Transcript
Speaker: This is Life Admin Life Hacks. techniques, tips and tools. to tackle life admin and housework more efficiently. So you get back your time. Your money. and your peace of mind.
Speaker: Heh heh heh. I'm Christy Flora, a time management coach who, if I had my way, would get all my meals either through a pill or by dining with other people. Unfortunately, my kitchen still requires my participation. I'm Mia Northrop, a researcher and writer who loves it when you visit people's homes and their kitchen organization just makes sense. you can find the glasses easily and they don't have
Speaker: Heh heh heh. Hello and welcome to Life Admin Life Hacks. I wanted to start this episode with a gorgeous quote by Andrew Zimmern, who's an American chef and restaurateur and TV host. And it's...
Speaker: Everything happens in the kitchen. Life happens in the kitchen. And it's so true that you know the kitchen is the hub of the home. It's the heart of the household. You're hanging out there at least three times a day.
Speaker: feeding yourself, feeding others, cleaning up. And when the kitchen functions well, the whole house feels under control. And when the kitchen is chaos, I feel like the whole home feels out of kilter.
Speaker: And we all know that. calm zen feeling when the kitchen is clean and tidy it's like my domestic life is as it should be and like anything is possible here I think it's really... goes to the the heart of kitchen systems being important because it's a space that gets used so regularly. And when it's not working well, it has this ripple effect on everything else in the home.
Speaker: I often use the kitchen as a great example for people's organising journeys, if they're starting out or refreshing, because the kitchen, it's so function based. So it it really reflects what are we doing in that space? and
Speaker: Everything needs to be set up to support that. So it's a great example for how the rest of your organization. could work as well, similarly to to your introduction. When we go to Airbnbs or... what not or those places.
Speaker: it doesn't take as much time to figure out where things are placed so it is a really interesting place. Forum. Yeah, organisation, exploration. I find it so you mentioned going to Airbnbs. isn't it I just find it funny when you go to some people's houses and you're like. where wear are the glasses and they're like oh in that corner cupboard over there and you're like This is like...
Speaker: The glasses and the plates. and the cutlery the three things you go to so and you've got it over there like so far from the dishwasher like taxi how do you get all this blows my mind how some people I haven't thought it through. I just haven't noticed how much friction that brings.
Speaker: And as you say, when you go to an Airbnb and things you just like intuit. I'm hoping the glasses and mugs are here and here they are. I'm hoping the plates are here and here they are. Like there are systems that work in kitchens.
Speaker: And there'd be dragons if you set up your kitchen in a way that's... That of doesn't really work for you or anybody else. So, yes, it does have that. outsized de effect.
Speaker: And, you know, if you bring some self -awareness to how you cook and how you clean up and how to put things away, it makes a big difference in the flow of work that happens happens to happen in the kitchen.
Speaker: So where do you start with those kinds of clients? Do you you get them to think about? like their cooking personality and how they... like to cook or how they go about cooking.
Speaker: where Where do you begin? Yeah, yeah. So understanding your cooking. personality and what what fits within your house is is so important so are you a recipe follower Are you an improviser? Are you a batch cooker, assembler, or a reluctant cook? so Where do you fall on that? What does your kitchen need to provide for you?
Speaker: that is very useful. as a starting point and so and what are you on all of those things what what's I you said in your intro you'd like you'd be happy to have every meal as a pill So im yeah I'm assuming. Not a big fan of Cookie.
Speaker: ha not a big fan of cooking no so my partner and I uh we do well we we had done meal boxes And then we collected the recipes that we liked from there. And now we just repeat.
Speaker: He does the cooking and I do the dishes. That's kind of how we operate. And I haven't cooked in a while. I mean, I do my. I do my breakfast every morning with my eggs and avocado. Yep. Sorry.
Speaker: I am a reluctant cook, but I follow recipes. how about yeah yeah I am. My ex -husband was in it. it is an excellent cook, like beautiful food. All the time. So he did a lot of the dinner cooking. When I had small children, they broke my love of cooking. just being fussy eaters and Restrictive. diets. I just never want to cook again.
