Episode four fifty Declutter your kitchen in thirty days.
Welcome to the Frugal Friends podcast, where you'll learn to save money, embrace simplicity, and liver with your life.
Here your hosts, Jen and Jill.
Welcome to Frugal Friends podcast. My name is Jen, my name is Jill, and today we are going to walk you through how to declutter your kitchen in thirty days so that it is ready to go before all of our high food income holidays.
Ooh yeah, that is a good reason to do this. Yep, get it done, Get it done in thirty days or less. But first, this episode is brought to you by Trip Dicks, a new word I learned and now obviously the sponsor of this episode. I made quick work of that one. What's not to love when it comes to things in threes, like a work of art with three sections, or a movie with three stories, or the friend Letter with three
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We love decluttering because we know that the physical spaces and how we process the things in our visual line of sight, the way we feel about our physical spaces do have an impact on how we make spending decisions and what we buy. So when we can get rid of not get rid of, but we can move away from the complexity bias that gets us to add more
things to solve our problems. And I don't think we see that anywhere more than in the kitchen, with every small gadget and appliance that is promising to do make our work easier in the future. Right, when we can get away from that complexity bias that moves us to ad ad and we can get back to simplicity so that we're utilizing and we're efficient, then things outside of the kitchen work better. So if you like decluttering, especially
in the kitchen. Catch some of our other episodes. We've got episode three ninety six, which is our minimalist pantry formula. Minimalist pantries have been something we've been passionate about on the show since day one. Instead of having stockpiles, we prefer minimalist pantries. Three forty eight Declutter your home in thirty days. We also love thirty days, just feels like a really.
We do, take it, take it a month at a time.
And then episode three oh two how decluttering saves you money with Ingrid Jansen. So those are some really good ones. Today it's all about the kitchen. So we are going day by day, but some days are the same, so it's not like, you know, so different. So that you can do this in a doable way. We're not going to make you create a big old miss and then have to get overwhelmed and just never touch it again.
We're going to make this doable so that no matter what's going on in your month, that you can get this done.
Of course, you could make a big old mess if that's your style. You don't want to elongate it out thirty days, that's totally fine, but you came here for the third.
Hear no, but here's your thing. Everybody's style is going to be I'm just going to get it all out in a weekend. I'm just going to do it, pull the band aid off. But humans, most of us, are not able to do that. So while our brains think we can, it's these weekend warrior projects that turn into one, two, three, four week like misery months. So let's not get miserable.
No. Now, we are going to be looking at this article that comes from Modern Minimalism and it's called how to Cut Your Kids's Kitchen and like the ultimate guide on it, so it is quite lengthy. I do think it's a great resource. We have it linked in the show notes. But this article does not give you a breakdown of how to do it in thirty days. That's something yours, truly. Jen and I are going to be adding in as kind of a template how you could
approach this over the course of thirty days. But I want to highlight some of the things that they start off talking about regarding their reasons to even go about doing this, because you're gonna need to pump yourself up for this.
You're gonna need internal motivation because the external is gonna wear off real quick, and so you're gonna need to know why you're doing this.
I would say, for me, the kitchen is the most complicated part of my home. I think, what do they call it? The heartbeat of the home is the kitchen and it has the most stuff in it. It is probably the room of your house. Mine has the most cabinets.
Mine needs a cardiologist. Yeah, that's what I think I got. I got issues. If it's not hard, I.
Need one of those aed machines. Okay, So reasons to do this. It is going to be easier to maintain. If we are able to kind of declutter simplify every time we go into the kitchen, we are going to
be less likely to become overwhelmed by it. Which is reminding me actually of a study we talk about in our book that we just wrote by what you loovebook dot com, where a group of women were studied on their perceptions of how messy their kitchens were and those who perceived their those who perceived that's an important part of this, the perception aspect, not just you know, is
your kitchen messy or not? Those who perceived their kitchen to be chaotic, overwhelming, messy, disorganized, made or didn't eat as nutritionally. They didn't. They did not, They weren't preparing as many home cooked meals, and if they were, it wasn't as healthy as beneficial to their physical health. So there's a whole other reason to be simplifying our environment because then we're going to be more likely to want to engage in that environment and make meals in that environment.
