January 11, 2013 - Cleaning the Coffee Pot

Stephen has been gone all day to Chicago and is on his way home now. Since he wasn't going to be home all night I had to find a way to entertain myself. I'm such a wild girl that I cleaned our coffee pot.

Stephen keeps complaining about my "rank" coffee. I don't know what his problem is! Just because I drink the Dollar Tree coffee to keep our grocery budget down... and then Mom and Dad supplied me with an abundance of chocolate, vanilla, and hazelnut coffee for my birthday! The point is, he keeps saying how bad it smells and that it affects the flavor of his coffee. I realized today that I'm not quite sure when we last cleaned our coffee pot. So I got to it tonight.

This is a super easy task and should be done about once a month.

Step 1 - Pull out your carafe. Take a picture and try to figure out if it really is too dank to post a picture on your blog.

Throw out the coffee filter (if you have one in there already). Rinse your carafe (i.e. the glass container that holds the finished product). Put a clean filter in the machine.

Step 2 - Fill the pot with one part white vinegar to two parts water. In our 12-cup coffee maker I filled it up to 4 cups with vinegar and the rest of the way with water. Pour this into the coffee maker's reservoir.

Step 3 - Brew it. Once it's done, shut off the coffee maker. Let it sit in the coffee pot for about 20 minutes. This will loosen those hard deposits.

Step 4 - Throw out the vinegar and water. Rinse the pot and put it through the entire cycle two more times with nothing but clean water. Let it sit for about 15 minutes in between each cycle. This will rinse out the vinegar and any other residue.

Step 5 - Wash everything with warm water and dish soap to remove any residual staining.

Step 6 - Cringe when you really start to think about how long ago it was that you cleaned this coffee pot. Never again!!

#93 - Purge our freezers at least one time

I have to admit that one thing I've gotten really good at over the past year or two is meal planning. (If you're unfamiliar with my "frugal" blog, check it out here. I blog about my weekly meal plan ever Monday.) But there are still times that I wonder what is lurking in the bottom of our chest freezer, and what's gotten pushed to the back of our inside freezer. Now, our inside freezer is at about 75% capacity, and our chest freezer outside is at about 40% capacity (or less perhaps) so all they needed was a little organization!

Yesterday when I had a babysitter available (the hubby), I completely emptied out both freezers and rearranged them in a way that will hopefully make meals even easier! Plus, we have tons of frozen venison (from the last 3 deer Stephen has killed, I believe), tons of random meats (we buy a huge package from a local butcher), and tons of frozen vegetables (clearanced items and leftovers from our food co-op). It's just nice to know what you have. I mean, I knew we had a lot of venison cube steak, for example, but I had no idea we had almost 15 pounds worth. Same with our venison burger and ground beef. I had no clue that we had over 20 pounds of this stuff. I mean, I never went out and purchased meat, but I just didn't really know. You know?

It's so nice to go to the outside freezer now and see all my pretty freezer meals on top and know that there is a plethora of meat to choose from underneath. All neat and tidy. And only the essentials are inside - breakfast items like waffles and burritos, as well as quickie items like breadcrumbs, frozen berries, and cheese. Never again will I pay full price for cheese wondering if I actually have cheddar hidden somewhere in my freezer. Now I know!

#79 - Keep my car clean for one entire week

I realize the way I wrote this out - "one entire week" may have some of you raising an eyebrow. I assure you, this was really hard for me. Case in point - it is April and I only just now was able to keep my car clean for an entire week. I guess between taking our own recycling, taking our own trash, taking loads to and from church for Fed By Faith, donating items to Fifi's, The Classy Paci, Goodwill, and Coalition, plus all my shopping excursions... my car is ALWAYS LOADED DOWN!!

I tried to sneak in my "clean car week" while we were in Vegas for four days... but Stephen just rolled his eyes when I suggested it, and I guess it would have been cheating. So the day we got back (well, really Saturday the 9th) I committed to keeping my car clean. The hope was that I would keep it clean for one week... then two... then a month... and so forth and so on. I am proud to say that every single day since then I have kept my car free from clutter. I may have bags of donation items ready to go, but there are no Goldfish to be found under the seat. No empty water bottles from three days ago. No gum wrappers. No loose change. One book and one musical instrument are kept in the back seat for Brianna but that's it.

