Was that the fastest summer ever? What happened? It all feels a little blurry, but here we are on the other side of Labor Day, with daylight hours creeping shorter and the fast track to holidays on the horizon. Whenever we hit Back to School season, I always feel a strong sense that it’s time to get serious. I turn my focus onto a more structured life and start craving more organization to keep all my plates spinning in the right direction.
As a West Coaster, spring cleaning has never resonated with me, but the beginning of the school year, with its syllabi and schedules in multiples, always has. The general consensus in the first week of September, whether you have children or not, becomes that we’re all going back to work, wouldn’t you agree? Those brief carefree days of summer were great; can’t wait to see you again!
As I was warming up for the new season, I took a scrutinous glance around my home, only to find it’s a goddamn mess. Why is everything so…cluttered? Why don’t I have a SYSTEM for my kitchen and home office?
SMH, I decided to dedicate myself to getting my house in order. This is a big journey (that I’m just starting tbh), and I’m excited to share with all of you! And based on DM’s I’ve been receiving, I’m not alone on the fall home reset. Here’s how I started to tackle it in my own house, along with some resources for home/kitchen/office/life organization. The big takeaway? It’s a choose-your-own adventure sort of approach to getting things in their proper place, so you do you, gang. I’ll be sharing progress pictures over the next couple of months so stay tuned!!
XO,
Valerie
LET’S MISE EN PLACE MY HOME
My house comes together nicely when we entertain: Odds and ends are predictably shoved into drawers and closets, but as summer came to a close I noticed an overflow of hidden chaos. Too many years of shoving things into drawers and closets has resulted in clinical disorder.
Although extremely intimidated, or just not aligned, with a lot of home organization experts I see on social media, I’ve been taking small notes from them to improve my organizational well-being. But I still felt a little lost and rambling around how to plan this process. So I called on my friend Ellen Marie Bennett, a multi- hyphenate entrepreneur (you may have heard of her apron company Hedley & Bennett), who is an expert at home organization.
We Facetimed with each other, and I showed her my dirtiest bits, the cluttered drawers, the disordered cabinets…it really feels weird to share these things! Then I popped over to her house to see all the aspirational order. Ellen went right into ZONE talk. Ellen’s process of organization begins with making piles of each category (pasta, rice, canned foods, spices, you get it) and then creating designated clear areas for each group. As she was walking me through this very logical process, my brain clicked to what I know very well. We were MISE EN PLACE’ing my home.
I mean, I know you all watched both seasons of The Bear, thrice, so this is likely not new information. But “mise en place” is a term we use in the kitchen that literally means “everything in its place.” It usually refers to prepping ingredients before you start cooking, so that everything is in reach and ready to go.
The next step in this mise en place is to place everything in three piles: keep, toss, or donate. Going through my kitchen cabinets, I unloaded four large garbage bags for trash or donation. It felt great, and healthy! As it should, considering that organizing is a known stress reducer, and the physical exfoliation of getting rid of things we don’t need feels like shedding an excess layer.
I’ve never understood why I can keep pots, small tools, and chocolate tools all assigned to their proper area at Valerie Confections, while at home my kitchen is overrun with equipment and ingredients with a distinct level of chaos (see immediately above). But now, the streamlined simplicity of my professional kitchen is moving in. Here are some of the biggest takeaways I learned through this process.
Set realistic goals, then carve out time to do smaller tasks. Because let’s be honest: You’re simply not going to organize your entire house in one afternoon. And after purging from your closet and kitchen and office and looking around at all the piles, all you’re going to be is frustrated.
Create (doable!) regular assignments for yourself. The other day, I cleaned out half my kitchen in five hours’ time. But I didn’t get to labeling or finalizing a spice drawer (and that’s okay). So I’ve created some weekly organizational assignments for myself — a homeware syllabus, if you will. This is where I have fallen off in the past, expecting myself to revitalize a whole house in an afternoon. So I’m starting with one room, the kitchen.
Organize according to your own personal style. For instance, those beautiful Instagram pantries don’t coalesce with my lifestyle, but I’m adopting methods and tips from many of these resources to benefit from organization that fits into my aesthetic and reality. Prioritize the ability to grab the items you use most often, which is different for everyone. And when it comes to storage, I have a mixture of pieces from Staub, Weck, and Container Store. This eclectic mix feels more organic to my eye, which has never been drawn to things that are TOO perfect. People also love writing on things in liquid chalk, which I find helpful in the refrigerator but not on my shelves. Follow your own sense of what fits!
INGREDIENT PREP > MEAL PREP
With an ordered kitchen, we probably need organized ingredients, right? Okay, another confession: Super structured #mealprep scares me a little bit. I am vulnerable to the whims of my palate, and when a strong desire shows itself, it must be sated. That being said, I do find ingredient prep very helpful in organizing my family’s food each week. We generally have a rotation of the following ingredients around; many are incorporated into easy after-school snacks and they’re all components that we generally consume year-round.
Beans - So versatile! I generally cook a large pot of beans on Sunday and hold a couple quarts in the refrigerator. Uses? Use them to make chili, as a filling or side for taco night, make breakfast beans with a fried egg, or throw them into a soup.
Roast chicken - I never tire of a delicious roast chicken. We average one a week at home, whether it’s pulled into salads or sandwiches or served atop rice (more on that below).
Oil-packed tins of tuna and sardines - Stock the larder with these protein- and omega 3-packed delights. Love some flaky fish on a salad, mashed on toast, or as the base for a decadent tuna melt.
Quinoa - Not dated! Still delicious and nutritious as a side or a base for a big bowl of roasted and fermented vegetables.