And I'll make a note on the perception the episode we just did on how influencers are alying to you. That plays a huge role in how we perceive our own kitchens. If we're looking at a bunch of other kitchens, because so we very rarely go into our friends' houses anymore to see their kitchens. We're more likely to see somebody we don't know online all their kitchens and we think that's a normal kitchen when reality, those are not
normal kitchens. Those are viral kitchens. But we should be going into our friends homes more often seeing regular kitchens. What we see does influence how we perceive.
Yeah, oh, that's a good point. Other reasons to be doing this is that it can lead to more efficient meal planning. Because if we know what's in our pantries, what's in our fridges and freezers, we can plan our meals around that and more quickly leads to faster meal prep.
Your things might be more accessible, you know where the things are going to be, more savings across the board because you've meal prepped, because maybe you're not buying as many gadgets preemptively thinking it will make you a better cook in the kitchen, and just a more calm and peaceful cooking environment, which we already know about all the benefits of decreased stress and less overwhelm.
Yeah, and I joke about my heartbeat of my home needing a cardiologist, But it's because you need to be going through and reevaluating your kitchen. I would say at least once a year, prom once a year, once you've got it down, is a good good time. My pantry. We just renovated our home and finished it in April. I'm still learning how I want the things stored in my home. I haven't had home storage in two years,
and so I'm still figuring that out. So I feel like my cabinets and my pantry, my linen closet is getting cluttered more easily because I'm reassessing when I put things back where they're going to go. So my pantry already, it's I have decluttered it once since April when I actually put it back together, and it's due for another one. So there's things like moving that can can spur on some of that too. That makes the need more frequent. But I think everyone should be doing this once a year,
just as a reset. Yeah, so the first step, are we going to get into our thirty days now?
Yep?
Okay, great, so step one and we're estimating this will take about two days, so you can get this done after your work Monday Tuesday if you're starting on a Monday, but you don't have to wait for a weekend to start this. It's assess your kitchen clutter. We're doing an assessment. So what are the main types of clutter in your kitchen?
This is before we even start, right, we tell you with your spending, don't start budgeting and don't start changing your habits until you've done an inventory of what you have been spending on.
Get a lay of the lamb.
Yes, so that's the ninety day transaction inventory for your spending. We're doing something similar, but you know simpler with this. So what are the main types of clutter in your kitchen the things you want to find a solution for. For example, do you have a lot of paper clutter on your countertops? So you'll want to when you're in the organizing phase, you want to make sure you include something that keeps papers from piling up. What areas are
not being used to their full potential? You can really get an idea of when your kitchen's messy, and I love I learned this from Don Madson of the Minimal Mom when we had her on our show. She loves to use her messy kitchen as a guide on how to organize it because where things are is where you're going to want to store them closest to and so use the clutter you have look at. Okay, what areas are not being used to their full potential? What can
I maybe move over there? So come up with some ideas how you could better use all the space in your kitchen, and then can things be moved to improve the organization, take advantage of the messiness to really make a plan for to start the inkling of making a plan.
Yeah, it does not mean that you're even touching anything.
Right now, you're not touching it.
At this stage, those first couple of days, you're just assessing what going on and here what am I going to have to tackle and maybe begin to think about the order. But that goes to number two, which is then you're planning and preparing day I think you only need a day for this. This would probably be about day three. If you need to take a break or you for some reason ends up taking you two days, that's fine too. I think there's a lot of wiggle
room with this, but this shouldn't take long. But at this stage is only when you've now assessed and you're going to make a plan. A checklist can be really helpful. They have one on this website that you could use or you could make your own, but it is broken down into sections from countertops to cabinets, drawers and shelves to pantry that's your dry food storage, to your cold food,
your refrigerator and freezer. And under each of these categories or subcategories, like for instance, on your countertops, you've got the paper piles, the things that don't belong to core. You're still not touching anything. You're just making a plan. You are coming up with what that plan's going to look like, and you're even going to decide in what order will you go. One of the things we love to talk about when it comes to decluttering is beginning
at the easiest place first. Don't start with your sentimental kitchen belongings that were giving to you from your grape great career. Begin at the place that you know pretty quickly, I know how to deal with these things. So whether that's going to me in your countertop, or that's going to mean your cup cabinet, or you know, specific to your silverware drawer, And don't be concerned if you're like I don't have a cup cabinet cups, go in for
different cabinets. That's okay, we'll get there. But begin to identify using a checklist or creating your own what are all of the different areas of your kitchen you want to tackle, and begin to prioritize where you will begin first. Usually going from easiest to most difficult will be kind of how you plan that one out. They then talk about the different supplies that you might need. I believe that they are encouraging through this article that it is going to happen in like a day or a weekend.
