On The Move Again-- Some Moving Tips!

We're scheduled to close on our new home next week and then moving the following week!

So much of my time has been spent packing up and doing all I can now to ensure a smoother ride that last week before the big day!

I thought I'd share a few moving tips I've gleaned.

• Don't buy moving boxes or packing materials unless absolutely necessary! Every time we move, someone tells us to check for free moving supplies on Craigslist and Freecycle. While this is good advice, we have had zero success with that. What we do have success with is getting free boxes from Walmart. During our last move, we went while they were stocking shelves (late night or early morning) and went around asking for boxes. This time, a friend suggested we call at night around 10 pm and ask them to save boxes for us. Then we just pick them up the next morning. Super easy and free! We've had friends save newspaper and other packing supplies for us as well as gathering boxes as they see them.
• You will probably need more boxes than you think. It's a lot easier to have extra than be scrounging for more the day before the move. Trust me.
• You will need lots of packing tape. Buy the mega family pack!
• Not everything has to be packed. This is a tip for moving across town. Longer distance moves will be different. Hanging clothes can go straight from your current closet to the closets in your new house. Towels and bathroom items can be taken right over and placed in their new space. Laundry baskets and reusable grocery bags are great for stuffing these things in. If you have kitchen drawers(I don't!), you can transport the full drawers and transfer items directly to the new kitchen. I store a lot of things in baskets anyways, so I just make sure these are full and take them as is. Full drawers can be taken out and moved without packing the contents.
• Cushion plates and bowls with paper plates in between. A friend gave me this tip and it is a good one. Unlike using newspaper, the dishes won't have to be washed when unpacking. 
• Use kitchen towels and washcloths for wrapping and packing.
• Mark boxes with the room it should go in and a general idea of contents. I don't number boxes or make lists of contents of each one. I did that once and honestly never looked at the lists when unpacking! So I don't bother now. Hopefully, this move won't prove my ultra simple system wrong! 
• Don't mark all your boxes as Misc.! Hahaha
• Take a load of boxes with you every time you go to the new house. (For across town moves.) Every little bit helps!
• Accept all moving help offered! We typically pay in pizza! Have lots of water available as well. Especially if you move in the summer as we seem to like to do. Even June is a hot month here in the South.
• Kitchen, bathroom and closet items can be moved ahead of time. If stuff can be moved ahead and put into cabinets, do these areas since these won't create extra clutter when moving furniture in. I like having my kitchen somewhat set up first thing anyways!
• Make sure you know where everything is that you'll need for the first night.
• Allow extra money in the eating out budget and/or stash a bunch of meals in the freezer ahead of time! This time around, we're doing both! And use paper plates those last few days if needed!
• Declutter. Plan meals around what's in the pantry and freezer so there's less to move. Donate boxes of unused clutter to Goodwill or have a yard sale if you have time---only if you have time!
• Make a list of what needs to be done at both houses--preparation for moving into the new house and finishing up at the old house. It can be a lot; don't rely on just your memory! 
• Find or clear a space to stage moving boxes as they are packed. This way they're not all over the house! 

What are your best moving and packing tips?  

Decluttering the Blog List

In the spirit of decluttering, I spent a few minutes today editing my Google Reader subscriptions.

I love to read blogs so when I find one I think I like, it's so easy to subscribe! After a while, I end up with more than I can read and I find there are a few that I just don't enjoy as much anymore. And there is always at least one that is no longer valid; either the blogger has moved to a "new home" and I need to update or the blog is no longer around. When that happens, I go through and edit my subscriptions.

While I was at it, I also edited my blog list here and moved all the crafty, creative-type blogs to their own list over at The Gingham Cottage.

By the way, I really *love* reading  blogs through a reader. Google Reader is my favorite so far. I like it a lot better than Bloglines. But both serve the same purpose. I love not having to go to each blog to look for an update. This saves me tons of time every day!

The To-Do List

Over the past few months, I've noticed a decrease of productivity and an increased level of disorganization in my home.

Ever the list and schedule-lovin' freak maven, this frustrates me.

I finally figured out that I haven't been making regular to-do lists. Sure, I have all kinds of chores and plans in my head. But it seems that unless I have it written down right in front of me, it's difficult for me to stay on task and therefore be more productive.

So I'm starting the new year off with a to-do list for each day. At least for every weekday.

These lists are not long. I love crossing things off lists so I have to keep my to-do lists pretty realistic so I don't get discouraged. I generally  keep my daily to-do lists to 5 chores or less. That seems about right for my days and activity level. Some days may be less and some days a few more. Five seems to be a pretty good average for me.

My 5 chores do not include all the tasks in my morning routine or meal preparation. Rather, it's things that I may do once a week, phone calls or appointments to be made, etc.

My to-do list looks like this today:

1. 2 loads laundry
2. clean kitchen
3. clean bathroom
4. sewing project-alterations for friend
5. 15 minutes decluttering in office

To some this may not look like very much to accomplish in one day. But I know that the cleaning jobs will take most of the rest of the morning. Laundry will be worked in and doesn't require much hands-on time. The sewing project will likely take most of my afternoon. Once I get started decluttering, chances are that I won't want to stop after just 15 minutes.

Being realistic with my to-do lists helps me to stay focused and be productive! That, my friends, is a very good thing!

What about you? Do you like making to-do lists? How do you stay focused and productive throughout your day?

