52 Weeks to an Organized Home: Create a Morning and Evening Routine (Week 12)

For the 12th week in the 52 Weeks to an Organized Home challenge, the focus is on making a morning and evening routine.

The goal is by implementing routine and schedule challenges, along with the weekly decluttering goals, that ultimately one’s home and life will be organized and running smoothly. As the website said, "Organization is, at its core, about anticipating what needs to get done and doing things proactively, instead of reactively.”

By thinking things through and planning ahead, tasks can be done quicker and more efficiently; and one’s stress level is reduced.

Montague, Cooper, and Bailey.

Morning routine includes letting the dogs out and

feeding the horses.

(Taken February 7, 2013.)

A morning and evening routine includes many aspects:
- things you do to take care of your home,
- things you do to take care of yourself,
- tasks for taking care of your loved ones, and
- tasks for work.

Create A Morning Routine

A morning routine is beneficial rather than being burdensome because once you've established your routine as a habit it makes mornings easier. Even if a person is sleepy, habits are less likely to be forgotten.

There’s a printable that can be used to help plan one’s morning routine. I printed this out and thought about the things that need to be done each day and came up with the following based on the list of items:

• Get up
• Let dogs out
• Empty the dishwasher
• Make hot chocolate
• Check calendar to see what needs to be done
• Take a bath/shower (if going outside the home in the morning/during the day; otherwise this is done at night)
• Read
• Make bed
• Feed horses
• Make/eat breakfast
• Feed dogs and cats
• Get dressed
• Do hair and makeup (if going outside the home)
• Take vitamins
• Meal preparation for dinner (e.g., defrost items, put something in the crockpot)
• Get ready for homeschooling at home, co-op, or 4-H; volunteering; and/or errands

Making welcome baskets at the nursing home.

(July 9, 2016)

52 Weeks to an Organized Home recommends that “if you want to incorporate many new tasks into your daily routine…to go slowly and [give] yourself grace. It is best to add only one new task at a time, and make it a habit before you add another, so you don't get overwhelmed. Too much change all at once makes it nearly impossible to succeed, so slow and steady wins the race!”

Create an Evening Routine

There’s another printable for an evening routine which is helpful in thinking about the tasks to do before bed. It’s basically preparing for the next day which makes life easier.

• Feed horses at dinner and dogs at/after our dinner
• Take a photo of the sunset if it is a colorful one.
• Clean up kitchen - includes putting on the dishwasher and doing any dishes by hand
• Make sure cats have food (upstairs and downstairs)
• Make sure dogs and cats have water
• Finish laundry so there's no clothes in the washer (having the items in the dryer drying is fine)
• Quick tidying of main rooms in the home (e.g., dining room, living room, family room - all on main floor)
• Check calendar for next day's activities
• Mark off what I did during the day in my calendar
• Write any new items that I have to do in my calendar for the next day
• Personal care tasks to get ready for bed
• Let dogs out
• In bed, lights out

Sunset in February 2017.

Make a Daily To Do List

There’s a printable for a to do list that has spots to mark off when the task is completed. Sometimes I have a to-do list – like when I do a lot of errands outside of the home on Tuesdays.

For the most part, however, I simply list what I need to do in my calendar. When I’m done, I highlight that task with a colored pencil. It gives a sense of accomplishment to see the colorful pages. It’s messy, yet effective for me.

52 Weeks to an Organized Home: Organizing refrigerator and freezer (Week 4)

For the fourth week of the 52 Weeks to an Organized Home challenge, the focus is on organizing the refrigerator and freezer. Originally I had wanted to do this at the end of January - the fourth week of the year. Here it is, almost the end of March already.

At any rate, we having a lot of problems with our refrigerator in that it kept freezing everything in it. This was going on since the summer. Some of the food we can simply thaw and reheat. Not a huge problem. Other items - like produce - is a complete waste.

So, on Monday, February 13th, I threw away all the food from the refrigerator that was frozen. Ended up being 1 1/2 bags of trash (the big white kitchen-size bags...not the little store bags with handles). I looked at the money lost...the food lost. Just way too much waste. I didn't take photos. It was too depressing.

Since then we have been using what we have had on hand - in the refrigerator, freezer, and cupboards.

Top shelf: Pickles, dip, and milk.

Second shelf: Bread and eggs.

Meat drawer: Meat and cheese.

Third Shelf: Leftovers (main dishes) on the left and

salads on the right. There are some jellies/jams in the back.

Fruit and vegetable bins on the lowest levels.

Trips to the grocery store to buy food have been less frequent and cost significantly less. We are only buying what we run out of that we want to replenish and will consume.

