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Episode 234 – 10 organisational things professional organisers never buy

It's no secret that Lesley and I have pet hates when it comes to organisational things for your home that pretend to be revolutionary. In today's podcast we're going to chat through the 10 things that we would never buy.
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Transcript of this podcast episode
Ingrid: It's no secret that Lesley and I have pet hates when it comes to buying organisational items that pretend to be revolutionary for your home. In this podcast episode, we are going to talk about the 10 things that we would never buy. 

Voiceover: You are listening to the Declutter Hub podcast, bringing you tried and tested no nonsense tips and advice from the lead in experts in decluttering and organising your home. Now here are your hosts, Ingrid Jansen and Lesley Spellman.

Ingrid: Hello and welcome listeners. I'm Ingrid. 

Lesley: And I'm Lesley. 

Ingrid: We're delighted you're here to join us as part of your decluttering journey. So whether you are brand new today or have been listening in for ages, we want to say a warm welcome and thank you. It means so much to us. You turn up every week to listen and support us while we talk all things decluttering and organising. We'd love to help more people with their quest for a clutter free home, and our podcast is a fantastic way for people to be inspired to take action. We have a favor to ask. If you like what you hear, be sure to hit the follow or subscribe button on your podcast player and share us with your friends, or leave us a review. Go to declutterhub.com/review to see exactly how to do that. 

Well, Lesley, I'm excited today because it's a tenting podcast and you know that I love them. I know you love them too, but we kind of, we're all a bit excited aren't when we do a 10 things podcast

Yeah, we do love attend things podcast cause we have a little debate, don't we, Ingrid where we chat through what's gonna make it to our top 10, list. And we agree and disagree on some of these things, so we thought it was a little bit contentious, but we agree on what the list is gonna be. Doesn't mean to say that we're gonna agree as we hit each of those things today, but it's an interesting list, isn't it, Ingrid

Yes I think we've come up with some interesting things that we want to talk about. So let's start with number one, and it's a little bit of a no-brainer, but I think it's important enough that we talk about this again because we see this a lot in our clients' houses, that they make this mistake and they buy round containers. Round containers is the thing we do not buy.

Lesley: I know And why do we not buy round containers? Because they take up a lot of space. They look nice, right? There's a reason why people buy round containers. Cause if you are looking at the aesthetic of something round, typically looks kind of calmer on the eye than square or rec. And so that's why our eyes are drawn to beautiful round containers, but if we are struggling for space a little bit, you can really do without the round containers. Cause around the corners, you're just missing that extra bit of space that you might need and they don't fit neatly together in a cupboard. Do the Ingrid. So, round containers are fantastic when it's all about the aesthetic and it's all about the placement. But if you're looking something for, to maximize your storage, then go square and rectangular every time.

Ingrid: I know Lesley and I think the perfect example here is always around Christmas time, isn't it? When you can buy the, the Quality Street boxes. I mean, they're now Octagonal. They're no longer round, but just like, yeah, I really want to like this, but it's gotta be recycled.

Lesley: What do you mean? I feel like, I feel like they were always octagonal. Are you thinking of Roses?

Ingrid: maybe Roses. I'm mistaken. I'm saying it's Roses. Indeed. I don't buy roses. But sometimes you get given these things, don't you?

Lesley: Yeah, we've actually talked about Roses and Quality Street before, I think in the podcast and Ingrid and I would be perfect actually, if we had a quality box of Quality Street and a box of Roses, we'd be fine. Cause Ingrid was in more of a quality street gal with the nuts and the caramels and all that kind of stuff and I'm definitely a cream gal, so I'd be on the orange creams and the coffee creams and all that kind of stuff. If you're not from the UK, you probably have no idea what Quality Street or Roses are. So shall we move?

Ingrid: Yes. Let's go to number two, which is my biggest, I think, pet hate from the whole list. The harmonica file aka the accordion file. I keep calling it the harmonica file because in my head it looks like harmonica, but it's called an, uh, I can't think of it now, accordion file.

Lesley: Now, do you know what a harmonica actually looks like? We've talked about this so many times, right? So if you've been listening for a while, do you know what a harmonica actually is?

Ingrid: I know, I know, I know. But I...

Lesley: Explain what a harmonica is to me.

Ingrid: I know a harmonic is that you put in your mouth. You can go back and forth and an accordian is that you open back and forth. But I think I just once got it in my head that it's called a harmonica. I am fully aware it's called an accordion, but in my head it's just like, it's like stuck in there. Now I think I'm nearly 50, Lesley it's just stuck in there forever.

