I sit and watch the clouds pass by as I soak up the warm rays from the sun.
I hear the birds chirping as I breathe in the fresh air and enjoy my tasty chocolate ice cream cone.
It’s a beautiful time to be alive and be able to experience all these sensations.
These sounds, sights, tastes, smells, and touch from the world are information for our brain. Our body is able to receive these experiences through our sensory nerve cells which then are sent to our brain. Once received by our brain, it is processed. Our brain is able to recognize, “This tastes good, I want to eat more”. After realizing that we are able to produce a response to perform an action of taking another bite by sending signals down to our muscles through motor neurons.
In other words, our outside world is processed internally and then allows us to respond back to our environment.
But what happens if the sensory information is too much or maybe not enough and so our brain can’t process it?
What happens if our sensory systems are “off”?
Sensory Dysregulation
Whether it allows us to see, hear, smell, taste, or touch, we are able to interact with the world using these systems. But what happens when you notice it’s hard to process some of this information and in turn, impacts your ability to experience the world?
Sensory dysregulation is when an excess, or absence of, sensory input causes an imbalance in your brain. You may hear something that is too loud which may cause a startle response. Maybe you’ll see bright colors that completely disorient you and make it hard to focus. Perhaps you’ll notice the need to always touch that soft throw blanket at your local store.
The inability to process the extra noise or require the extra stimuli to feel at ease can make it hard to then to organize, focus, and complete tasks. In other words, impact your executive functioning skills!
Not sure if you become dysregulated by certain sensory information? Well, check out the story below and see if you can relate!
It’s a Saturday morning and everyone’s home. The living room is filled with the sounds and sights of your partner watching their favorite show, your kids are playing video games, and your dog munching on his bone.
You overlook the commotion as it’s just another beautiful Saturday morning and you’re happy to have your family home. Excited to try a new recipe you recently found on the cooking channel, you walk into a kitchen and the sensory overwhelm begins.
Dishes from last night’s dinner are filled to the rim, empty food boxes clutter your counters, and spices are knocked all over. You walk towards the refrigerator in hopes to just grab a light snack and get to cleaning and cooking later to find food spills from leftover containers and fruits and vegetable cabinets are a mess.
Talk about a sensory overload! If you’re like me and feel this would cause an overwhelm for you, check out the following tips below on how to create a sensory friendly kitchen so you can best make your favorite meals!
Organize Your Items
I always love shopping at the market for new ingredients, especially when I find a new recipe to try this week. I pick out my items, purchase them, and take them home.
I used to just put groceries where they fit and didn’t really have much of a system. This worked in the moment by speeding up the process, however, when it came time to cook, that’s when the chaos kicked in.
Having to search for my ingredients every time I cooked because I put it in a different spot last time added more time to my cooking routine. Rather than being able to prepare my meal in just 10 minutes, I would spend up to 20 minutes because of how long I spent looking for my ingredients.
Need ideas for grocery shopping and meal planning?
Check out our FREE .pdf downloadable meal plan, complete with shopping list and brainstorming tools for organizing your meals.
Now, what I do instead is follow a unpacking groceries system. I have designated areas in my kitchen for certain ingredients. The pantry is where I store my dry or canned goods. The top shelf is for grains and cereals, second shelf for canned goods like beans and packaged meals, and bottom drawer for my snacks.
The cabinet right next to my stove is where I store my spices and oils. Since these are items that I use every time I cook, I keep them easily accessible so whenever I need to add another flavor to my dish, I can quickly retrieve the spice. I recommend having them in a storage container such as this one.
Reduce Clutter
It is so easy to overbuy food items and store it away in the cabinet. Don’t get me wrong, I think it’s great to have extra, however, too much can result in clutter because it’s forgotten and never eaten.
Reduce clutter in your kitchen by taking an inventory of your food. Set a time each month where you go through all of the items in your pantry. Check labels on all non-perishable items for expiration dates. Toss away all items that are expired. Items that are close to expiring, such as within the next month, place them in a visible and easy to retrieve section of your pantry so you can use these items first.
When cleaning out your pantry and you find items that you know you won’t eat, donate them! So many families in the United States experience hunger on a daily basis. It is estimated that 34 million people lack consistent access to food. You can do your share and help a family in need by donating your extra food items to your local food bank.
Reduce Noise
If you notice excessive noise is so dysregulating that you can’t focus, reduce the noise in your environment.
Start by replacing glass dishes and cups with plastic dishes and cups to reduce the clanking and clacking of glass in your sink when washing dishes. If you are cooking and notice the scratching sound of metal on your pan or pot is making you cringe, swap out your utensils. Use hard plastic or bamboo spatulas, tongs, and ladles to reduce extra noise in your kitchen.
If the noise is still distracting you despite making the swaps, invest in noise blocking or canceling headphones. Whether it is to completely block out all sounds, or maybe reduce some of the background noise by lowering the pitch a few decibels, noise reducing earbuds such as Quit Loop Earplugs can make it easier for you to focus on the task at hand by managing auditory distractions.
Touching Textures
When cooking, we interact with a lot of different items. Whether it’s chopping crunchy vegetables, slicing tender meats, or washing our hands in between, our fingers are busy at work.
Interacting with different types of textures can be overstimulating. If you notice certain textures make you uncomfortable, wear meal preparation gloves when interacting with your food. This can help you avoid any slimy or stickiness when cutting or seasoning your food.
Touching an item that is too hot can result in a shock to the system and ultimately a painful burn. Avoid these harmful burns by always using oven mitts when handling hot pots/pans and retrieving items from the oven.
Final Thoughts
We spend a lot of our time either preparing food or then eating it. Since we are spending quite a bit of our days in our kitchen, why not make it suitable for our needs.
Make your kitchen sensory friendly and enjoyable to use by:
- Organizing your kitchen to best suit your needs.
- Consistently reduce clutter in your kitchen.
- Turn down the volume of external noise.
- Protect your hands when handling food.
Use these different tips to design your kitchen and check out Executive Functioning in the Kitchen for additional tips so you can have fun the next time you chef it up!