Ahhhh. It feels so good. I hope I can keep it up!

Spring Cleaning - The Kitchen

Note: I began this post on March 17 and am just getting around to posting it. So sad. It took me forever to load the pictures!! Oh well, better late than never.

I have really been in a cleaning frenzy lately. I kind of went into it on my frugal blog, but I think this post goes here, on the personal blog. Who knows? Basically what I'm saying is you should follow both blogs so you don't miss anything. :) So my spring cleaning adventure begins in the kitchen. Now, I had already gone over the counters on this section of the kitchen, so that was one less thing for me to do. First step - the baking cabinets.

Basically, the top shelf was a mish-mash of stuff - duplicate herbs, sugars, and other random items. The second shelf is measuring cups, sugar for the coffee, and more herbs. The lowest shelf is for items I use very frequently. It had all just kind of gotten out of order as I move things around hurriedly when I'm cooking, or when Stephen puts things back, or just because there's so much stuff in there!

I took everything off the shelves and wiped them down. Then I put everything back on the shelves (discarding some old herbs and sauces, and I combined all my powdered sugar into one large container which gave me some extra room).

Ahhhh, so much easier on the eyes! I also keep a list of what I have in here so I don't go and buy baking powder when I don't really need it or yet another box of powdered sugar! That has been really handy to me. Next to be cleaned were the cabinets. This was pretty easy. I started a box upstairs that will go in the attic of kitchen items we haven't used in a really long time but I'm not quite ready to give away yet. This includes a couple of bread baskets, extra bowls, our wok, and extra pans, but I'm not saving the extra cookie jar or the sixth (or more) cake pan I saw. Space was immediately cleared up and I'm already breathing easier!

I am loving these great chalkboard decals I got for just a couple of bucks! They are so cute, and now no one is confused about what is in the jar!

I was able to convert this unused cookie jar:

into a jar for powdered sugar. Voila!

Another thing that you just have to do is clean the oven and refrigerator! Now I clean the refrigerator every other week. But moving the oven and scrubbing it down is a once-a-year affair! I wish I had a "before" picture... actually, no I don't. It would gross you out. Tell you what, move your oven and look at the floor and post your picture. Then I will feel better about my oven's dirty little secret. BUT, my oven is clean now! At least for this year!!

Next on the agenda: the cabinets. Most of the cabinets just needed a little straightening, but one of the ones that was out of control was the one above the stove. It was half cookbooks and half miscellaneous eBay items.

Oh, and not to mention the random cookbooks in the living room.

Found a home for all the ebay stuff, and now my cookbooks fit here. Much better!

If you recall, my computer crashed several weeks ago. I finally got around to ordering a new one, and I decided when I was setting it up that this area needed a makeover.

Before:

After:

The other cabinet that was out of control was the tupperware: I got rid of a bunch of sizes we never use and some miscellaneous items in this drawer and it's much better now!

Here is my kitchen spring cleaning list, if you haven't started yet and are needing some ideas:

• Clean the oven. Clean the stove top. Move the range away from the wall and clean the floor and cabinets around it.
• Empty out the food cupboards. Throw away old food and old spices. Wipe down the shelves. Reorganize and restock. Make a list of items needing to be replaced.
• Empty out the refrigerator. Wipe down the shelves, wash the drawers. Throw away old food and condiments. Make a list of items needing to be replaced. Clean the outside of the refrigerator. (Note: I do this once every two weeks so that it doesn't build up and makes for a fast clean-up job!)
• Remove everything from the counter tops. Wipe down the counter tops, backsplashes, appliances. (Note: I try to do this every night right before going to bed. It, too, makes for less cleaning in the long run!)
• Break the garbage can down. Clean and sanitize.
• I have a large bookshelf with cookbooks: Pull cookbooks off shelf. Wipe down shelves. Dust cookbooks. Restock and reorganize.
• Steam mop the floors and baseboards.

Some other things that you may need to do that I don't do just because it's not necessary:

• Vacuum any vents.
• Clean any walls, door frames and door handles.
• Wash the front of the cupboards.
• Polish your stainless steel.
• Wash curtains and windows.
• Remove any light fixtures and wash them.
• Pull furniture away from walls and clean behind the furniture.

