A graphic of a kitchen with crockery, pots, pans and utensils

Episode 19 – Declutter Your Kitchen Today

In this podcast, Lesley and Ingrid chat about accessibility, compromising and logic when decluttering a kitchen. The kitchen is the heart of the home and it's an important room to get right. It can save you time, money and your sanity because you spend a lot of time in the kitchen. You prepare meals, do the washing up, lots of us have your washing machine in the kitchen, so it’s a room that has to work hard.

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Transcript of this podcast episode

Intro  0:07  
Welcome to today's episode of The Declutter Hub Podcast, your channel for super easy, no nonsense advice on how to declutter and organise your home. Please welcome your host professional organisers, Ingrid Jansen, and Lesley Spellman.

Ingrid  0:29  
Hello, and welcome listeners to Episode 19 of the Declutter Hub Podcast. I'm Ingrid. And I'm Lesley. If you have clutter and want to sort it out, this is the show for you. In today's episode, Lesley and I are talking about decluttering and organising kitchens. I mean, the kitchen is the heart of the home, and it's really important to get it right. So in today's episode, we're going to talk about accessibility, compromise and logic, Lesley, I love decluttering and organising kitchens, it's one of my favourite things to do. How about you?

Lesley  1:00  
Yeah, absolutely. I think, you know, the kitchen really is the heart of the home, as you mentioned, and it's really important to get it right for so many reasons. It can save you time, if you get it right, it can save you money so that you don't over buy things. And obviously, it's your sanity, because that's where you do so much and spend so much time of your day. So getting it right is absolutely key. Yeah,

Ingrid  1:20  
I think you know, I think why is also so important is because a lot of us use our kitchens to prepare meals to do dishes to make up lunchboxes, but a lot of us also have a washing machine in our kitchen. So we need to do a laundry day, we're not lucky enough to have a separate utility room. So there's a lot of actions and, and things happening in a kitchen. So it's really important that it's tidy and neat and organised.

Lesley  1:45  
Yeah. And I think it also links into wellbeing as well. Because if you can, if you've got what you need, and you can cook the right meals, then there's wellbeing you feel better about you know, providing nice wholesome food for your family, and things like that. And it's really important, isn't it to get that kitchen, right. And the bottom line is we've all got kitchens, in all varying shapes and sizes. Yeah, so some people have got nice, big spacious kitchens where they can pretty much have everything that they want. And other people, many people are very tight on space and have to make compromise. And that's really what we're going to talk about today, isn't it? Yeah, we're going to talk about the compromises that you need to make in a kitchen. How accessibility is absolutely critical to that, and sort of trying to put things in a logical order. So that makes sense.

Ingrid  2:25  
Yeah. So let's start with accessibility, then. So share, can you share your thoughts about that?

Lesley  2:31  
I mean, there's loads of things that we need to think about in terms of accessibility as well. But what I'm thinking is things like you need to have things where they make most sense. So don't put your really heavy pots and pans right at the top, you know, that needs to be kind of what's the level that counter? Yeah, absolutely. So that, you know, it's not dangerous for you to find things and to pull things out, and so on. So it's really, you know, why not have them next to your cooker, so don't have to walk all the way across the other side of the kitchen to find things. When people get kitchens, designed by kitchen designers, they often think about that they often think about this triangle idea where you know, everything's got to be in a in a triangle in your kitchen. So you can get around things, you know, thing where your dishwasher is, where you cook them, and so on. And it's things like that, that we really need to think about ourselves as well, when we're planning things. And sometimes you know, that logic is not there. So many kitchens that I work in, you know that this sort of tea and coffee is in a completely different place to the kettle and completely different places and mugs. And it's just things like that there's so many things in a kitchen that we need to think about. And so many people have got different priorities in kitchens as well. Yeah, so for me, I'm not really a baker. So my baking stuff is kind of a way, kind of hyoe. Because I don't do much vaping I'm always on a diet. So therefore I do not do do baking. But for other people that are big bakers, they need much more space. As with all the clutter in there is not a one size fits all here. Yeah,

Ingrid  3:57  
I think it's also you know, if you're not lucky enough to design a new kitchen in your home, and you have to work with what you've got, it's still important that you think about accessibility, because I think it's called the flow of a kitchen, you know, it has to have the right flow. You don't want to make metres in the kitchen, even if it's this tiny kitchen, if you have to go to four different cupboards to just make a cup of tea, because your tea is somewhat different in your Muxes are different and your spoons are different than your everything is somewhere different. You make mileage, you know, you create a lot of work for yourself. So I think that's what we're talking about here today. Having everything in a smart place, and to have it accessible.