All of the sauces, condiments, and dressings are ones we use.

Tossed ones that we didn't like and

were just taking up space.

As the quantity of food has decreased, nothing has frozen in the refrigerator. So, I'm wondering if it was because there was too much food in either/both parts of the refrigerator/freezer that it was causing the problems.

The freezer is divided into sections. The top shelf has ice cubes on the left side (with an extra one in the main part) and dinners on right.

On the lower level in the bins are meat (left side) and vegetables (right side). Fruit is in the middle.

On the freezer door, there's butter, pie crusts, and ice blocks on the top shelf; and ice cream and homemade ice cream sandwiches on the lower shelf.

Normally we don't have that much ice cream. It was St. Patrick's Day on Friday and a recipe used mint chocolate chip ice cream.

There's one more large freezer to go through. However, it is in the unheated mudroom and it is still cold outside. In June I will go through that freezer and empty it, defrost it, and choose what items go back into it. There should be plenty of room by then to hold the upcoming summer's produce that I freeze for use during the fall, winter, and spring.

52 Weeks to an Organized Home: Create a House Cleaning Schedule & Organize Cleaning Supplies (Week 11)

For the 11th week, of the 52 Weeks to an Organized Home challenge, the focus is on creating a house cleaning schedule and organizing cleaning supplies.

The site recommends developing and following a daily and weekly cleaning schedule for your home that is realistic, but gets the major stuff done.

Having cleaning supplies organized so they are accessible when you need them also is key to following a cleaning schedule.

How are having an organized home and clean home related? The site explained, “The simple answer is that your home can be quite organized, but if it's not also clean enough (not necessarily immaculate) you still won't feel comfortable in it, and find it a nice, relaxing haven to spend time in.”

Consider What Chores and Cleaning Tasks Need to be Performed Daily and Weekly In Your Home

Everything in a home runs on a cycle. For laundry, you wear clothes, they become dirty, they are washed and dried, and then put away. The cycle repeats itself.

Scooby getting comfortable on the laundry that needs to be washed.

This is one of two medium loads.

A typical laundry day (once per week) includes 1 load of whites,

2-3 loads of mediums, 2-3 loads of darks, and

1-2 loads of rugs.

In the kitchen, clean dishes are used, they are washed (either in the dishwasher or by hand), put away, and the cycle is repeated. For us, it is typically one dishwasher full of dishes and pans and one sink of dishes that either don't fit into the dishwasher, must be hand-washed, or need extra scrubbing.

The goal is for these cycle to continue uninterrupted rather than stalled.

House Cleaning Schedule

Because not everything in a home needs to be cleaned with the same frequency, there needs to be several cleaning schedules:
- Daily
- Weekly
- Seasonal (printables are here for fall cleaning and spring cleaning)

The most important thing about schedules is that they are realistic. Setting attainable goals creates success and long-term positive results.

On 52 Weeks to an Organized Home, there’s a free 40 page ebook entitled House Cleaning Lists and Schedules For Your Home that can help you decide what needs to be cleaned and how often in your home.

If you subscribe to the Household Management 101 newsletter, you’ll receive checklists for your daily, weekly, kitchen, bathroom, and bedroom cleaning schedules. I did this and there's a lot of helpful lists and advice. These lists can be printed and put in a household notebook for easy reference.

Creating a Daily Cleaning Schedule

The 52 Weeks to an Organized Home site said, “Try to keep this list as simple as possible to keep yourself from getting overwhelmed since these are tasks you plan to do every day.”

Looking at various lists, I determined for our household, there are (or should be) some essential daily chores that need to get done:

- Make beds.
- Prepare meals.
- Clean up kitchen after meals, including both dishes, pots and pans, and a quick wipe of the counter and sweep up major crumbs off the floor.

- Deal with spills immediately - on counters, floors, and in the refrigerator.

- Run the dishwasher and empty when the dishes are clean.
- Sort the mail.
- Put things back in their proper place (also known as neatening or tidying).
- Empty trash and recycling bags in high traffic areas, such as the kitchen (if needed).
- Wipe down bathroom sinks and tubs after each use.
- Put dirty clothes in laundry baskets.
- Sweep floors to pick up crumbs and pet hair.

Creating Your Weekly Cleaning Schedule

There is a lot of flexibility when it comes to designing a weekly house cleaning schedule. Looking at various lists on the e-book mentioned above, I determined for our household, there are some essential weekly chores that need to get done:

Bathrooms
 - Check supplies, such as cleaning supplies and toiletries, to restock or replace if needed.
 - Change towels.
 - Clean toilet, sink, tub, shower, toothbrush holders, and mirror.
 - Mop floors.
 - Empty trash cans.
 - Flush bathroom drains (such as sink, bathtub/shower) with boiling water (this helps to keep drains clear and free of clogs).