Lesley: You know what, Ingrid, I think now you've made me think of it as an accord, as a harmonica file. Sorry, I'm getting a little confused. Like whenever we talk about this, I'm like, Which one is it? Is it harmonica? Is it accordion? I have to have to do a little reset in my own mind. Anyway, what is an accordion file? Right? Okay, so just to explain this so that you can visualize it a little bit more, it's one of those files that opens up absolutely like an accordion. It kind of spreads from the top almost, and you slot your paperwork into it. Now, the problem that we've got is that there's not an even distribution of paper. So what happens is that they fall over. They're also quite tight on how much paperwork you can get in them, and so you can't get your papers in and out really easily. We do have a slight caveat. They are useful for some things, so they are useful if you constantly have to go back and forth to, I don't know, a lawyer, a doctor with medical notes. And so for a temporary thing where you would need to take a large amount of papers, well, not really that large, but more than you ordinarily would to a meeting. Perhaps an accordion file might work for a temporary solution, but an accordion file does not work. In our experience for larger amounts of paperwork, for loads of reasons, there's barriers, it falls over. They're flimsy. You can't fit them in. They get lost. They're not easy to label. So all in all, we really, really detest accordion files.

Ingrid: I think, I think I was doing a consultation with a new client the other day and I spotted one again and I was like, ooh, there's one. They're still out there.

Lesley: Oh, they're definitely out there. I think loads of people will be like, I love my accordion file. What you saying, Ingrid and Lesley?

Ingrid: I know. I'm sorry. It's just really, it just does not work for me at all. So anyway, I think a brilliant number two. Let's move on to number three, Lesley. This is what you came up with? I went, yes.

Lesley: Yes. You know what? And actually the reasons why I dislike it so intensely are very similar actually, although slightly different to the reasons why I don't like to use the word hate, but is detest to think that's like calmer.

Ingrid: Oh, I dunno.

Lesley: I know it's quite strong, isn't it? Quite strong. But anyway, is birthday card organisers, okay? So you go to a stationary store or a card store or whatever, and they sell like things where they categorize already. It's either January, February, March, April, et cetera, or it's christening, birthday, child's birthday, wedding

Ingrid: New home.

Lesley: Yeah, all that, right? And so the idea is that you buy cards in advance and you have them to hand in this birthday card organiser. Why do I not like the idea? Because I think it encourages you to have a stock of things that you may not need. Number one. Um, I think. You need to buy a card for the person that you're buying it for and to have kind of generic cards. It works in some instances if you get cut short a little bit. So it's a good idea to have a few kind of generic birthday cards if suddenly you wake up and go, oh my word, I forgot this person's birthday. I need to send it today. Of course it's useful, but I'm not sure you need. If you are gonna go to a christening, right, that's gonna be a very special person and you're not going to use a generic christening card that you bought four years ago for somebody who had not had a baby at that point. Am I right? Am I right?

Ingrid: Yeah. I think for me, the fact is that people who would buy a birthday card organiser are probably birthday card writing people. So they probably have a lot more that will fit in the tiny box. So the box really then either limits you in how many cards you have, or it can be very easy to misplace a card because you may have slotted in the wrong thing if you're in a hurry and it really if, if the car is larger, then it doesn't fit the box, so then the box needs to be bigger. But then where are you going to store? I think it's just fraught with complication.

Lesley: It's limiting I think it's very limited, isn't it? So do I keep a back stock of cards? I keep a small amount of cards in a sort of basic shoe box that I constantly go through if I need something, if I need, so I do keep a back stock of cards, but I don't keep them in a January, February, March scenario and have a very limited number of cards.

I think the problem is if you invest in a birthday card organiser, your mind is gonna take to a place where you feel that you need to fill those categories in it, right? Yeah. And so that's kind of against what we believe, because we believe that you should only have things that you really, truly need.

And so do you need a christening card, a new home card, an engagement card? No, probably not. Right.

Ingrid: Yeah, yeah. And I think also cards can get a little bit tatty if they've been in, in boxes and organisers for years. You know, they get a bit bent and they get the edges get a bit crooked and it's like, but if you going to a special occasion, like a wedding, you wanna buy a new card, you're gonna go out and go, what fits this couple? What, what's the message that I want to portray? So having, you know, a couple of thank you cards and a couple of birthday card, but you don't need a fancy birthday card organiser for that.

Lesley: Yeah, exactly. Okay. So yeah. Am I gonna calm down? I don't think I'm gonna calm down on number four. I'm not gonna lie.