Freezer Cooking Day: Completed Meals and My Thoughts

I survived my first Once-A-Month Cooking Day!

Here's the list of completed meals and foods:

• 2 Chicken Fajita Kits
• 2 meals of Chicken Chimichangas
• 3 quarts of Chili 
• 3 meals worth of Fish and Veggie Packets : My first time freezing these so it's an experiment!  I don't see a reason why these wouldn't freeze well, though. 
• 1 container of Hummus
• 1 container of Roasted Red Pepper Hummus
• 3 Chicken Pot Pies
• 2 Spaghetti Pies
• 2 Spinach, Mushroom, and Bacon Quiches
• 2 Cheesy Beef and Rice Casseroles
• 7 dozen Meatballs: 1 recipe; depending how I use them and how many people I'm serving should end up being about 6 meals. 
• 3 quarts Spaghetti Sauce
• 1 bag cooked brown rice
• 1 bag cooked and cubed chicken
• 2 bags cooked kidney beans
• 5 bags cooked pinto beans

Whew! That's  a lot of food!

My thoughts:

• The biggest hurdle to overcome when starting is to stop thinking about it and just do it. I dreaded making the lists and making it work with my recipes but once I got started it was not as difficult as I originally thought. I had read a lot about freezer cooking online and learned from my sister which helped a lot. I have also done a lot of freezer cooking in small increments over the years. Ultimately though, reading through Once A Month Cooking and seeing how they orchestrated the cooking days with their recipes and then following the tips in the book for adapting the process to your own recipes was my biggest motivation.
  
• This didn't cost a lot of money. I planned the meals based on what I had on hand in the freezer and pantry and spent about $40 more to get the rest of the ingredients, which also included fresh produce and other things we needed that were not included in the cooking day.
• Next time, I would like to plan ahead a bit better and have fresh meat to marinate and throw in the freezer, ready to cook. Some ideas would be roasts or whole chickens with a marinade or spice rub or any of these Dump Chicken recipes. ( The Lemon-Garlic chicken is good and I have the cranberry chicken in the freezer but haven't tried it yet.)The reason I would do more of this is that these would be less time-consuming than doing mostly casseroles. Because I used already frozen meat, I didn't want to thaw meat and refreeze it without cooking it.
• All the planning was good. My personality loves checking items off lists and knowing exactly what comes next. Knowing this about myself, my list was made up of lots of small tasks rather than large chores, so I could cross things off more quickly. It was motivating to be able to cross things off relatively quickly. There's nothing more discouraging to me than working half a day and only crossing a couple of to-do's off my list!
• While doing all the prep work the day before actually turned my cooking day into 2 cooking days, it was well worth it! My work space is quite limited and doing all the prep and cooking everything from scratch in one day would've been very overwhelming. Pulling prepared meats, veggies, rice, beans, ad cheese out of the fridge was wonderful! The assembly was pretty easy.
• Next time, I will not plan to away from home the day before!
• The Spaghetti Sauce is not my favorite. It has added cinnamon and cloves so is a sweeter type sauce. While good and certainly edible, I doubt I'll use this recipe again. Or if I do use it again, I'll omit the cinnamon and cloves.
• This is not all we will eat for the next month. I have other meats in the freezer and I will still want to cook some nights to give a little more variety. That being said, I won't be surprised if this stash lasts us about 2 months. Most meals are enough for supper and lunch the next day for the two of us. My family will be visiting for Christmas and I would love to still have a few meals left by then to serve them! (If not, I'll have to make a few more.)
• I'm planning a baking day for next week. I purposely did not include any baked items on the list because of previous attempts of making pizza dough, bread dough and casseroles at the same time. Too varied and time and space-consuming. The pie crusts for the quiche and pot pies was enough this time around!!!
  
• As well as journaling my experiences here, I need to create a notebook or document on the computer with my recipes and lists that I used for reference for next time. Each time should get easier as I fine-tune the process to what works for me. 
• If you're wanting to stock your freezer, do what works for you. You could do a  whole full-blown cooking day like I did, or simply double or triple your supper recipes for a week and freeze the extras. There's really no right or wrong way to do it. 
• I'm not that terrrified of a little freezer burn, since we use stuff pretty quickly. My previous experience with freezer meals has been good. I do double wrap most items. All pans are wrapped in plastic wrap and then in foil. For Ziplocs, I use only freezer bags.
• Standing a Ziploc bag in a quart jar and using a canning funnel is an easy and mess-free way to fill bags with soups and sauces. 
• I laid all filled bags on cookie sheets so that they froze flat. After frozen, they can be stacked on the shelf or in a  basket.
  
• I label everything. For pans, I just write the name, date and cooking instructions on the foil or on a sticky note which I tape to the pan. Labels are nice but I had run out of them. some day, I'll get all fancy and print some custom labels on my computer. Writing full instructions is important in case my husband is cooking the dish or if I use it for hospitality. I know where to find the recipe to see how to cook it but someone else may not. 

For easy reference here are all my posts about this freezer day:

Freezer Cooking Day- Menu and list of prep work.  (Recipe links.)
Freezer Cooking Day: Preparation
Freezer Cooking Day: My List and Progress
Freezer Cooking Day: Halfway Home
Freezer Cooking Day: Done! 

Food in the freezer is like having money in the bank. I can't wait to use it!