Speaker: I thank HelloFresh for teaching them how to cook during the pandemic, frankly. We used to get lots of meal kits and they got really adept at being able to follow recipes and now we have some family favourites that they can make with zero supervision and they're both...
Speaker: I think too with our dad's influence, really confident in the kitchen and will make all sorts of things, which I love. My daughter said to me this week, she said, I would happily trade making dinner if you would do your homework. And I said, If that were ethical, I would take that trade. like You could have dinner. I would do your...
Speaker: polynomial equations if i can remember how to do them still but um you know ah That's how much I hate it. So I definitely need a recipe. I definitely meal plan.
Speaker: I definitely clean as I go because I also can't stand the mess. And the kids, you know, help out. I get them to do something as part of it so that it divvies up the work.
Speaker: there's not the same person doing all the cooking and cleaning afterwards that's the recipe for Nightmare. Yeah, you might my upbringing was very different to your kids in that.
Speaker: My mom is an excellent cook. but very much her way. So in the kitchen. Even if you wanted to help. It was like... we didn't know her way of doing it so I kind of came out of the house and was like how do I do this? I was like, ah, and then, yeah.
Speaker: HelloFresh really got me. me but Thank you, HelloFresh. Yep. So, okay, so you've worked out in your partnership who's doing what to make dinner happen. What else, what else are like your other routines or systems that just makes the kitchen?
Speaker: flow. Yeah, so I work from home. So the kitchen is like my second second spot during the workday. So as you were saying about... people's mugs being very far away from you know.
Speaker: the kettle or whatnot like all of that is grouped together and that's something to consider like your prime real estate so The real estate, how is that being used? Are things together that need to be together? So I've got like my tea bags, my coffee near the kettle with the mugs. Like it's just.
Speaker: all. together and I set up my snacks for the for the day as well on the bench. And. dishes we don't actually have a dishwasher so we're in a bit of an older house so The last time I had a dishwasher was
Speaker: several years ago. Even after that, it had been a break. Gosh, they're good. I don't know how you're surviving, but keep going. So I do the dishes. so So my partner cooks and then I do the dishes afterwards because he hates dishes so much that he would prefer to cook, which I just.
Speaker: I think I'm winning there. So that's good. Yep. Yeah, and i I like to do them before. The day is finished. I like waking up to a... a clean sink. And it just means that my.
Speaker: My morning. breakfast is uh is smoother and um Yeah. Future Christy is always like, oh, this is nice. Nice start. Thank you. Thank you, Class Christy, yeah. I think that that environment design, like think of your kitchen as a workspace first.
Speaker: and set it up for convenience so as you said grouping Things that are used together, you know. convenient way so they're easy to access and you're not reaching for different things and doing laps to just bring a meal to get like bring breakfast together or to make a cup of tea so that kind of environmental design what are the things that I i use frequently or I use together
Speaker: What are the appliances that I use in a blue moon? Where can they go? And and having all of the workhorse appliances and tools. within easy access. So in my kitchen next to the stove, I've got oil, I've got salt, I've got pepper, that's always there.
Speaker: There's the toy stuff. There's the... SodaStream, ThingyBob. They're always out. I've got all my... Chopping boards there because everybody needs their own chopping board apparently whenever they're making food. So they're all sitting there. And and there's fruit. There's a little basket to capture.
Speaker: It's sort of in the hotspot area because kitchen benches notoriously are hotspots for unopened mail and keys. and Crap. but There's a little basket that people can chuck that in to kind of just...
Speaker: Gather it all and keep it out of the way. And then, yeah, I really think about. in the drawers and the cupboards where is everything that I use frequently versus What can I put in the corners of things that aren't used as frequently?
Speaker: And I would really encourage people to take a... cold hard look at How many glosses and mugs and cutlery? I have. Have all the the utensils in the utensils drawer.