Ingrid: Okay go for it, Lesley.

Lesley: Okay, so things that we would never buy that we feel are completely useless pieces of kit and there will always be an exception to the rule, right? There's always gonna be somebody out there who goes, I use mine every single day, and I love it, but in general, we get taken, taken it in by these organisational things. Think we're gonna change a life, and then we see them sort of just lying there, kind of unused and unloved in corners. And a trouser press is one of those things, isn't it, Ingrid? How many trouser presses have you seen in your travels?

Ingrid: Well, on my travels, loads. I mean, they've got, of course they always have them in hotels,

Lesley: I know. Why though? Why do they have them in hotels?

Ingrid: I think because they think that a lot of people who travel for work, like business women and men, want a trouser press to press their suit before they go to a meeting. So I think that's how they've ended up.

Lesley: It's like something from the seventies and eighties.

Ingrid: I, yeah, I know, but they're still there. And I think because people then go on holidays, saw that in hotels, I thought, oh wow, that's an amazing idea. I need to get me one of these from my own house because this is amazing. But then it just never works out, really does it? It's the same with like a trial suppress is really to press it, but it's also just a suit hangers, I think you mean that as well, don't you,

Lesley: Yeah. Yeah. They, they've got like a hanger on it. So yeah, there's trouser press or there's like a, I think they call 'em a valet, right? I think they call the suit valet or something. And so you like a stand that you would have where you would put your kind of jacket that you'd worn that day at work? I find it very kind of, we've moved on from that, right?

Ingrid: Yeah, I would say so. But you know, I think Lesley the, besides the fact that we moved onto it, what do we see? It becomes a valet-drobe, a trouser press-drobe, there's like 12 ties and there's a random pair of socks on them, and then there's three pairs of trousers, and then it nearly bulges over because there's far too many clothes on the thing that you.

I thought this was for like one trouser and one jacket. What is on this thing? That is the problem. Valet-drobe.

Lesley: Valet-drobelike, you know, we keep talking about drobes and, and some people who are new in our world are like, what's a drobe? Do you know what I mean? So basically in the Declutter Hub, there's a, there's a general thing out there called a floordrobe which is kind of the idea is that it's not a wardrobe.

You chuck your stuff on the floor and it becomes a wardrobe. But we've taken it to the next level to chair-drobes and bannister-drobes and door-drobes and now we've got a valet-drobe, which is a completely new one. But anyway, before we finish on the trouser press what, because Ingrid's husband still works in the hotel business, right? I, I wanna know, do new hotels still put trouser presses in rooms?

Ingrid: I think it really now depends on the kind of how many stars the hotel has. I think. I think if it's like a luxury hotel, I would think they probably would still put them in, I would say so.

Lesley: I'm not asking for you what you think or what you suspect. I'm asking you what the reality is, right?

Ingrid: Okay, well, I, I can pause this podcast and call him and see, but I...

Lesley: I'm just asking you. So that's just going into my head. So if anybody knows if anybody else is in the hotel business, apart from Ingrid's husband who can tell you just tonight and you can send me a WhatsApp later, I would love to know. Or maybe next time I go to a lovely hotel I can have a look. I, I can't remember because I would, I just, would I try and block them out of my mind if I see them. So maybe I've not seen while.

Ingrid: They're disappearing. I think they're disappearing. I think people are over them now.

Lesley: Yeah, people don't really wear suits that much anymore, right? I mean, they do. A lot of people do, but not more. I would say more people going to work don't wear suits than do right.

Ingrid: I, I think it's changed a lot. I think also all, all working from home and not traveling so much for the, for during covid and stuff, I think it's really changed the way people dress and I think we've become a bit more casual, but I think there's still loads of people in offices and things like that that still would wear, um, suits, but maybe not with the tie and the whole thing. I think it's all become a little bit more casual.

Lesley: It has indeed. Okay, Ingrid. Let's go to number five because we did get a little bit waylaid with the trouser press.

Ingrid: Yeah.

Lesley: Um, but let's talk about our number five and we do both agree with this and feel quite strongly about it.

Ingrid: Yeah. I think because they look so nice when you see them at the shop, you're like, oh, that looks nice.

Lesley: Are you building it up? You need to say what it is. People are like, oh, what looks nice? We've not even said what it is yet. Building it up to be something special.

Ingrid: I and they were like, don't buy it . It's an acrylic makeup organiser. Yes. They look nice, Lesley, let's be, let's be honest about it. I've been tempted once or twice to go, it looks so nice. Maybe I should get me one. And I'm like, no, no, no. It doesn't work. Let's not do this.