Lesley  4:35  
Yeah, and the problem is as well, if things you know, talked about making a cup of tea, if things are spread around the kitchen, well that also creates his barriers to us putting things away so things tend not to find their natural home again. So it's things like that as well that are really critical. So accessibility is absolutely key to kitchen.

Ingrid  4:56  
And I think maybe also what makes sense to to talk about is that if there are items that you don't use as much, those are the items that you put away in another higher up or a less accessible area. And the stuff that you use all the time you want to have on eye level and close at hand.

Lesley  5:16  
Definitely, definitely.

Ingrid  5:18  
Okay. All right. Let's move on to compromise. What do we want to discuss about compromise?

Lesley  5:25  
I think different people have got different things that make them tick and kitchen. So some people really do you know, do dinner parties absolutely love cooking, I would use a lemon squeezer and a melon baller and lots of different things and a spiralizer, and so on. And first for many people. And I don't want to be mean here, but it's an aspirational thing. So I do have a spiralizer that has sat to be fair for a while it's moved out because I feel mean, because it was the I shouldn't say that. I should not got rid of it quite yet. Because I still think Yeah, I'm definitely going to do spiralizing. But that's an aspirational thing, really something that you see, it's a little bit of a fad. But there will equally there'll be people out there that are using their spiralizers all the time, and absolutely love them. And I think I'm gonna get there. It's not been long, but I think I'm gonna get there. So I'm going to keep it for now.

Ingrid  6:12  
Okay, you need to tell us when that's going to happen. I

Lesley  6:16  
feel I feel bad now.

Ingrid  6:17  
And I know I'm depressed. Otherwise, that thing is going to be decluttered from your kitchen. Yeah, I'm gonna check next time I'm at your house.

Lesley  6:23  
But I'm real in the same way as everybody else. I've got my things that I've like, yeah, definitely, definitely gonna do that. spiralizing one day. We were definitely not perfect.

Ingrid  6:33  
I appreciate your honesty. As always,

Lesley  6:35  
why do I say things on the podcast? I've just said something. Anyway, yeah, so that's it. So compromise. So really, it's all about finding a kitchen and having the right kind of stuff for the kitchen, you've gotten some times even though you are an amazing cook, and you need all these things. If you're in a one bedroom studio flat, and you've got a tiny, tiny kitchen, you can't afford to do that. So you have to compromise on the type of stuff that you've got in there. You can't have every single appliance, or you can, but it's going to mean that you've got a very cluttered kitchen. So you've got to compromise in terms of what do you want? Do you want a space that you can work with? Well and easily that's kind of streamlined and clean and clear that you've got a little bit of clarity of thought when you're cooking? Or do you want all the latest gizmos and gadgets in there?

Ingrid  7:19  
Yeah, yeah, I think it's very true. I mean, you know, if you have an ice cream maker in your cupboard, and that you've gotten as a Christmas present, or as a birthday present many moons ago, and you've made ice cream ones, let's be realistic, you know, if you can't even put away another get shed like that you use all the time, because you're going to ice cream, make a book in your kitchen cupboards. Maybe this is not the time to declutter that ice cream maker and go okay, it was fun. While we tried it, we did it once. We had a great time. But realistically, I'm not going to make ice cream anymore. It was fun. But from now on, I'm going to bite into Showhomes declutter that piece of kit. You don't you don't need. And so you can actually have room to put stuff that you actually do want to use all the time. Because the

Lesley  8:01  
bottom line is you can make a very good meal with a small amount of things. But then there are certain things that in addition to that make life easier. And those are the kinds of things that we're talking about. So when we are decluttering kitchens, you know where there is, people are struggling for space, then we definitely are getting rid of those kinds of melon ballers and Apple Korres and things like that, because you can do that differently. You know, you can use a knife if you want to. Yeah. And so, I mean, the apple corer is not going to tip you over the edge in a kitchen. But you know, the ice cream maker? Absolutely. Yeah.