And most importantly, don't let your cleaning overtake you! I came home one night to see an item added to my checklist... Stephen had written in, "Enjoy your husband!!!!!!!!!"

Obviously I was spending too much time cleaning and not enough time with him. :) Lesson learned. I'll never clean again. Just kidding!!

Eventually I will post the rest of my rooms as I complete spring cleaning!

Organization: Baby Steps!

I am so tired of all the clutter around here! I feel like I say this every single day but it is really overwhelming to try to organize everything and try to interact with Brianna as much as I think I should! I have done pretty well at organizing in baby steps though, like I blogged about here. Last night I was thinking about how to go about organizing the house and decluttering at the same time, and I thought, the easiest way is just to start in one room. Finish that one room and then move on to another section. That way it's not so overwhelming. So my goal today was our dining room. Our dining room really doesn't have the appearance of being cluttered but I have things hidden in our drawers that are not at all organized and don't need to be taking up space in the dining room!

Our buffet/server has become overloaded! You can visibly see all the photo albums:

and inside is an ugly secret - records, copy paper for the computer, picture frames and random coupons!

The drawers contain miscellaneous electronics, magazines, and more coupons!

The first thing I did was go through the picture albums. The empty ones that I'll never use are going to a friend who can use them to help with speech therapy clients. The hard copies of pictures are going in our fireproof safe.

I next tackled the records. I separated them into two piles - keep and give away. Whichever ones I can't give away I will sell at our next yard sale, or give them away there if I can't sell them!

I only kept the best of the best - Beatles, CCR, and select Eagles, Bad Company, etc. I grew up listening to these types of records thanks to mom and dad, and I would love for our kids to grow up jammin' to these classics! I then made an inventory of the records we have, took a picture, and put the list and the picture in our safe for fire and robbery reasons.

The magazines have been read and are going to make their way to mom's house this afternoon.

Next up: The bags of stuff next to the buffet:


The white bags (courtesy of Leila) are going to FBF this afternoon. The other bags are going in the hall closet until I can take them to Fifi's to try to sell them. Finished buffet table: (Yes, the puzzle is still in progress.)




Next up: The hutch. Drawer #1 contained a cookie jar, 16 cookbooks and several loose-leaf recipes. The cookie jar is going to the attic (I do want to eventually use it when our kids are older, but we have no need for it now), 8 cookbooks and some loose-leaf recipes are going to the yard sale pile, and all the cookbooks which don't fit on these shelves are going to my other cookbook location which is taller. The rest of the loose-leaf recipes went into my binder of recipes.

Drawer #1:

Drawer #2 contained 32 cookbooks, a lazy susan, and approximately 100 recipes on index cards. Whew! I actually only discarded one cookbook out of all of these, but they all fit in the other drawer with my other cookbooks. The lazy susan is on the dining room table where she belongs, and the index card recipes were sorted alphabetically and filed or thrown away. Unfortunately, my camera messed up when formatting this picture and it was deleted. Trust me, drawer #2 was much worse than anything you could imagine.

Completed drawer #1:

On to the middle three drawers: Disaster!! Drawer #1 contained another twelve cookbooks and bubble wrap for my eBay items. Bubble wrap was moved to my mailing supplies drawer. Five cookbooks will go to the yard sale pile and the rest will go to side drawer #2.


Drawer #2 contained more coupons, paper bags meant for FBF, and 8 cookbooks. The couple of coupons that hadn't expired will be clipped and put away. I actually kept all the cookbooks, and I'll take the paper bags to the FBF tomorrow night.


Drawer #3 is my eBay drawer. I'm going to keep everything in here, but it definitely needed to be tidied up! Actually, I moved all the items to the middle drawer and I will move them down to the third drawer as I list them. That way neither drawer will be cluttered.

Completed middle drawers:

Last but not least, the room is swept, chairs pushed in, Brianna's bibs put back in their rightful place (she loves to drag those out!).

And my dining room is ORGANIZED!!!

(P.S. Next time I will not try to do an entire room in one day! It took me several hours during today to complete this room!! But it is a relief to have gotten so much done.)