Kitchen
 - Check supplies, such as cleaning supplies to restock or replace if needed.
 - Clean out refrigerator/freezer of old food.
 - Wipe down and clean all kitchen surfaces, including countertops, stove and other appliances, sink, outside of refrigerator, and kitchen table.
 - Disinfect kitchen counters and other food work surfaces.
 - Mop floor.
 - Flush kitchen drain with boiling water.
 - Take out recycling.

Bedrooms
- Clean floors by vacuuming, sweeping, or damp-mopping.
 - Empty trash cans.
 - Change bed linens.
 - Dust.

Laundry Area
 - Check supplies, such as laundry supplies to restock or replace if needed.
 - Wash and/or dust machine fronts.

Home Office
 - Check supplies, such as office supplies to restock or replace if needed.
 - Empty trash can.
 - Clean floor by vacuuming, sweeping, or damp-mopping.
 - Dust.
 - Pay bills.
 - File paid bills and other paperwork.

Other Rooms
 - Clean floors by vacuuming, sweeping, or damp-mopping.
 - Empty trash cans.
 - Dust.

Other Weekly Chores
 - Menu planning.

 - Create grocery list.
 - Create non-food shopping list.

 - Weekly shopping for food and non-food items.
 - Errands.

A weekly schedule can have all the major cleaning tasks done in one day each week (e.g., a two- hour cleaning session on Saturday morning). Another idea would be to break up the tasks so only one or two things is done each day.

Creating Cleaning Checklists For Your Home

After the daily and weekly schedules are done, cleaning checklists for some of the major rooms (e.g., kitchen, the bathroom(s), bedrooms) in the home should be created.

Initially, the checklists will be followed. However, after some time the cleaning routine becomes a habit and no longer needs to be referred to each time. What’s nice though, is that if someone else is cleaning, the checklist tells them what needs to be done.

The e-book that I mentioned above has a very comprehensive checklist for major rooms.

Getting Everyone Involved

Since everyone in the family messes up the house and creates dirty clothes and dishes, everyone can participate in the process of keeping things clean and running smoothly. Once Sophia and Olivia were old enough, they were involved in age-appropriate aspects of cleaning the house and putting away their laundry.

52 Weeks to an Organized Home noted that “at first your cleaning tasks will take you a bit longer if you haven't been doing them regularly, especially before you've finished decluttering your home.”

It also recommended designing a cleaning schedule that allows for flexibility. “If you get to all the things on your schedule most of the time you'll see all the benefits of it without trying to fit your life into too tight a mold.”

Organizing Cleaning Supplies

Declutter Supplies and Equipment

The first step is to get rid of empty bottles, cleaners you'll never use again, and duplicates if you won't realistically use them all before they would get old.

Consolidate Supplies Into One or a Few Strategic Locations

The goal is to keep cleaning supplies into one or just a few locations in your home so they are can easily accessible for cleaning. For us, cleaning supplies are located in two locations: in the kitchen downstairs and in the linen cabinet upstairs.

In that way, cleaning supplies are easily accessible on both floors of the home. I also can see what we are low on and need to purchase by having the supplies in only two areas of the home.

One thing that I would like to do is to hang up our brooms and mops. Right now they are in a corner, but not hanging up. It would seem much easier to access each one if they were on the wall.

Happy Homemaker Monday - March 13, 2017

Family Corner

The weather.....back to being chilly again.

Looking out the second floor to the north.

We have snow again.

It was only 9 degrees on Saturday morning and in the teens and low 20s for most of the weekend.

Looking towards the west.

That's quite a drop from the upper-50 degree temperatures we were having a week or so ago.

Looking towards the southeast.

Sunday afternoon the visibility was limited to about a half mile to mile.

A field about two miles from where we live.

The sky was a dismal gray.

The snow was covering the roads, yards, and fields; and blowing all over. The roads were slick as the snow continued to fall.

Right now I am....taking a break from reading and doing work around the house. I'm hoping that today Cooper doesn't have to wear the Cone of Shame.

Danny, Scooby, Cooper, and Aspen by the gate.

He had a puncture wound to his carpel pad that he's been taking medicine for; and the cone helps prevent him from licking and prolonging the healing process.

Thinking....about how well the 4-H club's Junior Wildlife Bowl team did on Saturday at the regional competition. They won all four rounds they competed in and were in first place at the end of the day. They will be advancing to the State Project Bowl in April!