Ingrid  8:31  
Yeah. Or other things with, you know, electrical machinery and kitchens takes up tremendous amount of space. So if you, for example, have a machine that can do a lot of those things, you might be able to if you have one machine that can do a lot of things. Maybe you're able to declutter a couple of other machines that could you could do that with one machine. You know what I mean? Like,

Lesley  8:51  
yeah, and I think you know, things are wrapped up in that as well. We've got guilts, haven't we? Because a lot of those kitchen accessories and appliances cost a lot of money. So your ice cream makers, you breadmakers you slow cookers, you actually fries, yeah. All those things. They take up huge amounts of space, but they also cost a lot of money. Yeah. So we still try to cling on to the hope that one day, we will use them again. But we need very specific cupboards for those things. And as we say, you know, sometimes it's hard, you know, it's hard to make these decisions to get rid of things. Because they are if we look at the decluttering principles of do we need it? Do we use it? Do we love it? Then you know, there's an argument to say that you do need it and you do use it because you've done that on an occasional basis. But that's just that's what we're talking about really with compromise. You can't often have it always if you're small kitchen. Yeah,

Ingrid  9:37  
I think that is really, really true. I think also a good thing to talk about is glassware in this case and I we've talked about electrical equipment, but I think glasses are also a perfect example. You know, if you used to have a lot of dinner parties and just regular parties at home and you had a lot of you know, you're hosting a lot of people you've got or cocktail and whisky and cognac and wine. And now maybe currently, you're only drinking, you know, long drinks, and maybe an occasional glass of wine. Maybe it's time to review all of those glasses that you have, because maybe they're not suitable for your lifestyle anymore. And they're just cluttering up your cupboards. But you only can fit in for long drinks. Well, you can actually do with about 10 long drinks all the time, because maybe the kids knows long drinks, they're grown out of baby cups. And

Lesley  10:28  
yeah, definitely, if you're short on space glasses is definitely something that historically, you would get sets of lots of different things. But actually, if I want to drink a cognac, which I never would anyway, if I did, I could drink out of a tumbler, and it would be fine. I wouldn't need a specific cognac glass. So there's another example of a compromise that you can make. But again, we've got the problem with that. But sometimes these were gifts, sometimes these are family heirlooms and things like that. So these decisions are quite difficult to make. But it's all about having things in your kitchen that is fit for your life now. And actually, if you're just drinking a bottle of Pinot Grigio on a weekend, and having a squash or glass of water, then you don't need all these different glasses in your house. If it's causing you an overspill.

Ingrid  11:11  
Yeah, I think we should also talk about food, Lesley. And I'm not talking about fresh fruit in the fridge, but I'm talking about spices, I'm talking about cans, I'm talking about those kinds of things. Because I find a lot of times in my clients house is that there are so many cupboards with food, and everything is everywhere. So what kind of advice do we want to give our listeners about spices and perishable foods?

Lesley  11:37  
I think it's very much I mean, the first thing that I would say that I absolutely try to do in every kitchen that I ever work in, is to try and separate out food and non food. So try if you can, I know it's not always possible, yeah, to not have cereals and things like that in the same cupboard as a plate or a glass or whatever. Because it's automatically messy then and one spills over into the other. And yeah, and like everywhere in the home, it really needs to be zoned, which moves me on then to zoning, you know, be logical, be sensible about what you put in together. So make sure your grains, Rice's pastures, that kind of thing are all together. So I've got I've got one core, but it's got grains, pulses, rice, pasta, and potatoes in there all together. So all those kinds of carb type things are all together. I mean, quite often, if you've got shelves, and if you've got to use your wall cupboards for things like pastures and stuff, it's quite cumbersome, isn't it. So try and replicate a drawer or something that you can lift out. So you can lift it out in its entirety. So have a small basket, where you've got all of your pastures and pulses together, use a little clip at the top if you can to close them up or use you know, quite often now they have those little sellotape things at the top down there. Yeah, self closing type things. Yeah. But just make sure that you've got something so you don't have to be root into the back of the cupboard all the time. So it's about almost trying to recreate a drawer scenario, or something where you containerize in your pastures, and he pauses and so on, and then lifting them down. And then when you've got out what you need, you can then put it back and you've not got this problem of not being able to find things at the back. Because that also causes a knock on problem of having too much stuff, not knowing what you've gotten over buy in. And that's a real problem in kitchens. So, at the beginning of the podcast, I talked about the possibility of saving money with kitchens, which is really critical. And so many times that, you know, I go through and declutter kitchens. And there are, you know, multiple pastors multiple rises that have now gone out of date. Yeah, it's such a shame to see that go.

