Practice English Speaking&Listening with: Messy Millennial Gets Her Kitchen Professionally Organized

- Everyone take a shot every time I say decanted.

(laughing)

- This whole video!

- These are gonna get decanted.

- Hell yeah.

- [Both] Decant, decant!

(upbeat music)

- Welcome to my kitchen!

Maya's here to help me transition

into this very emotional cleaning experience.

- I'm here for support.

- She was so helpful last time.

- All over there. (bell dings)

- I am very excited for you

because every time Claudia comes to my house,

she always has like a Latina mom like comment

about anything on the table.

Like, "Oh, you should get a new this."

Or, "Oh, this should be here."

- You're making it sound nicer than they come out.

- Yeah, it's really like. (cries)

- If they sound a little backhanded,

I don't mean to.

- You and Vika, her roommate, they are very organized

as it is.

This is just gonna be amazing for you guys.

- Yeah, I'm so excited for Vika to see it because

like, organization is her thing.

And the kitchen is small.

It's not the most functional,

there's not a lot of counter space.

Everything's really buried in these very deep

and very cavernous cabinets.

We don't really know what's going on,

the deep cabinets with our utensils,

and our plastic wrap and foil and knives,

and baking things, it's like Narnia.

You put your hand in, you don't know where

it's gonna come out.

There's like nothing in there.

- And the thing that I'm looking at now,

this like little cart thing--

- [Claudia] Oh, it's embarrassing.

- I'm so embarrassed for you, Claudia.

You guys bake all the time, so like.

- [Claudia] Yeah, I love baking.

- You guys deserve a space where you know

where everything's at, that's functional,

you need more counter space, and I feel like Janelle

is the perfect person to help you out with that.

- So excited for what she's about to do to this space.

I'm also hosting dinner tonight for my family.

The challenge is to organize this space,

and then immediately see if it's functional

because I will be hosting like 10 people for dinner.

- Hi, I'm Janelle from Straighten Up,

and I'm a professional organizer.

You recently saw me do closet makeovers with Carly and Maya,

if you haven't seen those videos

make sure to go check 'em out.

I work on all spaces in the home,

one of them being the kitchen.

So today, we're gonna be redoing Claudia's kitchen,

and she's really in for it.

So closets and kitchens are very different.

One being because, closets are full of

all of your personal belongings.

A shirt that means a lot to you or a gift from your parents.

Whereas a kitchen is a little more about function.

It's about not having waste within your food,

it's about making it easy to prepare dinner

so that it's not like, where's the knife?

and where are the cutting boards?

If you have a space that you know

exactly where everything is,

and you have what you need to cook a good meal,

it's gonna save you money, it's gonna save you time.

I'm very excited to get my hands on Claudia's kitchen

so let's get to it!

- Let's get our professional organizer slash good friend

slash life coach Janelle in here!

Woo!

- Hey!

- Add all the applause sound effects.

- Come on down!

- I'm so calmed just by your presence.

- Oh, good, I'm so glad.

- I feel like everything's gonna be okay.

- It is.

You've done a really great job with your kitchen,

you already have a bunch of, you know,

risers and organizational materials.

But--

- Most from your texts.

- From yes, from my texts.

- Because my roommate will be like,

"Janelle, what do we do with these?"

So we have some things in place, but--

- And they're great.

And we might shift them a little bit

so that they're a little bit more functional.

We're gonna add a lot of labels.

We're gonna make it very much your aesthetic

because this kitchen is really cool.

The floor is really special,

it's got a lot of character to it.

So we're gonna make sure that the things we add

aren't just a bunch of plastic and metal.

It's gonna have character.

It's gonna have your personality.

You know, a lot of kitchens are like this,

especially in older houses, the drawers are kind of sticky,

or really deep, or like some of them are a weird shape

like a triangle rather than--

- All our baking stuff is like

in a weird triangle cabinet thing.

- So we're gonna make sure that the things that are in there

make sense to have like things of that shape.

We're going to add some storage space over here.

- [Claudia] Can't wait.

- And that will also add counter space.

The one important thing is in a kitchen, you don't have to

work with what you have.

You can create new space.

We're gonna add a bakers rack,

we're gonna add a bunch of storage for your snacks,

and some labels.

- Labels!

Labels.

- We love labels.

- Especially since you share the space with someone.

- Having more counter space is key.

- I think we're gonna use this space,

we're gonna keep it open and clean,

'cause having a cluttered counter

will make you stressed out.

We're gonna take the spices, we're gonna move them,

and do a whole cool decanting,

new custom spice rack for you.

- Decanting.

- (laughing) Lots of decanting.

