Spice Kits, ranging from the Core Spices kit (oregano, thyme, cumin, and so on); $55 to the Near & Far Eastern Spice kit. The containers are sized to accommodate the contents of a supermarket spice jar. Above: “We tested a range of jars from Ikea (too flimsy) to jars made in India and China, before settling on jars from Italy. We have my own proprietary jars in development,” Wiebke says.   Above: A Set of Two Jars ranges from $12 to $30. “Our glass jars are the key to the streamlined Blisshaus look and feel,” Wiebke says. “They seal airtight and will keep your food fresh.” The jars come in five sizes, from mini to jumbo. Above: Blisshaus offers five different Spice Kits, ranging from the Core Spices kit (oregano, thyme, cumin, and so on); $55 to the Near & Far Eastern Spice kit. The containers are sized to accommodate the contents of a supermarket spice jar. Above: To encourage good cooking habits, Wiebke offers seasonal postcard-sized Pantry-Ready Recipe Cards ($25 for a set of 12) and an old-fashioned Recipe Card Holder ($10). Above: The Market Kit is “designed to let you stock your pantry without using a single shred of plastic.” It includes two jute tote bags, three mesh produce bags, three flour sacks, and two glass containers for $85.   Above: “Our goal is to entice you to join our new, old way of living,” Wiebke says. “A way of living that cherishes the present and safeguards the future.” Article By Julie Carlson Remodelista | June 20, 2017 | Photos by Maria Del Rio, Courtesy of Blisshaus

     Article and Photos by goop.com   We’ve long been on a mission to cut out plastic packaging in the kitchen, which is a surprisingly tough mandate. For one, it’s generally a good idea to avoid BPA in anything that touches your food, besides the fact that single-use packaging is a disaster environmentally, as many food containers are difficult, if not impossible, to recycle, leaving them in our landfills where they’ll long outlast our own lifetimes. For all of these reasons, we were thrilled to learn about Blisshaus, an Oakland-based company on a mission to eliminate plastic from every kitchen, via a stunning organizational system that’s not only zero-waste, but convenient, gorgeous, and primed to help reticent cooks find effortless flow by zero-ing in on all the essentials. And did we mention that you can save some serious coin by shopping bulk? So we could experience the full Blisshaus treatment, founder Wiebke Liu (Wiebke grew up in Germany, which helps explain her passion for sleek, streamlined design) trekked down to LA, kit in tow, to fully overhaul the goop kitchen. She started by clearing out all our cabinets and pouring the contents of our myriad plastic containers into her clean glass jars via funnels, labeling each one with its contents and cooking instructions. It’s orderly, but also supremely practical, as you can always see how much you have left. For future grocery store trips, Wiebke left us with marked linen bags, which indicate the volume of the jar and allow you to shop from the bulk section, eliminating plastic from the equation altogether. What’s better? You can buy the entire kit, tools included, in the goop shop—labels even include the greatest hits from the goop recipe trove. Below, Wiebke’s step-by-step guide for building your own Blisshaus-approved kitchen. A peek inside the goop pantry. Pictured on the left: Mud ceramics for everyday mixing and lunches, plus glass jars in every shape and size. Center and right: Dim sum materials, the full Sun Potion suite, and Blisshaus-approved storage of every alternative flourwe’ve yet encountered, plus goop essentials like quinoa, almonds, and brown rice pasta. A Q&A with Wiebke Liu Q Can you explain the logistics of shopping in the bulk section? What do you use for dry ingredients and what do you use for things like honey and olives? If you bring glass jars, do you need to know how much they weigh so you’re not charged? A You can use brown paper bags for your bulk items—and you can write the bulk bin code right onto your bag. That said, if you have Blisshaus grain sacks, just zip on over to the bulk bin aisle and fill them with your favorite ingredients. The Blisshaus fill lines show you exactly how much will fit into your jars at home. The grain sacks are perfect for anything from granola, to nuts, to flours, and even sugars. The sacks can easily be washed in the washing machine—no ironing needed. (That said, we don’t typically wash the sack in between runs to the store.) Most stores ask you to note down the item number of the bulk bin so the checkout clerk can type in the item at the register. Usually, stores offer twisty ties to write the number on, but we prefer to simply snap a photo of the bin label. When you are at the checkout, you can just swipe through your photos. For special items like honey and olives, bring one or two empty medium jars to fill—just stop at the customer service counter before you fill them to get the jar weight confirmed so that the checkout clerk can deduct the weight of the jar from your total. Blisshaus jars display the empty weight (officially called the tare weight) on the bottom of the jar.   