Speaker: What are those things that you bought that you thought? Yeah. i I love... I'm going to get an an egg topper because when I have a hard -boiled egg, I really like to get a nice clean cut of it. Like you see them, they pop up at market. You think, yeah, that's useful.
Speaker: And you'll use it twice and then you're never going to use it again. Or you've bought yourself a fancy mandolin because you're like, yeah, I'm going to shred my nice carrots when I make my rice paper rolls. And then you terrify yourself because you've taken off a layer of skin and you're too scared to use it. Get rid of it.
Speaker: if You've got like a food dehydrator that you thought was a good idea that you could use once. You know. air air fryers but there are things there's some people like yeah i use my dehydrator every week i use my air fryer it does belong on the bench because we use it all the time so just just look at the stuff you've got and decide these are my work causes these are my frequent things i need them accessible and convenient for everybody in the house who has to use them And then... ja
Speaker: You know. re -home everything else, let go of all the other things that are just taking up space. making it harder to get to the things that you actually use. Yes, yes. Yeah, a couple things on that. If you have a popcorn maker or an ice cream maker or something that you were like, that seemed like a great idea, that should definitely be up the back. So thinking about things that like...
Speaker: i'm not touching that i'm not using it as frequently as my dinner plates or my pots or whatnot that should be up the front so Thinking back to that friction, it's like... Are you having to reach over stuff?
Speaker: to get the things that you reach, that you use all the time. Like move that around and just just be conscious of. am I adding more effort to this than I need to? Yeah. And I guess the other aspect of that is the things that you do use all of the time.
Speaker: are they actually quality and yeah are they not adding friction as well so just having
Speaker: some good set of knives that are actually sharp. if you If you haven't got a way of sharpening your knives, find a way of sharpening your knives. I know my little farmer's market, there's ah there's a knife guy. you can You can rock up with a bag of knives and while you're going and doing a lap, he'll sharpen your knives for you. You know, in the olden days, people used to come and knock at your door and sharpen your knives. I kind of wish that was still a thing, though it would be a bit weird just having a man standing there now with all the knives. I have actually used the bottom of the ceramic. Oh.
Speaker: To shop in and on. Is that the scene? Yeah, that's a bit of a, like, desperate situation. A desperate hack. Almost knife. Kids, like if you buy a set of knives, they'll come with a rod or you can just go and buy a knife block.
Speaker: And... you know, the hardware store or... Kitchen supply stores and there's heaps of YouTubes out there showing you how to sharpen your knives. You just sit there at nighttime sharpening your knives while you're watching television. That's not weird at all.
Speaker: but Yeah, so knives is one thing and then, you know. Pots and pans. Do you have a decent... frying pan that actually the stuff doesn't stick to it's not coated in teflon that in plastic to your every meal just having those quality workhorse pieces that make cooking.
Speaker: less hard. And the clean up less hard. There's nothing like. you know making scrambled eggs on a pan that takes two days then to clean afterwards. These are things that you're going to use so frequently that are worth investing in once to make your life so much smoother. going forward. Yeah. Yeah. And if you like the look of something and you're excited to use it, it just makes the whole process so much. more enjoyable.
Speaker: I was thinking when when I moved in with my partner, we we had the luxury of having an empty... corner. cabinet. And we put... everything that we thought.
Speaker: maybe we don't need that we put that in there and we gave it six months so If over the six months we pulled it out, it stayed. And then after the six months, we were like, well, the rest can get decluttered.
Speaker: i've I've heard of other situations where people will... um pull out all their utensils and put them in a you know an upstanding container or whatnot yeah and put back what they need and that's a really great way of decluttering. your space too It's like how many times did you need that mini whisk? Maybe the mini whisk can go.
Speaker: Well, there's seven wooden spoons. Maybe you just need one. I don't know why they sell wooden spoons in packs of like five. Why do you need 500 spoons? Maybe I'm not doing enough baking, but anyway. I'm also thinking about just.