Roasted or boiled baby potatoes - Perfect to toss into a simple Niçoise, to put on a crudite platter, or to eat cold alongside cold roast chicken.
Hard-boiled eggs - A quick protein snack or a light breakfast, or ideal for slicing on a Niçoise (can you tell I love a Niçoise?) or chopped salad. They never go to waste, at least not in my house.
Rice - Fried rice is on heavy rotation for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. I always have a quart of cooked white or brown rice at the ready.
Greens - On Sundays I prep two huge bags of green mix, which is nutritious and a little sturdier than leafy lettuces. Kales, chards, and celery make for a flexible vegetable blend that is used in salads, stir fries, soups, and pastas.
Are you into full-on meal prep? To each their own. I recommend going to the experts. Catherine McCord has a genius template for planning the week in her book Meal Prep Magic, or check out her just-released Weelicious School Lunch Guide for the little ones. Mother Mag also just published a great lunch guide for kids. What’s Gaby Cooking also has fantastic ideas and recipes for menu planning.
ALL THE RESOURCES
There are so many places to look for organizational inspiration, from actual books to sites to bright, beautiful Instagrams.
Online & In Bookstores
Food52 - The site where I’m now, ahem, the Live Fire Cooking Resident has both editorial resources and plenty of products that can help you put things in their right place. The editors also put together a book in 2020 called Your Do-Anything Kitchen, which helps with everything from selecting only the most essential tools to the best cleaning methods for sparkling counters, sinks, and everything else you can think of.
Domino - I’ve always been obsessed with Domino magazine, which has plenty of online resources about home organization. The editors came out with a book several years ago, Your Guide to a Stylish Home, which includes everything from textile suggestions to personal advice from the editors to how to declutter and reorganize your bookshelves (stylishly, of course).
Remodelista - Back in the early days of the blog era, I would spend hours (particularly late night) scrolling through Remodelista for home design and decor inspiration. Thank you, Julie Carlson, for the beautiful, inspirational website you created. Remodelista now has a completely separate Organized Home mini-site with thoughtful storage tips for every room from the kitchen to the bedroom to the bathroom.
Marie Kondo - Although the captain of “sparking joy” has been less enthusiastic about the ultra-organized home of late, her 2010 book The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up has to be included on any resource list about de-cluttering the home. And really, if it doesn’t ultimately spark joy, why do it? (In organizing and all other things.)
The Home Edit - My daughter GeeGee was so into the Netflix series featuring Clea Shearer and Joanna Teplin, home organizers to the stars. I love the theme of their new book, Stay Organized (out in September), which helps readers put workable systems into place to keep their homes in tip-top shape. Because what’s the point of doing all the work to straighten things up if you let your home/office/kitchen slide back into madness?!
Last but not least, our QUEEN, Martha Stewart - Leave it to Martha to put together a full-service guide to not only organizing your home, but your life. Her book Martha Stewart’s Organizing is a manual that covers everything from her own personal calendar system to goal-setting to a week-by-week system to get your home in tip-top shape. We love to see it.
On Instagram
Get to scrolling, gang!
The Organized Home (@organized_home)
Ellen Bennett (@ellenmariebennett)
Joy Cho (@ohjoy)
Emily Henderson (@em_henderson)
That Organized Kitchen (@thatorganizedkitchen)
Catherine McCord (@weelicious)
Products & Brands
Neat Method - Not only does the Neat Method sell chic, modern storage essentials like bins and baskets and all that good stuff, they’re also one of the top professional home organizing companies in the country. So if your MO is to outsource, look no further. I’m also slightly obsessed with the brand’s Journal blog, which is chock-full of before and afters that are downright mesmerizing.
The Container Store - Who doesn’t love strolling down the aisles of the Container Store and imagining their closet looking just as perfect as the ones on the floor? The OG of home organization offers storage solutions for everything from, yes, the closet to the laundry room and even the garage.
IKEA - I feel like IKEA is the Fight Club of home decor. The first rule of owning IKEA furniture is that you don’t talk about owning IKEA furniture. But I digress. IKEA not only creates really useful storage systems, but I love sites like IKEA Hackers for ideas on how to make those useful pieces even more functional. And check out these suggestions from Real Simple and House Beautiful to get even more bang for your buck.
Zwilling - Love, love, love Zwilling’s vacuum sealable glass storage pieces because they keep fruit and vegetables super fresh in the refrigerator. And their modular cubes are absolutely brilliant for dry food storage and look great on the counter or in the pantry.
Weck - You met Weck in our Yes We Can edition, but the company also makes some of my favorite food storage containers. I love being able to scan my pantry or fridge and actually see what’s inside, so their airtight Mold Jars are must-haves for my kitchen.
Tiffin - Have you Tiffened? I love these things, the two and three layers are fantastic for both food storage and taking meals on the go. Here’s to Tiffin glory!
WHAT I’M READING: SUBSTACK EDITION
Who else is a Substack addict? I’ve been exploring and I can’t stop subscribing. In each issue of Hi Gang moving forward, I’ll share who I’m reading on Substack. Here’s a sampling of some of my current favorites:
Food Processing by Carla Lalli Music
Keep Calm & Cook On by Julia Turshen
The Boy Who Bakes by Edd Kimber
UPCOMING EVENTS
LA Loves Alex’s Lemonade
I’ll be participating in this year’s LA Loves Alex’s Lemonade, which donates proceeds to fighting childhood cancer. Click here to purchase tickets to join me on Saturday, September 23rd at UCLA.
BBQ Bootcamp
The next BBQ Bootcamp is coming up on October 15th to 17th at the Alisal Ranch. Join me for a celebration of global live-fire cooking. Reservations and more info can be found here.