Q Do many of any of your customers track their cost-savings and plastic reduction? How much are they saving of each? A We see amazing cost savings by switching to bulk-bin-plastic-free buying. For example, if you buy Irish steel-cut oats in McCann’s (granted, cute) tin, it’ll cost you between $7.50 and $9.50. The same amount of steel-cut oats in bulk will run you between $2.50 and $3.00. Most of our customers see cost savings of 30 to 50 percent. On the plastic savings, it’s even better. By buying from the bulk bins, you can cut out between 90 to 100 percent of your plastic bags. The savings that are trickier to track are what you save by not over-spending. Our customers tell us again and again how they shop significantly less after they set up their Blisshaus kitchen. Suddenly, it’s so much easier for them to remember what they have at home and to eat those foods first rather than shopping anew. As a result, they finish the foods rather than letting them go stale. Our jars keep food fresher for much, much longer than plastic bags. For example, we no longer toss tortilla chips or cereals since the jars keep them from going stale for weeks and weeks. Q For anyone who can’t commit to the full Blisshaus treatment right now, what small changes do you recommend to improve organization and reduce waste? A Follow our most basic rule: Skip anything wrapped in plastic! It might sound daunting at first, but it’s actually quite feasible, with or without Blisshaus jars. The next time you go to the store, pause and see what plastic items you can swap out before checkout. There might be the five pounds of potatoes in a plastic bag—they can easily be replaced with individual potatoes, and your checker at the register will kindly corral them onto the scale with or without a bag. Once you are home, just put them in a wire basket or big bowl inside your cabinet. If you need to buy mayonnaise, pick a brand that sells it in a glass jar. Go for fresh-baked bread in a paper bag from the local bakery instead of the pre-sliced, guaranteed-to-stay-“fresh”-for-the-next-month bread. Bring storage containers to the deli and butcher counters, and ask them to place your meats and cheeses directly into those. Don’t feel pressure to be perfect: Even my family isn’t 100 percent plastic-tfree. The big exception to plastic-free shipping habits in my house is potato chip bags—we tried to oven-roast chips, but they are just not the same. Q For those who have committed, what are your tips and tricks for keeping on track? A At the risk of sounding repetitive, there is really just one tip: Skip anything wrapped in plastic. Sometimes this means visiting a few grocery stores. Here in Oakland, for example, there are two different corner stores who carry the most mission-critical items for our family: milk in glass bottles and eggs from pasture-raised chickens. At first it felt like a chore, but by now, my entire family knows and loves the shopping ritual. We always get chocolate at the milk place, and fresh, local fruits and wines at the egg place. And once you push beyond the convenience, you will feel a warming sense of pride inside for sticking to your guns, eliminating waste, and choosing ingredients that are ethically sourced. If we aren’t capable of changing our individual behaviors, how can we expect anything to ever change for the better? Q What recommendations do you have for applying the Blisshaus method outside the kitchen, for organizing and reducing waste in other parts of the home?   A By now you can likely guess my answer to this one. Outside the kitchen, we have the same mantra as we do everywhere else: Skip the plastic. It’s not always easy, but it is simple. So when you want to bliss your living room, skip the throw pillows filled with cheap polyester and opt for down-filled or wool-filled pillows instead. The same goes for the pillow covers. In your bathroom, swap the shower gel squeeze bottle for a good, old-fashioned bar of soap. Toothpaste can be purchased in glass jars, and if you shave, get an old-fashioned and gorgeous looking razor with steel blades. Wiebke’s Steps to a Plastic-Free Pantry The Zero Waste Pantry We invited the brilliant minds behind BlissHaus to detox the goop pantry, and turn it into a zero waste zone. SHOP THE ESSENTIAL PANTRY SET go to goop.com to purchase the Blisshaus' Goop Pantry Kit:  Article on goop.com here

