A graphic of a neat and organised cupboard under the stairs
Episode 28 – Take back control of your understairs cupboard

In this podcast, Lesley and Ingrid talk about how can take back control of your understairs cupboard. An understairs cupboard is like a tardis! It’s incredible what fits in there and once you start taking it all out don’t be surprised it can be quite chaotic for awhile. We discuss what kind of things we have found, what the biggest problems are and how to sort it.
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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 hosts professional organisers, Ingrid Jansen, and Lesley Spellman.

Ingrid  0:30  
Hello, and welcome listeners to Episode 28 of the Declutter Hub Podcast. I'm Ingrid.

Lesley  0:35  
And I'm Lesley. 

Ingrid  0:36  
If you have clutter and want to sort it out, this is to show for you. In today's episode, Lesley and I are talking about taking back control of your Understairs cupboard. Now an Understairs cupboard is like a tardis. It's actually incredible what we've seen there. And once you start taking it all out, don't be surprised it can be quite chaotic for a while. What do you see Lesley,

Lesley  0:59  
I mean, the amount of Understairs cupboards that I've done. And literally, the contents of a tiny cupboard can fill a whole Lounge floor when I take them all out. So it is probably one of the most chaotic things to do, because it's all kind of contained, isn't it, and then you take it all out. And it's kind of this crazy amount of stuff that stacked up and thrown in. And so but they are quite critical to getting the home organised and keeping things moving. So it's important to make it work right for you. But I think for a lot of people, it's just become this kind of cupboard of doom hasn't really worked and just gets kind of chopped in. Yeah. And so we're going to talk today about some of the things that we can do to try and make your Understairs cupboard. And we talked about Understairs cupboards, but a lot of people have got some kind of cupboard. Often it's Understairs. And I think the Understairs bit is the thing that makes it awkward because the shape is a little bit awkward. But it might be that you're going to flat stairs, and it might just be that hallway cupboards. But to be fair, a hallway cupboard is nicer than an Understairs cupboard, if I'm honest. Yeah. But it's just that kind of catch all cupboard that's in a central area in your home that we're talking about today. Yeah.

Ingrid  2:03  
So I mean, the stuff I found so what kind of stuff do we fight? I mean, it's Teddy. I actually really liked doing underscores because you never know what you find what's in there. So what's some snapper? Yeah. Actually, I tell you one thing before we get into all the nitty gritty, I think I actually found foil of Lake Land from it must have been the 70s. It was like in this beautiful box of a super sturdy, it was like awesome. And it was still a brilliant condition. I mean, the box was very dusty, because nobody had touched it on the CES cover for about 25 years, but the foil itself was still going

Lesley  2:37  
well, the kinds of things that you find and again, it's going to be very different depending on what kind of family you are, isn't it but you know, things like sports equipment and sticks. Women's stuff is in there. Coats, shoes, umbrellas. Yep. hats, scarves and gloves for the winter.

Ingrid  2:54  
Yeah. Cleaning products, Hoover's

Lesley  2:57  
brushes AppleCare. Yep. Tools quite often are in there. Yeah,

Ingrid  3:02  
light bulbs and batteries and keys and kind of things to fix stuff.

Lesley  3:07  
bags for life been breeding. Yeah. Like, that's my little thing. And it makes a life. I'm like, How many bags for life does one person need? So? Yeah, bags for life. And then you know, often people will put memorabilia in there as well. You might find photographs in there. There's all kinds of things you

Ingrid  3:26  
can food. I've actually recently found a garden grass, kind of to get the weeds out one of those Yeah, we see things a plan to growing stuff

Lesley  3:37  
where you might have got, you know, if you've not got a shed outside and yeah, in a small property might have garden tools. And then is it any wonder that the Understairs cupboard is a little bit out of control? With all the things that we've just mentioned,

Ingrid  3:48  
suitcases stuff at a charity shop? I mean, the list is endless, right? Everything, everything, so it's okay, so whatever you find here on this test cupboard, don't worry. I think we've all seen it. And I've been there. So what are the general problems with Understairs cupboards,

Lesley  4:07  
uh, first things first, there's always too much stuff in them. Yeah. So we have to try and get that down to a minimum. And so we have to be quite ruthless. And I think a lot of people believe that if it's in the Understairs cupboard, it's in a good place. And you're going to be able to get to it really easily, and so on. But if there's too much stuff in there, that's not going to happen. So sometimes we may need to distribute things around the rest of the house if we can to create a little bit more ordering there with a little bit less stuff in there. Because a lot of the stuff that's in there to be fair, we need you know, so we're not really probably going to be chucking a lot of it away. Some of it will be able to go of course, but for the most part if there's anywhere else in the house that it can go that's always a good thing. But yes, I think too much stuffing in Understairs cupboard. Yeah. Is 90% of the problem if yes, yeah.