Speaker: there's sort of you know there's seasonality to some things in our kitchen so I have like a big pressure cooker, slow cooker thing. I only use it in winter. It comes out on the bench. and Then it goes back for the summer and there'll be other seasonal things that belong in different you know storage solutions in your in your kitchen as well. So have a think about what's seasonal.
Speaker: Samia, tell me, what does your kitchen look like when life gets really busy? Well, if we were to pan the camera. uh around the corner right now it's saturday morning which is busy time in our house because everyone's going off to sport The bench space is littered with cereal bowls. there's protein powder.
Speaker: Packs. There's dirty glasses, there's messy chopping boards, there's a heaving... compost bin But that's okay because I know when... in the day we're going to get to it. So it doesn't stress me out when the kitchen you know, gets in a mess because that's his life. that's what That's what the kitchen looks like when it's been used.
Speaker: And I know that later this afternoon everyone everyone will come home. and they'll finally put their bowls in the dishwasher and we'll get on top of it. It's quite different in midweek, so on a school day and a work day.
Speaker: The kitchen's usually clean by the time we leave the house, so we're all in our little... routines. bowls go in the dishwasher i will make lunch boxes and put things as i go away so that we can come home to a space that's ready for snacks and it's ready for making dinner.
Speaker: Because I know I'll be tired. We're all frazzled. And that's like a little gift to my future you. Whereas my future me, I should say, where it's like this afternoon, it's fine. up I'm just going to be chilling at home anyway. So I know I don't have to be so on top of it in the morning. So there's a bit of an ebb and flow.
Speaker: in terms of when life gets really busy. But there's sort of routines I do at night time. I... usually tidy up at night I'll put the dishwasher in dishwasher on is the last thing I do so that when I wake up in the morning it is easy Very. rarely i like let it go sometimes i do let it go at night because i've just had had a day but i know my morning self will be fine to to put it away and then when i get up in the morning the first thing i do is i empty the dishwasher so that we have
Speaker: obviously everything we need for brekkie but also we can start putting things back in there as soon as cereal happens or eggs or Whatever. luxurious thing we're having for breakfast so there's those little rhythms that just help Busy times feel smoother.
Speaker: I think there's also... I guess when ah when we're making dinner, there's also some like routines we borrow from restaurant life that help dinner happen more smoothly. One is about meal planning and just knowing what's for dinner and having put out. whatever needs thawing the night before so we're good to go but also just you know A bit of mise en place, so putting out ingredients and utensils that you're going to need to make the meal before you start cooking.
Speaker: So it's like you get the stuff from the fridge in the pantry. I've got my ingredients. I've got my measuring cups if I need to measure things. I've got all my utensils and pots out and it's like, all right, the stage is set.
Speaker: I think mise en place literally means putting everything in place in French. Just putting it all there. And then we execute. And I find that just helps me. kind of concentrate better. I'm not in the middle of.
Speaker: you know, trying to melt butter and then like, where is the garlic thing? And, you know, is it's all just there and you can start because i'm I'm. not a very good cook i can bend something just by it's like what's happening and then i look back and it's like oh well that's dead i need everything there so that So that helps me. And then, as I said before, I kind of put away things as I go. I usually fill the sink with some hot water so I can just chuck things in and they can soak a little bit. before I... put them in the dishwasher or someone hand washes it.
Speaker: And then at the end we have like a little kitchen reset. so Stuff is away. What did we run out of? Let's add that to the grocery list. What's happening for tomorrow's meals? Do I need to put anything out to Thor?
Speaker: you know, just that kind of like like ah like a restaurant closes up, that closing close down list. It's just the reset. So that you can. Do it all again tomorrow without much fuss. You know you put away the leftovers.
Speaker: empty the bins, that kind of thing, and just, yeah, wipe the benches. and they were ready. How about you? What do you do in your house to just keep those systems humming?
Speaker: Keep the systems humming. Yeah, always. Thinking of the workflow, so putting things back. So thinking, what's the next logical step here? Where are things going? and getting it ready for the for the next time so um yeah Just setting it up for success. I was going to ask you in those moments where you're like...
