Organizing the Pantry

I have gotten a few emails from readers curious if I was doing a 30 days of nothing challenge for the month of January.  The answer to that is no.  My husband and I discussed it but honestly time has been the biggest factor.  The holidays snuck up on us this year.  We haven't had a lot of down time.  Blogging took a back seat and I didn't even have time to think about, yet alone plan out a "30 days of nothing" challenge. 

Our goal for January however is to cut way back on our spending.  I am hoping to stay out of the stores for the rest of the month with the exception of  fresh produce and dairy each week. 

We are focusing on eating from the pantry and freezers right now.  I spent the better part of the weekend cleaning, organizing and labeling my pantry.  The first step in eating from the pantry is to know what you have.  I tried to organize all our food into categories and then label the shelves.  Canned goods, condiments, baking items, pasta, etc.  This makes it easier not only for myself but for directing my kids where to get items when they need them.

I also went through and checked expiration dates and made sure the items that were close to expiration were in the front. Most products are good well past their expiration date but it is good to use up these items first. 

I am thinking about hosting an eat from the pantry challenge for February.  With my pantry well stocked, I could definitely save some money in the grocery category by spending a month or so strictly eating and basing our meals from what we have on hand.  Anyone interested in joining in?

Getting Rid of Stuff

I am feeling the urge to simplify our lives at home. Another goal for the new year. There are many ways I can do this I know. The first thing I want to do is declutter the house and get rid of unwanted and unneeded items.

Stuff is just that, stuff. It clutters our house, our thoughts our lives. For me, having less is better. I don't feel as stressed or overwhelmed when I don't have things laying all over the house. Nothing makes me (or my hubby) more frustrated than looking for something and having to wade through piles of stuff just to find what I am looking for. I think I will feel more content having less things.

My plan is to start with one room and go through it's entire contents. I started this last Friday in the kitchen. I went through every cupboard and drawer and cleaned, organized and purged any items that we haven't been using. I was able to throw one bag of trash out and have another bag and a half to donate.

I am happy to get going on this project. I feel good about starting fresh, purging items that we no longer use or need. Cleaning and organizing things so that our life can be that much simpler.

Organizing Basement Clutter

Being organized makes me feel good. Our house is pretty small. We have 1300 square feet upstairs and about 600 square feet of unfinished basement. That isn't much room to deal with when you have 6 people in your family. That's why it wasn't very hard to make one side of my basement look like this.With money leftover in our "home improvement" category as well as a portion of our Christmas money we were able to get some shelving and make our lives a little happier. Now the basement looks like this.Alot less cluttered, alot more manageable. All of my canning supplies are on one set of shelves. All of the families off season clothing is on another set of shelves. My pantry is organized, and every tote is labeled with its contents.

Organization makes me happy!

The Great Clothing Exchange

It's that time of year again. The changing of the seasons. With 4 boys its tough to keep up with all the clothing sometimes. Here is how I organize everyone's clothing by season.

Rubber totes.

I buy alot of clothes from garage sales. When I find things that fit for the following season I store them away in rubber totes. Also, when one boy outgrows something I put that in the tub for the next boy down to wear. Each child has their own tote and some totes are organized by items or sizes. Labeling the box is the most important part.

When the seasons change I just pull out the correct tote. I go through all the clothing in the tote and get rid of anything that doesn't fit anymore. I fill the tote back up with the off season clothing make new labels for the outside if needed and back down to the basement it goes.

It works for me! To see what works for others visits We are That Family.

Pantry Cleanup

Here is my tackle for the day. I really need to clean out my pantry and do some organizing. Since Summer break has started we have not kept good inventory of what is in the pantry or freezer. The last few trips to the store have not been added to the sheets and the last few meals have not been subtracted.

I am hoping today (if I can ever make time) that I can go through everything, organize and retype the sheets. Then I will have to retrain the family to mark the sheets when they take something out or add something to the stash!

If you want to know more about my system you can read about it here. The bottom 2 articles talk about my inventory sheets and how I organize my stockpile.

This post is linked to Talk about it Tuesday at The Lazy Organizer and Tackle it Tuesday at Five Minutes for Mom.

Storing Spices

I have very limited cupboard space so I have to use what I have available wisely. I have a ton of spices and have never had a good way of organizing them until now. I bought these plastic bins at Wal-Mart for 3/$1.00. I wrote the names of each spice on the top of the lid and put them in these baskets. Now, I just have to pull out the basket and choose what I want. The baskets are tall enough that they cover the small sized spices so I can stack them up creating even more room in my cupboard. Works for me!

To see what works for others visit Works for Me Wednesday over at We are That Family.

Multi-Tasking

There just aren't enough hours in the day. I always find myself doing about 3 things at once.

Making lunch in itself is multi-tasking. Cutting the apples, washing the carrots, microwaving the meat. Not to mention finding the "favorite" fork, washing hands and finding cups.

Making dinner, giving a Spelling pre-test and setting the table.

Talking on the phone, folding laundry while trying to catch the weather report on TV.

But one of the newest multi-tasks I have started is this...

Cleaning and organizing my bathroom while giving my kids a bath. I figured I am in there anyway, I might as well be productive. I went through all my bathroom drawers and pulled everything out and got them cleaned and organized all while the kids splashed in the tub! It worked for me!