It doesn't have to be even though there might be a collection of supplies. So they talk about having an empty sink for being able to rinse out containers or bins, having empty boxes that you can put anything that you want to give away for donation into trash bags or cycling bins, a hand vacuum so you can clean the bins, drawers, and cabinets as you go along. Any kind of cleaning spray or soapy water rags, they say, And I'm going to push back against this, a measuring tape so you
can plan potential organization solutions. And I'm going to say add an extra challenge in that you will not purchase anything to organize your kitchen. I think that is a fallacy, a myth that we don't need to fall the too. It does not need to be aesthetically pleasing. It needs to be functional, and most likely you have things around your house that you can use to be able to corral items or there's another way to be able to organize without purchasing items. I would say, do the organization
first and then and we'll get to that. I'll be step five, but then decide after you've given it a couple weeks. What might you want to purchase, but to start with, give yourself that challenge of not doing that, and then you're decluttering checklists. Now, most of these things, even though you've collected them, it doesn't mean that they can't be set aside to revisit your kitchen decluttering on
another day. And I would say that most of this collection doesn't need to happen until the days that you are doing this. But I would agree with the empty sink, a place where you can put the donations that you're the stuff you're getting rid of, and a rag so you can wipe things down as you go.
Well, I like the idea of gathering all this stuff together. We have a cleaning like bin with all of our cleaning products. Makes it really easy to have everything in one place. We take it to the place that's going to be cleaned, everything's there, and then we move it back to the pantry. And so this is the same idea.
If you can get a box or something temporary, or maybe something that you already have that can be used as a cleaning kit in the future, then you've got all your stuff ready so that when you start decluttering, which is the next day. You can just take it the day before. You can move it to that section so you already know when you get home, this is
the section that's getting you know, decluttered and cleaned. And then we do that, we put you know, put everything back, and then we move the kit to the thing that's getting decluttered and cleaned tomorrow, so it's already there, we visually see what's on the docket for tomorrow. It just makes it is that barrier to entry, makes it easier to get over.
It's all prepped.
Yeah, so I think that's kind of I really like that idea that it's misen plus right, and when you're cooking, you're putting everything that you need for the recipe out in front of you so that it's easier to get to while you're cooking. And this is the same idea. Make it easier to declutter and then clean before you put the things back in so that you actually follow
through with with what you're doing. So then we move on to day four, and honestly, you could, if you're gonna maybe make your planned day three, you could assemble all of your you know, your clean and declutter kit on day four if you need that extra time, I would say definitely. If you need to find some extra boxes around your house for your your donate and your trash,
you know, stuff, then take it on day four. But if you're able to do everything on day three, day four is when we start doing the daying thing and we break up the sections on the checklist per day. So we have given you fifteen days in our non patented theoretical thirty day plan, but you should really look at the sections in your house and divide those up. Maybe it's fifteen, maybe it's eighteen, whatever. Maybe you're going
to need to take a few days off. Maybe it is fifteen days, but on four days you're not going to be able to do anything. So what you really need is nineteen days.
And again that's part of that planning stage of what you're going to tackle on what day.
Yes, So now you're doing it. You're breaking up the sections of the checklist and we're starting with the easiest one. What section would you start with, Jill?