Ingrid  4:52  
Not having it accessible, not having everything labelled. I think that's also part of the problem with Understairs cupboards as well.

Lesley  4:59  
I think yeah. Because I think you know, we will talk a lot about a lot of times on these podcasts about accessibility and compromise and logic, don't we, it's hard to be that logical with an Understairs cupboard. It's not a kitchen, it's a bit of a catch all cupboard really isn't, it's not, you can't be as logical as you are in a bathroom or a kitchen or a bedroom or whatever. So it just has to be a bit of everything a bit of a mishmash. So the logic side of it goes out of the window. But compromise is definitely something and that's what I'm talking about. Maybe actually, some of these things, we can't have them right at the heart of the home, we might need to distribute them elsewhere. So that the stuff that's left can be accessible. Yes, accessibility is really key. Yeah. And it's quite simple to do to be honest, isn't it?

Ingrid  5:41  
Yeah. Also, I think, a lot of times, there's no light, yeah, which makes it very dark and kind of dingy. And you kind of really, you almost dread opening the door, because you can't really see what's going on in there. So if you're lucky enough with a light in your Understairs cupboard, that's excellent. And if you don't have a light, we can, I think really advise to, I mean, you've even got these little pressure on lights that are on batteries. And maybe that's the solution if you don't want to put electricity there and light fitting and everything. But I think that would be really helpful to make it visible, you need to have light.

Lesley  6:12  
I think as soon as a space becomes sort of dark and dingy, that's when you start throwing things in as soon as it becomes out of control, then you just throw more stuff in on top. And that is when it becomes completely out of control. Yeah. But yes, it's a light, it's really critical. So yeah, absolutely, you know, if you can get an electrician in to put a light in perfect, but there are other solutions out there on the market that are cheap, and a quick fix.

Ingrid  6:38  
Another thing I wanted to add here as well is that what I see a lot of times is that there's no proper flooring, so it's just the floorboards. And first of all, it's always feels very, very dusty and a bit grimy. And also you can really hurt yourself. If you've if you've got the floorboards you know, before you know it, you got to splint through your hands as well. So if you are thinking about decluttering, your Understairs cupboard, also look at the floor and see if you can find a piece of carpet somewhere that you can put it in or maybe a piece of liner, or maybe you can get a remnant from your local carpet, a shop actually put something on the floor. So it's much easier than to keep it tidy and clean. Yeah,

Lesley  7:14  
I think it is really it just jumps back again to what we're talking about lighting, I think it's a really important part of the home. And you need to treat it in the same way that you want to do it. So, you know, I know I did my dad's flat a couple of weeks ago, and we had the whole flat decorated and that he's flat. So it's not an Understairs cupboard. But it's kind of one of those big cupboards where you put everything. And my dad said, Oh, don't need to decorate that it's fine. And I just said, you know, let's just brighten it up a little bit. And it makes it just much more appealing to put stuff away. All we need to do is whitewash it with a bit of brilliant white paint a bit of Magnolia, we're not talking anything major here, but a bit of vinyl, and a bit of paint goes and a light goes a long way to making it just much more desirable to be in there and put things away. And it lets Mitch have a little bit more pride in it as well. And I think that's really important. Yeah,

Ingrid  8:00  
yeah, yeah, true. Absolutely true. Now, of course, the big question is, how are we going to sort this out? Because it can feel a bit overwhelming. I mean, if you really have a messy Understairs cupboard, I mean, like we said before, it is absolutely incredible how much you can pack in there. So

Lesley  8:17  
we're even aware Sam is scared. Yeah,

Ingrid  8:20  
we know I like I like

Lesley  8:25  
it. Yeah. How are we going to fix it? Well, first things first, everything has to come out. Yeah. And so you're gonna have to create a space somewhere, probably not the hallway. So you probably going to have to take the stuff out of your Understairs cupboard, and find a space on your Lounge floor on your dining room floor in the kitchen floor. Because if you put all that stuff in your hallway, you're gonna break your neck. Yeah. So. So we need to you know, so logistically, we've really got to think about where that's going to go. And so you almost need to create some space in one of those rooms before you started doing the Understairs cupboard. Yeah, so there is definitely a sort of knock on effect isn't really with that. Yeah, but don't put it on your hall because otherwise, it's just, you know, we've got to try and break down the overwhelming feeling haven't worked. Yeah.