Ingrid  13:38  
Yeah, yeah, so true. And I think the same thing goes for cans as well. I mean, I know cans have have a long shelf life. But if they're in the back of a cupboard, and every time you buy a new car, you put it in front. And that's when you get out the stuff in the back doesn't go out of date, at some point. Yeah. So have a look through and also maybe line them up a little bit. And if you've got quite a lot of cans, maybe you can kind of put the fish stuff together and the vegetable stuff together and the soups together, so it's easier to see what you have. And maybe also put the labels to the front so it's visible. And with one glance, you can see oh, okay, I'm running low on soup. I need to get some soup this weekend, or I want to get some big beans because we're running low. And it's not all under all kinds of other stuff.

Lesley  14:25  
Yeah, definitely. You know, I think for a lot of people, you know, lining up bottles and cans in the cupboards maybe considered to be a little bit a little bit over the top, but actually allows you to see exactly what you've got as Yeah, and it helps you to avoid over buy in. Yeah, so that's an easy process. You know, when you say, right, I'm gonna go and do my weekly shop. It should be an easy process for you to look in your cupboards. Say actually, I do need baked beans or tomatoes or whatever that might be. Yeah, I'm actually also declutter things you know, if you've got if you've got a rogue kind of green lentils that you've not used for five years, send it to the food bank or you know, something like that.

Ingrid  14:58  
Yeah. And also I think what is Important is that if you know that you don't have really big cupboards, don't buy a kilo gramme pack of cereal or 750 grammes. Buy the smaller one. Because because if it doesn't fit in your cupboard, it means it has to live on top somewhere, or it has to be, you know, it's not in the right place. So you're better off than staying in a smaller packaging.

Lesley  15:23  
I think we see this all the time that we would, you know, what, where, where people have got these huge sort of cereal boxes on the top of fridges. And that's, you know, bulk buy in and buying bigger packs, obviously is more frugal, and it's going to save you money. And again, that's a compromise, isn't it? Because actually, if if your goal is a decluttered kitchen, a streamlined, more simple kitchen, than having you know, five boxes of cereals on the top of your fridge is not going to help you create that look. So the compromise is, do I want to save an extra 50 pay? Or actually do I want to have a decluttered? Kitchen?

Ingrid  15:56  
Yeah, yeah. Excellent. Points. All of this, Lesley. So do you think we've discussed everything? Shall we move on to logic?

Lesley  16:03  
Yeah.

Ingrid  16:04  
Okay. So what else do we want to include in this podcast? What do we want to say?

Lesley  16:11  
I'm gonna say we've talked a little bit about logic, how are we in terms of having all your, you know, your tea in your cafe together with your mugs near your kettle? You know, it's logical and accessible to have things in good places that are not going to drop them and so on. But really think about what works for you. Because, again, you know, with all decluttering, there is not a one size fits all, what makes perfect sense to you. It might make you No, I'm just trying to think of an example. But some people might not think it's logical to have you, they might think it's logical to have you, Paul says, like you sort of, I don't know, pinto beans or whatever, if you've got things like that in with your tins of kidney beans are not in with your pastures. So it's all about what's logical and what makes sense for you, and what makes sense to me as a cork. And what makes sense to somebody else is completely different. Yeah. So but the most important thing is that you go through that thought process of where would that be if I wanted to find it? You can find it easily.

Ingrid  17:06  
Yeah. And I think also, again, what I would like to mention, again, to our listeners, is to say, really, when you take stuff out and you know you've got the same kind of item in different cupboards, get it out all together first. So if you know there's kind of rogue Tupperware in four different cupboards, first find try and find most of it, do a bit of a declutter, and then think what is the best place to put things and when you see the volume of stuff, and you've decluttered some of it and it's much easier also to decide where the best places to live? And, again, the heavy stuff, I think on below the counter lighter stuff up, because then you've got less chance of hurting yourself. We tried to get something out of a cupboard.