Would they list countertops? That is probably where I would begin, for multiple reasons. I think I could easily identify where the things on a countertop would need to go or set them aside for later sorting. But it also frees up the countertop for pulling things out of cabinets or drawers, so I probably would start there.
Yeah, So tips for decluttering the countertops. Remove everything that doesn't belong jackets, backpacks, keys, toys. Do a quick purge of the paper piles. So this would be something that you're gonna have to sit down and if you have a piece of paper that's just living on your counter because you need to make a phone call, this is it.
This is the time.
This is the time to make the.
Phone call, hard of cleaning the nation.
That's why you know one day is just countertops, maybe one day is just paper, right exactly. So we're we're then getting rid of those paper piles. Put away small appliances, the ones have a place. If they don't have a place, maybe they just get moved somewhere for the time being. If there's a small pliance you don't want to live on your countertops, take it off now, because then while you're decluttering, put it kind of where you want it to live. So then when you're decluttering that section you
can more easily. It's incentivizing you to find a place for that small appliance. So any small plants you don't want living on your countertop, move it now. Get rid of countertop decor. Spare seriously, spare yourself.
I have this.
I have a candle on my countertop and honestly, I don't know why. It just contributes to the clutter on it. It's such a horrible idea. I moved. I just moved it.
I made an unpopular move when we did our kitchen, or after it was done, of not putting anything on the island. The first day I did put a bowl out with some on it, but I found myself constantly moving the bowl and the bowl being in the way of me wiping down my countertops. That I just have decided, I'm not a person with center decre on my island. It's not functional for me. So you're going to walk in and you're just going to see a blank island.
There's no flowers, do there's can bowls of fruit? That there's nothing on it because it's not functional for me. So do you have to get rid of any ideas that maybe even social media is giving you that you've got to have decor in your kitchen. It can just be functional.
Yeah, I do have a bowl of fruit on my counter so that we use it.
That's great. If it's functional for you, that's awesome.
Yeah. So countertops are definitely a good place to start. And then we move into cabinets and drawers. And depending on how many cabinets and drawers you have, this could take seven of your days. So I would say, may be try for a cabinet or drawer a day, or do your.
Food yet we're talking about cabinets and drawers that have your kitchen, utensils, your your bottles, all that stuff. We'll get to the pantry later.
Yeah, So take one category to time, pull everything out of that one drawer or cabinet, sort items, see what you have, Clean the shelves, drawers, storage bin give them a quick vacuum, wipe down, and then decide what to donate, toss or keep and consider new organization options. Maybe you have some bins in one place, but contemplate if they
could be better utilized in another place. So this is time not to think about buying new stuff, but if the organization stuff you already have is being used the best where it is. And again, and keep like items together. If you're pulling all this stuff out of a drawer and half of it you don't want there to live there anymore, move it to the place where you want it to live, and then when you get to that drawer tomorrow or the next day, then you're incentivized to
find a place for it there. Next would be pantry, so now we're looking Now we're looking at dry food, so this is also could be cabinets. I would say an interim between this would be cabinets with dry food and then pantry with dry food. So that's that's really where I need to be right now. So this one, give yourself plenty of time. Specifically on the pantry, I would say this might take you know, five days. I
don't know how big your paint. My pantry is not even that big, so mine might take like two days. But again this is a big one. So take everything out, clean the shelves, bins, drawers, go through the food, consolidate, check expiration dates, donate things that are good but you don't think you're going to use anymore. And then again consider the storage bins, is what you're using best utilized where it is? Could it be moved somewhere else? And
then we get to our last part cold food. So this I think will take about two days, one for fridge, one day for freezer, again checking expiration dates, organizing as we put the food back, and just making sure we keep similar items together, labeling things that could use some labels and all that. So that's around fourteen to fifteen days.