Speaker: where maybe the Maybe it's out of control or you're just like... Just time. maybe the energy is low and you're like how do you motivate yourself to do the next step to actually reset
Speaker: ah Well, as I said, sometimes I'm like, I don't feel like doing this now. I'm just going to leave it for a little while and I know my mood will change. So, you know, if that's happening during the day. Sometimes I'll put on earbuds and listen to music or a podcast or we've got like a little. music speaker on top of our fridge. So sometimes the music goes on. Sometimes the music goes on during dinner or a podcast. Do you make dinner? So sometimes I do that. And then, you know, again...
Speaker: We talked about this in the last episode. Sometimes it's reminding myself. This is going to take four minutes. It looks like a pigsty. But I'm literally going to open the dishwasher.
Speaker: 90 % of this is going in the dishwasher. It'll all be over in four minutes. Just do it. And, you know, usually you start and, and you just you know, it is over quickly. Sometimes I'm yelling at the kids, come and help me. do that And then it's, you know.
Speaker: yeah Then we all do it together. So I don't feel like, you know, I'm being a martyr. cleaning up the kitchen by myself. I will come and insist that they help me. they Come and put your goddamn peanut butter away. What about you? what what ah How do you get in the zone? Similar in it's a discussion with myself. like Come on.
Speaker: just it's one minute it's two minutes and I almost visualize like you know the the horses with the blinders Because if I look at the whole thing. And I'm like... ah But if I zero in on like, let's just look at the kitchen bench. Okay, now let's look at what's next to the sink. Then I find that that helps me.
Speaker: get in get over that energy hurdle of yeah i just don't want to because i know it'll be better for the next time if i do it yeah Yeah. A little mental gymnastics. yeah and And how do you deal with like shopping and groceries in your house? Who does what?
Speaker: where do Do you have like a shopping list on the fridge? Do you write it down in an app? Like what are you using for that? Yeah. So I moved in with my partner. Gosh, only a year and a half ago really. And. We had a shopping list on the fridge. And we actually just finished it the other day. Is it like one of those pads where you tear it off each time? Yeah, right. Yeah, with the different different segments. And...
Speaker: my partner has a good visual memory so i would hold the list when we went shopping do it together usually early on a on a saturday sunday morning because yeah my partner's autistic and doesn't like the uh the the sound and people so so if we go in a time when it's really uh Yeah, when it's easier for him. So I'll hold the list because I don't have the visual memory. But the other day we finished that pad of paper and I had a note to myself on the the cardboard.
Speaker: to move over to to a list, to an app to an app. Yeah, right. I was really pumped about this. We tried the app. And he wasn't into it. He's like, I already hate this. So we're back to paper. paperless but look we tried the app sign up yeah And I think that's worth talking about. like So why? Because there are lots of apps out there. There are so many shopping list apps. The iPhone has a native shopping list reminder template thing.
Speaker: Why did you decide to go back to the the pad? What was it about it that worked better for for you? Yeah. Sorry. I tend to leave my phone in my office come...
Speaker: 5 30 or so i'll maybe check on it through the night but it's not with me and he's a bit the same he doesn't have his phone on him all the time so it was a bit like those few days that we didn't have this list on the fridge We were still making notes. And then it was like multiple handling. I was having to take that note and put it in the app. And so it was like.
Speaker: maybe Maybe we're okay. Maybe just a paper list is fine and we just... yes that's fine for us to take yes to the to the the supermarket. I think that's an aspect to think about. What tools do you have on your on hand?
Speaker: And sometimes paper is best, like old school. Yeah, sometimes paper is totally the answer, especially when it lives on the fridge. So as you're running out of things or reminded to need things, it's right there.
Speaker: Everyone can see it. every Everyone can contribute to it. asly You remember to take it with you when you go to the shops. We've had that in the past. Now I use the.
Speaker: the reminders list in the iPhone. And I do like that because I'll often think about things as I'm out and about and it's always with me. But we we have gone between the two. And when we did have the one on the fridge, the kids often contributed to it.