Freezer Cooking Day; Done!

Three chicken pot pies, two spaghetti pies, and two spinach, mushroom and bacon quiches ready to freeze. Obviously, we like pie!

The cooking day is over. I called it quits around 5 pm when I didn't have the energy to do another pot of anything! I got everything marked off the list except for the Israeli Spice seasoning blend and the mashed potatoes. I can easily do these another day.

The kitchen is clean, except for the floor which is pretty gross, but it's cleaning day tomorrow so I'm leaving it until then.  For now, we're going to heat up some spaghetti sauce and pasta that I saved from the freezer today and then head out to shop for our shoe boxes tonight after supper. It should be a fun ending to a very busy day!

I'll post a summary of the day and the final amount of meals tomorrow.

Cooking Day: Halfway Home!

It's 1 pm and I think I'm about halfway home.

Here's what I've accomplished so far today. The freezer is filling up!

1. Marinate chicken for fajitas.
2. Start chili in crockpot.
3. Start spaghetti sauce cooking.
4. Saute chicken for fajitas.
5. Assemble fish and veggie packets. **Foil packets in gallon Ziplocs. 
6.Assemble Chicken Fajita kits. **Sandwich, quart and gallon Ziplocs.
7. Assemble Cheesy Beef and Rice casseroles. **Pyrex pans.
8. Make meatballs.
9. Assemble quiches. **Quiche pans.
10. Bake quiches and meatballs.
11.Cook chimichanga mixture.
12. Assemble chimichangas. **Tortilla bags.
13. Make hummus. ** Plastic containers or quart Ziplocs.
14. Mix Israeli Spice Seasoning blend. **Sandwich bags.
15. Cook pasta for Spaghetti Pies.
16. Assemble Spaghetti Pies. **Pie pans.
17.Bag remaining spaghetti Sauce in 4 cup portions, keeping enough out for supper. **Quart Ziplocs.
18. Dice potatoes for pot pies.
19. Make sauce for pot pies.
20. Assemble pot pies. **Pie pans.
21. Peel and cook potatoes.
22. Mash potatoes and bag. **Quart Ziplocs or Pyrex pans.
23. Bag meatballs. **Gallon Ziploc.
24. Bag chili. **Quart Ziplocs.
25. Bag extra rice and beans.  **Quart Ziplocs.
26. Clean kitchen and dining room.
27. Admire prepared meals in freezer!

The kitchen and dining room continue to look like a war zone!

Meatballs are flash-freezing  now. I forgot that step on my list. :-) I've also baked two spinach quiches which are now cooling before they go in the freezer. Two meals worth of chimichangas are done as well as 2 containers of hummus-one regular and one roasted red pepper.

We just got a call from some friends who are in the area and want to stop by so I'm bringing the food factory to a screeching halt for a bit so I can enjoy their visit!

Coming up next:

--Spaghetti Pie

--Chicken Pot Pie

--Mashed Potatoes

--Israeli Spice Seasoning Blend

Cooking Day- My List and Progress

It's cooking day! I woke up and got ready early, eager to get started. It's a blustery rainy day so it feels nice and cozy to stay in and cook.

Here's my kitchen ready and waiting for some activity at 7 am this morning.

 Here's what my kitchen and dining room are looking like at 9:30:

I already have 7 meals in the freezer: 2 pans of Cheesy beef and Rice, 3 meals of Fish and Veggie Packets (what you see on the foil above), and 2 Chicken Fajita kits.

Here's my complete list of order of assembly and operations for the day. I've crossed off several completed items already and have already have done a few things "out of order'. It's hard to tell just how everything will play out when you make a list. I'll be making notes as to what does and does not work to have for my next cooking day!

1. Marinate chicken for fajitas.
2. Start chili in crockpot.
3. Start spaghetti sauce cooking.
4. Saute chicken for fajitas.
5. Assemble fish and veggie packets. **Foil packets in gallon Ziplocs. 
6.Assemble Chicken Fajita kits. **Sandwich, quart and gallon Ziplocs.
7. Assemble Cheesy Beef and Rice casseroles. **Pyrex pans.
8. Make meatballs.
9. Assemble quiches. **Quiche pans.
10. Bake quiches and meatballs.
11.Cook chimichanga mixture.
12. Assemble chimichangas. **Tortilla bags.
13. Make hummus. ** Plastic containers or quart Ziplocs.
14. Mix Israeli Spice Seasoning blend. **Sandwich bags.
15. Cook pasta for Spaghetti Pies.
16. Assemble Spaghetti Pies. **Pie pans.
17.Bag remaining spaghetti Sauce in 4 cup portions, keeping enough out for supper. **Quart Ziplocs.
18. Dice potatoes for pot pies.
19. Make sauce for pot pies.
20. Assemble pot pies. **Pie pans.
21. Peel and cook potatoes.
22. Mash potatoes and bag. **Quart Ziplocs or Pyrex pans.
23. Bag meatballs. **Gallon Ziploc.
24. Bag chili. **Quart Ziplocs.
25. Bag extra rice and beans.  **Quart Ziplocs.
26. Clean kitchen and dining room.
27. Admire prepared meals in freezer!

I'm back to the kitchen. I'll do another update  around noon. See you then!

