Watch Out - Mama's Organizing!

I can't speak to the driving force that has me sorting through piles, repulsed by cluttered areas of my home and organizing like a mad-woman.  I could theorize on a couple if instigators of this organizational force that has been unleashed on my surroundings.  In five short months, give or take a week or two, we'll be bringing a new little one into our home and family and there's quite a few things to do to get ready.  But really, it's too early for nesting, right?  I'm part of a book club this year that's reading through an "organize your life" book and we're responsible for before and after photos (this at least accounts for the kitchen chaos being attacked).  Short of those two items, I have no idea, because really, I don't like cleaning!

So this week I've gone after a couple projects as a woman on a mission.  One was to clean the pantry out.   The other was to organize the bins of children's kids clothing (more on this later).

The pantry project was instigated by the book club accountability.  On a recent Thursday morning I took everything out of my pantry, dusted, cleaned and replaced.  The honest words of G-Tot summed it up:  "Mommy, there's a lot of dirt in there!"  Yup, there was.  It was almost like it hadn't been completely cleaned out since we moved in or something.  Ahem.  I was concerned that there was going to be a lot of food that was going to have to be thrown out, but there wasn't.  And I was pleasantly pleased that there weren't too many surprises in my pantry either.

Organizing my spices was another project I tackled the same morning.  I had spices residing in two different locations in the kitchen and never really knew what was where.  So I sorted, combined and consolidated.  They still live in two different places, but I know what lives where.  Large bottles and bulk spices to refill smaller containers in the pantry and all the "normal" size spice containers are in the drawer.  It's a much better arrangement.

Here are some before and after shots of the pantry and spice drawer.

Spices Sorting:

Spices After:

Pantry Before: 

Pantry After:

Clean Kitchen!

Spring cleaning is a sporadic activity in my house.  I'm not one of those folks who enjoys cleaning.  If there's one household task where I cut as many corners as possible, it's cleaning.  So today was HandyMan's day off from work and he had invited some folks over for dinner so I declared it cleaning morning.  I busted out my master cleaning list, added a few more things to it and we got down to work.  The kitchen and down stairs bathroom were targets of our buckets, brooms, and rags.  HandyMan gets full credit for the bathroom.  I was busy cutting corners in cleaning up the living room.

Then we all got to work in the kitchen.  While some believe in "keeping it real", I'm  not going to subject you to "before" shots of my nasty kitchen.  Here are my helpers at work:



We cleaned counters, appliances, cabinet fronts, and even under the fridge and stove.  It's sparkling clean, and has stayed that way for almost 5 hours now.





We'll see if I can maintain it -  at least for a couple days.

A Clean Fridge Stare Down

I am good at a lot of things, and when I set my mind to it, I can be good at cleaning. But it is not a strength, nor something I really enjoy. Often a mess will keep compounding until I finally suck it up and deal with it...or until HandyMan can't take it any more! Remember as a kid having “stare-downs” or playing Mercy (crush your opponent's hand and dig in the fingernails and see who cries for mercy first)? Some cleaning tasks in my house are like this. And sometimes, I don't even know that the game has begun.

This was the case with the refrigerator. On Monday after lunch HandyMan started, or more appropriately, finished emptying out the fridge. I looked up from what I was doing and he was pulling shelves out. “Are you cleaning the fridge?!” I asked in awe and amazement. I had wiped down a shelf or two a couple months ago – it wasn't that bad. Ok, maybe it was. And HandyMan, my hero, took care of that mess. He removed and disassembled all the shelves and cleaned out the bottom of the fridge and the crisper drawers. What an awesome surprise to my Monday! Now I really have to do my best to keep it clean. Thanks honey! (And no, I won't send him to your house to clean your fridge.)

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This post is linked up at The Diaper Diaries Things I Love Thursday and Finer Things Friday.

Clean Space

The space that I call my work room is a multipurpose space.  I use it for soy candles, for sewing, or for whatever other project I’m currently working on.  When necessary, all my projects can get put away, and I have extra guest room space.  As part of preparations for The Weekend, I cleared out my work room.  Almost all signs of candle production were stowed away.  All equipment for craft fairs, stashed (or used elsewhere –tent and tables got put to work!)

The bonus of having put everything away last week is that now as I work my way towards my fall projects, I have a clean space to start with.  I have some sewing and mending projects waiting for me.  I also have to get my candle-making-behind in gear to get ready for the Bainbridge Market on September 4^th and the Greene Apple Festival on September 25^th.

