Category: Clean and Organize

Projects and more projects 05.12.20

Published on by TracieLeave a comment

Projects and more projects 05.12.20

Are you working on long overdue projects at your house?  When I can motivate myself, I am.  This extra room in our house has had many, many purposes over the past twelve years that we’ve lived here.  I had thought that I would turn it into an extra bedroom, which is probably what we will make it before we ever sell our house sometime in the nebulous future.  But right now, I am giving it over to Liv as a studio space.  

As you can see:  it needs some help.  For the past six months I have been cramming Christmas stuff here.  I didn’t want all of my Christmas stuff to go back into the attic, because Denton and I have many “conversations” over it when I need it around Christmas time.  Our attic access isn’t one of those handy dandy, pull down jobs.  Oh no, the builders of our house, along with all of the others in our neighborhood thought it would be better to have to drag a giant ladder from the garage every time you needed to find something you have stored up there.  Sigh.

This past Christmas I informed Denton that he didn’t need to cart everything back up into the attic, which he was very pleased about.  Instead, I am taking over our Harry Potter closet.  Which has been a black hole of random things for more than a decade.  I have been putting this task off for MONTHS.  Would you like to guess how long it took me to empty the Harry Potter closet?  Thirty nine minutes.  My life if ridiculous.  I just knew it was going to take me days, to pull everything out of there and find a new home for it.

In actuality, it took a mere 39 minutes.  Crazy town.  That’s where I live.  The shelves are going to go serve their purpose in my laundry room, which will be another project, the guitar cases went to live in the den.  Denton hasn’t notice yet. 🙂   Most of the other things just needed to be recycled.  Do you keep your boxes from things you’ve bought, just in case you need to move and you’ll need the box?  Example:  Our router and a drum kit seat.  I called Denton at work and asked him that if we needed to move tomorrow would we need the box that our two year old router came in?  No and no.  Problem solved.

I love my vacuum.  Another inanimate object that has my devotion, because it does what it is supposed to do.  After emptying out the Harry Potter closet, I vacuumed it out and declared it sufficient.  You will see later that I should have mopped it too, but I will tackle that task at Christmas when I take all of this stuff out to determine what I am keeping and what is going to grace someone else’s home.  I would have decluttered it now, but my Salvation Army isn’t taking anything right now, so I decided if it all fit, it would be decluttered at Christmas this year.

Then I started on the extra room.  I started making piles of like things.  Such as:  478 empty boxes.  I have been keeping them so that when I finally get up the energy to list things in my Etsy shop I won’t have to shell out money for them at the post office.  But they can’t live in this room anymore.

I started carting Christmas stuff into the closet…..

And it all fit!  With room to grow!  hahahaha. Now that the Christmas stuff is out of the spare room, Liv and I can start assembling her studio, which will free up a LOT of room in her bedroom.  Does your house go through transformations like mine does?  When one space isn’t working anymore, we just shift and change and make it into what works for us at the time.  I wish I could go with the flow in my everyday life, like I do with shifting my furniture around!

I hope that your projects are going smoothly!  Stay safe and healthy!  You can see all of the other projects I’ve worked on here.

What are you working on right now?

Projects

Projects and more projects

Published on by TracieLeave a comment

Projects and more projects

When I can motivate myself these days, I am slowly going through my giant list of “to-do’s” and crossing some of them off.  Simple things that don’t actually take much of my brain power, because, I need all of my brain power to get from waking up to bedtime.  You understand.  Everyones new normal.  So here’s what I have accomplished lately.

I dragged a shelf that I had in the garage out and put a couple of couple of screws in my laundry room wall and – VOILA!  Now my laundry detergent can stop falling off of the dryer each time I do laundry.

Don’t you love my Clorox bottle?  I found that little gem at a thrift store for $0.95 about a century ago.  Sigh.  I miss finding gems at the thrift stores.

I also found this lovely basket there too at some point in the past and it holds my wool dryer balls.  I love those things.  The basket is hand painted and adorable.  Please ignore the hair.  My hair is everywhere.  I’m sorry that you have to see that.  But, it’s a reality here in my house.  Sorry again.

I have been in the process of switching out Liv’s dresser in her bedroom for what feels like 700 years.  It’s almost ready.

