I wanted to organize kitchen with AI, so I photographed one drawer. Not the whole house. Not a shopping list.
I’m 67. I spent decades in restaurants. I know where a bottle should live. At home I still had three poultry seasonings, thyme in two brands, sage twice, and a box of matches keeping the oregano company. If you are anything like me, you will find it hard to give up that spice or that flavor extract from two years ago. Or you will have a favorite jar of cinnamon you can never find, because it is in a black hole in the vortex of lost spices.
That is the job. Not a pretty pantry for the internet. Relief. Or at least a try.
I took the picture in all its glory. Dust on the liner. Jars on their sides so you cannot read a label without fishing. Old Bay in the corner. Cloves and allspice mixed in with dinner spices. I did not stage it. Then I asked Grok. ChatGPT works too. If typing is a pain, talk the prompt. I wrote about that in You Don’t Have to Type: How I Talk to AI Instead.
The prompt I used to organize kitchen with AI
Paste this. Attach the photo.
I'm 67. This is one drawer in my kitchen. I cook. I don't want a showroom. Tell me what to throw out, what to keep, and how to group it so cooking is easier. Don't tell me to buy a system. If I truly need one item, name it in plain English so I can look locally. Be blunt.
That is the whole prompt. No “act as a designer.” No Amazon links.
What it told me, in kitchen-table English
Throw the matches away. They do not live with food.
Throw the extras away. Keep one thyme. One sage. One poultry seasoning. If a jar smells like attic, it is attic. It is not a flavor. Open it. Smell it. If it smells like dust, throw it away.
Stand what is left. Labels toward you. Cooking spices on the left. Baking on the right. Cloves and allspice are baking. Garlic and pepper are dinner. Old Bay is dinner.
Do not buy a rack. Wipe the drawer. Put the keepers back. That is the system.
I had the same spices in a bake cupboard and a pantry too. Three homes for one jar. That is how the cinnamon disappears. Rule: one home per thing. Allspice does not get a summer home.
What this will not do
It will not make you a person who tosses things easily. I still looked at that old extract.
It will not organize the whole house. One drawer. If that works, take a picture of the next cupboard on another day.
It will not fix a buying habit. If you tend to keep things, bins are how the pile gets prettier and bigger. Throw extras away first. Then group. Then, maybe, one cheap thing from a store you can walk into. Not a cart of plastic.
Grok can tell you what needs to go. You still grab it and throw it away. Same as How I Use AI Every Day as a 67-Year-Old. It is a tool.
Try it this week
Open one drawer you swear you will get to. Photograph it. Open Grok or ChatGPT. Paste the prompt. Attach the picture. Then throw the extras away before you admire the advice.
If you try it, tell me in the comments which jar you could not throw away. I will not judge. I still have a soft spot for a bottle I have not opened in years.
— Andrew