I'll add in part of the prep stage two. Sorry to backtrack a bit, but as I'm thinking about organizing with the challenge of knots spending money, that part of prep can be keeping some boxes around, whether you've ordered some recent things online and you're going to have maybe some cardboard boxes, or even as you declutter your pantry
dry goods. Many times we come across the boxes that they came in the box for the granola bars or the gummies or the whatever it is, and I often just hack the top off of them and they are my storage containers, maybe for that very same food item
or for other things. It is amazing the options we can have with the cardboard boxes we already have on hand that can be really great for our dry food storage, possibly even used in the freezer, depending on what kind of freezer you have, So that can be part of the creativity of it doesn't mean you can't organize. Just use what you already have and don't worry about it being pretty or clear. That brings us to number four,
which is going to be drop off your donations. So, as you've gone through this process, you've probably compiled both food and kitchen gadgets kitchen supplies that you find you no longer need. They also in this article list out questions you can be asking yourself along the way as you're decluttering that will help you determine should I keep this,
should I give it away? And so as you've decided these things I no longer need, I want to donate this put that you will have had those in piles, and we and this article are advocating get rid of it quickly. Don't let it sit around because it will just become overwhelming to you and.
Or you'll just let it sit in the trunk of your car for months.
So this is day nineteen to twenty in the overall timeline of things, And you can give yourself a couple of days if you need to take a day off it. Don't if it doesn't align with when you're already going to be out and about. Fine, But somewhere between day nineteen to twenty two, we are dropping off these donations. We're not letting the boxes and the things linger around.
So whether you're taking items to Goodwill or a Salvation Army, or a Habitat for Humanity, or a Big Brother, Big Sister, or just a local thrift store and looking up different food donations if you have non expired food items, if there's a local food pantry, homeless shelter, soup kitchen, women's shelter church, there's plenty of organizations that might be willing to take some of the food that you realize you just won't eat. You thought you would, you were trying
to diet out, it's not going to work. Your kids decided they hate that food that they once loved, and you just got to get it out of your house. Take some of that time to donate.
It, and then so that's the first three weeks. So now that we're looking at the last week of our thirty days days, you know, twenty one or twenty two to thirty, this is when we're going to be optimizing our organization. So we've put everything into place, but we still want to be very intentional for one week to make sure your kitchen is organized in a way that will keep it decluttered and keep it organized that we're
maximizing the efficiency. So some of the tips for doing that are keeping things close to where you use them. We already talked about that. Make sure you're using your mess to dictate where things should be stored. Maximize your drawer space. So this is where we're looking at. If we moved around organization containers, did we move them to the right place? Do we want to move them back? Maybe I do actually need something else. This is the week that we'd make that decision, and we don't actually
buy it until day thirty. Okay, we're not going out and buying this stuff. We're we're living with what we've done for least a week before we go out and commit to buying something else. Make the cabinets more user friendly, So pull out shelves, lid organizers, lazy susan spice rack shell these are all things. After you've lived with it and you think this actually could make my life much easier, that's when we get it.
And I will add that all of the tenants of frugality still remain. Can it be purchased pre owned? Can you find this at the thrift store. Can you find what you need on Facebook marketplace? I mean I have definitely used the organizers for cabinets where it kind of gives you an extra shelf in the cabinet I've got. I do have an egg organizer in my fridge because it allows me to store more than twelve eggs at
a time that I got at a yard sale. Like, you can find these things, you just don't have to pay bookoo bucks for it from the container store.
Yeah, definitely, and then consider using some free so a magnetic knife strip or hooks for frequently use cooking utensils, looking at your walls, seeing if anything can be optimized on there, and embracing your bins. This one is considered. Getting a label maker and yeah, no, no, you don't need a label maker. You have a sharpie and you have tape. Yeah, or stickers if anything, you don't need
a label maker. Just get some nice white laminated stickers and that will allow sharpie to be written on them and you can use those.
Yeah, if you even need that. You don't have to label things. But yeah, if you've got multiple people living in the house and you want to make sure things go back to where you want them to go back to a system like that could be useful.
Yeah, you label maker, multiple kids and you need to assign them their own snack bins so nobody's stealing out of other people's snacks. Then maybe then maybe that's good for you. But you don't need a label maker. Yeah, it's fun.