I had to look back in my phone to see when I bought this beauty.  It was February 10th.  Long, long ago.  As I normally do, when I spotted this gorgeous specimen, I immediately sent a photo to Liv and said “Yes or no”.  She immediately said “Yes.”  And then I called Denton and said I need you to meet me at the Salvation Army…..He was not pleased.  As usual.  Hahahaha.  $30.00 for a solid wood, lovely dresser that has beautiful handles, that she and I loved at first sight.  Oh yes.  He came right over.  It is missing a small piece of veneer that you can see below, that I will replace later when I can actually go into a store and find some that will match.  In the meantime, we don’t care that it’s missing.

I also replaced another light fixture in my downstairs hallway.

I had found the one I wanted to put up down there a couple of years ago for $3.99 and just put it in the garage until I had a few minutes to take the other one down.  And then I forgot about it.  The other one worked, I just liked the new to me linen one that I found on one of my hunts a lot more.

Man, I need to take the vacuum to my ceiling downstairs…..Or we can just call it “Antique lace” like Hayden and Liv’s Aunty Crystal does and move on…… And that’s what I’ve actually gotten accomplished over the last couple of weeks.  I have other projects I’m working on right now, and as soon as I get them completed I’ll show you here!

Stay safe and healthy!  You can see all of the other projects I’ve worked on here.

What are you working on right now?

Projects

Projects and more projects

Published on by Tracie1 Comment

How are you passing the gift of all of this time?  That’s how I am choosing to look at this.  A gift.  A gift that I should use to get all of the un-done projects completed at my house that have been waiting in the wings for way too long.

When I can keep my mind from wandering that is.  That happens a LOT.  I’ll start one teeny tiny project, see something else that needs to be done right NOW, and switch over to that.  So, I am making lists for myself.

It works sometimes. 😀   Here are some of the ones that I have actually gotten done so far!

I decided that I needed to get that one last piece of the landing in place so that I could put the trim back up.  There was a reason I had been putting it off….It took me almost two and a half hours to get that last piece cut to the proper width.  The length wasn’t a problem.  But its done!  Yay!  Don’t look at the stairs, just don’t.  It’s on the list.  While I had the paint out, I thought to myself, I should get that small bookcase painted.  I had bought it ages, and ages ago.  I think I may have paid around $3 for it, more than likely because it looked so bad. Liv wandered through about the time I started to paint and asked, Don’t you need to clean that thing first?  And I told her, This has been cleaned!  Pitiful little thing.

I had the perfect spot for it outside my kitchen where I had been piling my number one “to be read” stack of books, a la Martha Stewart style.  It always looks so much better at her house, doesn’t it? It’s amazing what a coat of paint can do.I’ve had one hook outside my shower for years now.  And I constantly put way too many things on it.I’ve also had these two cute ostrich head hooks floating around my house for a couple of years now with no real purpose.  Now they have a purpose…And my shower hook isn’t overloaded anymore.  This project took approximately 49 seconds to accomplish.  Sigh.

Last but not least.My dresser.  You’ll have to use your imagination and “see” this poor thing piled as high as the sky with clothes, random bits of things that did not even belong in our bedroom, because either I forgot to take a before or I deleted it by accident.  It wasn’t pretty.I have been resisting doing this project, because I knew I needed to take EVERYTHING out and do a major purge of all the things.  I hesitate to do things KonMari style because I get so overwhelmed with how much stuff I still have.  And probably do NOT need.  But I set aside an entire day and worked drawer by drawer.I LOVE having my t-shirts folded this way.  It’s so easy to see what I have and what I don’t.  I’m also going to try this with my pajamas too and I’ll let you know how it goes.I took out everything, and anything that said NO way am I ever putting you on my body again, went into a bag to dealt with another day.  Everything else needed a designated drawer or things like swimsuits that I only wear once a year went into a basket to live on the top shelf of my closet.  Why in the world I was letting them take up space in my drawers is beyond my comprehension. It was a long, tedious day, with many, many breaks for my mental health, but at the end of it all my bed was clear and everything was put away where it belongs.  Also yes, that IS another “to be read” pile of books!  Which is another project to add to my ever expanding list, because this pile drives me bonkers.  It was a great idea at the time, but I constantly knock them off and have to pick them up again.Another project I need to check with my Mama about.  I want to change out the pulls on this dresser, but I don’t know which ones are the originals on this piece.  It was my Mama’s Mother’s dresser and it has two different styles of pulls.  Wooden ones and metal pulls on the bottom drawer.