Freezer Cooking Day- Preparation

Well, I've completed my list of prep work for my cooking day tomorrow. I'm beginning to question my sanity in this undertaking but am still hopeful as I march onward, moving ever closer to a fully stocked freezer!

My refrigerator is packed full to the gills with prepared ingredients. I filled the produce drawer because I needed extra space and the prepared pie crusts had to be stored in the freezer overnight. There was simply No. More. Room In The Inn Fridge.

I scrawled a tentative plan of assembly and operation for tomorrow, a carefully choreographed dance of pots on the stove, hands on assembly of dishes and the crock pot. Most likely, I will switch things around as I go to make it as efficient as I can.

We were gone a good share of the day today to pick up our grain order(mine plus two other ladies' orders). After supper, I did not want to work in the kitchen. I just wanted to rest! But I pushed myself to finish the list and now I'm so glad I did! Having so many little steps completed will help the cooking day to run more smoothly and hopefully, not be quite so overwhelming.

Check back tomorrow for periodic posts and updates throughout the day!

Menu Plan Monday and Freezer Cooking Plan

Welcome to another week!

I have big plans for doing a freezer cooking day on Wednesday. While I've done some extra batch cooking and helped my sister with her cooking days, I've never attempted a "once a month" cooking day before. It takes a lot of planning and seems like a good amount of concentrated work but should be a nice trade-off for about a months worth of meals. I wasn't able to join in with Crystal's big cooking days last week, so I'm doing my own this week!

Before I delve into my freezer plans, here's a simple supper menu plan for this week. Because of other plans, I only needed to plan for 3 suppers.It's a busy week with being gone most of the day Tuesday, cooking all day Wednesday and then babysitting Thursday and Friday.

This Week's Supper Menu
Tuesday-Breakfast-in-a-hurry, bagels, tangerines or grapefruit

Wednesday-Pasta with spaghetti sauce(from cooking day), salad

Thursday-Salmon patties, rice, green beans

The freezer was overdue for a defrosting and cleaning, so that is in progress as we speak. What a pleasant dripping sound! I began pulling odds and ends out of the freezer last week to use things up. For breakfasts, we've been eating pancakes that I'd forgotten about and I took a bag of bagels out this morning to use.

Freezer Cooking Day- The Menu

I'm not sure exactly how many meals I'll have of each item, so I'm just listing the amount of batches/recipes that I'm planning. many of my recipes will make more than one meal for the two of us.

1. Chicken Chimichangas- (1)
2. Chicken fajita kits-(2)
3. Chili (x2)
4. Fish & veggie packets (x2 or 3)
5. Spaghetti sauce (x3)
6. Cheesy Beef and Rice Casserole (x2)
7. Meatballs (1)
8.  Quiche (x2)
9. Spaghetti pie (x2)
10. Chicken pot pie (1)
11. Hummus
12. Israeli spice seasoning blend(1)
13.Brown rice for recipes and extra to freeze
14. Kidney, pinto and garbanzo beans for recipes and extra to freeze
15. Mashed potatoes(1 -10 lb. bag potatoes)


Time will tell whether my plans are overly ambitious or not! And whether I ever want to even think about cooking again!

Freezer Cooking Day- Prep Work

Between today and tomorrow, I'm working on this list of things to do before the cooking day. Hopefully having at least some of these items crossed off by Wednesday will help my cooking day to run more smoothly and help with the lack of space in my kitchen.

1. Make menu. 
2. Take inventory of items on hand.
3. Grocery shop for needed items.
4.Take stock of foil, pans, bags and containers.
5. Defrost and clean out freezer. In progress!
6. Make plan for Wednesday(order of prep and assembly).
7.Make chicken broth. In progress!
8. Defrost meat. In progress!
9. Cook and chop chicken. In progress!
10. Brown ground beef.
11. Shred cheese.
12. Soak and cook rice. Soaking in progress!
13. Soak and cook beans. Kidney beans and pintos are soaking!(I'll soak the garbanzo beans tomorrow and cook them Wednesday morning.)
14. Cook bacon.
15. Chop veggies and onions.
16. Make pie crusts for quiche and pot pie.

Update: It's 4 pm on Monday. I'm about ready to call it quits in the kitchen for the day. I feel like I've made a lot of headway on the prep work and now I'm tired!!! I plan to put the rice and beans on to cook first thing in the morning before we leave for the day. Hopefully, I'll get to the cheese, veggies and pie crust in the evening if I'm not too worn out. Otherwise, I'll do that first thing Wednesday morning. Right now, I'm off to make a dessert for tonight!!! Be back tomorrow!

So that's my plan for the week. What's yours?

For more menu planning inspiration, visit Organizing Junkie, the home of Menu Plan Mondays!

Cleaning Your Husband's Closet

It's been a while since we went through Andy's clothes so his closet and dresser drawers were due for a cleaning!

While doing laundry, I had noticed that some items were in need of replacement and Andy's dad had recently given him a huge bag of shirts! So it was time to see what all was in there. :-)

I have no idea what fits well and which items he really likes, so I wanted to wait until he was around to tackle this project!

When sorting clothes, I ask these three questions:

1)Is it still in good condition? If not,meaning it is stained or otherwise worn, throw it on the trash pile.

2)Have I worn this in the past year?

3) Do I like this article of clothing?

Our closets are small and storage space at a premium. There is no reason to keep things we do not wear or even like.

--First, we went through the closet, pulling out everything that answered 'no' to the previous three questions.