Speaker: There was always, you know, muesli bars. and Chocolate. And I think it was the reminders one on the app. You can share it so multiple people can contribute to it. I'm not 100%. I'm sure I would, yeah. But, you know. You've got to decide what works for the people in your household and there's obviously no right or wrong.
Speaker: There's also, I guess, if you're always shopping at the same place, some of the supermarket chains also have their own apps and they'll let you organize it by aisle. which can be helpful for people who just want to know. of that sort of structure when they're actually In a shop, it's like, bang, this is what I need to get from this aisle.
Speaker: And that that's how we set up our paper list too, is to visualize the... the store that we go to frequently. But um yeah, shout out to the the Woolies app. I was helping a client the other week with their shopping list and you can save it. to repeat it. like for the deliveries and I was like that's just such a help.
Speaker: just Oh, yeah. Yeah. you know If you can repeat something. What a save. say that When I was um leaning into online shopping in a big way, when my kids were younger, I just lived on online grocery shopping and I just couldn't face it.
Speaker: didn't want to make time to go there and was not going to take them with me and all of those that ability to save the shopping list save your master list was just priceless so I just go in there bang bang bang don't have to think it's all just there so for those of you who are doing online shopping or would like have a little less friction in that. totally recommend as well.
Speaker: And what about within your kitchen itself? So in the pantry, in the fridge, are you one of those people that... has organized everything to the ninth degree.
Speaker: how because sometimes i know you open some people's fridges and they've got like little plastic containers and all the yogurts are together and all the cheeses are together and it's like it's like tetris sometimes it's crazy And the pantries can be the same. We've all seen on Instagram the storage solutions and how.
Speaker: obsessive you can get about That stuff? Where are you at on that spectrum? Well, yeah, I like, like with like. So yes, yogurts together, dairy together, snacks together. and When we were doing the HelloFresh, we would have all of that on its one. Shelf? Or, you know, yeah, so everything together. So...
Speaker: when you open it. I think people would. even ah even ah Even an outsider would be able to like pick it up. yeah And I do like in my pantry, I like having the labels facing out.
Speaker: I like that. I'm like, yeah no. Okay, I can see exactly what I have. I think all spices was an interesting discussion between us around. Oh, we.
Speaker: alphabeticalizing that or are we just throwing it all in or like to yeah Where did you land? We didn't alphabeticalise it. but um when i see I would sustain that for literally one hour and then I'm like, ugh.
Speaker: Yeah. But what what I have done is with a permanent marker written on the top what the product is. cause what the the pull out thing that we have you can't see what they are and so right okay you're looking down on them Yeah, because we could we we kept buying multiple like multiple ones. Yeah, yeah, yeah. but we need to stop this so we need a different system and so now it's like onion powder And then I have one of three. And so we're not going to buy any more.
Speaker: Damn. Someone really... Someone really overshopped on the onion powder. I mean, that happens sometimes. It's, like I guess, another thing about where you're storing your food. If you can't see what you have, you are going to end up overbuying and potentially wasting a whole bunch of food because you didn't realize there was something lurking in the back.
Speaker: Yep. Okay. Well, I'm not alphabetizing anything in my kitchen, but I have like all my spices are kind of at my eye height so I can see them. But it is, it's kind of, you know, it gets deep. There's things lurking back there for sure. that have probably gone off ah the fridge i don't try and organize much at all apart from kid -friendly foods being at their eye level.
Speaker: So that's where I try and put fruit and like. little cut up vegetables and yogurts and whatever so they can see it otherwise and there's like condiments up the top and the the door stays pretty like consistent but everything else just moves around we always have lots of leftovers and whatever someone's made something and just shoved it in. So I don't try and micromanage that too much.
Speaker: And the pantry's the same. It's kind of, you know, we've zoned it out. There's one level that it has all these jars of. Things like rice and flour and... the things you put in jars. the The next level down is all like the breads and the crackers. And again, it's kind of organized so the kids can see what they're most likely to to need.