The Junior Wildlife Bowl team and Sophia (the coach).

I'm very proud of Olivia who studied for the past 2 1/2 months in preparation for the competition; and for Sophia who coached the team.

Reading...The Art of Exceptional Living by Jim Rohn. Actually, it's on a CD...it's the only way I could check it out of the library.

On my TV.....I am looking forward to watching Speechless, Fresh Off the Boat, Modern Family, Gray's Anatomy, Goldbergs, and Black-ish.

Favorite blog post last week (mine or other)....One Hundred Dollars a Month had an interesting post about the progress on her 12 goals in 2017.  She has a nice combination of financial and personal goals for this year.

Something fun to share....At the Wildlife Project Bowl, there was a lot of information that the youth had to know. For example, one of the questions Olivia was asked was, "What is a group of otters called?" The answer....a romp.

Source

Blog hopping (newly discovered blog)....Simple Homeschool has several authors and a wide variety of articles about keeping homeschooling simple. The goal is to bring the joy back into homeschooling by simplifying your life with your family.

On the menu for this week....we are continuing to use up what we have on hand which has been working out well. We are eating leftovers so that no food goes to waste.

Hopefully by the time that the CSA starts and farmers markets are in full swing, we'll have a lot of space in the refrigerator and freezer. If we do, we can enjoy more produce and have room to store canned and frozen goods.

On my to do list....in addition to homeschooling:

Monday- Sophia and I do our first volunteering one-on-one session with cats at the humane society where she plays the harp.

Flame is one of the cats we may be

spending time with tomorrow.

Olivia has her first gymnastics lesson later that afternoon. She's been wanting to do gymnastics for a long time now. Am hoping that she enjoys it and is able to progress more quickly so she can join other girls her age.

Tuesday - homeschool co-op for both the girls and harp lessons (Sophia). Remember a senior friend who died one year ago today; and send an email to his son letting him know I'm thinking of him and his family.

Bring in three sensory lap-size quilts that I made for seniors who have Alzheimer's Disease or dementia (which he had) and who are at the nursing home where we volunteer and where our senior friend lived.

Wednesday - Work on 40 Bags in 40 Days and 52 Weeks to an Organized Home; make some essential oil blends; and maybe go to a class at the bead store about how to make a leather riveted bracelet.

Thursday - Pick up t-shirts for the 4-H club. Help the girls get Certificates of Deposit with money they've been saving. Go to the Minnesota Zoo with our 4-H club.

Musk ox at the Minnesota Zoo.

We're going on a behind-the-scenes tour in the afternoon that we're looking forward to; and also learning about exhibit design, animal enrichment, and zoo careers.

Friday - Olivia has speech therapy. Also want to start updating the Barn Quilt Trail website, schedule the car for repair the heating, and book a few days in June or August in a camper cabin in southern Minnesota where there's a couple of caves to explore as well as Amish farms to visit.

Saturday - Do some crafting for the county fair.

Sunday - Wash the basement walls. Go through boxes of photos and choose which ones to keep.

In the craft basket....still working on projects I've been wanting to do for a couple of weeks now, like the potholders, Christmas table runner, and flannel quilt. Am hopeful that I will be able to complete them this week.

Looking forward to this week....going to the Zoo and seeing the variety of animals that are there. Also am very interested in going on the behind-the-scenes tour.

Looking around the house....I'm seeing a lot that I want to clean and pick up this week. Having both Friday and Saturday booked with the funeral, volunteering, and then traveling to the regional Project Bowl on Friday plus being at the competition for about ten hours on Saturday took quite a bit of time away from home. Maybe I can get caught up this week.

From the camera....a couple of weeks ago there were buds on the trees. It looked like we'd get an early spring.

On Sunday, snow starting falling in the late-afternoon. The buds of the Northern Magnolia bush were covered with a dusting of snow.

Hopefully the snow melts this week; and we have some of the warmer weather back.


Also linked to:

Strangers and Pilgrims on Earth

40 Bags in 40 Days - Days 1-7

During Lent, I'm  doing the 40 Bags in 40 Days challenge. A couple of years ago I did the challenge and was so happy with the number of bags I got rid of as well as how more streamlined our home became during and after the challenge.

Concurrently with this challenge, I'm doing the 52 Weeks to an Organized Home challenge. Both dovetail nicely with each other because I am working through the house and have set areas to tackle. I also set some  decluttering goals as part of the UFO Challenge. So, many different ways to simplify my life.

This past week, the focus has been on several areas:

- laundry "room" (actually just a space for the washer and dryer that is in the kitchen) and laundry
supplies drawer.