Lesley: I think the problem is if you are in that head space where you want something to organise your makeup, right, you're gonna have loads of makeup.

Ingrid: Yeah.

Lesley: And typically the holes in an acrylic makeup organizer. are limiting. Yeah, they're quite small sections. Now, I think, I feel like it could work if you are willing to give loads of space up and have lots of different organizers for different things. So I feel like it could be a good way for you to categorize your things, but I think that you've got to think about it being multiple, because if you need an organiser for your makeup, you're probably gonna need more than one of these acrylic organisers. That's my thoughts on it.

Ingrid: You know, but you know what, Lesley. I don't have a lot of makeup, but I still wouldn't buy an acrylic organizer because the holes are never the right size. Or you just have one hole short for to put another lipstick in, or the hole that is supposed to be for things you don't have like brushes and things or then you say, but I actually have a larger makeup palette with eyeshadow and a blusher and then that doesn't fit in there because there's no hole that can cover something larger. The idea looks great, but it just never seems to work, and I found many of them over the years.

Lesley: Yeah and finding the right one. I'm, I'm pretty sure that there will be something out there that that does do that, right? There will probably be things for MUAs that definitely cover like... Makeup artists, that is, just in case you were wondering. Do you watch Glow Up? Do you not watch Glow Up?

Ingrid: No, no

Lesley: See I love an MUA. So MUA stands for makeup artists, but I'm sure that there will be acrylic organisers out there that are designed for bulk makeup, storage, of course there will be, everybody's found a solution to everything. But in general, the things that you would find in your common shop are probably not gonna be suitable. So we do have a dislike. And our, our, our alternative to that is to just put things in a normal box and be able to rummage around a little bit and find what you need, right?

Ingrid: Yeah. Or just a toiletry makeup bag or something like that. I think that that suits us well.

Lesley: I prefer a box to a bag. I do prefer a box to a bag. I'm not gonna lie. See a bag, a bag to me would be another barrier. Cause it would need a zip.

Ingrid: Yeah.

Lesley: So I, I have mine split. I've got kind of pallets in one box, which is like eyeshadows, blusher you know, kind of flat, not, not full pallets, but just things that are in a kind of thing that closes. And then my other ones got my kind of eyeliners and lipsticks that are a bit more random in terms of shape and stuff.

Ingrid: Yeah yeah. I, I've got, uh, I've got even less makeup. I've got one other thing why I don't like acrylic makeup things, Lesley because when you buy them brand new, they're like beautiful. As soon as you put makeup in it and it, it spills and there's like, you know, because it always, it gets a bit, it, it doesn't look nice anymore. Within like days, you know, it, it's not like it for months will stay nice, but as soon as you smudge something, they are an absolute pain to clean.

Lesley: Agreed. Good list, Ingrid.

Ingrid: Yeah. On that note,

Lesley: Yes. Good.

Ingrid: Let's go to a break and let's calm down a little bit and then after the break we'll be back with five more. 



Ingrid: Welcome back. I hope you enjoyed your break. We are continuing chatting about the ten things that Lesley and I would never buy, and we've had five, I think, really good ones,

Lesley: Can I I just ask you a question before you go on, Ingrid? You know, when you say that you hope that they enjoyed their break, what do you think that they did? I was just wondering why you leave the think they did.

Ingrid: Well, maybe they got themselves a cup of tea or something. Well, there was a break, you know...

Lesley: Well in that, in that 30 seconds that we took a break. Yeah. I hope you enjoyed your break too and listened to Ingrid and I's dulcet tones. So, yeah. But thank you for saying that, Ingrid. How kind.

Ingrid: You're welcome. Let's move on to number six. Be, I think, let's be honest, Lesley, I think these next five. We kind of agree, but not on all of them. So that might be interesting. So, but the next one we definitely agree. So let's go to number six.

Lesley: Number six is only gonna be relevant if you have got small children at home. So if you're a parent or a grandparent or um, or have kids around, basically.

Ingrid: Maybe a child minder or a carer, or.