Lesley  17:53  
Yeah, just talking about Tupperware. I mean, you've been to my house. And you've seen how I keep my water bottles and my Tupperware which can expand and go crazy and quite difficult to keep together. So you know, I'm not the kind of person who is really meticulous and would line up every lead and things together. I know this, again, disappointing as a Declutter. But I'm all about sort of real life. And I'm busy in the same way that everybody else is. And so actually, I just want to put my Tupperware and I want to know where it is. And it all needs to be together. And so yes, I'll make sure that everything's got a lid and so on. But what I do my Tupperware has to go into a top cupboards because I haven't got any, any cupboards at the bottom that would fit it. So I use a big basket, just one of those collapsible baskets. And I just took all my Tupperware in there, lift it down route around for what I want to find, and then take it from there. Exactly the same with the water bottles and flasks as well. Yeah, because you know, with a with five of us in the house, we use a lot of water bottles, and that's definitely increasing at the moment with the move away from single use plastic. Yeah.

Ingrid  18:53  
Excellent points, all of this. So listeners, what do you think about this? Have you thought about streamlining your kitchen and putting stuff in the right place and having stuff accessible and putting stuff so you can find it? Just have a think about have a look around in your kitchen? Where's everything living at the moment? Can you declutter some things that you hardly use all the time, and then you're well on your way to a more organised kitchen. So listeners, we're getting to the end of our podcast here. Lesley, any final thoughts you want to share?

Lesley  19:27  
Yeah, I think I you know, we could talk for hours and hours, and we need to come back at a future day about, you know, how to physically declutter a kitchen and give you some more hints and tips about that. But I think for today, the purpose of today was to get you to really think about your kitchen, whether or not you're thinking about things like accessibility, compromise and logic. Those are the three things focus on those looking every cupboard this weekend, and really take a long hard look at your kitchen and see whether or not it's working for you.

Ingrid  19:55  
Perfect. Well, listeners, thank you so much for taking the time. to listen today, if you'd like to get more tips and advice, please follow us on social media. We are on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook and have a lively supportive Facebook group community where we chat all things clutter and we'd love to see you there. If you don't want to miss the next weekly episode, subscribe to the declutter have podcast on iTunes and Stitcher, and it will pop into your notifications each Friday. Thanks for listening. See you next time.

Outro  20:30  
Thanks for listening to this week's episode of the Declutter Hub Podcast. Check out declutterhub.com For more inspiration. Don't forget to tune in next week.

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Looking for more advice on decluttering your kitchen? Check out our blog post below...

Increasingly, the kitchen is the hub of the family home, so it needs to function like a well oiled machine. But what are the secret ingredients to declutter your kitchen?

Accessibility

It’s YOUR kitchen so you need a system that works for YOU. If you are a simple cook that relies heavily on convenience, don’t fall into the trap of being aspirational.You just don’t need all the latest gizmos and gadgets. But if your cooking is Michelin star worthy, then you’re going to need more than just a knife and a chopping board to see you through.

Compromise!

But keep in mind your kitchen isn’t a tardis, because it’s only got so many cupboards. If you want to declutter your kitchen, you need to compromise. Having the well organised kitchen of your dreams is a fine art but here are just a few ideas to make yours work better for you.

Have all your heavy pots and pans right where you need them, adjacent to or underneath your cooker.
Don’t mix food and non food together. Pots in one area, cereals in another. It helps create a more hygienic workspace.
Whilst lining up cans and bottles in your cupboard may seem over the top, it allows you to see exactly what you have and helps avoid overbuying.
Having a Le Mans unit is a huge plus in a kitchen. You can try to recreate one with two plastic boxes, one in the corner and one in the front. Put seldom used pots and pans in there and it will make accessibility so much easier.
If you are planning a kitchen from scratch, incorporate plenty of space for recycling so it’s not littering up your kitchen floor.
If you’re struggling for space, use your walls. Storage in between your wall and base units can eradicate the need for a utensils drawer.
If you’re a cook, those spice racks with space for six spices aren’t going to cut it. The best way to make your herbs and spices accessible is using a cupboard. If they are at low level use a marker to write on the top of the spice. That way, you can see exactly what they are from above as well as at eye level.
Shelves often adjust in modern kitchens so choose shelf heights that are suitable for your needs. You don't want that oversize wine glass ending up with the dog food, so think about swapping the glass for a smaller one.
If you don’t have space, don’t bulk buy. If your shelves are not high enough for a 750g of cereal, buy a 500g one instead. Don’t even think about decanting cereals into plastic containers unless you are super organised or live alone. It will just never happen.
If you’re a cook that likes to have things to hand, bear in mind that a wall cupboard is not TOO far away from the worksurface and can help create a more streamlined space.
Finally, declutter your kitchen. Very few British kitchens have ample space. If you haven’t used that gravy separator for 5 years, it’s time to say goodbye!