Ingrid  9:06  
And I think also, now you're listening to our podcast, we are already warning you that be prepared for a bit of mayhem. Be prepared that everything in anything comes out of that cupboard, and that's okay. We're going to talk through how you're going to do that. But if you're going everything out, it can be a bit messy, but don't worry, you know, it's fine. It's going to be fine, but be prepared for that.

Lesley  9:27  
It gets worse before it gets better. Yeah, to be fair, most Yes, see, clutters get worse before they get bad. Yeah, I don't know. But I think Understairs cupboards just have that added element of

Ingrid  9:38  
randomness as well. You know what I found as well. Paint tins of paint.

Lesley  9:42  
Oh, I know what else goes in there. What wrapping paper

Ingrid  9:46  
bags? Yeah,

Lesley  9:47  
I mean, we could go on for I know find what we find. Yeah, yeah. True. Nice cupboard,

Ingrid  9:53  
having happiness. Well, actually, my Understairs cupboard is as I have actually got three cupboards in my hallway. I'm feel very lucky. So it My true answers come but there's actually toys. Yeah. Okay, so because I've got two other nice kind of more taller cupboards than where I can put my Hoover and I actually was able to create some shelving where my buckets and my ironing board and all of that stuff and my shoe polish and my cleaning stuff in my batteries and all that little mentioned

Lesley  10:20  
Superlux do. You got? Yeah,

Ingrid  10:23  
right. Well, we digress. So you take everything out and then what the next step is that you start to categorise. So actually put your coats, shoes, umbrellas, hats and scarves together, put your cleaning product, your Hoover's and your brush together, put your tools, your light bulbs, your batteries together, put your sports equipment together. So you start to create categories in the kind of mountain of stuff. And then it's much easier to have an overview of what you have. And then think about what actually do I want to put back in this Understairs cupboard and what can go elsewhere so it's easy to see. So I think before you kind of start to run around your house trying to find other places for stuff first categorise it, I think that's really important. Yeah,

Lesley  11:05  
definitely categorise it first. And then, you know, we've said before, you've got to be ruthless here, because what we're aiming for is less stuff. If we've got stuff, it can be more accessible and easier to work with. So it's either going to be decluttering it and getting rid of some stuff in decent volumes as well. Because a lot of that stuff will have been stuffed down the back of that Understairs cupboard for donkey's years, to be honest. Yeah, yeah, not all of it under stuff that's close to the door of the cupboard, we'll probably be getting used every day. But there's a lot of stuff that's hidden at the back, that we're probably not going to need not used it for years. And so we really need to ask those vital questions. Do we need it? Do we use it? Do we love it? In order to ascertain how we move forward with that, then it is about trying to you know, it's hard when we talk about declutter, it's very hard to talk about an Understairs cupboard as a single unit, because all decluttering in the house is all quite holistic, isn't it? And we need to kind of look at the whole house to try and find places for things. We've got to tackle one thing at a time. So it may be that we can think well, actually, I know that once I've done my kitchen declutter that I will have a space for batteries and bulbs in my kitchen, which might be a little bit easier. So just need to sort of do a little bit of forward planning as well. Yeah. But ultimately, we're looking for the absolute essentials to be in that Understairs cupboard. Yeah,

Ingrid  12:19  
but I completely agree with you. Be ruthless, then see if you can move some things elsewhere. And then of course, you've got that shell to work with. And then you have to start being creative and think, Okay, can I maybe put some shelving in? Can I add some hooks? Which maybe is helpful? Can I maybe if we can't do shelving, can I use stackable boxes that I can label so I start to use labelling for things and then you kind of start to move forward into being able to retrieve items. Yeah,

Lesley  12:51  
I mean, shelving is brilliant. I mean, I love the boxes, just because I don't know how to explain it. But the angles of the Understairs cupboard go down down towards the bottom and whether at the bottom step then if you will, yeah, you might be able to fit one box and then you might the next little row along you might be able to fit two stackable boxes and the next one you might be able to fit three stackable boxes along the way work really well because you can angle it up as the space increases very hard to explain when I'm talking Yeah. And so are

Ingrid  13:18  
you mean like with debt? They have drawers in them?