I also like how they wrap up with some tips for maintaining this clutter free kitchen. Just encouraging to add in habits like five to ten minutes every morning, tidying up the countertops to keep from accumulating stuff, not putting things just down, but putting them away, Beginning to form a habit of returning items back to where they belong. Stop buying kitchen gadgets is just another tip here. For some of us that might be easier than for others.
But remember the pain of having decluttered your kitchen, and ask yourself some of those same questions that you had asked in decluttering of what will this solve for me? How often will I use it? Is the price to benefit worth it? Is this a real problem that I've already been trying to sault for a while. Be sure to create that pause before purchasing and just doing some
of these mini decluttering sessions. Whether that's once a month or once a quarter, even once a year is all right too, depending on kind of how chaotic things might get. But allowing yourself an opportunity to re look at is there anything that needs to be refined can help avoid four years from now needing to do this entire overhaul all over again.
Yeah.
The last one really speaks to me, and it's one that I really need to tell the public. And it's say no to freebies. I know this is going to be very controversial coming from the frugal friends, but free samples, free water bottles, like free you know cups, and stuff with branded logos, to go condiments, take out cutlery, Just don't take them and they won't clutter your kitchen and they won't cause you to need to declutter so often.
Even if you are a person who gets take out occasionally, you can tell them not to put the cutlery in the back.
I say, I don't need cutlery, I don't need extra soy sauce.
I do always feel bad throwing those things out, so I either don't ask for them, or it's what if I have a few, I'll keep them in my lunch box or the cooler or my car. There are times that I need that. But there's only so much that you need. You don't need to collect all of it. But do you know what we do need to collect all of And this is what I.
Say, Yes today is never controversial for us.
The bill of the week.
That's right, it's time for the best minute of your entire week. Maybe a baby was and his name is Williams. Maybe you've paid off your mortgage, Maybe your card died and you're happy to not have to pay that bill anymore.
That's bills, but flow bills. Bill clan, this is the bill up the week.
Hi Jen and Jill. My name's Deana. I live in the Kansas City, Missouri area. My bill of the week is after being exposed to COVID and having to take tests at the urgent care facility nearby, which I didn't realize my medical plan made it that I had to pay ah most one hundred and ninety dollars each time
I visited. I spent some time figuring out why I had multiple cards from my medical insurance provider, and come to find out, I had about two hundred dollars in my FSA from last year that was still available to me. That FSA was limited purpose, but I was able to put in a reimbursement submission for my contact lenses that I planned on floating on my credit card, and so that money's now coming back to me and I'm able to pay off some of that extra debt that I
was not anticipating. Super excited that things kind of worked out and listening to you guys help me get creative.
Well, Dana, way to go.
Yeah, that's really great, and I think a helpful reminder for all of us to be looking into our options
when we get especially medical bills. I think we can often just resign ourselves to paying whatever comes through the mail, but recognizing whether we can negotiate those costs, or we can look back into what other benefits do I might have that I may have forgotten to use, and even if so, FSAs usually the money only lasts you for a certain year, but there could be some grace periods with an fssay of how far beyond that year you can take advantage of any money that might be left
in that account, Which sounds like that worked for you, Danna or if.
It's an ah say that you're not actively investing in you don't want to. If there's some money in there from a match or whatever, then yeah, that's great. It's great to have. It's just great to use that money and not let it just sit there and you forget about it.
Yeah. If you all are listening and you have a bill that you were able to pay off with some creative, thoughtful, resourceful ideas or your name is Bill, visit us at Frugal Friends podcast dot com slash Bill to leave us your bill. We can't wait for it. And now it's time for the light.
All right. So what is a common kitchen gadget you found you don't need or use? So I I think it's my blender, but with the caveat that. Travis got a Ninja blender with the cup that goes on top like the flip one like the magic bullet, and I use that one much more now because I'm just making one smoothie and now I use that. He bought it for himself for work, but it was too loud, and
it is so loud it is obnoxious. But I use that thing pretty frequently now and it's small, so I keep it on my counter, whereas my blender is large and I keep it in the pantry.
Oh cool, Yeah, so.
I think that's that I still have my blender. But yeah, I'm it's.
The what are you going to do with your blender?