Lesley: Exactly. Yeah. It's about kids and it is, and it's gonna be contentious. I know it's gonna be contentious, right? Is toy tables, I dunno what the word for them is, but I'm, you know, so visualize this, a kind of large-ish table that sits in the middle of a playroom, if you're lucky enough to have one, quite often it would have like a track on it, like a road or a train track or something like that with a scene on it. And the idea is that your child or children are. have this lovely idyllic way where they're gonna play with them, they're gonna use it to, to scoot their little trains or their little cars along it or whatever that might be. And. Yeah, nice idea. Look fantastic when they first go in, in a beautiful playroom. But what happens is it's just a table and it ends up with just stuff all over it. And the kids can't scoot their little trains or cars around the table because there's no space, because it's piled up with random things and plates and glasses and other toys and all that kind of stuff. So, we are big fans when we put together playrooms and we, you know, cause quite often we look at storage, don't we, for clients and they ask us for advice and what the, the makeup of that, playroom should be.

We are all about, put as much storage in there as possible to put things away and let your kids have the space on the floor if possible, to do these kind of things. Slightly different for arts and crafts. Cause quite often they need to sit up at a table with glitter and paints and all that kind of stuff. But for general play, We are big believers in use the floor.

Ingrid: Yeah, definitely. I mean, I, I, I've, I've just recently decluttered one at a client of mine because it was like, it just became a dumping ground for, for lots of other things that had nothing to do with the trains or the roads or whatever, and it just doesn't work. Same with, I mean, as another one of my clients has one of those little tables to do arts and crafts, but instead of having a drawer where you can put the pencils in, you can put half of the middle of the table up and they've got kind of a box under it where you can put, and it's like, how are you gonna do that? Because constantly stuff lands on the table because it's a flat surface. And then you, when you wanna do actually drawing, you first have to clear the whole table, then move the the middle bit of the table up to get the pencils out. It just doesn't work. Does not work. And I know it's a shame.

Lesley: I just wonder, I just wonder why the people who create this kind of product create things for things that, to play into people's ideas of what they would like to happen. Do you know what I mean? Rather than practicalities so many of these things that we're talking about today are very much about. Desire, aspiration rather than practicality. And I think that's why we have a, a bit of a loathing for these things because we're like, they just don't work in a lot of instances. These things would work, but maybe not in our community or people that are listening to our podcast or in our world, because generally the people are listening towards are people who haven't quite got it right yet in the clutter world.

And so people who are a little bit more overwhelmed have got clutter that they need to deal with. These items probably are perfect for people who are very meticulous, right? That have got that completely sewn up. You know, they're kind of Mrs. Hinches of this world who devote so much time and energy to cleaning, to sorting, to organising and live, eat and breathe that. Perfect for those kind of people. But you've really gotta be realistic about whether that's you. If it is, brilliant, go ahead and buy your toy table and have this beautiful thing and your kids, and it's all idyllic and stuff. . But if not, it's just about this little dose of realism. Like, am I ever gonna maintain that? Am I ever gonna ever gonna make sure that tabletop is completely clear for my children to play on, for example? So I think that's what it's all about, isn't it?

Ingrid: Yes it is. Yes it is. Let's move on to the next one, Lesley. Um, yeah. It returns on a regular basis because they are the tiered coat hangers, uh, that we really don't like. It's one hanger with five rods that you can then wear, put different kinds of trousers over each other. But the thing is you lose complete visibility and getting the, the bottom couple out from a tiered hanger is, is hard. And the hanger gets really heavy with five pairs of trousers. So it's then tricky to get it out of the wardrobe in the first place.

Lesley: So many reasons in which where we dislike a tiered hanger.

Ingrid: Yeah. Yeah. 

Lesley: You know, honestly, when we see a wardrobe, we literally are chomping at the bit to get them out and in the bag to declutter. Basically and I think all professional organisers would agree with this as well, it's, they just don't work. They promise, of course, you look at those, you are overwhelmed with stuff in your wardrobe, be like, that's perfect. I don't need five hangers. I can put it all on one. But of course the clothes have still got to fit. You know, it's the clothes that take up the space, not the hanger. And so, Yeah, we don't really like a tiered hunger, do we?

Ingrid: And in an extension of that, Lesley what you sometimes see when people buy new wardrobes, um, they get like a, a, a higher up, um, rod for the jackets. And then below that they put this beautiful piece of furniture they think with like the, the rods next to each other. So you can put the trousers over easily.

It looks really nice. But again, it doesn't work because you can't put enough clothes in. It wastes a lot of space, so...

Lesley: I mean, I mean, it does work. Of course it works if you have a very paired down wardrobe. If it's all about the aesthetic, you know, of course it can work. You can buy them from IKEA. I mean, I ask them in a, in a heartbeat, because most of the people, most people, let's face it, have got wardrobes that are mostly packed to the brim right? There's not loads of loads of maneuvering space, and so you've really gotta think, have I got a capsule wardrobe with only seven pairs of trousers in it? If you have and you want it to look beautiful, of course they work because you can slide them on and off easily you know, so, so they do, they do work in that instance. But you've really, it's all about this realism, isn't it? What, what is my, what are my needs? I think that's important.