Speaker: And then up high, I have... and grit like all the tinned ingredients kinds of things because they're rarely going to be looking up there So yeah, thinking about who needs to see it and who's... accessing it.
Speaker: And where the where the change happens or the perishable stuff versus the things that sit there for six months. And it's like, oh, yes, I know I do need some psyllium husk or. Some obscure lentil.
Speaker: Uh -huh. Yeah. it's It's funny, like the level of thought that goes into these things that you use multiple times a day. And sometimes it's worth just standing back and go.
Speaker: This is chaos. This is not working for anyone. Let's just do a little bit of a shuffle. and take all the friction out of this this daily activity that needs to happen. And yeah. Put some labels on things if you need to. Get some cute containers if you want to. Yeah, think about that function. Functional form.
Speaker: And then. Often before we'll go shopping, wheel we'll do a review. Right. take Take stock, really. Look in the freezer. have a look what's been there a while so that kind of dictates what what are we What are we eating this week? Just to clear it out. Just to.
Speaker: so So it doesn't just stay in there because I think the freezer can be a bit of a... oh it's fine it's frozen it can still go up yeah get freezer bird that's some sad piece of chicken that's been in there 10 months. like All right, so.
Speaker: Top three suggestions for today. What are you going to walk away with? Let's suggest let's pick a drawer or a cupboard or a bench space to declutter today. and let go of.
Speaker: The items that you're not using. See how functional that makes your kitchen feel? We want you to try a workflow improvement to try at dinner time. So this might be the whole sort of mise en place, prepping everything out there before you start.
Speaker: or cleaning as you go, or having some kind of closing checklist. and see how that changes your cooking experience. What else? Think about... one thing in your kitchen that's really annoying you regularly and ask, why is this harder than it needs to be? What would make this?
Speaker: being easier. Okay. What are you going to what are you goingnna try? What are you taking? What night are you taking into the next week? Well, this conversation has prompted me to revisit my spices just to make sure.
Speaker: But there's not another onion powder. Bye. lurking around. We are getting on top of using that up. using that yeah yeah maybe yeah i'm gonna i'm gonna have another review take stock Take stock of my Take stock. know We have a ah ah community pantry in our area and I definitely know there's some ingredients in my. pantry that were aspirational and I am never going to use and I'm going to take them there because no doubt someone else will make.
Speaker: Better use of that. So I'm going to do a bit of a declutter of the pantry. Maybe I'll take a look at my spices too. But yeah. And there's things in the fridge as well that just it's I'm overdue for a declutter. So let's make some more space.
Speaker: I'm excited.
Speaker: You will notice. We'll notice it. um The other thing I want to mention is that we do have a meal planning template. I'll link it in the episode description. This is meal planning. who Possibly we've got... previous episodes about it that you can go and check out if you want more support with that but most meal plans often just have the space for what's you know what are you going to cook tonight.
Speaker: Our meal plan lets you jot down notes of what's actually happening on that day to think about who's going to be home, what you have to cook around. is this a elaborate meal as it's a quick dash.
Speaker: And it lets you. take into account who's cooking. and the category or theme for that day. So if you always have like meatless Monday. or taco tuesday you can put in the category of food And then where to find the recipe. So if someone else is cooking. I know what it is when you say we're having.
Speaker: I don't know, vodka pasta, which is my daughter's favorite thing now. It's like, all right, well, this is on Nagi. Go and check it out. Link in the description. Thanks for being with us today. Let us know how you refine your kitchen setup this week.
Speaker: In next episode we're looking at over -functioning and under -functioning. And what happens when one person keeps stepping in? while the other keeps stepping back. And if you've got 30 seconds, please subscribe and share this episode with a pal.
Speaker: A rating or review wherever you're listening or watching genuinely helps more people find their way to the show. Thanks for tuning in to Life Admin Life Hacks. Show notes and resources are linked in the episode description. You'll find Mia at lifeadminlifehacks .com and Christy at floorandorder .com. Sign up to each of our newsletters if you want more between episodes.