--Then, we sorted through the new-to-him clothes and added those that were 'yes' answers to the closet.

--Next, we tackled the dresser drawers. My husband and I share a dresser, so we each have three drawers. This works well and keeps clutter to a minimum.

--Lastly, we made a short list of any new items that need to be purchased.

Helpful tip: Your husband may be more inclined to help sort his clothes if he can watch a game while he's doing this chore. I just pulled the drawers one at a time into the living room so we could watch the Cubs game while getting this done!

We were finished with both the closet and the dresser drawers within an hour!

Since we tend to wear warmer weather clothing until about November, I don't usually make the seasonal clothing switch until then. His closet is all set, already! I'll just need to change out my clothing when the time comes.

We now have a big pile of clothes for our upcoming yard sale. I also now know where all our hangers have been hiding-in his closet!

Cleaning out a closet, finding all the extra hangers and spending time with my husband works for me!

**Thanks to Kristen from We Are THAT Family for hosting Works For Me Wednesday!

Restoring Order: Organizing the Pantry

I was glad to be able to join in with Monica and Rebecca's Restoring Order weekly carnival this week. To participate, you choose an area of your home that needs organizing or straightening and post before and after pics.

First on my list was to reorganize my pantry. So that was my project this week.

My pantry is a couple small bookshelves in my laundry room. Not totally ideal but it works for now.

I seem to never have enough room on those shelves but lately I have gotten really lazy and disorganized. With all my couponing deals lately, I was starting to just throw groceries on top of everything else when I brought them home. To get to anything, stuff would fall as I rooted through to find what I was looking for.




This really bugged me but yet I didn't do anything about it! This week, I'm happy to say that I finally restored order to my pantry!

I took everything off the shelves and wiped the shelves down with a wet rag. Then I sorted everything and evaluated the best way to go about reorganizing.

Throughout the process I discovered several things:

1) I had way too many processed items. This is not helping my goal to eat healthy and eliminate most items containing high fructose corn syrup and MSG from our diet.

2)I don't need to buy any more pasta, tomato paste or corn starch for a very long time. Thank you, coupons!

3)Buying basic food items instead of pre-packaged food items (even if they're free with coupons) would be a better use of my limited pantry space. For example: a box of Quaker instant oatmeal is only good for oatmeal for breakfast. A container of oats can be made into oatmeal or used for cooking and baking. Eventually I would like all my jars and containers of dry beans, fruit, oats,rice, etc. to be in my pantry. For now however, they're scattered throughout my kitchen and dining room, which is why you don't see them in this picture!

I filled a big box with items to donate. I did keep the Betty Crocker Warm Delights and brownie mixes. One must have priorities, you know!

A few items were rather old so I threw them out. Other boxes were opened so I put them aside to use up first. I found that I had several sample boxes of cereal, so I set them out to be eaten before we open any more boxes of cereal!
Lastly, I lined everything up on the shelves in neat rows. Much better!



**Visit Rebecca's blog for more Restoring Order posts!

Master Grocery List

Something I find very helpful is to have a master grocery list of all the items that we like to eat and keep on hand. This makes planning for grocery shopping so much easier and I am not as likely to forget something.

My updated list(below) is set up according to the layout of my local Aldi store. Although Aldi doesn't carry everything on my list, it is the store where I buy most of my staple items. For our area, Aldi definitely has the best prices on most basic items unless there is a good sale somewhere else.

Since I do my biggest shopping trip at the beginning of the month, I print out a new list for each month and go through the pantry checking off what we're running low on. I keep the list hanging in the kitchen where I can check off what I need as I go along throughout the month.

I don't buy every single item on my list every month. For both fresh and frozen veggies and fruit, I make sure I have several varieties on hand. On the list are the kinds we buy most often.

To make my master list, I started by making basic categories then listed the things we buy in those categories. For the next week or so, I came back and jotted down things I had initially forgotten until I felt it was complete enough to type up. Also, I can always edit the original document when it's time to change something.

Having a master grocery list helps streamline my shopping and is a kitchen tip that helps me simplify my life.

(Click on the right arrow to maximize the document. Arrows at the bottom will help you to see both pages 1 and 2.)


**Visit Tammy's Recipes for more kitchen tips!

**Visit We Are THAT Family for more Works For Me Wednesday posts!

Works For Me Wednesday: An Organized Bulletin Board

My kitchen bulletin board is the perfect place to keep phone lists, take-out menus, calendar, and any information that needs to be kept in a place where we'll see it often.

This wonderful bulletin board is also a clutter magnet. Papers keep getting put up on the board while outdated information doesn't get taken down. Everything is askew and we can't find anything without digging through a stack of papers.


When I took down our 2008 calendar last week and was sorting through all the stuff that was stored in this particular planning calendar's back pocket, I decided my bulletin board needed to be organized and updated!

I wasn't sure how to go about it but while thinking about how to make "pockets" for specific papers, I remembered these cute file folders-a Christmas gift from my Mom.


First, I wanted to change the background fabric. This Mary Engelbreit fabric has been there for four years. Time for a change. I've been liking the minty greens that have shown up in Target's spring displays so I searched through my fabric stash and found a nice green fabric that will look fresh but still coordinate with my kitchen. Changing the fabric was easy since I just staple it on.

