The Lazy Genius Podcast - #260 - Let’s Lazy Genius Your Kitchen

Episode Date: May 2, 2022

Last week I shared part one of The Lazy Genius Kitchen where I teach the five steps, and today I want to apply those five steps to a few specific areas of the kitchen, just like I do in part two of the book! Now today, I’m not using any material from part two of the book; I’m not repeating what’s in there. What I am doing is taking specific problems that you all have and applying the five Lazy Genius steps to those problems to see if we can find some solutions.   Helpful Companion Links Listen to Episode #259: 5 Steps to Lazy Genius Anything Get your copy of The Lazy Genius Kitchen (out this week!) Watch The Lazy Genius Kitchen mini series Download a transcript of this episode.   This podcast is hosted by Kendra Adachi and executive produced by Kendra Adachi, Jenna Fischer and Angela Kinsey. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hello, you're listening to the Lazy Genius Podcast. I'm Kendra Adachi, and I'm here to help you be a genius about the things that matter and lazy about the things that don't. Today is a big day, you guys. Well, I mean, almost a big day. Today is the day before the release of my book, The Lazy Genius Kitchen. Today's episode 260, Your Kitchen. I feel like we have been on such a journey, you guys, to get to this.

Such a journey. What a ride. Last week, I shared with you the five steps, or as Emily P. Freeman called them when I did an episode with her for the next right thing podcast, she called the, I think that comes out tomorrow, I believe, but she called them five movements instead of steps because that is Emily's way to kindly usher us from steps to movements. And I love her for that. But last week, I shared the five steps to lazy geniusing anything in your kitchen. And frankly, anything in your whole life. There are 13 principles that I shared in my first. book, The Lazy Genius Way. And as I have spent time with those principles over the last couple of years, I have seen how they connect more organically and more orderly with each other. And I've been applying those principles in a specific order to my kitchen. And you guys, it's been amazing. And all of that amazingness is in the book, is in the lazy genius kitchen. So last week, I shared part one of the book of the lazy genius kitchen where I teach those five steps.

And today I want to apply those five steps to a few specific areas of the kitchen, just like I do in part two of the book. Now, today I'm not using any material from part two of the book. I'm not repeating what's in there at all. What I'm going to do is take specific problems that you all have, and I'm going to apply the five lazy genius steps to those problems to see if we can find some solutions. Okay. The point of this is twofold. A. it is to show you how versatile these five steps are and how they work. And then B, I want it to help you see how tending to small problems makes a huge difference. We think that the solution to our kitchen frustrations is to get a new kitchen, right? Or get new pots and pans. Learn to cook

everything because we know nothing. Reorganize the entire space. Create a whole new meal planning system. We can very, very easily spin out when we take that broad feeling of being frustrated in the kitchen, which is a real thing, when we take that big feeling and we try to solve that whole feeling with one giant choice, it's just not going to work. You know this, I know this, but we will keep saying this. The most important thing that you can do with your kitchen problems is to start small, very, very small. And today I want to share a couple of of real life examples of how to do that so that your kitchen can slowly become a place that, like the book says, it has what you need so you can use what you have and you can enjoy your

kitchen in ways that you never have before. So as a very quick reminder, the five steps to lazy geniusing anything in your kitchen are prioritize, name what matters, essentialize, get rid of what's in the way, organize, put everything in its place, personalize, personalize, personalize, feel like yourself, and systemize. Keep things in a flow. Now, when you apply these five steps to your problem, I cannot implore you enough to start with a small problem. But I want to share with you an example where we started off with a bigger problem, but by going through the five steps, the problem shrunk, and so did the solution. Okay. This example came, it came from a live event that I did in D.C. a couple of weeks ago, a woman named Kellian, Kellyan, Kellyn, I think it's

Kellyan. I can't remember how to say your name, and I'm so sorry, you were so lovely. I wish I could remember exactly. But Kellian said that her problem was that she was overwhelmed with meal planning because she has a daughter with specific dietary needs. Now, that is a legit frustration that I'm sure a lot of you struggle with in some form, right? But it's also pretty big. But that's okay. We're just going to start where we are. It's fine. So the first step is to prioritize. name what matters. I asked her what mattered most to her about meal planning. She said she wanted it to be easier and less overwhelming and stressful. Cool. Okay. Now step two, essentialize. What is in the way of that? What parts of her meal planning were in the way of the process being easier? She said there were too many

choices. And that's another frustration we can all relate to, right? When there are too many choices, it is deeply overwhelming. So if you are like Kellyan, how can you get rid of some of those choices? I remember the relief on her face when she said, maybe I should stop Googling recipes. And I agree with that. I think that's a really good call. Because by Googling recipes, you're only adding millions of choices to your already existing sense of overwhelm, right?