Another side note:  don’t you love my monkey?  He is quite ancient.  My cousin who is almost twenty years older than I am gave it to me when I was about two years old.  Thank you Johnny Ray for that sweet gift, he has been well loved.

Well, that’s it for my week and the projects.  The best part about all of these projects is that I had everything on hand to get them done.  Mostly my time.  Are you working on projects during this time of isolation?  If I can just stay on track, I may get quite a lot more accomplished!  Good luck to us all.

You can see all of the other projects I’ve worked on here.

Stay safe.  Tracie

KonMari: Kitchen Cleaning Supplies

Published on by TracieLeave a comment

Note:  This post may contain affiliate links.  Check out what that means to you here.

One of the benefits that I didn’t even consider when I started my 30 Simple Days at the beginning of January is:  TIME.  You gain time, you guys.  For all of you who do not live in the land of Tracie, I know that you already knew this, but now I know too.  I’ll update you in the next week, but I can tell you this, I am LOVING having my kitchen stay – relatively – clean.  But, that’s not what I’m here to tell you about today.

Earlier today, I was trying to find my bottle brush to clean out Liv’s tall travel coffee mug that she takes to school every morning and it was lost in the madness that is underneath my kitchen sink.  (Don’t mind the one you can actually see in the photo below, it’s old and gross and I would never use it to clean something, but we all know how hard it is for me to throw away actual trash.  Here’s how the conversation will go in my head – “Is it recyclable?  I don’t know!!!  It doesn’t have a recycle number on it anywhere, so what do I do, what do I do?!?”  Just throw the stupid thing away you maniac!  No, I believe I will just put it right back where it was, so I can have another mental screaming match with myself later.)  Anyway.

One of the things I am learning about myself repeatedly, is that what space I do have, I don’t use properly and to its best advantage.  It doesn’t matter how everyone else uses their space, I need to organize and use the spaces that I do have, in a way that is going to make sense to my brain.

So, I asked myself, “Why, why, why, am I keeping 372 bottles of cleaning supplies underneath my sink, when I only use a handful of them on a daily basis”?  Because that’s where I thought that everyone else keeps theirs.  And they might.  But, that doesn’t matter in my house.  I need to be able to find what I need in that moment quickly or I could decide that I should go take a break and pick up my current book.  Two hours later, I will finally remember that I was cleaning something.

I have a fairly large laundry room downstairs that I am usually only in twice a day, that I can store all of my overflow in.  Another benefit from this type of storage method for me is that I can see at a glance that I have NINE bottles of Mrs. Meyers cleaning spray and I don’t need to pick another four up when I am in Target the next time.  I also discovered that I own three gallons of white vinegar.  Sigh.  At least I won’t run out anytime soon.

It was also absolutely grimy down there.  So I removed every single thing inside the cabinet and gave it a very thorough vacuuming…..

Also, a butter knife works wonders for stuck on…..whatever that was.

I still love this padded shelf liner that I picked up at Wal-Mart (I think it’s actually cheaper on Amazon and I don’t have to put on real clothes and leave my house).  You can occasionally find it at the Dollar Tree, but it is very hit or miss there.  Wally world and Amazon always have some in stock in very lovely patterns.

I used up the last of this roll here.  I love this pattern.  It makes everything look new and clean.

I put back only what I know I will need on a daily basis and the rest goes downstairs into what will be the overflow section in my laundry room.  I’ll give you a rundown of what I need close at hand every day:

Mrs. Meyer’s Apple Cider multi-surface cleaner.  I like almost all of the Mrs. Meyer’s multi-surface cleaners, but I LOVE this one.  It smells amazing and it makes me want to clean something so that my house will smell like this scent.  It’s awesome.

Scented trash bags.  We don’t use these large trash bags for our actual trash cans, but I love having these on hand for when I do need a big bag for something.  They smell amazing, but it’s not overpowering.

Eraser Cleaning Sponges.  This is another staple at my house.  I have my Mama hooked on them too.  They are made of melamine which is exactly what Mr. Clean Magic Erasers are made of and they work like you wouldn’t believe.  I always have a stash on hand.