I used two file folders: one for phone lists and business cards and the other for restaurant menus. A clipboard is a handy spot for keeping current store ads. Last I made a small pocket out of scrapbook paper to hold my childcare kids' contact information. As a carryover from my daycare days, I keep all their info on an index card.


Much better! I'm able to find everything I need in a second. An organized bulletin board works for me!

**This post is part of Rocks In My Dryer's Works For Me Wednesday carnival.

Works For Me Wednesday:Tips For Organizing A Small Home

My house is cozy and cute...and small. Evidently in the 1950's, built-in storage wasn't a huge necessity either.:-)

Today I'm sharing a few organizing tips that work for me.

1)Limit the stuff. We've all heard it before-declutter, declutter, declutter! But it works. The less you have to store,the less room you need to store it in. What a great concept! For a while, I thought that if my organizing skills were better, I'd have more space for things. Now I'm realizing that I have to limit the cookbooks because I only have so much space on the shelves. My husband and I share a dresser for our clothes. The two closets in our house are teeny tiny and so is our bedroom. Using one dresser forces us to keep only the clothes we will wear. Decluttering is an ongoing process. Just when I think my house is decluttered and all unnecessary items have been purged, it seems that I find enough to load another Goodwill box! A small space with extra stuff looks a lot more cluttered than a larger room so it is helpful to keep belongings pared down.

2) Be reasonable. Know what you can realistically do in this season of life. If you have kids, there will be toys. The laundry will overflow some days. Some weeks, it may seem as though the kitchen was never cleaned! Life happens and it will be ok. Having a perfectly organized and clean house isn't the most important thing. It is important,however, that we continue to work at doing little tasks each day to help us stay on top of things in creating a sanctuary for our families.

3) Be intentional. Discipline yourself to do certain tasks each day. This takes time to learn and make it a habit but it is so rewarding as you see your home staying a bit neater and better organized. I try to sort and shred junk mail as soon as it gets here. It doesn't always happen but it sure keeps the paper clutter down to tackle it right away! My daily "home maintenance" routine includes running through the house and putting things away, emptying and refilling the dishwasher, a quick vacuum and sweep and just making sure the house is generally neat. Being intentional about keeping the little things done really helps to keep the house in good order.

4)Use multi-tasking pieces of furniture. We have an old dresser in the living room that serves as an end table as well as a linen closet. A row of three "put together" bookshelves looks great for the books as well as toy storage. We were given a very nice TV armoire that has built-in storage. It takes the same amount of floor space as our previous little TV stand-the armoire is just taller and contains a lot more storage! For awhile we used a yard sale wicker trunk for a coffee table which looked great and also held extra quilts. We don't have one but I really like the ottomans that have storage inside. There are so many creative options to create more storage and use less space!

5)Choose useful decorative items. This may be a personal preference but I love having useful items that also look great as decorations. It eliminates the need for lots of knick knacks and is less cluttery-looking. I have a few small serving plates that are pretty set on those little stand as decoration. Nice pottery bowls can be set out in the open. My collection of vases(which I enjoy using) are grouped together on top of the bookshelves. I store lots of things in cute baskets. The baskets look really nice and hide many things that I would otherwise have no room for. I keep my Bible study materials in a lidded wicker basket on the coffee table. Paper products are in an old picnic basket and extra throw blankets are rolled up in another large basket. I especially like square or rectangular baskets for the way they fit together on shelves. I have also covered boxes with fabric to make my own baskets when I didn't have any on hand.

6)Think outside the box. I already gave some ideas for using dressers as end tables and such. With a small space, you will often need to put things in unconventional places. I don't have a pantry but I do have a larger-than-average laundry room with room for a few shelves for food items. We have a free standing cupboard there too, that works for storing my baking pans, crock pot and other miscellaneous kitchen items. There is just not enough room in the kitchen! Extra canned foods can be stored under the beds. Our couch is across a corner in the living room and I store a few awkward items back there. My gift wrap box is stored under the bed. My gift box is in the closet. Hooks on the closet and bedroom doors provide a place for my purse and tote bags(some of which are storing other items!) A tablecloth over a small table gives space for telephone books in the dining room and Kleenex, light bulbs and extra cleaning supplies in the bedroom.

7) Be thankful for what you have! Be content with where God has you right now and resolve to use your creativity to make it the best that you know how. I am always changing things around and wondering why I hadn't thought of these possibilities earlier. I often tell my husband that as soon as I get everything how I like it, we will move! Then I'll have to start over.:-)

Please share your creative organizing and storage ideas with the rest of us!

For more creative and fun Works For Me Wednesday posts, please visit Rocks In My Dryer!

So Much To Do, So Little Time! Part 4

It's been a while since my last post.

I haven't been as purposeful in getting to these little tasks as I had hoped. The month of June was a blur with traveling and a death in the family. So I pretty much just did what I could and left the rest.

But, I'm happy to report that after several hours of work(spread out as I had time) in the past week, the office is pretty well done! Yeah, yeah, yeah.

The decluttering part was pretty well done. I needed to file papers and shred tons of stuff. I had saved a lot of paperwork that I didn't need anymore. Piles of papers that you don't know what to do with can cause a feeling of stress and overwhelm, at least for me. I believe the filing is up to date now and manageable enough for me to keep up with now.

I still need to get another large bookshelf. That will help even more, since my little house lacks much built-in storage.