Ingrid: Yeah. Oh, Lesley, all right. Let's go to number eight. And number eight is a wine rack.

Lesley: Contentious one, Ingrid and I, kind of. She gets what I'm saying. I get what she's saying, but we wanted to talk about it, didn't we?

Ingrid: Yeah.

Lesley: So this started out with me talking really about when you are putting kitchens together. So if you are creating a kitchen from scratch for someone lucky enough to every few years, 10 years, 20 years, whatever, to have a new kitchen. And we get a lovely kitchen designer who comes around who says, oh, they've got this fantastic storage solution. Same principle, very aspirational. How lovely would that be to have this lovely section in my kitchen for what I'd really love is a wine fridge. But actually what I'm gonna have is a wine rack.

And we can, you know, they were very popular like 20 years ago to put them in little cause they're kind of not that wide. And so you have all these little sections, don't need to put wine, um, wine bottles in on their side. And I just think, again, it's a lot of space to give over to probably eight bottles of wine. I would say in one section.

Ingrid: Yeah, six maybe.

Lesley: Yeah. And so I would not encourage putting those kind of wine racks into kitchens if you are, you know, if you are going from scratch. I'm also a little bit anti wine racks in general. Um, but I understand the purpose of them because, and this is what we were talking about, is having wine bottles on their side rather than upright is really designed for people who have expensive, fine wines right? Now, if you are like me, I'm not saying I never drink an ass bottle of wine, but I'm never really buying a bottle of wine. That's, I mean, you know, pushing the boat out 15 quid. Do you know what I mean? Like, and that, that's really like, maybe like a really special occasion.

Normally I'm at my £8.99 maximum £6.99 if it's on offer. That's where my kind of wine is. . I'm not saying I'll never buy a nice expensive bottle of wine, and I'm not saying I've never been given a bottle of wine, which is supposed to last 10 years and stuff, although I did open one that was given on my 30th, on my 40th when you're supposed to open it, and it was not nice. So that kind of fails, but they're designed for that. And so I think you can get much more wine if you want to store like a backlog of wine, like a, or a kind of large quantity of wine, just having them upright in a cupboard and don't need a wine rack. You disagree, Ingrid, right?

Ingrid: Yes, because I mean, I disagree with the whole kitchen thing. I mean, I, I agree with that I should get a wine fridge, , but that's all in. If I ever get a new kitchen, I'm gonna get a wine fridge.

Lesley: You agree with the kitchen? You, you said you disagree. Now, can we clarify you do agree? Even though you said disagree.

Ingrid: Sorry, so I, I agree with the fact that those cubby holes for six bottles of wine in a kitchen does not work.

Because they end up not having wine. They suddenly have squash and they've got lemonade, and then things don't fit. And then the lemonade bottles big and then it, then it gets a dumping ground for other stuff and nobody knows anymore. Well, it originally was designed for wine and people maybe go off wine and then they're like, now I've got this wine thing in my kitchen. I agree with the wine fridge. Let's clarify this. I would love a wine fridge at one point in my life. It's not gonna happen probably, but that's okay. I can dream away. But I do have a wine rack in my living room. Not a gigantic one, but a small wine rack because we do have a couple of nice bottles of wine and they've been there for a long time because, they, some of them can are, especially reds, can stay there for a long time.

Lesley: Well, good luck with that. I hope you have a same experience that I did.

Ingrid: I know we, we, on a special occasion, we open sometimes something, so. Yeah, but no, for a normal wine for a couple of pounds or a couple of euros that we, when we, when I go to France we, we load up some boxes of wine and yeah, they can just stay upright because they're not expensive wine. They don't need to lie flat. They can just go in a cupboard somewhere. So. Maybe a bit contentious, but yeah, don't fall in the trap of all this fancy storage. And then not using it. 

Lesley: I've decluttered a lot of wine racks in my time. I'm not gonna lie. I bet you have as well.

Ingrid: I actually don't think I've decluttered a lot of wine racks, Lesley.

Lesley: Are you trying to encourage people to keep wine racks?

Ingrid: I'm encouraging people not to put them in, in a kitchen when they put a new kitchen in. That's what I'm people encouraging people.

Lesley: I think you just need to evaluate the wine rack and whether it's serving the purpose that you intended it for, because I think it's one of those things that becomes like a piece of the furniture. Yeah, you'd agree with that, right. So it's just one of those things. It's always there. It's been there for 10, 15 years.