In the next week, I hope to let some of the candle making supplies seep back into this clean space and hopefully get the sewing machine out to begin preparing for fall.  What projects are you working on as fall approaches?

Note: Picture is not my Empty Space, as mine is a bit less "pretty".  The empty space pictured is from a Google image search and original site is linked through the photo.

Make Your Own Powdered Laundry Detergent

As I strive to eliminate unnecessary chemicals from our household, I began to explore options for making our own laundry detergent.  Many of the "recipes" I found were for liquid detergents which required melting soaps and mixing and shaking and more work than I wanted to put into it.

Then I found the recipe for Jabs Homemade Laundry Detergent.  He has a great tutorial on how to make this powdered laundry detergent with three ingredients:  1 bar of soap, 1/2 cup Borax, 1/2 cup Washing Soda.  Here area  few of my notes on the process:

Grating the Bar of  Soap I have used the Fels-Naptha soap and found that it is very difficult to get it to break down into a small grain.  I tired letting the bar dry out as a commenter suggested and that didn't work for me. So I've resorted to grating the bar of soap, adding the Borax and Washing Soda and then running it through the food processor.  This works great

Does it Really Work? Yes.  I have used it on the cloth diapers and they come out clean as ever.  (*Note, this soap may build up on all-in-one type diapers and non-cotton diapers reducing their absorbency) I still add oxy-whitener to the diapers and whites as I always have and have noticed no difference between this and the expensive green detergent I was using before.  The real joy of it -it really only takes 1 1/2 tablespoons per load.  Concentrated detergent, less space used in my laundry room.

Less money, less waste, clean clothes.  What's not to like?

My Season of Lent

Many Christian traditions celebrate the season of Lent, which is observed beginning on Ash Wednesday and spans 40 days until Easter.  While the Catholic Church is the most known for calling parishioners to sacrifice something during this time in order to deepen their focus on Christ, other denominations like Presbyterians and Lutherans also follow this tradition.

This is not a tradition that I grew up with and every year I find myself struggling to figure out what I’m going to “give up” because everyone else is talking about it.  This year our congregation was challenged to make a difference with your sacrifice.  If giving up chocolate, donate the money that you would have spent on chocolate to the soup kitchen.  If you sacrifice an activity, use the time to volunteer.

While discussing this year’s Lent season and batting around a few ideas, as a family we settled on minimizing our grocery budget as much as possible by eating meals that are stashed in the freezer and using the extra money (and time saved on cooking) to put together Hygiene Kits and Baby Kits for our denominational disaster assistance program.  I often feel convicted of how I spend my time, and was feeling this conviction when I came across Katie’s “What are you doing for Lent” post over at Kitchen Stewardship.  As I read the post my “what doing with your time” voice kept echoing in my head.  Then the first linked response on Forty Bags in Forty Days de-cluttering challenge caught my eye and was the catalyst that gelled in my heart what this year’s Lent season needs to be about for me: the spiritual disciplines of gratefulness and giving.

I strive to focus on being content and know that we have so much more than we need, but that does not turn into true gratefulness as often as it should. Rarely do I look around to see how much I really have and sometimes how little we actually use.  So over the course of the 40 days of Lent, 40 bags of various sizes (nothing smaller than a plastic shopping bag) will leave my house destined to be donated or recycled and I will daily strive to allow gratitude to fill my heart and life.

Would you like more ideas for observing the season of Lent in a unique way? Visit this Kitchen Stewardship post for ideas (scroll to the bottom of the post for link ups.)

Pantry & Freezer Stocking List

Are you intentional about what gets stocked in your pantry and freezer or is it a catch-all spot for leftover ingredients from meals gone by? Since shopping is a chore for me I try to be pretty intentional about what get stocked in the pantry and freezer from my shopping trips.

The first step in stocking the pantry and freezer with ingredients is to look at what you cook most often and what you like to have on hand for quick meals.  I've found that stocking the pantry with items that I rarely use ends up being a waste of the space.  While I don't usually go for prepared food I usually have a few quick meals stashed in the pantry.  Additionally, this girl can't be caught without the means to a chocolate chip cookie, so those important ingredients are usually found on my baking shelf.  In the fall and winter, I often throw together soups on a whim so the pantry is usually stocked with soup ingredients.   As fresh fruit becomes more expensive in the cooler months, canned fruits begin to make their way to the pantry.  Dried goods and snacks are also a staple items that get some of the pantry real estate.  The freezer also has a stash of frequently used ingredients.