My parents are coming to visit in a couple of weeks and the office is ready to turn into a guest room for them.

I think we all go through periods of time where you feel the house is a mess and your life is somewhat out of control. That's how I felt this spring when I started this series. I really needed the accountability and the reminder to get back on track again. Thankfully, that has happened.

Of course, I have more tasks to complete around the house. Don't we all?!?! Even though this little series is over, I will still post about those extra tasks since I know I always benefit from reading about what others are doing in their homes. It is motivating and inspiring as well as helpful to realize that you are not the only one with a pile of clutter that needs to be moved out!

Happy organizing!

Works For Me Wednesday: Less Clothing ,More Organized!

Today, I thought I'd share about how I keep my clothing organized and easy to pick out and use! This simplified wardrobe has really helped during these last few weeks of hectic traveling with only a day or less between trips!

I have really pared down my wardrobe in the last while. This not only helps with storage and decisions about what to wear, but also is a big help to always have outfits that I know fit and that are my favorites!

I admit that I'm not the most exciting dresser around. I have mostly very basic outfits that I can mix and match, my favorites being a couple of khaki pants which roll up and snap to become capris and two black skirts. I also have a couple other skirts and shorts that I wear regularly. I have a top to go with each of these bottoms as well as a few extra shirts in case of spots and stains.

I wear very little jewelry and have a few pairs of shoes that go with just about everything. I really like boring, ok?!:-)

My very simple tip today is to hang or fold clothes together in outfits. I like to wear certain tops with certain bottoms so this just makes sense to me! Everything is ready to pull out and wear or in my case the last few weeks, ready to place in the suitcase.

I can be packed in only a few minutes by doing this.

Of course, having fewer clothes means more laundry! But I don't mind this. It's easier having fewer clothes to care for and organize!

Clothes organized and ready- this works for me!

So Much To Do...So Little Time Part 3

Well, I must say that since I've gotten a few small tasks completed I am much more motivated to continue. Like Amy, there are holes where my clutter has been!

This week I was able to accomplish:

1)Cleaning half of the storage shed. Yeah! We worked for about 2 hours on Saturday at this. I was able to move some things to the shed from the house and put them where they belonged. The next half of the shed will be a little more detailed as we need to sort through pre-marriage boxes of stuff that have just been stored. We need to go through them and toss stuff(or recycle) and then pack the remaining treasures in Rubbermaid-type boxes.

2)Two garbage bags of stuff donated to Goodwill. I've had these things sitting in the office for some time waiting. For tax purposes this year, I'm making a list of everything we donate. So after I went through everything and wrote it all down, off it went!

3)Working in the office: I got the computer desk cleaned and straightened. So much better! The bags for Goodwill were in here too, now they are gone, leaving extra space. I did some general straightening up plus moved some stuff to the storage shed. Just a few minutes each day has made such a difference already.

4)Cleaned out my closet. I finished changing out my winter clothes and replaced the closets and drawers with the summer clothes. I have 2 more bags to go to Goodwill now, but I'll wait until my husband goes through his clothes, since he will no doubt have something to donate as well.:-)I'm making a list of the few things I still need to round out my summer wardrobe plus starting to look for replacements for fall and winter.(My cool weather clothing was looking quite sad this year!)

It's beginning to look a lot more like my house again!

So Much To Do...So Little Time Part 2

My progress for this week:

1) Created a bill-paying box. Since I don't have a desk to sit at to pay bills and work on finances, I thought it would be efficient to create a box or basket that held all bill and correspondence supplies that I can just take to the dining room table with me and have everything there that I need. This includes my bill-paying notebook, envelopes,address labels, stamps and stamp reorder forms, a pad of stationary, small calculator, paper clips and ready-to-mail-birthday cards. It's all together so no more needing something and realizing that little one is sleeping and I'll just have to wait! Eventually, I would like to find a permanent spot for this box in the dining room but I'll need to work on that!

2)Rearranged the living room and spray painted a shelf and picture frame. Both are hung now and look great!(Pictures and post to come on that.)We keep acquiring new furniture and I think I've finally found an arrangement that I really like and is more kid-safe. Things are looking more together now and that makes me feel good!:-)

3)Scanned through my cookbook shelf and found a few cookbooks that I can get rid of. I love to cook as you can tell by the high amount of cooking and kitchen posts you see here. I also like to read cookbooks for inspiration and have accumulated a nice collection. My goal has been to keep them limited to what fits on the top of my hutch. It was starting to get a little full so I knew I could stand to thin them out. The shelf has a little breathing room now and there's not so much danger of a cookbook avalanche! I'm also working on transferring my favorite recipes from a photo album into a recipe binder that was given to me.

4) Purchased curtain rods for dining room curtains that need to be sewed. Hopefully this will happen soon!

So not much crossed off my office list, but progress nonetheless! I'm hoping to spend an entire Saturday at home(literally, the first in months) this weekend so I plan to work in the office then.

So Much To Do...So Little Time! Part 1

I've been rather overwhelmed lately with all there is to be done around my home. The clutter is piling up, spring cleaning has hardly even been started, the clothes need to be sorted out and changed for the warm months ahead, the storage shed needs to be cleaned out(so I can move the clutter from the house out there!). Painting, sewing,decorating, organizing...there's so many things!

I do well with my daily routine-cooking meals, general cleaning and the like. It's the little extras that continually crop up that get me!