You know, some of these wine racks are beautiful and deserve their place as a piece of furniture. Some of them are very basic, right? And again, it's kind of a little bit of a throwback sometimes. So I'm gonna say nineties, you know, a lot of them. How long have you had your wine rack?

Ingrid: Oh

Lesley: Since the nineties.

Ingrid: Yeah probably.

Lesley: And so I think it, you know, it depends. Would I give it space in my living room? what it looks like. I think, you know, I think I would want it to be aesthetically beautiful as well as a practical thing. If it was in my living room, and we'll move on from the wine rack.

Ingrid: Yeah. where I, going off on a tangent, because we've got another really, I think quite two good ones. So the next one, number nine. Oh, I feel, I feel we're going to get emails about this Lesley, but it's a mug tree. So I hope I pronounce it right. It's not a mugshot, it's a mug tree. So a mug tree. It's those normally wooden or metallic things that you put your mugs on, and then you put them on the kitchen counter, and then it's kind of easy to get a mug when you're getting a coffee. I think that's the idea about a mug tree. But yeah, please don't give that to me.

Lesley: Yeah, I think, you know, I think people love their mug trees, but again, I think for them to serve the purpose that they're intended. It's probably a little bit of a throwback. I think you can still get them now. I actually did buy one from my father-in-law, did his kitchen like a year ago or something, but it wasn't a tree.

It was like one where you kind of slot them into a thing like, um, You kind of put them down like they all stack on top of each other, but in like a container thing because he does grab things from the work surface. Do you know what I mean? It's a little bit older and stuff, and so I think he quite liked that, but I think it, it's very reliant on it being full of mugs rather than half empty.

So that's one of the things is that it's, it's supposed to be, an ornament almost, right? A mug tree. That's the thing. So it relies on you having all the mugs the same. If it's gonna look nice on your work surface, on your countertop, it's gonna have to be probably full of mugs and not two mugs there out of six and the other four in the dishwasher or in the washing up. and all the mugs are gonna need to be the same. And our experience is that people kind of have a bit of a mishmash of mugs, have favorite mugs, you know, they might have six white mugs that they use regularly, but they'll love their favorite mug, you know. So, I dunno, but, but it's just more clutter on a countertop, I think is what we're saying. And that you typically have more than six mugs, and so you're gonna have your mugs then in two separate places, aren't you?

Ingrid: And what I think happens sometimes as well, the things at the back of a mug tree. Don't get grabbed so easily because they're at the back. So they end up getting dusty and manky and then you need to wash them up before you can use them because they're out. And of course, in the kitchen it is dusty and you know, when you cook, you know you've got all the particles in the air so it gets a bit dusty and manky I think so I'm just not a fan and I think I like my counter space to be able to prepare food and not have lots of stuff out. So. Yeah. Does not work for me. A mug tree, not a a fan.

Lesley: I agree. I agree. Um, I can see how they would work and I can see how people would like them, right? I definitely can. Um, but in my mind I envisage what that looks like and what kind of, it needs to be a clear, clutter-free countertop, in my opinion, for a mug tree to work. So if that is you, go ahead and keep your mug tree and just ignore the, the vitriol that Ingrid has about mug trees.

Ingrid: Let's go on to the last one, Lesley. The last one of organisational things that we would never buy for our houses is a tin stacker.

Lesley: Yes.

Ingrid: Tin stacker. It looks nice though. I'm, I'm a bit on the fence about this one, but you tell me first, and then I'll see if you can change my mind.

Lesley: I think it's all about. You can buy them a lot of places, right? And the idea is it's like a tiered kind of shelf that you could put, I don't know, three tins of baked beans on. Yeah. One on the front, one on the next shelf, one on the shelf behind. And you'll be able to see that you've got three tins of baked beans, right? So for me, who's all about maximizing storage, I'm like, but what about the, the empty space that's underneath the, um, tins? Well, I would rather line things up and have four tins of beans in that space and have them stacked on top of each other because tins can easily stack on top of each other, right? And so that's the way I would do it. I would do it more like that because I think you just wasting valuable space. And actually if you do it the right way in terms of lining things up, you can still see what you have and you can stack things on top of each other.

Ingrid: Yeah. Yeah I think forLesleyslie, I'm a bit on the fence for, on this one because I think it really depends on your cupboard. So I think if it is a smaller cupboard that's a little bit higher up, the tin stacker can work because it gives you that visibility. Because if you have to, look, I'm, I'm like looking high up.

