The Lazy Genius Podcast - #85: The Lazy Genius Kitchen Reset

Episode Date: November 26, 2018

We’ve got a short episode for you today, but don’t sleep on it, y’all. If you’re feeling overwhelmed by the state of your kitchen and pantry and all of the upcoming holiday baking and cooking, this episode is for you. Give it a listen, and check out some of the other episodes I mention in the links below. Stuff Mentioned: I talk about finding the best list of essentials for your pantry in The Lazy Genius Stocks the Kitchen. Spoiler alert: the best list is made up of the things you actually use instead of what the Internet says you should have on hand. Bizarro meal prep that changes the game (and gets stuff on its last legs out of your fridge!) The Lazy Genius Cooks Chicken, and so can you! Also a companion episode is The Lazy Genius Meal Plans. Get your meal planning on, y’all. Feeling overwhelmed at the idea of hosting a holiday party? Yep, there’s an episode for that. Join our Facebook community! We’d love to talk all things Lazy Genius with you there. Download a transcript of the shortest episode ever. 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

Hey guys, you're listening to The Lazy Genius Podcast. I'm Kendra, 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 episode 85, the Lazy Genius Kitchen Reset. This might feel like a weird topic in the middle of the holidays, but hear me out. You are about to enter the world of Christmas cookies and appetizers and dinners that don't fall into any schedule because of all the things. you're probably still dealing with Thanksgiving leftovers and if you are like me, sometimes opening the fridge or freezer can be really overwhelming this time of year. What I want to encourage you to do in this very short episode is to consider a kitchen reset. I call it essentializing your kitchen. Right now, you don't need extras.

Those are about to come in spades. This is a great time to spend just a little bit of time getting your kitchen reset so that when you open cabinets and freezers, you know what's there. and you have room for what matters, like cookie dough. This process can be as involved as you want, but it can also be done in like 10 minutes a day over a few days or one solid hour or two to get your kitchen reset in a way that will make a big difference for the next month. Because here's the problem.

We usually shop for too much. We have excess produce that we think we'll cook because it was a good deal or because we think we should eat more kale. We have jars and bottles in the pantry that are supposed to make dinner easy, But because we don't know how to use them, they just sit there. They take up space. We read those lists of what we need for a stocked pantry. But if you don't use roasted red peppers, you don't need roasted red peppers. There is an episode about stocking your kitchen with only things you need, which I will put in the show notes. But how do you reset the kitchen to get to that place? How do you clear the decks for all the holiday food fun? I have steps. Let's do this. Step one. Pick an area. The fridge, the freezer, the pantry, a single cabinet. Whatever you want to choose, choose it. Step two. Set a timer. I love timers because they give us limits. You don't have to spend all day doing this. Five or ten minutes will make a difference. It won't make it perfect, but it will make a difference. Remember, perfection is not even a thing. So set a timer for, say, 10 minutes. And when the timer goes off, feel free to stop. No big thing. Step three. Pull out everything you know you don't need. If it's the fridge, pull out old produce, expired sauces,

that unfortunate pack of chicken that you forgot about in the back. Pull out and throw out everything that needs to go. You still have time? Take the stuff that's on its last legs and change it somehow to make it ready to eat. That process is laid out in a blog post called Bizarro Meal Planning, or Bizarro Meal Prep, not meal planning, which I will put in the show notes too. And that's it. those are your steps. Pick a spot, set a timer, and get rid of what isn't essential. If it's old, throw it out,

if it's just something you never use, but it's still good, offer it to a friend or a neighbor who might like it. If you do this in all the places you have food, you'll be shocked at how much better your kitchen feels. Now, that could be enough of a reset right there. Just clearing the decks of the unnecessary is a gift. But if you want to go further, we will go further. After you get rid of what you don't need, Think about what you will need, especially when it comes to space. If you're a big Christmas cookie maker and you know that you'll make a lot of doughs to freeze to use throughout the month, make the space in your freezer now. Okay. Is there space?

That's your first question. Great. Then you're done. Congratulations. If there's not space, start using some of what's already there in your freezer that's taking up space. If you don't have room for your beloved cookie dough because of all the chicken you stocked up on, during the Aldi sale last month, decide to eat a lot of chicken

over the next couple of weeks as you make your meal plan. There is a podcast episode about both chicken and meal planning and even Aldi, by the way. These show notes are going to be packed. Oh my goodness. You stock your freezer

so you have food to eat, right? That's why we put food in the freezer. Don't hoard it. Eat it, especially if you need the space for cookies and appetizers and any of your other holiday needs. The same goes for your pantry and your cabinets and your fridge

if you're going to host a big party, there is an episode on that too, actually. You need to make sure that you have room in your kitchen for all the ingredients that you need, that there's space in the actual fridge to put things in to keep that you maybe make ahead of time. You need to use what's taking up the space for those things. I think that when it comes to what is in our kitchen, we could use a little more flexibility. We think that our kitchens need to look the same and be full of the same. same kinds of foods all the time. But maybe that's not true. For December, your freezer should be more or less empty to save space for all those cookies and party prep. In the summer, your freezer's full of

popsicles and fruit for smoothies and marinated meat to throw on the grill after a quick de-frost. Your kitchen exists to serve you in your needs. It doesn't have to stay stagnant and consistently stocked with all the same things all the time. You're doing it wrong if you don't have anything in your pantry but snack foods and stuff for grazing meals during the holidays. Like that's what we need, right? It's what you need for that time. So fill your kitchen with what it needs for that time and empty it of what it doesn't.

So this is one of the shortest episodes ever. But there are clearly other episodes that you might want to listen to in this process. The point here is an encouragement to do your future holiday self-of-favor by taking a few minutes to reset your kitchen to function well based on what you need for the next few weeks, whatever that means for you. Clear out what doesn't matter, leave space for what does, and stock up on what makes December work for you and your people. I rarely, this is a weird example, but I rarely eat popcorn during the year, except during the winter when watching sports and movies makes sense. The winter is so good for sports, you guys.

I need to leave room in my pantry for a big box of pop secret that I don't actually need room for 10 months out of the year. Okay? Invite your kitchen to be your helper and make it work for you and it will change throughout the year and that is okay. Okay. Let's talk more about this on Instagram this Thursday. I am there live every Thursday around 1215 Eastern to answer your questions.

So follow me at the lazy genius to get more inspiration. Also, don't forget to join the Facebook group and ask a group of brilliant people for ideas for your specific challenges. Crowdsourcing with lazy geniuses is basically like the most genius thing that you can do. A link for that group will be in the show notes along with links to some great episodes for you to listen to based on what your holidays look like. So go reset your kitchen and don't feel badly if 10 minutes is all you give it. 10 minutes is enough if it's enough for you. Don't sweat doing it right or wrong. That's just not a thing.

All right. Thank you so much for listening. I appreciate your time and your trust in me so much. It is such a beautiful responsibility that I love carrying to speak into these random little moments in your life. So thank you for listening and sharing and just being so great. That is it for today. Kendra. And I'll see you on Instagram at The Lazy Genius on Thursday. And until next time, be a genius about the things that matter and lazy about the things that don't. Bye, guys.

Have 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.