Dish Drying Mat.  My MIL bought me one of these and I love it.  It folds into a small square that I can stuff underneath the sink and it does exactly what it’s supposed to do.  Soaks up all the water until I get all of the things that don’t fit into the dishwasher washed.

Dishwashing detergent.  I was faithful to Finish Quantum Max as my dishwasher detergent for years, but I ran out one day and needed something immediately and Wal-Mart DID NOT HAVE ANY, so I tried something random and it worked just as well in our newish dishwasher (it’s about three years old now) so I haven’t gone back.  If you have an older dishwasher that is having problems cleaning your dishes though, try the Finish.  It was the only thing that cleaned my dishes in my old decrepit dishwasher.

Microfiber cloths.  I use these for so many different things.  I have just random ones that I’ve picked up over the years, but I keep hearing great things about certain brands so I may invest in some.

White vinegar.  I use this in my dishwasher instead of a rinse aid.  It works, so I don’t spend the extra money.

Lysol Wipes.  These are something else that I bulk order from Amazon.  It’s just more efficient, and cheaper.  They work amazingly well, so I always keep them on hand.

Stainless Steel Cleaner.  I found a bottle of Goo Gone Stainless Steel cleaner at a yard sale that had never been opened and I bought it for $0.25.  It is amazing.  But it costs $39.99! on Amazon right now, so I am going out on a limb and thinking that they don’t make it anymore, so when this is gone I will replace it with this, more than likely.  I’ve heard great things about it.  I have also heard that you can use Pledge or an equivalent, but I haven’t tried that yet.  I can see why it would work though, my cleaner is very oily just like a furniture polish.

Scratchers.  This is what they are called in my family.  I use them on my iron skillets and stainless steel pots and pans.  I usually pick them up at my Dollar Tree.

Last but not least…..my bottle brushes.  I use these on our water bottles, and travel mugs.  I usually buy these at the Dollar Tree too, but they have some that look like they would last a little longer on Amazon.  I’m all for something I don’t need to replace every month.

What do you need right at your fingertips in your kitchen?  Curious minds need to know.

What’s next?

I have so, so many areas of my house that need micro-organizing like this.  I know it’s not exactly the Marie Kondo way of doing things, but I like to break things into manageable chunks so that I’m not overwhelmed.  Otherwise, I would end up shoving the entire mess into a closet somewhere to be dealt with at a later date, which may never come.

Making up my own categories, that are small enough to be attainable, in a tiny window of time let’s me get things done.  And progress is always a good thing.

 

KonMari: Handbags

Published on by TracieLeave a comment

Note:  This post may contain affiliate links.  Check out what that means to you here.

As you know I have been on my decluttering journey for a LONG time now.  My normal method of decluttering is probably very different from everyone else’s.  I keep a tall wicker laundry basket in my bedroom (it used to be a small pink basket, but I stuffed it too full and broke it to smithereens) and anything that I come across that I know I no longer want or need – in it goes.  When it starts to overflow, I list it all down for the lord overseer’s who we shall not name and most of the time take photos for you guys, and off it goes to my local Salvation Army.

It’s a simple system that doesn’t overwhelm me.  I still have a lot of stuff in my house to go through and the thought of dragging EVERYTHING in one category out at a time, seriously gives me hives.  But.  While I have some areas of my house under control, the public spaces and the things people would see if they just randomly walk into rooms of my house, I can’t get into my closet.  No, I am not going to show it to you now.  The state that it’s in right now is unbearable.  I have taken photographic evidence of the catastrophe though, and will show you when I’m done.

There’s a reason that I try to be so strict with myself about everything in my house having a place.  Denton believes it stem’s from my control freak nature.  It actually doesn’t.  It’s because I need limits.  My great love of yard sales and thrift stores means I have access to a massive amount of things.  High quality and lovely things that even though I may have the space for them, I actually don’t need or use.  That then grow and multiply in the dark when I’m not looking.

I want to be able to walk into my walk-in closet and not feel stressed every day over the state of it.  I have too much STUFF.

I knew that all of the purses and bags hiding in the nether reaches of my closet would never fit into my wicker laundry basket.  So, I decided they all needed to come out and then I would decide what would get to stay.