Like, I just Googled gluten-free recipes dinner. Like, I even got it down to dinner. And I got 398 million results. You guys, no, thank you. So a way to lazy genus's problem is to remove the thing that is overwhelming the meal planning process, and that is choice. So we're going to remove Google from the situation. The third step is to organize, to put everything in its place.

Kelly needs to put the needed, helpful recipes in their place. Now, when I asked her about this, she said, yeah, maybe I can choose recipes from one or two cookbooks instead of the whole internet. Yes, that is such a good idea. And then someone next to her immediately recommended a Danielle Walker cookbook. So you can start small. You can start small like right there with one cookbook. All the recipes are in one place.

Okay. Now, what about step four? Step four is to personalize, to feel like yourself. I asked Kelly and when she did her meal planning. And she said Sunday night. And then I asked her if that was working, if she felt like herself during that time. And she said, sometimes I do. And I want it to. I want Sunday night to work. But a lot of times it ends up being rushed and stressful. And then the whole room seemed very much to resonate with that. We think that Sunday night is like the perfect time to organize the week ahead. And that could totally be true of you, 100%. But you could also be tired from the weekend, and you have a lot to organize

for the week ahead, and you really just want to watch an episode of Ted Lassoe and go to bed early, but it's Sunday night, and you still have to meal plan. Now, when you meal plan, depends on a lot of factors, many of which I talk about in the Lacey Genius Kitchen book. But for Kellyan specifically, when I asked her if she felt like herself on Sunday nights, she said no, not consistently enough. So maybe a small way she can feel like herself in the process of meal planning from her one or two cookbooks is that she does that planning at a more energizing time, like in the morning or on Saturday or even on Monday. You could have a decide once for your Monday dinner, okay, that doesn't require any energy. I call those brainless crowd pleasers, right? You could have a brainless crowd pleaser that is

always on Monday, and you could have that be the day that you meal plan for the rest of the week. Like, Sunday nights are great. A lot of people thrive planning on a Sunday or a Sunday night. I personally find that planning on a Sunday during the day works for me like 90% of the time, but I'm not everybody. We're all different. And when it gets to the night, I'm like, I've got to power through. Like, it's such a bummer. So that's why step four is to personalize, to feel like yourself. We all feel differently, right? We all have different feelings. different things make us feel like ourselves. And you have to feel like yourself and whatever you're doing or else you're not going to find any enjoyment in it. So for Kellyanne, she said she would try to meal

plan on a different day or at a different time. Now, step five is to systemize, to keep something in a flow. This is where you can apply a lazy genus principle or two to keep things moving for you. She has decided once, that's a principle, right? That she is going to choose meals for, from just these two cookbooks done, decision made. She is also batching another principle. She's batching her meal planning by doing the entire week's plan at once. She can build the right routine. That's another principle by knowing that she wants to have a calm process of deciding what's

for dinner. And how she gets there might change depending on the day, right? She might plan on Saturday morning or Sunday afternoon or Monday night, and it could like flip around and it's fine. But ultimately the point is that she knows where she's going. That's the point of a lazy genius routine, right? She knows where she's going and that means that she's planning at a time where she's calmer and feels like herself. If that time has to change or the particulars around it have to change, that's totally fine. She's still going in the same direction. And those are just some ideas, right? But the point here is that she now has a clearer path to planning

dinners that meet the needs of her family. Now, will she never experience stress about it again? Of course she'll experience stress again. Of course. But remember that her goal is to make things just a touch easier one choice at a time. We learn to iterate. We pay attention and adjust and are kind to ourselves. That's another principle in that process. We'll be right back. salsa, whether it's Verde, Roja, or the orange one. For Jeff, trying any salsa is like playing Russian roulette with a flamethrower. Luckily, Jeff saved with Amazon and stocked up on antacids, ginger tea, and milk. Habiniero?