I well, I still have the or the pantry.
Yeah, you get something that is better than what you had used. It can be hard to part with the other thing because you remember, I did used to use this. This used to come in handy for me.
Yeah, and Travis got this ninja little magic bullet thing on Facebook Marketplace and I have benefited from it. So I never anticipated this new appliance coming into my life. But now that it has, I'm so confused.
I'm so I don't know.
I don't know, I am anymore.
For me, it would be a griddle. I do not. I used to have a griddle at one point I did use it, but I've found that I can live life without it, especially because the amount of times I make pancakes is pretty limited. I know there's other uses for a griddle, but I don't. I use it for pancakes and I can make those on the stove and irregular big old pan.
Now that we're a family of four. We do you are griddle because we do need at the same time.
Yeah, it's much.
Better than using a pan.
I'm not saying I'll never have one. I'm just saying I've lived for four years without one, and I've been Okay, I can.
You can borrow mine whenever you need? Is the thing.
The other thing that I'm constantly teetering about is my insta pot.
You just need to get rid of it. But here's the thing, you don't use it.
We do get together with people and make like food together, and people have borrowed it from me. But yeah, would I keep it so that I can just lend it out?
Well, why don't you use it as a slow cooker.
Also, it's a blow cooker. I know it's a problem.
Well, then if people are borrowing your instant pot more than your slow cooker, maybe you get rid of the slow cooker and just use the instant pot.
I got to figure out which one I want. I'm still unsure. Yeah, low cooker is really big, and I have these visions that like, someday I'm going to make a really big roast for people. I got the I got the slow cooker for free, say no to freebies. It's like, what if I get rid of it and then down the line, I do want it, and now I've got to pay for it. When I had one for free, you would never sit in my kitchen.
Because you can just borrow a slow cooker from somebody who hads so true.
I know. Yeah, I am not one to like hold on to things, but the kitchen stuff can be my so hard downfall because you just you want to have the options for when these cooking opportunities present themselves.
That's why it's good to have these conversations with friends because then you know, like, oh, yeah, you don't need to buy a griddle. I have a griddle anytime you need to use it. Let me know you don't know what your friends have because we don't go into our
friend's kitchens. Yeah enough, we don't invite people into our kitchen enough because it's cluttered and we're embarrassed about it and it doesn't look like an Instagram kitchen, right, But let's have more conversations about what's going on, what we've got, what we can share, and yeah, normalize our perception of what's normal when it comes to kitchens.
Allow yourself to not get the ninja creamy because everyone else is getting it.
Yeah, it's a daily struggle for me.
Actually, if you've lived without an air fryer for the majority of your life, you could probably keep living without an air fryer. Yeah, there's always going to be a new kitchen gadget to gather up.
Yes, So thank you for listening. I hope this has helped you. And if you end up decluttering your kitchen in thirty days, let us know about it by leaving a review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, kind of like this one from my Yelp name says made my day ten percent more special. Man, that's what we're going for. It happens to be five stars, they say, listening to this is inspiring. You are fun, loving and a great way to start my day.
I love the realistic percentage on this. Yeah, ten percent, not this made my day one hundred percent better. No we're not. We're not going there, we're not doing extremes.
No, we're not those people. We are not two hundred percent better people ten percent.
But listen, if I could improve by any percentage someone's day, that's a win, right.
One hundred percent is a lot of responsibility it's a lot of work.
We can't replicate that higher. We can replicate ten percent improvement.
Absolutely.
Yeah. Wow, Thank you my yelp name for that very realistic five star review, and thank you all for listening. If you want to say something about the percentage of win which we are improving your lives or your days, we'd love to hear about.
See if it's eleven percent.
Through a a few Yeah, that'd be fun, or even like five to eight percent, that's just funny.
Didn't think didn't think it was ten percent better, but for sure five to eight.
If we can match the rate of inflation with how we're improving your day, that'd be wonderful.
Oh yeah, that's a great way to look at it. If we're improving our craft at the rate of inflation, then.
Will be okay, You'll be okay. So let us know in a rating and review again on Apple or Spotify.
