I'm here at my friend Valerie's house
and well I'm here because her kitchen is a mess,
but Valerie herself is fantastic.
She's a super fun mom to five kids,
but the chaos in her life is heightened
because of the state of her kitchen,
so I'm here to help.
Here it is.
Val, this is a beautiful kitchen.
There's nothing on the countertops.
Well, I like the counters clean but girl
wait until you open the cupboards.
I love Valerie, she's a party
and there was a party going on inside her drawers.
They were so full you could barely open most of them.
All right, Val, so the first thing
we have to do is declutter,
we gotta take it all out.
When you're decluttering remember to ask yourself
these questions, do I use it?
Is this item extra?
Would I buy this today?
And does this make my life easier?"
If you can say no to any of those, it's time to toss it.
I need a can opener, I am gonna use this.
I use this every single day.
Decluttering feels freeing.
It's a little scary in the moment,
but once you start getting rid of stuff that you don't use
life feels lighter and for a space like the kitchen
that is used so much it's really important
to do that occasionally.
So clearly this plastic bag drawer,
this is not a great use of space.
So I found this great product at the container store
and what you can do is you can just stuff your bags
all the way at the bottom and there's little openings
so you can pull the bag as you need it.
I love it.
And it's gonna have a new home.
Not in a drawer, amazing, wonderful.
Amazing.
So I wanted to show you this family command center
where we took your family schedule,
we took the cute pictures from the kids
that were in the kitchen and put them all in one place
including the Beck family meals.
Developing a family meal plan can be a bit intimidating,
but it is so worth it.
You make one decision one day a week
for everything you're going to eat
and then you're not constantly asking yourself,
"What am I gonna make for dinner tonight?"
All right, Val, I wanna talk about a couple
of essential kitchen tools that I think make cooking easier.
A really good Japanese peeler.
You're gonna love this.
It's a really inexpensive tool that makes a huge difference
and I know you do a lot of potatoes
so you're gonna love that.
This, it's a fish spatula, but not just for fish.
It's flexible and I know you guys do
a lot of grilled cheese.
No better spatula.
This is a microplane and this zester is going
to give you the best lemon zest ever.
Yeah, I need this. You're gonna love it.
You'll have this forever.
I didn't know I needed that, but I need that.
Okay, this is a composite wood utensil-
It's gonna last you forever,
it can still go in the dishwasher
and it's gonna feel so much better
in your hand when you are cooking.
Oh, amazing. All right?
Labeling leads to systems that stick,
especially in the kitchen.
If you're going to go to the effort
of organizing your kitchen,
you better label it so that everyone
in your household returns things where they belong.
So Val, what's really important especially in your fridge
is to embrace labeling.
With this kid's snack bin, to have them open it
and see something that says, these are your special snacks.
I also thought you'd love this condiment turntable
so that things don't get stuck behind
and then we've organized things.
This is your peanut butter and jelly-
Boxes in the fridge, the box is in the fridge.
In the fridge.
For Valerie I wanna create a kid's drawer.
She's got five kids and it's necessary
for them to be independent at mealtime.
So by creating a drawer where each kid
can get their own cup, plate, set of silverware,
I think that's gonna really help Valerie out
and the kids are actually gonna love it.
I think my little kiddos are gonna be excited
to have their own space for stuff,
it's gonna be fully stocked.
They can go straight to it and help themselves
and well, I think I'm most excited about the kids drawer.
Definitely.
Wow guys.
For anyone who's feeling like,
hey I need a kitchen prescription.
I need to do this to my kitchen.
My advice is to start small,
one drawer at a time, it will make a huge difference.
Happy kitchen Valerie. _ Thank you, I love you.