Lesley  13:21  
No, I just use it. You know how much I love those collapsible boxes. Yeah, I use them for absolutely everything has been kitchen cupboards. I use them for sorting like with like I use them in in lofts and garages and everywhere. But probably the best place that I use them for if we can't instal shelving is in Understairs cupboard, just because of that flexibility of them. Yeah. And so you know, I'm talking about the ones that are three pound three pound 50 that collapse down. Yeah, go flat. You can get for B and Q, you can get them Tescos. Right. Amazon wherever. Yeah, you know, they're not expensive. They're not the most durable things in the world. But actually, there are 350. So if they break every now and again, we can replace them. Yeah, obviously there are more expensive versions that don't break. But I think they're brilliant as a kind of, you know, as a quick, simple, cheap fix to something. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And something those boxes and that's where your categorization then is going to come if your stuff can go somewhere else. If your tools can go in your garden, shed put them in your garden shed. Yeah, yeah. So if there's a possibility for them to go elsewhere in the house, use that possibility. Yeah, if they have to stay in your Understairs cupboard. That's when we need to start using stackable boxes, categorising things, putting things in together in a minute as best we can for accessibility. Yeah, I mean, what I always try and achieve if I can, and it's not always possible, depending on the size of the cupboard, is that I can walk down the set. So I want boxes on one side of the cupboard and the ability to be able to walk down and see everything. Not always possible, but that's what I'm always aiming for. Yeah,

Ingrid  14:50  
yeah. Yeah. Very good. Very good advice. And again, you know, like we said before, don't forget if you can put a light in to make it all far more vivid. trouble for you? Yes. Now of course, these are more kind of easier stackable boxes, cheap solutions. But there's some really nice storage solutions as well. Isn't there, Lesley? Oh, yeah.

Lesley  15:11  
And I think I think join us these days are getting more used to being asked for them. So I think as homes get tighter and tighter on space and smaller, then people are really looking for interesting storage solutions, particularly in Understairs cupboards. So you've got people that are using drawers pull out drawers for shoes and things and you can sort of there now it's hard to explain what they are because they're all completely bespoke. Yeah. Fantastic. Yeah. And now adays people are there all over the so Jonah's are doing this more and more, but they're gonna run probably 1000s is the bottom line.

Ingrid  15:44  
Yeah, I think I saw a photo somewhere and it was not really a massive and I think was about 800 pounds. Right. Okay. But it looked amazing. And it was several drawers, they all pulled out. It looked good. It was good quality. And that special ones for shoes and special ones for accessories. And yeah, it looks really really slick.

Lesley  16:01  
Yeah, and that's a nice solution. But I guess here at the declutter hub, we're all about keeping it real aren't when we talk about real homes and real budgets really. And so I think stackable boxes is probably where an or getting some you know, MDF shelving and is probably more achievable for most people. And the one thing that I didn't want to say about boxes and accessibility and so on is labels. And so we talked about labelling things think it's really important to have quite big labels because it's an awkward space to view. Maybe think about putting labels on different sides of it, you know, so on the top on the side, you know, don't just stick to one label because depending on which angle you're looking at it you might be looking from the top map look from the side. So don't be scared and this counts for anywhere where you're doing where you're stuck in boxes up. Sorry Ingrid was just your name was not.

Ingrid  16:57  
Please continue please listeners don't listen to a word Lesley say that's not true at all. I was just breathing and maybe a bit too loudly or something. I don't know what I did. But she got them all off. You were talking about labels. 

Lesley  17:09  
Let's talk about layers. Take me right off track now. Yeah, well, that's your own fault. So yeah, so what I was saying about labels don't be scared of putting labels on the top of box on the side on the short side on the way so I can't take it seriously now my labels

Ingrid  17:28  
I was just really concentrating and listening to you Lesley, because as always, you feel complete sense to me. So listeners, are you going to tackle this dreaded Understairs cupboard. We'd love to see some before and after pictures of your work in our Facebook group community and we'd love to support you there as well. So we hope you've enjoyed listening to the podcast about taking back control of your Understairs cupboard and we appreciate your listening to us and if you'd like more tips and advice please follow us on social media. We are an Instagram Twitter and Facebook and have a life we support a 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 declutter hub podcast on iTunes, Spotify and Stitcher and it will pop into your notifications each Friday. See you next time. Thanks for listening. Bye.

Outro  18:20  
Thanks for listening to this week's episode of The declutter hub podcast. Check out declutterhub.com For more inspiration, and don't forget to tune in next week.
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