To see what works for others visit Works for Me Wednesday at We are That Family.

Organizing Your Drawers

I find that if everything has a place it is much easier to stay organized. I have bought these plastic bins from Wal-Mart. You can get different sizes that fit into your drawers. I use them to organize my drawers as well as many other items around the house. The above picture is a drawer in my kitchen. As you can see there is a bin for tools, matches and lighters and batteries. Having these bins makes it so 1. things are easier to find and 2. it gets put back in its original place instead of just throwing it back into the drawer.

I also have bins randomly around the house for example...

~On my desk to hold recipes until I am ready to balance my checkbook or balance my budget.
~In my bathroom to organize all my supplies. (One for make-up, one for nail supplies, one for hair accessories, one for chap sticks...you get the idea.)
~In my husbands bathroom to organize all his supplies.
~On my hutch to hold keys, wallets and other misc. items.
~Also on my hutch to hold medications.

If you are going crazy with drawer clutter I highly recommend this cheap method. It works for me!

Linked to Finding Freedom Friday at Cents to Get Debt Free
and Works for Me hosted by We are That Family.

Organizing Your Cleaning Supplies and Sleepless Nights

Under my sink is where I keep all my cleaning supplies. It was such a pain to shove bottles all around looking for a certain cleaner. I fixed that problem by putting all my cleaners into this dishpan. I have one under my kitchen sink and both bathroom sinks. Now, when I need to look for something I pull out the dishpan, grab it and push it back into the cupboard! Works for me!

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Ok, now that I have fully read the Works for Me Wednesday post it looks like instead of giving a helpful tip, I am suppose to give you my dilemma and ask for any suggestions. This is the backwards edition of Works for Me! Once I read this I immediately knew what I wanted to ask.

How do you get a 2 year old to stay in his bed and go to sleep? My youngest has a terrible time sleeping at night. He always has. He always wants to be with me or daddy. As cute as it is, sometimes I really want him to just go to bed! We always do a routine each night. Jammies, brushing teeth and read a book. I put him down at 7:30pm and it usually isn't until at least 9pm before he falls asleep. When he does finally fall asleep he is usually in the hallway, our bedroom or laying in front of the door to his room. This picture was taken of him falling asleep on the kitchen floor! Any suggestions for helping him fall asleep and staying in his bed beside Benedryl?

To see what works for others or what dilemmas others are having visit We are That Family,.

Spring Cleaning Part 3

Well here is what I got accomplished.

I finished the dining room, you can read the details of the cleaning here. This is the after picture. You wouldn't believe how yucky my chairs were from sticky toddler hands. And yes, I had to take down the Ninja Turtles blanket!The next room on the list, the living room. Here are the before pictures...Here is the checklist:

*Wipe down all registers and shop vac under them.
*Clean out entertainment center, dust and put all movies away.
*Clean and dust the top of the entertainment center.
*Clean window sills and windows.
*Wipe down kids larger toys (kitchen, workbench and car table).
*Wipe down ceiling fan.
*Vacuum out couch and chairs.
*Clean top and outside of curio cabinet.
*Organize toy bin.
*Shop vac ledges of carpet and vacuum the entire floor.

And here are the after pictures...I still have the bathrooms, bedrooms and basement to do. Those I will start next week.

Want to see what others are up to head over to Life as Mom.

Spring Cleaning Part 2

I have all my list for the kitchen completed with the exception of the trash and recycle containers. I am saving that for a day I can get the hose out and scrub them.

Now, it is onto the dining room. For this room my lists consists of:

*Cleaning and organizing the craft cupboard.
*Wiping down the walls and registers.
*Wiping down the table and chairs.
*Cleaning the window pane and window.
*Scrub the floor.
*Clean the chandalier.

Here is the before picture. Don't you love the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles blanket? We have that up over our door. We get a really bad draft. It is a terrible eye sore but what do you do?How are you doing with your Spring Cleaning?

Spring Cleaning is in Full Swing

I have officially started my Spring cleaning. The nice weather puts me in the mood to clean the house from top to bottom to get rid of all the Winter "yuck" that has accumulated the last 5 or so months. I love having my house clean even if it only looks nice for a few minutes! It is extremely hard to keep a tidy house with 5 boys (yes, I am counting my husband as a boy too.)

Here is my before picture...And here is my after...unfortunately it didn't look this nice for very long!Friday I got started on my kitchen. Here is the master list. The items marked in blue are done!!

Kitchen~
*Hutch
clean out the drawers
organize the shelves and cookbooks
clean top and inside
clean cookie jars
*Fridge and Freezer
clean out the inside and organize
wipe down
clean the outside
replace baking soda
*Cupboards
take everything out and
wash inside
organize
spray outside with wood oil
*Oven and Stove
Clean burners
clean oven and racks
*Microwave
*Trash can and recycle can
take outside and wash
*Floor and rugs
*Area by fridge
organize papers

I am hoping to get the rest done by Wednesday. That is my goal. Then it will be on to the next room in the house!

How about you? Are you Spring cleaning? If so, do you have a method to your madness? Feel free to leave a comment and let me know your strategy.