- Sexy word, decanting.

- Lots and lots of it.

And that will also save money because you'll be able

to buy in bulk.

We're gonna keep this clear,

make this more of a breakfast space.

You know, making your coffee, tea, that kind of thing.

And that space over there will be more for your cooking,

dinner, and that kind of thing.

So you're not running back and forth,

and it's more central to this area where your stove is.

- I love it, I can't wait.

- [Both] Let's do it!

- Let's not wait, let's make it happen!

- Do it!

- Okay, cat stuff, I don't know what the cats did,

there's water everywhere.

So embarrassing, it's like my kids made a huge mess.

- [Janelle] Oh, it's so good because it's right near a plug.

- [Claudia] Oh, wow!

- So we're gonna start by going through all these snacks.

- Yay.

- Okay, and all of the food in there.

- Uh huh.

- So we're gonna see kind of what you actually have,

what's still good, whose is whose,

and sort it, some of the things we're gonna decant

because it'll last longer, like cereal and everything.

- Okay.

- It'll last way longer if it's in an airtight sealed bin

versus a bag that the air can get in.

- Like the granola.

- Exactly.

And I'm gonna avoid touching peanuts

because I'm allergic.

- She's very allergic to peanuts, everybody. (laughs)

- So you can touch all the peanuts.

- I will touch the peanuts.

I'll keep peanuts in like this corner.

- I love that idea.

- We have like this, cashews, gotta have my cheesy poofs.

- (laughing) Those are the best.

- Which I don't always buy because I'll eat them so fast.

Seeing how many nuts we have I'm like,

oh my god, we're gonna kill you!

- I have a question.

So I'm seeing that you have doubles of things,

like things that are unopened or two of the same open.

Is that because you guys both want the same thing?

Or is it because you forgot you had it

so you bought it again?

- Unclear, we'll host, you know, we'll have like book club--

- Right.

- Or go to Cinespia, and there'll be like this much left

and then we'll go, well, we need a new box.

And then I don't know, half of 'em get eaten.

- So maybe we figure out kind of

which things you're buying a lot of.

And we put them in something airtight,

so that you can do that, you can just add to it.

So those are gonna get decanted.

So those will get decanted, these will get decanted.

- [Maya] De-cant, de-cant!

- [Both] De-cant, de-cant!

- (laughing) Maya, really integral part of the process here.

- We've got grains.

- We have more grains in there, probably.

- [Janelle] Okay, so let's take them out.

- See, look at that.

I didn't even know what I got.

- So we're gonna go through what's gonna get decanted,

what you're buying a lot of

because you want to decant things you're buying a lot of,

so you can buy in bulk.

Like a big bag like this.

- I've bought so many oats.

- There you go.

And you can combine them all and we're gonna write

the instructions on the back in a chalk marker

so that if you get new oats

and it has different cooking times,

you can just wipe it off and rewrite it.

I'm gonna show you how to do that.

So we're gonna do things that you keep refilling.

You're gonna keep refilling it,

you're not gonna have to clean it out, empty it out,

you're just gonna keep filling it up.

We're gonna figure out what those things are.

So these, we're definitely gonna decant.

Let's look at the grains

and see which of these you're buying all the time.

You tell me.

Some things you get

just because you want to try something new.

Which is totally great.

- Mhmm.

- But let me know which are the things

you're constantly buying.

Some people are always buying quinoa.

Maybe the muesli?

- Yeah, that and actually the granola,

we always have like this--

- Always granola.

- [Claudia] This peanut butter granola

that I don't want you to touch.

But we like always have some of this.

- Great, you can put it over here.

And any of those nuts?

- I mean, yeah.

That'd be great.

- Cool, we'll do the nuts and the smaller ones

'cause there are smaller bins in the pack that we got

and those are great for nuts.

- [Claudia] That'd be amazing.

- Those are great when you have guests over,

you can just take the top off, put it out.

- Yes!

And we never know, we never know what we have.

- But then what about lasagna.

Is that just because you're making lasagna tonight?

- Because I'm making lasagna, also had forgotten

that I had those, so I have three more boxes in my closet.

- [Janelle] Awesome.

- So I have so much lasagna.

- All right, let's grab some bins.

(upbeat music)

So it's important to pick the right size

because you don't wanna necessarily base it on

how much you have right now, right?

Because you have half a bag.

Or you have a half a thing of oats.

You want to do it for the maximum amount

and then if it's not full right now,

it will eventually be full.

- [Claudia] Got it, got it.

- So let's get our label maker and chalk marker.

They're awesome because you can write on the bin

and wipe it off with water.

- [Claudia] Ooh.