Here’s the thing:  I LOVE handbags.  Clothes are things that I need to wear so that I won’t be naked.  I have a lot them too, by the way.  And we aren’t going to talk about shoes yet.  Sigh.  But, I really love purses.  They serve a purpose, they are beautiful, and there are so many to choose from!

I haven’t changed out my purse in over a year.  Which is astounding to me.  I have so many that I love and over the years, I would change out my purse at least once a week.  Maybe more.

I found a purse that I judge all handbags by now.  I stopped buying bags for myself altogether more than a year ago.  I hope that’s not a lie.  I don’t remember buying a new one.  I know for a fact that I haven’t changed it out.

Now, no matter how lovely, expensive or useful it is, I ask myself:  Am I going to give in and change to this new-to-me specimen over my current bag?  The answer is always no.

I decided to buckle down and get this thing done.  So, I waded into my closet and starting throwing all of the purses you see above onto my bed.  You guys.  I have a California King.  I know you can’t really see the scale of this.

I went through them all.  One by one.  Some of them I knew just by picking it up and flinging it onto the bed that it wasn’t staying at my house.  Other’s were harder.  I really love purses!  After all of the clearing, piling and thinking what did I decide could stay?

These.

And these.  The backpack is leather, and I love a backpack when we travel.  The red bag is what I call my car bag.  I keep everything in it that I need with me all the time – my planner, a notebook, books, extras of everything – the kitchen sink, essentially.  But I don’t want to carry this stuff into stores.  So, I keep it in my car or the house.  Wherever I am.

I’m actually hesitant to keep the Chanel bag and the yellow ostrich bag.  I haven’t used either one of them in over a year, but I really do love them both.  Justification:  I love them, I’ve already purchased them, and I’m getting rid of 46 others.  I can live with that.

I did cull out three other bags to keep in the back of my Pilot to use when I do Aldi run’s.  Hopefully this will keep me from yet again buying more throw away bags when I get there and remember that I forgot them again.  As always.

So what is my handbag that I judge all handbags by?

A bright green Kate Spade bag that I found in a thrift store in West Virginia for $15.00, still in the dust bag.  I absolutely LOVE this purse.  Let me tell you why.

First:  It stands up by itself.  No matter what I put into it, it doesn’t collapse when I set it down.  If you’ve never had a purse that does this, don’t buy one unless you are willing to give up all other handbags forever. 

2.  It’s the perfect size.  Not too big and not too small.  Side note:  Why, yes, that is a checkbook holder.  No, I do NOT write checks anymore.  Except when I have inadvertently stuck my debit card into my pants pocket and then forgotten that I did that until I am standing in line at Food Lion with $98.00 worth of groceries to pay for.  I never carry cash, so I keep this checkbook for the many times that I have left said debit card at home in the laundry hamper.  It’s a terrible habit I’m trying to break.  The end.

Last:  It’s so pretty.  I would never have sat down and thought it through and said “Yes, I need a bright green purse”.  But, as soon as I saw it, I knew that I wanted it.  And after I carried it for a while, I don’t think I’ll ever want to have a handbag that isn’t made this way.  It just makes me happy every time I look at it.

Even though it’s not exactly the KonMari way of cleaning everything out, I’m glad that I did my handbags this way.

Luggage and all the paraphernalia that goes with it are next.  Or maybe shoes…..  I have a lot of both and use only a few of each.  I’ll let you know which I wade into next.

 

2 Questions for Decluttering

Published on by Tracie2 Comments

I have been on my decluttering pilgrimage for over six years now.  You can read the first post I wrote about it here.  Part of my process is to limit what I actually bring into our home.  If I am careful about what comes in, I don’t have to ask myself hard questions later about whether or not I need to keep it.

I have found that I need firm boundaries when it comes to questioning myself about the things in our home.  There are so many questions that I could ask myself to determine if something needs to stay or go.  All you have to do is type declutter into a search engine and you’ll find a plethora of questions and answers to choose from.  Over 41,000,000 as of this morning when I checked.  That creates overwhelm for me.  I need focus.  Only then can I actually make a decision so that I won’t just stuff this thing back into a drawer to deal with later.

So now, when I declutter our house I literally only have two questions that I ask myself.