Here's a breakdown of what's in my pantry and freezer stash:

Freezer: Orange Juice concentrate, Coffee (decaf & regular), Margarine for baking

Baking Ingredients: Unbleached Flour, Whole Wheat Flour, Chocolate Chips, Sugar, Brown Sugar, Spices

Canned Goods: "Cream of" Soups, Diced Tomatoes, Tomato Paste, Kidney Beans, Pineapple, Mandarin Oranges, Water Chestnuts,

Dry Goods: Pinto Beans, Black Beans, White Beans, Spaghetti, Pasta, Rice, Ramen, Macaroni & Cheese, Broth Cubes, Cereal

Snacks: Trail Mix, Popcorn, Chips

What are the staples in your pantry?

Pantry Reorganization

Inspired by Erin's Pantry Make-Over and frustrated by the chaos that was my pantry, it was time to do some re-organization.  Plus, the local mice population has started their inward migration for the fall and I wanted to make sure that they stay out of my food (unless its on the traps!)

So with $30 in shelves and bins I started with a pantry that looked like this:



and re-stacked my canned goods, labled my spices, and put snacks, dry-goods and baking-bits in bins and now I can find what I'm looking for when I'm cooking or baking - such a huge improvement! Now if I can just remember to wipe off the camera lense on my phone, I'd be able to get some non-smudged pictures!

A Clean House

I try really hard to leave the house clean when we leave for a trip.  When we return home it seems that we always hit the ground running.  If I can leave the house clean, hopefully in our dash back to the our routines, we won't trip on anything.  There was extra motivation for getting the house clean before this trip as we were entertaining for lunch on Sunday before we left.  This boiled down to a Saturday night blitz clean.  In a flurry of vacuuming, sweeping, wiping, dusting and stashing, HandyMan and I whipped our house into a pretty presentable abode.  Then we left town. That was the only way that the house was going to stay that neat for a week.  But I have to admit, coming home to that clean house is totally worth it!  Here are some more ideas for How to Keep Your Home Clean All Week Long.

Rocked My World... How to fold fitted sheets

So, I admit it.  I am one of those people who (until this summer) has NEVER folded up a fitted sheet.  I would take one corner to another, then all four corners together.  Fold it in half again and then kind of roll it up.  All that elastic and fabric in the corners never cooperated.  Then, my friend posted this video on Facebook.  In one minute and forty-two seconds of training and now, I can fold those darn things!  If fitted sheets just get wadded up in your linen closet - spare the minute-forty-two and check this out!  What other tricks to you guys know that I need to be filled in on?

Confessions of a Clutterbug

NOTE: This entry is rated PG for language.  Please do not read if easily offended :-)

Before my daughter was born, I had my cleaning all organized out and had grand plans to keep to my 4-week cycle to keep my home clean and in order after the baby arrived.  HA!  Yeah, I know you other moms out there are laughing.

Then, GBaby arrived.  I was trying to figure out life with a newborn.  The first two weeks were ok because HandyMan was off work and home and taking care of stuff for me- he was so great.  Then he went back to work.  I was home, alone, with a baby:  in February in the Northeast (not the most motivating of months).  My philosophy on housekeeping quickly changed to I’d rather do a half-a$$ed job of cleaning than have my house look like a$$.  There you have it.  I have no idea how to clean up this philosophy without loosing the poetics of it.

So I took to the “quick clean”.  Grab cleaner & rag and hit all the surfaces in the bathroom.  Done. Bathroom’s clean.  Throw all the dishes in the dishwasher, rake everything off the counters into a stack in my office (my catchall hiding spot). Done. Kitchen’s clean.  Pull the comforter over the sheets; throw all clothes lying around into the laundry bins.  Done. Bedroom’s clean.  You get the idea.

After a little while I had to focus on one area every so often and really clean it. I’d pull out the broom, mop, vacuum, cleaners and rags and evict all the dust bunnies and dog hair.  So far it’s working.  I try to clear the kitchen counters, sink and dishwasher every night before I go to bed and get the toys up off the kitchen floor but often exhaustion wins.

If you drop in, you’ll find my home comfortably lived in and most of the dustbunnies and cobwebs banished.  If you give me notice I may actually “clean” before you come!