- Great for expiration dates and for directions.

I like to write it, personally,

because a lot of these instructions are super padded

and there's just so many of 'em.

One thing you can do, if you don't want to buy

a chalk marker, is you can just cut it out,

cut out the instructions, and tape it onto the back.

I personally like to write it, I find it super easy.

And you won't even see it.

And then we're gonna use our really cool label maker,

we're gonna use this cool one

because it adds kind of a nice character to it,

rather than my normal label maker.

And we're just gonna write oats.

Beautiful.

So first thing is decant it.

Oh, and it looks so cute.

So with things that are packaged and sealed within the box,

you don't necessarily need to take them out

while you're putting them in the decant for now.

It'll keep 'em fresher for longer.

- I can't tell you how long ago I got these.

I was like, I'm gonna eat pumpkin seeds for my snacks.

I'm gonna stop munching on things.

Completely forgot about it.

Completely forgot.

- So for a snack like this, I put the label on for crackers,

and then on the back, the expiration date.

- I forgot the second P in pumpkin

but I think it's kind of funny

because it says pumkin.

So we're gonna keep it.

- Okay, keep it. - Pumkin.

- Live your best life. - Woo!

We on a roll now, baby.

- [Janelle] Yes we are.

(rock music)

- So this is all our baking things.

- [Janelle] Lovely.

- I feel the need to explain

why I have like four different small sugars,

and literally four different baking powders.

I will do a lot of shoots that involve cooking for work.

So I'll get like the smallest sugar I can,

or like have to grab baking powder

because I don't have time to get it from home,

and like I shouldn't be pulling from my stock anyways.

And then I'll have all this leftover,

and props will be like we don't want baking stuff.

Just take it.

And this is what happens.

- So right now we're gonna match our OXO bins

to the correct size for kind of what we've got going on.

Some stuff is not necessarily gonna go into a bin

because it's very specialty,

like the crepe we'll keep in that,

maybe the chickpea will stay in that

unless you're constantly buying the chickpea.

We're gonna do the smaller size for the baking powder,

we're gonna do this size for the coconut.

- [Claudia] Got it.

- We're gonna do this size for the cane sugar.

Then we've got flour, flour can go in a bigger one.

- I don't know why we have a turbinado raw, then a cane,

then a light brown, then a brown.

- Hmm, that's a lot of--

- (laughing) I don't know why we have these!

- Very different.

I wouldn't combine those

since they're obviously very different.

I think let's keep those in the packages already in

since they're already specific sugars to begin with.

Let's get going.

- Okay. - Okay.

(upbeat music)

So we finished the snacks, and the grains.

- Now we're onto spices.

- Spices.

- So before we start spices, I'd love to talk about

this pretty little thing you got here.

Tell me about it.

- We got this, I want to say three or four years ago

when I first moved in with Vika.

- [Maya] Have you used anything from it?

- They've been around for four years

and I never use, I don't use it.

- So I love a spice rack like this.

I used to have one too.

It's such a good adult gift but it's not always practical.

Number one, it's taking up counter space.

And number two, you are still gonna be buying

different flavors that you can't get in the spice rack,

and then you can't fit them in here

because you really like this one,

and what are you supposed to do, like just leave it out?

It doesn't look attractive.

- Right.

The times that I've ever needed pizza seasoning

are like zero to none.

- So we're gonna do a fun little hack.

It's not totally necessary.

So we bought these on Amazon.

They're just spice jars.

They have the little top and everything.

- Oh!

- And you take this off and you put this in,

and then you open this up and you pour the whole thing in.

Then you take a label to match the other ones we have

and we're gonna label it like this.

- And then it's all gonna look so uniform.

- Exactly.

- And we'll see the colors of them.

- And it's gonna look beautiful,

and we're gonna put it right near your stove.

Because your stove's over there,

and your spices are over here.

- So I'll always just like find the ones I need

in the back here, and then I'll carry them all over.

- Yup, super practical.

This is a very awkward cabinet which,

this is a good use for it because it's so awkward and small.

- Are we gonna decant our tajin? (laughing)

- I already made a label for it.

But the thing is that it's,

you can't see what's in the back.

Are you ready to do it?

- Yes!

- Take them all out.

- Definitely crushed red pepper.

(upbeat music)

Woo!

We are about halfway done?

- Yeah, maybe a little more.

- How's it look, Maya?

- It looks great, I've been hearing all of the things

that have been happening, and it sounds amazing.

- I love that part of Janelle's process is,

let's make organizing fun.

It doesn't need to be super stressful.

Hang out with your girlfriends, have some wine.

- Rose, rose, rose, rose!