More like habanier, yes. Save the everyday with Amazon. Aw, isn't something we need to travel for. It's something waiting for us in everyday life. whether in a city street or a moment with a work of art. I'm Dr. Keltner, host of the Science of Happiness podcast. Join me for Cities of Aw, a special series on how our public spaces can spark awe, wonder, and enhance the quality of public life. You can find us wherever you listen to your podcasts.

Okay, let's look at a couple of other examples of how to apply these five steps and a direction that a person could take. I did not get to have conversations with these people in these examples like I did Kellyan, but these are a couple of examples from the comments of an Instagram post I shared a couple of weeks ago where I asked you guys about your small kitchen frustrations, not that your kitchen is small, but the frustration is small. And I want us to look at a couple. Whitney Scruggs shared this, cabinets overflowing with storage containers. That's it. That was the comment. And we can all relate with that. There were a few great suggestions for solutions in the comments. But what I want to, what I want to do here is I want to take this very simple problem and I want to run it through the

five steps, okay, despite the great solutions that were in the comments. So first, prioritize. What matters most about the storage container situation? Because Whitney said they were overflowing, I'm guessing she feels overwhelmed by them and she doesn't want to feel that way, right? She wants it to feel simpler and less, right? Okay. So let's say that's the priority. Step two is to essentialize. What's in the way of that? What's in the way of that? My guess is there are too many containers, or maybe there are a lot of different containers that don't fit together very well. So to remove what's in the way, Whitney could probably go through those containers and remove the ones that don't have lids or are super damage from the microwave or they're cracked or something.

But get rid of the containers that don't support simplicity. Now, step three is to organize. You could, as a couple of the comments suggested, you could get new containers that nestle better or have the same lid for every size so you have less to match up. But I would also like to offer that maybe the cabinet is not the best place for your storage containers. It's hard to find stuff that you need, right? And if a kid puts containers away and a stack is like not super balanced, you will be attacked by

plastic or please no, glass if you like move one thing, right? That was my personal frustration with containers for a long time that they would fall out of the cabinet. And so ours are in a drawer now. They're in a drawer. They're contained in a wide drawer. That way, if a stack tilts, it doesn't matter. It's not a problem. The drawer catches it. And I'm not being attacked by Tupperware, right? So there are multiple ways to organize, to put something in its place, and it all depends on what matters to you. But I share the drawer thing to remind you that you can put something in a place you might not have thought of before. Now on to step four, personalize. How can Whitney feel like herself in this process? And you might be like,

Kendra, is Tupperware? Like, calm down. And that's actually mostly true. But we also like to express ourselves, right? We need to pay attention to our own specific needs. And it's good to personalize your Tupperware. If that's helpful, you might personally want everything lidded always. You know, like everything is stored with its lid on it. Or you might want lids in a separate container and everything else is nestled together. You might want glass because you go from freezer to microwave a lot or you're just trying to like lower your use of plastic in general. You might want containers that are colorful and bring a spark of joy, or maybe the cleanest, simplest, most minimalist containers do that for you instead. You might think that you need square or

rectangular containers because that's what most people have. But because of the size of your lunchbox or the fact that you make a lot of crockpot freezer meals and when you put those as squares or rectangles into a crock pocket, they do not fit in. It makes you crazy town. Like you might need round storage containers. Like that fits you most. personally and it keeps you feeling like yourself because you're not stressed and you have what you need. So it might feel silly to be like, and how will I feel like myself and I'm organizing my I get it, but also it matters. And then finally step five is to systemize. How do you keep this in a flow? How does Whitney keep the containers from becoming overwhelming again? Containers are put back

in their place. That's a great answer. She doesn't keep containers or binders. Or by new ones that don't match her priorities. Like if she's only using glass, but there's this cute plastic set on sale, she probably needs to skip the plastic set no matter how cute it is, right? Because that's not going to support the system she's created. Does that make sense? You want to support the system you've created. Now, here is something that's important about lazy genius in your kitchen. These five steps are all important. But depending on the problem, certain steps might shine a bit more. They might feel more important than the others. Now, it doesn't mean that none of them matter, but sometimes one will feel more essential than another just by nature of the problem.

So you're not doing anything wrong if you're like, wait, how do I personalize my containers? And then you just spend a lot of time trying to find an answer that doesn't exist. Like, just ask, like, do I feel like myself? Is there a thing I could add or take a way that would help me feel more like myself and then just do the next thing, right? And remember, all of these steps are broken down in much more detail with a lot more nuance and tools in the book in the Lacey Genius Kitchen. So, you know, we're giving examples right now, but like that is a great, reading the book is such a great way to kind of see how the different steps, like all five of them, kind of shine in different ways depending on where you are in the kitchen. Okay, let's do one more real quick.