1.  Do I truly love this item?

I really make myself stop and honestly contemplate whatever the item is.  I want to make my house into a sanctuary,  a place where we are happy and comfortable.  If I am surrounding all of us with things that are just things  that isn’t going to happen.

Rule number 1:  if it’s going to stay, I have to love it.

2.  Do I love this item enough to clean it?

This is a big one you guys.  I don’t love to clean.  I know people who truly do, but I’m not one of them.  I am however, slowly changing my mindset so that I can enjoy the process of cleaning my home and the results; but it’s a sloooww process.  Side note:  I have found that if I use cleaning products that I actually enjoy smelling, I am MUCH more likely to clean.  But, that’s another story entirely.

Looking through my house, I noticed that I have more knick knacks now than I’ve ever had before and they are giving me serious anxiety.  No one is going to clean those things but me.  They are mine.  But, the mental cost of having all of those things is greater than my enjoyment of them.  Does that make sense to anyone but me?

I am slowly going through them all, deciding if they truly do bring about happiness, and does that happiness make me want to clean them every week.  I have to say, most of the time the answer is no.  I’ve culled my book collection way down and people, you know my love of books.  I bring a lot of them home each month, but those are what I like to call “readers”.  They are going to be read and passed on to someone else who can enjoy them.  There are very few that I add to my bookshelves to keep.

The next collection at my house that I’m going to go through is my collection of milk glass.  I have a deep passion for milk glass, but the more I seriously ask myself do I love every piece that I have, I already know the answer is going to be no.  There are some pieces that I know I’ll probably never part with – such as my vintage milk glass dental tray.  That thing makes me happy every time I look at it.  I have no idea why, but that doesn’t matter.  Psst:  I bought it at a yard sale for $10.00.  The woman said it was her Grandmother’s and it was in its original box!   Apparently she didn’t share her Grandmother’s and my passion for milk glass.

So.  What are your parameters?  How do you decide what stays and what has to go?

Note:  This post may contain affiliate links.  Check out what that means to you here.

Clean and Organize the….. Unknown Kitchen Drawer

Published on by TracieLeave a comment

I call this the Unknown Kitchen Drawer for a reason.  It’s invisible.  No one knows it’s there.  No one uses it.  This is valuable real estate in my kitchen and it is completely going to waste.  I whine to myself all the time that I need more storage space in my kitchen, when the truth is, I have at least one space that is being completely squandered at the moment.

This is another perfect example of my blindness when it comes to my kitchen drawers.  Remember my spice drawer?  I LOVE my spice drawer now and I use it every day.  It’s the perfect setup and a wonderful use of space in my kitchen.

However, this is not a wonderful use of prime square footage in my kitchen.  I suppose you could call this a junk drawer, because it IS filled with junk.  Or rather, things that are never used.

The first thing I did was to empty everything out and clean, clean, clean.  It was absolutely filthy.  That, I have discovered, is what happens when you never clean something.  Even if you don’t use it.  Imagine that.

I bought this lovely liner paper at Wal-Mart, because my Dollar Tree doesn’t carry the stuff anymore.  WHY, Dollar Tree, Why?  It’s padded and non-slip, so whatever I place in here should stay put.  Anywho, this one is a lovely pattern, if I do say so myself.

Gorgeous.  Not perfect, but I never actually expect things to be perfect in my house.

The first thing I loaded up were the homeless k-cups that have been living on my dining room table for the past, oh, three months.  Also, the ground coffee from Aldi.  Have you tried it?  We like it.

Next, I put in the vitamins that various people in my house take.  I love having it all in one central location.  Make a coffee, take your vitamins.  By the way, if you have a vegetarian in your house, make sure they are getting enough Vitamin B.  Last year when we had our yearly physical’s, we discovered that Liv was dangerously low on Vitamin B and Vitamin D.  I suppose we shouldn’t live like vampires and avoid the sun completely, huh?

The crazy thing about this entire process, is that this project took less than 20 minutes from start to finish.  I have been putting it off for a small eternity.  I always build things up in my mind to gargantuan proportions when I just need to buckle down and get it done.

I’m so pleased with how this turned out.  Are you procrastinating a small, doable task?  I know that I can name at least 14 more projects that need my attention right now……

You can find all of my other projects here, here, here and here.

Note: This post may contain affiliate links. Check out what that means to you here. 