Now, if you're listening, you can't see this, but I'm like trying to show this. If you're looking higher up, it's different, you can see the first row, but then you can't see what's behind. I think with a tin stacker, that can help a little bit, but I think what, what then happens, you need to start measuring and start to see how, how can I, does it fit my cupboard? Do I have extra space on the side? What am I gonna put in there then and in a bigger cupboard, I think a tin stacker doesn't work because it kind of gets lost in the depth and the width of the cupboard. So I, I can, I've seen some. There we go. Here we go. Lesley I'm gonna, I've seen some nice pictures on the socials where it looks nice, and then I'm like, Hmm it does look nice, but in practic, like in practicality, it's just, mm. Doesn't really work. But I mean, there might be some people like, what? It's the best thing I've ever bought.

Lesley: Yeah, exactly. And, and I think there absolutely will be, and I think there will in these 10 organisational things that we, we would never buy for our homes. There will be loads of people out there who are like, I love my tin stacker, I could not do without my mug tree. Of course I have a wine rack. I've got the tiered coat hangers to work. My kids play nicely on their toy tables, et cetera, et cetera. So there's always, but, but I suppose what we do is we look at people who are cluttered, people who are overwhelmed, and people who typically search for an answer to their clutter problems by buying organisational things that promise so much and deliver so little.

And I think that that's what we're talking about. The bottom line is you've got to declutter and organize well. And an organisational solution often isn't the answer, even though it promises that it is. And that's why we have been very vocal, as normal. I hope we kept it in actually, Ingrid. I think we kept it in quite nicely. And um, yes, that's the end of our list.

Ingrid: Yes it is. Yes it is. So I'm now like waiting for the emails to come in and the comments on the podcast. So let us know. Go to declutterhub.com/234 and you can leave us a comment. Maybe you're like, well, I am so with you, Lesley and Ingrid.

I'm gonna declutter all these items. Or maybe like, what? Worst podcast ever. What do you mean declutter my mug tree? I'm not gonna do that. I would love to know. So let us know. We would love to know.

Lesley: So Ingrid, what are we going to be talking about in next week's podcast?

Ingrid: Next week we're going to talk about what is decluttering worth to me. So you'll just have to tune in and listen what it's all about.

Lesley: do you mean what is it worth to me? To, to, to me, Lesley or you, ingrid?

Ingrid: Or maybe you everybody. Anyway, listen in next week to hear what it's all about. Thanks everybody for being here.

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Episode 390 – 10 changes that make the biggest impact in your home

Episode 389 – Overcoming mobility challenges when decluttering with member Rory

Episode 388 – Start as you mean to go on – plan 2026 for decluttering success

Episode 387 – Our 2025 year in review – the big Declutter Hub round-up

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Marion Skinner says:

24 March 2023 at 9:33 PM

Ingrid and Lesley, I enjoy all your episodes and enjoyed this one as well. Nonetheless, I love my card box (your #3) and I understand that you as PO would not recommend it for someone. However, as you indicated that it does work for some. So I am that someone.

The key to it working for me is:
1. I do not buy cards to go into it (with exception of some blank cards and a set of thank you cards).
2. It holds the extra cards from a box of Christmas cards to be used the next year. It also holds cards I didn't use. For example, I might buy 2 sympathy cards and my husband and I will pick the most appropriate and I put the extra in the box.
3. All cards have to fit or they are given away if in good condition to Goodwill.
4. I go through the box every January and remove cards that do not resonate with me any longer, are bent, or haven't used (like the left-over Christmas cards) in a year or so.
5. I also keep the wintery return address labels in it.

Here is a link to my box (hope link works). https://photos.app.goo.gl/F9tmH2oZTvaLB6Mw7

Thank you for doing these episodes.

Marion

Reply
1. Ingrid Jansen says:
  
  27 March 2023 at 9:01 PM
  
  Hi Marion,
  
  Lovely to hear from you and I'm delighted to hear your card box is working for you.
  
  You have a good system in place for buying new cards, going through your box once a year and disposing or donating cards that no longer resonate.
  
  This is exactly why your box is working for you. Thank you for sharing your picture. It's lovely.
  
  Ingrid
  
  Reply
Episode 234 – 10 organisational things professional organisers never buy

Episode 390 – 10 changes that make the biggest impact in your home

Episode 389 – Overcoming mobility challenges when decluttering with member Rory

Episode 388 – Start as you mean to go on – plan 2026 for decluttering success

Episode 387 – Our 2025 year in review – the big Declutter Hub round-up

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