- Woo!

- Salud!

- To cleanliness!

- Baby!

(laughing)

(upbeat music)

Maya, come see my new kitchen!

(gasping)

- Isn't it beautiful? - Whoa.

What I love about Janelle's work is that she doesn't

just organize, and that's it,

she definitely is very intuitive on the other person's vibe,

that's very special, you know, to have in an organizer,

because it's already a sensitive thing that we're doing

is like organizing.

- [Claudia] Yeah, come see all my secrets and all my mess.

- It makes you wanna cook and bake in here.

- I have pumpkin seeds!

I didn't know that!

(laughing)

And I forgot the P so they're called pumkin seeds!

(laughing)

Let's get a tour!

- Okay. - Get a tour of the kitchen.

Look at our beautiful spice rack.

- Spices, spice, spice, spice.

- So before, this space was kind of gonna waste

a little bit because you were kind of just

putting stuff on there that was double.

So you had two salts and two peppers,

so now you have not only kind of a piece of artwork,

but this will be super easy when you're cooking,

you can just grab it, dump it in, put it right back.

So we have the other spices over here.

So these were the spices that aren't used as often,

or are extra that we have double of.

So over here we have the cans, we have jars,

so we have pasta sauce, and salsa, down here are the sauces.

We added a utensil tray that was bigger

so it fit the drawer more.

Because what was happening before was the utensil tray

was too small, and so there was too much gap

for things to just be thrown in.

We added a drawer divider,

so over here we kind of have your aluminum foil,

and your plastic wrap and your Ziploc baggies.

And then the bottom drawer is Tupperware,

everyone's worst nightmare.

But not their worst nightmare.

- Oh! - Oh!

- So my favorite way to store Tupperware

is to add a drawer divider

so that the lids have a place to go

because you can always adjust it

based on what size you have.

And then store bottoms over here.

So we put all of the spices down here

that are specific to baking

so that they were separated.

And then these are kind of specialty baking things,

so pancake mix, and then these cute little ones

from Trader Joe's, they're all down here.

These would be things

that if they were baking something special,

they would come down here, they don't need everyday access.

They don't need to have it out necessarily.

- [Claudia] Then we have this, this looks great.

- Oh, yes. - Ah!

- [Maya] And labeled!

- [Janelle] Here we have baking stuff, so since the baking

is right here, this would naturally be the place to look

for smaller baking items.

It's better to put it here than down here

because these can just kind of get lost

and thrown in the back.

So having a smaller, condensed space for it

will make it so that you're not losing those things.

Yeah, they already had a pretty good handle on this area.

We added a few fun things

to just kind of sort it out a little bit better.

- Yeah, this super helps

because we have so many wine glasses.

- Oh, man!

What is this?

- So those are really great,

they're under-hanging shelf baskets.

There's probably a better word for it.

I really love them because the number one reason

that a space isn't used to its optimal efficiency,

is because you're not using vertical space.

So using the vertical space is what's really important.

It's what we did in Carly's closet,

when we added those shelving,

and we added the double tier clothing rack.

It's the same thing, so basically,

if you didn't have this, you would have a bunch of mugs,

and you would have--

- Yup, and that's always been a struggle of ours.

- Exactly.

You wanna use the top shelf for things that you're only

gonna access for a special occasion.

- [All] Ooh.

- I haven't even seen this that you did!

(gasping) That looks so good!

- It just makes sense to like have things in there,

like these little racks.

I never thought about that.

- And then this is the last thing to show off.

- [Janelle] Oh yes!

- [Claudia] Is how beautiful the baking stuff looks,

and our books!

Which aren't on top of the fridge

just like getting sticky anymore.

- You just put so much heart into everything that you do.

- So good.

- So they did a really good job

with being super upfront and honest about what they had,

and therefore we had a really great product.

- Yeah, this kitchen makes me so happy.

It almost makes me more happy,

how much I'm gonna get to show it off, too.

Like to my family, and I just can't wait

to see my roommate's reaction,

because she's gonna be so happy.

Like she's gonna die.

And it make me wanna cook!

You did it again!

- You did it, for Janelle! (clapping)

- You fixed our lives, you solved all our sadness,

as Maya likes to say.

- Yes, she does. - She did it.

So my beautiful roommate Vika is here,

and she's waiting to see the kitchen.

- Ooh, oh my god!

I love that that's empty, oh that makes me so happy.

This is nice.

Oh my god!

Don't you feel kind of more like an adult?

Lazy Susan!

I love these!

- [Claudia] We love it!

- We should probably have a dinner party,

oh wait we're having one!

(upbeat music)

- [Child] Pero Like.