 

Save

Save

Save

Save

Save

An Update on the Spice Drawer

Published on by Tracie2 Comments

I love it when a plan for a project actually works.  When I created the spice drawer in my kitchen I didn’t know that it would turn out to be one of my better ideas.

It has worked so well for us.  If you have the space I HIGHLY recommend this method.  I still keep all of the overflow in the cabinet – which is a disaster.  I truly wish that I didn’t have any cabinets in my kitchen.  I think that they should all be pull out drawers.  You pull out the drawer, you can clearly see what you have, and there is NO chaos.

While this system has been working for us for the past five months, I have tweaked it slightly.  I added a spring drawer divider to help keep things from shifting too much.  I love the padded vinyl liner that I added originally, but everything was still shifting about.

Another thing that I am changing out are the canning lids.  The two piece lids are a pain in the keister.  They are fine for canning, but not so great for the spice drawer.  My first thought was to go to Amazon.  That’s usually my first stop for most everything.  Anything to keep me out of a real store and in my yoga pants.

I found these little beauties right off the bat.  You can get 16 for $10.95.  And then my frugal brain kicked in.  I would need at least two sets just for the spices I have in my drawer now.   That’s almost $22 for lids my brain said to me.  Because in the back of my mind, I knew that I was taking lids to the recycle center each week from my Classico jars, Almond butter jars, etc.

So I decided to go the cheap route and reuse those lids instead.

Wash them and stick on the handy dandy labels that I still have a plethora of, and voila!

One piece lids that don’t come apart every time I open one of my spices.  No, they are not as pretty as the lovely red ones, but they function exactly the way I want them to.  And that $22.00 will go into the “Let’s go places” fund.  Twenty-two dollars will buy hot dogs on a corner in New York, right?  We’ll see.

Maybe this winter I’ll paint the lids I have, but I doubt it.  😀   Do you have a spice drawer yet?

Declutter With Me: My Nightstand

Published on by Tracie2 Comments

As we have already established over here in Tracie-land, I am a piler.  If it’s a flat surface, my brain takes that as an opportunity to find something to put on it.  My nightstand is a perfect example.  I have things on it that I actually want on there and that are useful to me.  My lamp, an art piece that Liva did for me, a book that I’m currently reading as my go to sleep book, you get the idea.  But I also have deposited things that have no business being there because all they are doing is calling to other things that have no business being there either.

By the way, if you know where you can buy antique keys (the metal piece that hold the mirror onto the dresser) please let me know.  I bought this little dresser at my Goodwill about three years ago for $7.00.  Can you believe that?  If it was for sale today they would put $50.00 on it.  When they loaded it into my car, they lost one of the keys, so for the past three years, it’s had a screw in it.  I’ve already checked my local mom and pop places, my True Value and all of the antique stores around here.  Never mind!  I asked Mr. Google as my uncle Wyatt says and found a place that I think might have one!

Isn’t this great?  Liv did this for one of her watercolor projects in Art this year and she gifted it to me when she got it back.

I also love this guy.  I have no idea how he survived the kid’s childhoods, but he did.  I think we found him at a flea market years and years ago.  It reminded me of the one that we had when I was in Kindergarten.   I cannot imagine making something like that with 25 five-year-olds, can you?  My Kindergarten teacher was the best.  Love you, Mrs. Crabtree!

Yes, that’s a baseball bat in the corner of my bedroom.  Don’t you keep a baseball bat by your bed?

You all know my love of baskets, especially baskets that have lids.  One of the downfalls about them though is that you can close it and forget about it.  Well.  I closed this one before Christmas.  Let’s see what I haven’t missed.

Good grief.  I have looked everywhere for my change purse.  Except in this basket. 

A shoehorn, candy, purse-sized hand sanitizers, a bookmark, a shell that belongs in Liv’s room and Barbie accessories which haven’t been played with in – oh – eight or so years.  Oh, and a string, since that really belongs there.

My missing change purse, pens, my fake leather pen holder that holds my pens so they are not lost in the abyss, tissues that belong in my purse, a flashlight I’ve been searching for and the screws to hold my footboard onto my bed frame.  Yet another project that needs to be completed.

The sleeping mask that I obviously haven’t missed,  two different body lotions that I thought Liv had confiscated, my cocoa butter petroleum jelly I use as lip balm that I have turned the house upside down looking for and a reed diffuser that I bought in July 2017!