Yesterday, I sat down and made a small list for tackling the clutter since that's the thing that bothers me the most.

An "all or nothing" person, I can easily get overwhelmed and stressed because I try to do everything all at once. Sometimes a small bite here or there is the better choice of action. I am having to learn that!

The rooms that are the worst right now are where my childcare kids sleep, so I can't get to these things during nap time, like I would normally do! Ideally, I should try to do these tasks first thing in the morning before they arrive!

I started with a list for the office, since it needs the most immediate attention. My issue with this room is that it needs to serve so many purposes. It is the main storage area so I end up tossing everything that doesn't have a home elsewhere into the office. You can imagine how chaotic that gets after a while! This room houses the computer, filing cabinets,all office supplies, musical instruments and amps, kid's supplies, sewing and craft supplies,special occasion dishes and all manner of anything else that needs a place.:-) One of the babies I care for sleeps in there, so there is also a crib and a small chest for his things.

I have large bookshelves on one wall which keeps most things within reach or out of reach, depending who you are-haha! The sewing stuff is fairly organized so I don't really need to do much there. It's the other shelves that need the most attention.

Here are a few things I listed for the office(my notes are in italics):
-Replace the small shelf with large bookshelf for extra storage.
Until last year, I had 3 large shelves then we did a furniture switch-a-roo and moved the matching ones to the living room. I ended up with only 2 large and 1 small bookshelf for the office. Big Lots has the put-together shelves like the others I have for $30. I just need to go get one!

-Replace the 2 small filing cabinets with one large filing cabinet. This will make a huge difference in space! I'm looking for one of these used since the new ones I've found so far are a little out of our price range for the time-being.

-Box up extra toys and take them to toy bin in shed.
I got this done this morning! I also boxed up some toys that belong to one of the kids that they aren't playing with here anymore and will send those home tonight.


-Get box of Ebay items ready to list and sell.

-Create bill-paying box/basket.

-Clear off computer desk.

-Weed out papers and STUFF! I did this last year but obviously, it has gotten out of hand again!

-Organize kid's art supplies and manipulatives.I worked on this for a few minutes this morning, but am still not satisfied with it.

I think if I work on these things a few minutes at a time, 3-5 days a week, I should be able to get some things crossed off my list as well as making my home a little more of a haven!

I'll be blogging about my progress probably once a week or so. Feel free to join in on the fun and leave comments sharing your best tips for keeping up with all these little tasks as well as what projects you are working on!

Frugal Fridays:Creative Storage Containers

I love baskets and great storage containers, but my budget says otherwise! While I have a few nice wicker baskets around the house, I haven't been able to afford them everywhere I would like them to be. Ever since we've been married, I've stored my dishrags, kitchen towels and cloth napkins folded and rolled in stacks on the bottom shelf of my baker's rack in the dining room. (I have very few drawers and cabinets in the kitchen and these cloth items are probably a more toddler-friendly item to have out in plain sight!) One day not long ago, I was getting frustrated about how sloppy my stacks were looking and thinking how nice it would look to have perfect little wicker baskets setting there on the shelf. Then I started thinking about maybe using something that I already had-but what could that be?
These gingham-covered shoe boxes were the finished result! My husband's large shoe size finally came in handy-the boxes are exactly the right size to line the shelf. When I get another one(and I know I will eventually!:-), I'll wait until I find some yellow gingham and then cover that one to finish off the shelf. I love gingham and my colors pretty much throughout the whole house are different shades of red, blue and yellow. I had this fabric on hand. I cut the fabric large enough to fold down onto the bottom of the box. Then I cut the lid off the box and cut it to fit in the bottom of the box, then covered each "lid with fabric and glued it. I covered the boxes and folded the fabric at the edges until it looked nice to me-then I pushed the fabric-covered lid into the bottom. Not only does the extra cardboard at the bottom give more stability, but it also holds the outside fabric firmly in place so I didn't need to glue it(which means I can take the fabric off and use it somewhere else later if I want to!). These took me about 20 minutes total to complete. I love the result-it's neat-looking and cute, too!
After my shoe box success, I was pumped and began to look for other creative storage container ideas. These tea boxes (I cut the lids off) were just the right size for pudding and jell-o boxes as well as seasoning mixes.
And they fit perfectly in the white basket these boxes and packets were piled in previously. Much better!
The top of a Velveeta cheese box(a Super Bowl party treat) fits my small collection of sprinkle bottles perfectly, while my old Tupperware lunch box holds extra bottles of spices. The Velveeta lid isn't that sturdy, so I used it for something I wouldn't be using all that much.


The bottom of the Velveeta cheese box works well in my baking cupboard to organize flavorings and other bottles that just get pushed around a lot.
I held onto this IBC root beer tote(you guessed it-another Super Bowl treat!), because I was so sure I could use it for something clever. Finally, it came in handy to store odd bottles and canisters of cooking supplies in the cabinet. No more bottles falling down and hard to find! I was pretty proud of this one and so was husband-he said that I could buy more root beer anytime to get the boxes.hahaha (It's his favorite and a rare, rare treat!)

The best thing about this organizing spree was that it was absolutely free! Every container I used was either one I had or a recycled item. Hopefully, this will give you some ideas to organize different areas in your home, too!

For more great Frugal Friday posts, please visit Biblical Womanhood.