All Photos: Vivian Johnson, Special To The ChronicleWiebke Liu and her daughters Mia and Josie prepare lunch with Liu’s mixes that she creates from scratch. The sycamore-lined street of Wiebke Liu’s Oakland home was designed by landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted and feels straight out of a fairy tale. “He designed it with people rather than cars in mind,” she says. That means electrical and phone cables are out of sight, and in view are cottages full of character, wide sidewalks and lush foliage, including an oak garden at the rear of the neighborhood homes where kids and deer explore yard by yard, fence-free. Nature makes its way into the Liu home, too, with tons of sunlight and nature-inspired art: antique copperplate botanical engravings from Wiebke’s grandfather, who was an art dealer; abstract paintings by her grandmother; ceramics that echo the shapes of branches and shells; even a vintage birdcage that is home to a family of zebra finches. “I love 18th century French mixed with midcentury modern. It reminds me of the homes of our friends in France, where we spent our summers.” Wiebke (pronounced VEEP-kah) grew up in Düsseldorf, Germany, and met her husband, Fred, in calculus class as an exchange student in Missouri. “Our life really feels like an ’80s high school movie with the happiest of endings,” she says. Twenty years and two daughters (ages 9 and 11) later, the couple have called this Oakland neighborhood, which sits above Lakeshore Avenue, home for the last decade. Renovations since then have included building a small guest house on the property in the same 1920s style and expanding their narrow galley kitchen with 2 extra feet of marble countertop space, where guests can linger as they wait for dinner to be served in the dining room or al fresco. One family tradition that Wiebke brought back from Germany is always leaving an extra place setting at the table so drop-in guests can feel welcome. Revamping the kitchen also sparked an idea two years ago that would alter Wiebke’s life and career. “I was hesitating moving our same old clutter back into our gorgeous new cabinets and remembered how nice my grandmother’s cabinets had looked with her canning jars all neatly in a row.” Her “omi” not only had an organized kitchen but cooked everything from scratch, too: “Her amazing soups from dried peas, beans and mashed potatoes never came out of the box.” Wiebke Liu, creator of Blisshaus, helps families organize their kitchen by using jars.  This aha moment set Wiebke on the path to rid her kitchen of plastic, stocking up on jars to store bulk foods like pasta, rice and beans (“the airtight jars keep everything fresh longer”) and rid her freezer of frozen foods like pizzas and quiches. (“Turns out cooking a quiche from scratch takes the same amount of time as heating up a frozen one!”) Fred and their daughters, Josie and Mia, had to follow one simple rule: Don’t buy anything wrapped in plastic. “It’s amazing how that rule shifts your behavior,” Wiebke says. Now she helps other families organize their kitchens and pantries with her company, Blisshaus.com, and shows them how to cook from scratch in 20 minutes or less (with simple recipes printed on elegant jars). “Marketers have brainwashed us into thinking that making dinner is complicated and takes forever. We’re the grandchildren of Betty Draper, who prides herself on TV dinners.” Fred and the girls were game for the experiment, making it a family affair. “My daughters are my chief product and recipe testers,” says Wiebke. “Josie’s specialty is the split pea soup. Mia makes fabulous salads and pancakes, using the pancake mix out of our jars.” The kitchen of Wiebke Liu’s Oakland home. Of course, it’s not all easy being green. Wiebke has yet to dream up a life hack for dental floss or her favorite electronic toothbrush head, and Fred’s penchant for potato chips keeps them from kicking the potato chip bag. “Making my own potato chips is just way too laborious,” she adds. For the sake of practicality, everyone also gets one plastic pass a week. “The passes are becoming quite the currency in our house now: Want someone to do you a favor? Offer a plastic pass!” The best part, she says, is seeing their trash bin virtually empty at the end of the week. “Not producing all that garbage is such a thrill. The recycling bin is empty, too — with the exception of my wine bottles!” Follow your bliss Josie Liu, 9, pours bulk beans from a Blisshaus bag into a Blisshaus jar.   