Yeah, see you later.
Bye.
Gorugle Friends is produced by Eric Sirianni. Speaking of improving, Travis came home yesterday and he's like, I found my new favorite part and I was like, oh, which one. He's like Frugal Friends, and I was like jerk, Like, come on, be honest, because he's been listening to a lot of weird podcasts lately, and he's like, no, I just started listening again, and it's really good. You guys have really progressed. I mean it was good when I listened five years ago, but you guys have really progressed
since then. And I really like it. And Travis is not one to mince words or lie to make me feel better. He gonna tell it like it is. Yeah, And he had no constructive criticism. He just really liked the episodes.
That's amazing. He's probably a little bit biased, but he didn't have to say anything. Eric never listens to frugal Friends, so our spouses don't have to listen.
No, they don't iver get trapped. I never asked him to listen. I've never and he just does because he's my he's my number one fan.
That's so amazing.
And he bribes his students to listen to our show and leave ratings and reviews and buy our book by what you loovebook dot com.
Beautiful, Thanks Travis, Yay, But wait there's more.
But wait, we're contractually obligated to give you thirty seconds more.
Which I was actually going to say something else or here you go.
Okay.
That is helpful and encouraging because I recently had an experience where we've been doing a lot more interviews like guesting on other people's podcasts to sell this book by what you Love without going broke by what you loovebook dot com, and so a lot of opportunity to hear what people who are not avid listeners of the show have to say about it. And I was on I won't say which podcasts, but I was on a podcast recently and this podcast audience did not care for me.
It was just me because you and I Jena been because there's just too many Sometimes we guessed together, sometimes we guessed apart, and this was a guesting apart. And I mean, I can't say everyone disliked.
Me, but the criticism would have been applicable to me as well, potentially.
I don't know. Some of them were just like who is this girl? What is she even saying? I don't know if it was meant to be a dig or not, but they were just there was just one comment that was, she reminds me so much of Drew Barrymore And I don't think that was comment.
Okay, listen. But the criticism is hilarious.
A good majority of it did have to do with and I didn't even mention Dave Ramsey in the podcast, but I think some of the ideas that I was talking about pushed back against some some of Dave Ramsey's tenants, like talking about how we can individualize our finances. You could choose to invest for retirement and pay off debt. You don't have to, but that is an option. There is not a one size fits all, and I think that really enraged people who are very.
Who believe there's only one way to do everything.
Yeah, but we know that that community is not entirely are people who are going to love us. Yeah, but it wasn't the most fun for me to read all of this feedback. And I told Eric about it. I'm just like, I'm feeling so insecure about that interview. It's not being well received. And he made the comment. First of all, he's like, you just you need to stay off of the internet and what people have to say about you. But also he's like, I'm like, but I
should take criticism. I should be able to hear what can be improved. Some of it I can't. I can't change how my voice sounds. I can't change whatever your impression is of me. But if there's things in here that I could shift, And he still was like, no, I think you listen to the people who do like you, the people who are already your people. What do they have to say about what could be improved? Yeah, because you can't make shifts for people who are not already
gonna want to hear from you. So that was helpful. So it was like, oh, yeah, I want to hear from the Frugal Friends community on what's constructive? What what you know? You all want to hear what would make this a better podcast that could actually be implemented upon. So anyways, all that to say, it's cool to hear from Travis that he likes it. I'd be open to feedback from him. But it's also I.
Think you're burying the lead. What was my favorite feedback that you were given on that episode?
I don't remember.
I want to hear finance advice from someone with nine children.
You're right, they were mad at me that I didn't have nine children.
Dracifically nine children.
I want to hear financial advice or someone with nine kids. And so yeah, that's gonna take a lot of time, so it won't be coming from me, right.
And yeah, at that point, you won't need financial advice, you'll need a lot of other advice. So yeah, that was my favorite.
That's so true.
I forgot about that. I'm so sorry. Yeah, no, that's the the audience that was making those comments. Is that genre, So yeah, take it with a grain of salt. Thanks nine grains of salt, specifically, thanks
Bill, appreciate you.