Tori Riger, Riger, Riger. I'll go Riger. Tori Riger said, ice spilled on the floor from the scoop when we get ice from the freezer drawer every dang day. Also, I love the succinctness of all of your comments. Like so many of the comments on this post were like five words, lots of periods, like very frustrated people. Okay, so let's apply the five steps to Tori's problem. My guess is, well, step one is prioritize, right? My guess is that Tori, what matters to her is that the ice doesn't fall on the floor, right?

Isn't that the whole, that's the whole thing. It's pretty simple. Because whenever, I bet whenever a cube hits the ground, she probably like grunts or sighs or rolls her eyes. And then all of those accumulated frustrations become a lot, right? We all have something like that. So let's just keep the ice from falling on the floor. That's our priority. Step two, essentialize.

Get rid of what's in the way. What's in the way? What's making the ice hit the floor? She said in her comment, there's a scoop, okay? Maybe the scoop could be filled with fewer cubes. Maybe you don't use a scoop at all and you just use the cup you're drinking from as a scoop. Or maybe the cups that Tori has, they have smaller openings than like her ice or her scoop. So when she dumps the ice in, a lot of those cubes don't make it.

Or maybe she could get a new scoop that's similar in width to her cups. But the point here is what's in the way of ice staying where it's supposed to? And my guess it's something functional. Something functional is in the way or missing. There's a functional dissonance between the ice, the scoop, and the glasses. So Tori can organize those things, right? That's step three. She can organize those things and put them in their proper place and have what she needs,

like putting a new scoop in there so the ice doesn't fall on the floor. My guess is if ICE is not falling on the floor and this problem is solved, she's automatically going to feel more like herself. But also, there could be like a personal requirement. We're personalizing now. There could be a personal requirement for her or someone in her family that is necessary to pay attention to, and that's important and good too. But then to systemize this process, I think really it comes down to everyone following a

house rule that's a lazy genius principle to use the scoop in this way. Like, whatever it is you decide. Like, this is a scoop we use, or please, you know, scoop it over the ice bin or please use, I don't know, whatever it is. But like make a house rule, get everyone on board so that someone else doesn't drop ice on the floor. And then, like, they leave it and it melts. And then Tori steps in the tiny puddle and she gets a wet foot or a wet sock, which is not a huge deal in the scheme of things. But also, if you're stressed or running late or just living your life and you step in a puddle of water,

that is the result of someone else's actions, especially something that you like fixed, it gets real ugly real fast, right? So establish a house rule of how to scoop the ice or where to put the ice scoop or whatever it is. Now, these are very small, simple challenges that I've just shared. But the beauty of these five steps is that you can make a positive impact on any problem in your kitchen and in your life by using these steps, because they work on everything, especially when you make the problem smaller. So tomorrow is the day, tomorrow is the day that the Lazy Genius Kitchen arrives. Oh my gosh. Also, if you did not pre-order the book and therefore you did not get the 25 recipe e-book for free, you need to jump on that today. Go ahead and order the book

from wherever you want. And then you'll go to the Lazy Geniuskitchen.com to register that pre-order with us with Team LG. Once you register that pre-order, you'll automatically get the recipe e-book sent to your inbox. been so fun celebrating this book launch with you. Thank you for watching The Lazy Genius Kitchen Show. We've had three episodes so far. Tomorrow is episode four with Annie F. Downs, where we organize her freezer. It is very fun. I am just so immensely grateful for how amazing y'all are, how supportive you've been, how many books you've already purchased, like before the things even on shelves. It's just, it's so meaningful. So that is it for today. And until next time,

be a genius about the things that matter, lazy about the things that don't. I'm Kendra. I'll see you next week. If you ever felt like you were living just a B or B plus life, it's so dangerous to live that more dangerous than a B minus or a C plus life because when you're living a B or B plus life, you don't change it. You think it's good enough. Is it? I'm Susie Welch. I host a podcast called Becoming You. People think, okay, an A plus life is not available to me, but there is a way. We are all in the process of becoming ourselves. Listen to Becoming You wherever you get your podcasts.