Wiebke Liu’s four tips for living a Blisshaus life: Keep it uniform. “The more uniform your jars, the better. Storing food in jars is a great step to keeping food fresher longer, but when your jars are a mix of different sizes and shapes, it’s difficult to keep them orderly and to have your inventory in your mind’s eye.” Sometimes more is more. “Invest in enough jars to stock up on shelf-stable foods like pasta, rice, grains, cereals and flours for months at a time. These foods will keep for a long time, so save the shopping time by loading up once every few months. This way you need only one run to the market per week for your fresh produce and meats.” Most of the time, less is more. “Use your space as your key design constraint. When your cabinets and drawers are loaded with jars, don’t get tempted to jam in a few more things. Rather, use the space limits to force yourself to prioritize. Don’t have room for six types of rice or five types of beans? Set up two jars each for rice and beans or quinoa and then rotate through different types as you finish a jar. This way you will actually be excited as you cook up the last batch and anticipate trying a new kind next time.” Keep it real. “Most importantly, make sure your pantry is a source of joy and not stress. It is way better for you, your family and the environment to do the Blisshaus thing 80 percent of the time and cut your waste by that much rather than burning out trying to be perfect. Don’t beat yourself up for making an exception to your no-more-plastic-packaging rule every once in a while.” Photo: Vivian Johnson, Special To The Chronicle   — T.G. Theresa Gonzalez is a freelance writer. Email: home@sfchronicle.com Photos: Vivian Johnson, Special To The Chronicle Article By Theresa Gonzalez for the San Francisco Chronicle | February 10, 2017 | Updated: February 10, 2017 10:57am All photos by Vivian Johnson, Special To The Chronicle

By Angela Tafoya What’s creeping in the back of your cabinets? Old boxes of mac-and-cheese or expired cans of beans or how about dishes that haven't seen the light of day in years?Well, if we’re being transparent here, that’s what we (shamefully) had in ours. But, in the vein of "new year, new beginnings" mantra, we’re cleaning up our kitchens from the inside out.Thanks to pro Wiebke Liu of Blisshaus, a service that turns crowded, cluttered kitchens into streamlined havens of sustainability, we've got a handful of tips that will leave your kitchen feeling lighter and more approachable than ever.Whether it's tossing products that have reached their shelf life or arranging items by ceramic and glass, prepare to walk away with a very Pinterest-worthy kitchen. Designate Glass And Ceramic-Only Shelves "Streamline the insides of your cabinets by sorting your plates, cups, and glasses first by material and then by color. This means you designate one cabinet just for your glass items.""This cabinet should house your glasses, glass plates, glass server ware, and even glass vases. Another cabinet or drawer should be appointed only with your ceramic dishes and mugs. If you have different colored plates and mugs, sort them by color. Not only will your cabinets look more organized and visually pleasing, but unloading the dishwasher becomes much easier since alike will live with alike." (Source: Photo: Via @pinterest/mydomaine.) Sort Cookbooks By Color, Then By Height "Add visual calm to your shelves by sorting your cookbooks first by color, then within each color group by height.""The result is a rainbow of books that makes it easy to find the perfect spot for any book when you need to put it back. An added bonus is that you’ll have a much easier time finding the book you are looking for since you’ll have the color in your mind’s eye when you search for it." (Source: Photo: Via @Pinterest/Southern Living.) Sort Utensils By Color "Chances are, you have a medley crew of utensils in a drawer and an on-the-counter bucket. For super-quick results, sort utensils by material and color.""So keep all wooden spoons together and group metal spatulas with metal tongs etc. Again, the more you can edit down to only two or three materials and colors, the more elegant your counter space and drawers will look. If you fell for those lime-green tipped tongs, consider upgrading to ones that match your other utensils and donating the old set to a local charity. It’s probably one of the cheaper face-lifts you can buy for your kitchen." (Source: Photo: Via Pinterest/Brit+Co.) File Your Towels And Napkins Kondo-Style "You’ve heard about Marie Kondo and might or might not be ready to unleash her organizing discipline in your home. Even if you’re not up for origaming your t-shirts, do try folding your dish towels so that they fit into a drawer or wire basket standing up, like files in a filing cabinet.""Place them in with the folded edge to the top. Use the rainbow rule again and sort them by color." (Source: Photo: Via Shop Mille.) Declutter Pots And Pans "Unless you have a huge professional range in your kitchen, you will never be able to cook with more than 4 pots or pans at a time. So take a serious look at your collection of pots and pans and edit out any that you don’t absolutely love or use.""Ditch the pans with peeling non-stick coating or those pots you’ve never cooked in but held onto because they are ‘part of a set.’ Keep your cast iron pan and a heavy dutch-oven to pan roast steak and braise slow-cooking dishes. Add one to two stainless steel sauté pans for omelets and stir-fry. Pick two to three pots including one super large pot for boiling stocks, potatoes, pasta, soups, and sauces. And voila, you have five to seven cooking vessels you’ll use all the time. If you have extra room on your shelves, add a small sauce pot for heating milk and boiling eggs. And if you love grilling, a cast iron grill pan or combo griddle/grill pan will be more than you’ll ever need. oh, and when in doubt, always pick pots and pans with metal handles - those can go straight from the stove into the oven like you’ve seen on TV." (Source: Photo: Via Le Creuset.) Store Pots In Your Pantry "This sounds counter-intuitive, but if you have one of those tall, cabinet-depth pantries, consider it for your pots & pans instead of your food items. The pots and pans have long handles that fit perfectly on the super deep pantry shelves. If you invest in extra shelves, you can probably even avoid having to next pots and pans in each other. This makes pulling out a pot or a pan a cinch — which is such a delight especially in the heat of your cooking battle." (Source: Photo: Via Pinterest/Martha Stewart.) Put Food In Pull-Out Drawers "So now that you emptied out the tall pantry cabinet in order to store your pots, where do all your food items go? Try those deep drawers under your cabinets. When you pull them open, it’ll be easier to see all the contents and nothing can get tucked away into the back of a shelf.""If you invest in matching jars, get ready for serious kitchen envy by your friends. Not only does your food look stunning in jars, but it’ll also stay fresher longer. We love the stunning jars here but you can also simply save up jars from your pasta sauces to create your own zero-cost pantry. (Source: Photo: Courtesy of BlissHaus.) Capture Cooking Inspo "Isn’t it funny how you get hit by inspiration on what to cook at the store? Then, when you come home, you unload the groceries and at the next mealtime, the menu amnesia has hit you.""You know you bought food but it seems like there is nothing to cook. To avoid the cooking doldrums, hang a whiteboard (Ikea has modern ones made from glass) on a kitchen wall or paint a cabinet door with chalkboard paint and jot down your dishes as you unload the groceries. And voila! a full menu of cooking inspiration for anyone in your home who can read!" (Source: Photo: via Bright Star Kid/Pinterest.) Invest In Healthy (Glass-Only) Storage "We’ve heard all the talk about bad plastics and see labels touting BPA-free on everything from cans of beans to baby bottles. Treat yourself to peace-of-mind PLUS pretty shelves by pitching all plastic containers and buying eight to 12 glass containers with lids.""It might not sound like enough, but seriously, if you need more than 12 containers to store food, your fridge will be bursting and the food is sure to be forgotten and will spoil. By limiting yourself to fewer containers, you create a physical reminder that you are running low on storage containers and way high on leftovers. Plus now you can store the containers with their lids on which makes for no-more missing lids. Hurrah!" (Source: Photo: Courtesy of BlissHaus.) Move Spices Into Drawer "This last tip is a huge game-changer, but many folks get worried about freeing up that junk-drawer, so we saved this one for last. Are you ready? Yes? Then get out a shoebox, dump in all the junk drawer contents for you to sort later and then — move all your spices into the drawer.""Spices add pizzazz to your dishes, but if you are like most of us, chances are your spices are a medley of jars and tins stacked five rows deep on a shelf near your stove. This makes finding the spice you need in the heat of your cooking less than glamourous. Solve this problem by declaring a drawer to be the space for all your spices. It’s worth it, not only do these precious herbs cost more ounce-by-ounce than anything else in your kitchen, but you will also be able to pull the drawer open and glance at it and easily find what you are looking for. Tip: lay jars flat so you can see their contents or get our favorite, pre-labeled tins from Blisshaus." (Source: Photo: Courtesy of BlissHaus.)