Declutter Project

It seems like I am always on a mission to declutter our house, but somehow we always have more "stuff". I have sold things at secondhand stores, made numerous donations to the coalition, given away items to people at church, had a yard sale, and organized drawers, closets, and other little things along the way. It's always such a relief when you can open a drawer or door and know where things are! It's particularly nice to be able to open a cabinet door and not have something fall out and hit you on the head.

So. Surely I am not the only person who has a pantry that looks like this:

Ack! I know! The sight alone is burning my eyes! I realized that maybe my couponing skillz are a waste if I can't even tell you how much of what we have in the pantry. I would go buy the mother load from a triple coupons event, give half of it to Fed By Faith, and still be pushing stuff out of the way in the pantry to fit what we "needed". So I made it a 24-hour project to organize our kitchen pantry, which is not that big to begin with.

The first step was getting Stephen to buy me shelves and install them on the doors of the pantry. We bought those from Walmart for under $20 - I can't remember the specific cost now. They are super easy to install and hold a lot of items! Once I was able to get multiple items off the shelves and onto the doors, I could really move things around inside the pantry.

Finished project: I have categories - breakfast, snacks, pasta, sauces, baking ingredients, box dinners and even a couple of boxes for "miscellaneous" items (Kool-aid packets, a few Butterfingers from a friend at church, etc.) On the doors are more categories - canned items, jarred items, jelly/salad items/other baking ingredients, created by my own discretion.




MUCH better! I will never be able to have a clean floor (although I was able to mop it for the first time by doing this project) because we will always store drinks down there I'm sure, along with some other items. But at the very least it is much neater. The shelves on the door are pretty overloaded at the moment but I'm trying to eat out of the pantry more often than I normally do, especially when Stephen is working and I can make something simple for one person out of there. I do realize Harris Teeter is probably going to have another special coupon event in the next couple of weeks... what will the pantry look like after that???

Spring Cleaning

Every so often I get in the mood to do spring cleaning - even if it isn't technically spring yet. I feel like I am always going through the house getting rid of things, and yet somehow we still just have all this stuff! Yesterday I went thrift shopping for the first time in months and was easily able to pass over most of the stuff in the store.

So I'm trying to clean up/declutter/organize one small space at a time. A few days ago I did the laundry room. Today I tackled one of our laundry room closets. I tried to label this first picture but the writing was so small you couldn't see it on here. So let's just start from the top left:

Top shelf: Some toilet paper and kleenex. Trashbags and gifts for my Secret Sister. Puzzles and games.
Middle shelf: Paper towels. More Secret Sister gifts. More games and puzzles.
Lower level: Picnic basket, wine rack (hidden), craft bag (hidden), bag with miscellaneous items in it (hidden), plastic tub filled with gift bags and tissue paper, huge gift bag filled with more gift bags, massage pad (hidden), random mop, two vacuums, carpet cleaner and stain remover (not in full shot).

New and improved closet:

Top shelf: Toilet paper, kleenex, trash bags, carpet cleaners (out of Brianna's reach), gift bags in one gift bag, tissue paper folded and in a box.
Middle shelf: Paper towels, my Secret Sister gift for March, a box for things I need to mail or return to people.
Lower level: Picnic basket, massage pad, paper towels, plastic tub filled with gifts for Secret Sister, two vacuums, and my coupon bag.

Getting rid of:

• over 40 gift bags
• wine rack
• some makeup bag
• a random metal basket

Moved my craft bag to my craft closet (a whole other adventure in itself), moved the mop with other cleaning supplies, moved the puzzles and games upstairs to our game closet, and got rid of everything in the miscellaneous paper bag.

So if I did nothing else today, at least I accomplished this.

BUT, I had a great lunch today with Jenn and Claire at the Chick. Soooo good. Last night we had a great dinner at Thai Orchid with mom and dad, Jenn, Matt, Claire, and Granny and Granddaddy. We were celebrating mom's 3-year liver anniversary. It was delicious and the babies were so fun! Claire has the FUNNIEST tongue-smacking way of eating solids. Too funny!!! And Bri is quiet now as long as she has food constantly shoved down her throat, so we were good to go. It was so much fun and nice to get out!