Last but not least, my flashlight that has a dual purpose that I thought was gone forever and a one hundred dollar bill.  Do places where you shop take $100 dollar bills?  Even our McDonald’s won’t take them – actually I don’t think they will take $50’s either.  I’ve had this one lurking around since before Christmas, needing to take it to the bank and have it changed out for smaller bills because we literally can’t spend it.  Isn’t that crazy?  I could spend it at our Wal-mart, since they are the ones who gave it to me in the first place as cash back, but it’s just not worth the hassle I would go through.  You would think I was trying to use a coupon!  Heaven forbid.  But that’s a completely different story.  * FYI – don’t try to use coupons at Wal-mart.  *

So I’m sorry basket, but you’ll have to go live at someone else’s house now.  Have you decluttered anything lately?  Did you find something that you thought was gone forever?  Do tell!

Here are the books that are part of my To Be Read pile in no particular order:

Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin

You Can’t Go Home Again by Thomas Wolfe

Ask Suze….About Wills and Trusts by Suze Orman

One for the Money by Janet Evanovich

Calamities & Catastrophes by Derek Wilson

Yes, Please by Amy Poehler

Beautiful Creatures by Garcia & Stohl

Beloved by Toni Morrison

Have you read any of these?  What should I hurry to read next?

Note: This post may contain affiliate links. Check out what that means to you here. 

 

Clean and Organize the….. Spice Cabinet

Published on by Tracie2 Comments

My spice cabinet was out of control.  I would reach for something only to discover that I didn’t have any.  This is terrible news when you need garlic powder to make your homemade garlic bread.  Especially when you can’t SEE everything.  Things were hidden behind other things and it has been utter chaos.  Time to take care of this monstrosity.

After taking everything out and putting like with like, I discovered that I had five (FIVE) containers of minced onions.  No garlic powder, but plenty of minced dried onions.

Several years ago I put some of my most used spices in small half pint mason jars (does anyone else have a longing to go watch Little House on the Prairie right now?).  I put labels on the tops and left it at that.  I loved having my spices in these jars because they will hold the entire contents of most spices you buy in the store, but I could never see at a glance what was what.

I laid ALL of them out so that I could see exactly how much of everything I had and what I needed to add to my grocery list for next time.  See!  Why do I have two containers of Old Bay?  We do not have low country boils here at our house, so what am I going to use this for?  Do any of you have any tried and true recipes using this?  Send them my way.

After determining what I actually had and what I needed to add, I scrubbed out the cabinet.  How do these things get so filthy?  I’m not preparing food inside this cabinet so I just don’t understand how it could be so grungy. 

Then I transferred everything into my beautiful little jars.  I seriously love them.  They are a great size, each jar has a slightly different pattern, but still uniform enough to fool your eye until you look closely.    And they bounce when you drop them on the floor.  This is important at my house. I used these labels for the sides of the jars.

Printable labels from saltandpaper.com | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

Aren’t they lovely?

All of the bulk items go onto the top shelf where they are accessible but not in my way and the middle shelf are things that I can’t put into my jars like the maple syrup that Liv puts on her eggs.  That’s the only way for years that I could get her to eat eggs after her six hour allergy test when she was ten.  I’ll write a post about that later.

First I tried to arrange all of my spices in one of the small drawers next to my stove.  It would be convenient, but it was way too small.  I also did not like the quick labels I made for the tops.

Then I decided that I needed to utilize one of my big drawers because I have so many spices.  I dragged the three pans I was storing in here out and put them into another cabinet and cleaned everything.

I found this vinyl liner at my local Dollar Tree.  It is amazing.  It’s slightly padded and it keeps the jars from sliding about.      Next I wanted clearer labels for the tops of my jars. 

$1.00 for 60 at the Dollar Tree.

Now!  It’s not perfect but we all know that’s not going to happen at my house.  And I know that it will evolve like always.  But, I am very happy with it.  Hayden laughed because I am a control freak and put everything into alphabetical order.  It just makes sense to my brain.  Now I don’t have to spend ten minutes looking for the garlic powder.  I know it’s in the G section.

I can finally check this off my to-do list.  Yay!  How do you store your spices?

Save

Save

Save

Save

Save