photographed by  MARIA DEL RIO for Blisshaus Ah, the kitchen. For so many of us, it truly is the heart of our homes. However, we bet just a few tweaks to your space could make it 10 times better. How so? We asked mother-of-two Wiebke Liu, the mastermind behind the sustainable home organization company Blisshaus to fill us in. “Chances are, when you moved into your kitchen you didn’t even have the time to think about how to best organize it,” says Liu, whose ultimate goal is pretty, purposeful, near plastic-free households. “There were just too many boxes to unload, too many rooms to sort out. So, in went the plates and cups and pots and food things. Since then, you simply got used to where stuff is and haven’t given a second thought to whether the pots should stay in the pull-out drawers by the stove or maybe could find a better home somewhere else.” If this sounds familiar (we know we’re nodding our heads), read Liu’s 5 simple tips to organizing your kitchen like a total pro. 1. Use your dishwasher as a workflow anchor. “One of the most frequent activities in the kitchen is loading and unloading the dishwasher. So, for optimal workflow, use the dishwasher as your anchor. Imagine you are about to unload your dishwasher. Then designate cabinets and drawers to hold your dishes and silverware based on where you are standing. Where are your glasses and plates and silverware going? The best spot for glasses is a cabinet right above the dishwasher. Place plates in drawers or cabinets under the counter right next to the dishwasher. If you don’t have space right there, locate glasses and mugs and plates so you pivot at most 90 degrees to reach their homes. Ideally, you don’t have to take a single step to put everything away. The only exception are knives, pots, and other frequently used cooking utensils that must be stored right next to the stove.” 2. Store plates and bowls in under-counter cabinets. “It is very typical for folks to stack plates in an overhead cabinet. We don’t know when that all too common practice started, but we highly recommend storing your plates down low, under the counter. A deep drawer next to the dishwasher is ideal, but a cabinet will do, too. This way, you won’t have to lift heavy stacks of plates by reaching up. And best of all, now your kids can reach the plates safely and will be able to set your table before they can spell their own name! We are big proponents of letting kids carry even porcelain plates to the table. Afterall, you let them hold your smartphone or tablet, why not trust them with a plate?” 3. Designate a drawer for spices. “Spices in cabinets have the persistent tendency to get cluttered and messy. No matter what fancy stacking trays or lazy susans you invest in. Where should they live? In a drawer! We’re willing to bet there is a drawer that can be decluttered and become your spice nirvana. Just lay spice jars from the grocery store flat. Or, if you’re like us—a perfectionist and style addict—try these gorgeous spice tins from Blisshaus. They hold a jar’s worth, make it easy to get a pinch or tablespoon or more out, and are easily refilled.” 4. Lay water bottles and travel mugs flat. “Is your collection of water bottles and reusable travel mugs constantly tipping over on your shelf? Solve this problem by laying them flat in a drawer. If you have too many, select the best matching ones for style points and donate the rest to Goodwill or your kids’ sports coach (there’s always a kid who forgot their bottle at home and now the coach can come to the rescue). We find that we don’t need more than 2 bottles/mugs per family member. This is truly a case of less-is-more. If you don’t have a drawer to spare, lay the bottles flat in a basket on a low shelf that your kids can reach.” 5. Create a ‘Pack-Your-Snack’ station. “Packing school or work snacks can be a real chore. First you dig out your container. Then you walk over to the pantry for your crackers, etc. Then you look in yet another place for your water bottle. Before you know it, you’ve crossed the kitchen several times and the schoolbus is about to leave. Make packing the snacks a cinch by creating a snack station where all the tools you need are right there in one place. First, find a spot where you can designate 3 drawers/shelves for your water bottles, snack tins, and snack jars. If your kids are gradeschool age, be sure to designate lower drawers or shelves so they can easily reach them. The first drawer holds all your water bottles. The next one holds all your lunch tins and sandwich bags. And the last drawer or shelf is for your jars of snack foods. Kids love creating their own trail mixes. So, stock your jars with nuts, raisins, dried cranberries, pretzels, cheesy crackers, and, of course, a jar of chocolate chips (hey, it’s called Blisshaus for a reason!). All of these are pretty easy to find in the bulk bin section. For super busy days, stock a jar with granola bars, cookies, and maybe some jerky. (Check out Blisshaus’ homemade Granola bars and Fruit Rollups recipes that take only 10 minutes prep time.) With your ‘Pack-your-Snack’ station in place, you now can ask your kids to get their school snack ready themselves. They’ll have fun mixing their own signature snacks and you can finish that morning cup of coffee.” WRITTEN BY KATIE HINTZ-ZAMBRANO & WIEBKE LIU  |  PUBLISHED 01-09-2017 9:00 AM