Cleaning and Organizing

It seems this time of year brings about two things.  The first one cutting down on the clutter (putting the Christmas away) and the realization that you need to deep clean after the holidays.  I know most people wait until Spring to do that deep cleaning but I find my home needs a little extra after the holiday messes.  I have talked before about the FlyLady system.  I recommend starting there if you're looking to change the way you do things.  I have modified it slightly to meet my schedule and house needs.  I've also been watching the new shows on the OWN network.  I really like Enough Already with Peter Walsh.  He talks about the negative aspect of clutter and how to see the vision for your home.

The kitchen is the first room that usually needs a little extra attention.  One thing I've learned from Flylady is don't try to do too much at once.  She says only pull out what you can clean and put back in a short time.  It never fails we get started and someone needs a ride home from school, the dog gets sick, or something else needs your immediate attention.  Recently I cleaned my pantry out.  It seems to get out of control easily.  Maybe you can relate.  The kids come in and rummage through things not putting things back correctly or closing things.  Ugh...Then you get a little lazy with something as you are hurrying up trying to get dinner on the table when you only have 20-30 minutes to get ready to eat. 

I saw this blog that inspired me to get rid of the packaging.  We were lugging 90 % of our groceries to our basement because there just wasn't room in our little closet.  Now with less space that the packaging isn't taking up you can fit more on your shelves.  I plan on visiting The Container store soon to see if I can get those can holders and some height adjusters for the backs.   I put labels on all my Ball jars using my Dyno label maker.  My husband said if the kids stood still long enough I would put it on the kids.  LOL;)  I like that the jars are clear.  I used baskets that I already had to hold the bags of snacks, spices, etc. 

1.  Clean off one shelf at a time.  Sweep and give it a wipe down.  Get rid of expired things and packaging.

2.  Group like items together.  Snacks, pasta, cereal etc.

3.  Arrange each shelf with taller items in the back.

4.  Label items.

Should have taken the before shot, would have been even more impressive!

It's not perfect but much better that's for sure.  I think it's all about maintenance too.  That's something that really helps if you take 5-10 min. to straighten every other week or right before your visit to the store.  Another rule of thumb that doesn't pertain to the kitchen is when something new comes into the house something must go out.  (Peter Walsh) I don't follow this one too well but I do try to weed out things a few times a year.  I think when you're used to the military way of life this comes a little easier.  You're pretty used to moving every few years anyway. 



Don't forget about the give away!  There's still time to enter.

See you soon,
Carey

Homemade Laundry Soap

Here's a little project I did a week ago that was super easy!  It's as easy as grating cheese.  You just boil some water and add the soap to it.  Then you add the other ingredients and whollah!! Laundry soap.  Don't think it's worth the effort or money read here to find out more!  I used Fels Naptha soap instead which you can find at Meijer or most grocery stores in the bath soap isle.  I ordered mine from Amazon which was slightly more due to shipping because I didn't think my store carried it and found it too late.  Here's my pictures of how it turned out.

Ingredients needed

1 cup Washing Soda (Arm & Hammer)

1/2 cup borax (Mule Team)

Fels Naptha Bar soap

approx, 3 gal. water

Here it is on my stove simmering away, you need to dissolve the soap completely.

Here's the end result, mine slighly yellow. 

All in all I was very impressed with how easy it was, if you can boil water and grate cheese it's easy.  I did all this while baking and cleaning in my kitchen.  When I first came across recipes for soap I thought it would be worth more trouble and not be worth it in the long run.   I have changed my mind about that.  It got my son's ball clothes clean so I think it works just as well as my other store brand soap.  My only complaint about it was the stuff seemed to gel up quite a bit to the point where it's hard to pour out of the bottle especially if you recycle your own laundry dispensers and try to use a pour spout.  I'm going to do some more research and see if I can't tweak the recipe or find a new one to alleviate this problem. 

$ bottom line

Homemade laundry soap $8.15 vs Tide for a year $73.23

savings $65.08 a year

Have a great day, you probably guessed what I'm doing- Laundry!

Carey

P.S.  Here's a few more links if you're interesed. Laundry Soap

Absent Blogger...and a Pantry Makeover

Well, folks sorry to be absent so long I can give you a long list of reasons why I haven't blogged like I really haven't had a lot new to share with you or my husband came home after a 5 month absence or I've had a nasty cold all of which would be true.  However, I'll just leave it at sorry it's been so long I will be better next week. 

We have some exciting weather here in eastern Indiana, Spring has sprung this week!  It's so nice been in the 60's and we've been out for a walk, the kids have been riding their bikes.  It's been so nice.  I can't tell you how happy I've been having my husband back in our home.  It truly seems like a home.  He has been so great about giving me a bit of a break getting up with the kids everyday this week and making them breakfast and getting them ready for school.  I've had a nasty cold with sinus headaches so this has been great.  He's been helping me with the all the housework.  At the same time I keep telling him he is a allowed to relax and do nothing at least for a little while, LOL!  He is retired.  He's been working on on media room box that he's creating for theatre like seating.  I'll be sharing more on that later.

On the subject of cleaning and reorganizing last week I worked on my pantry it had gotten a bit out of control here's what I did to help regain control. 

1.  I went through each shelf and tossed or pitched anything old or out of date.  Then a swept off the shelves from any little spills or debris. 

2  Then I grouped like things together changed my mind about where a few things should go.  You know how you change your mind after a while of living with things a certain way.  I took duplicate items to my extra storage in the basement.  This is where I'm going to keep staples like extra condiments, sugar, flour, big paper towel packs.  

3.  I have a shelf for baking things, snacks/breakfast items, condiments and seasonal plates, napkins and cake decorating items, gourmet foods for entertaining, and canned goods.

Here's the surprising thing that I wanted to share with you I moved into my house at the very end of September and I cleaned and tossed things before I moved I still found more than one old/expired thing in my pantry.  So I just want to encourage you to periodically go through and clean it out so that you don't end up with expired food etc.  I must have missed some of the things I had when I did this before. 

Before

After

Here's some books/products that you might like about organizing I see a lot of people doing things on their blogs lately to gain control of clutter.  They're full of good ideas.  

Next week I'll be sharing my spring decor with you, I got mine up yesterday, just waiting for some sunshine so I can take pictures.  Have a great weekend and enjoy the weather wherever you may be!

Carey