 

Laundry space before and after.

- blue bedroom - originally it was just to go through the toys in the play kitchen, the dollhouse, and costumes in the closet. Ended up doing this plus cleaning the bookshelves, desk, and tortilla table.

Blue bedroom (above) after removing bags of items to

donate, put in the trash, or recycle (below)

- refrigerator. Threw out anything that was no longer good, we weren't going to eat, or had expired.

- bookshelves in the master bedroom. These hold personal reading books as well as homeschool books and resources.

Above: One of the shelves that holds

some of the homeschool and 4-H resources.

Below: After removing items we don't need.

For Days 1-5, I concentrated on the first three tasks. The result was:
- 5 bags of trash
- 8 bags of recycling
- 7 bags of items to donate

In all, there were 20 bags!

20 bags out of the house!

I have to take a break until the 8th since our garbage and recycling bins are both full.

I'm looking forward to continuing with the challenge and even further reducing the amount of items in our home.

52 Weeks to an Organized Home: Laundry Organization and Schedule - Weeks 9 and 10

For the ninth and tenth week of the 52 Weeks to an Organized Home challenge, the focus is on laundry room organization and schedule.

There were several steps mentioned as to where considering where to place laundry baskets; and then sorting and putting the clothes back where they belong.

Each bedroom has a laundry basket here, and each family member is responsible for putting items that need washing into their respective baskets.

When the baskets are full, it's time for laundry. Everyone brings their baskets to the kitchen (where the stacked washer and dryer are located); and I sort it into whites, mediums, and darks. Sometimes, if there is a large enough load of one color that could dye other clothes (e.g., red, pink), I'll do an entire load of that particular color.

Once the laundry is washed, I sort it in my bedroom and divide it by room: master bedroom; girls' room; and downstairs where there's laundry (e.g., kitchen, living room). Everyone is responsible for putting away their laundry; and I also put away the general household's laundry (e.g., towels, blankets).

The system works well for us, so there was no need to change it.

What did need addressing was the tiny area around the washer and dryer; and the one drawer where laundry supplies are kept. The 52 Weeks to an Organized Home suggested these decluttering missions and tasks for laundry supplies and duties (as they relate to our home and set-up):

- Around washer/dryer
- Old or unused laundry supplies
- Ironing supplies (including ironing board)
- Create laundry schedule for your family
- Create mending area for clothing plus small sewing kit
- Create space to collect unmated socks

The washer and dryer has boxes of cereal on it since our cupboard space is limited. Normally this works well. However, every once in a while a box of cereal will fall off if the washer or dryer moves a lot because of heavy loads.

Washer and dryer with cereal boxes on top.

In the process of cleaning, I noticed three boxes of cereal that had fallen behind the washer and dryer. They were challenging to get out because the space between the machines and wall is limited. Had to use a long brush to maneuver the boxes up and out from behind the washer and dryer.

Also found a burr-covered horse fly mask that I tossed and lots of dust piles that were near the back. Got rid of those too.

Washer and dryer with stacked cereal boxes on top; and

clean sides and floors between the machines and wall.

There's a drawer that I keep some laundry supplies (e.g., softener sheets, stain remover) which was crowded with other items.

Disorganized laundry supply drawer.

Put the items elsewhere so only the laundry supplies and small brooms are in the drawer. The laundry soap is next to the drawer since it doesn't fit in it.

Laundry drawer with only the items needed it in for laundry...

plus the three brooms.

Additional Areas for Laundry

The 52 Weeks to an Organized Home mentions five additional areas related to laundry:

- Area for pretreating and soaking items, and for stain removal: I rarely do this. However, the washer and dryer are in the kitchen, so I would use the kitchen sink to do this step, if needed.

- Drying area (for those clothes or other items that don't go in the dryer): Some clothes are hung over the shower rod in the bathroom and others (if they aren't soaking wet), Olivia will hang up in her closets or Sophia will put over the side of her iron bedframe. During the warmer months, I hang up clothes on the fence line. Would prefer a clothesline, though. Maybe it will be in 2017.

- Ironing: The ironing supplies were in two different closets. Now they are in one so everything is together.

- Mending: In terms of a mending area, there are some items that need to be mended. I put these in a section in my closet so when I have some extra time I can repair the clothing. My sewing supplies are in my home office.

- Unmatched Socks: For unmatched socks, I have another space in my closet where I keep the socks. During the upcoming month, we will thoroughly go through our rooms and wash all laundry that we find. Whatever doesn't have a match after we do all the laundry will be tossed in an effort to create some more space.

52 Weeks to an Organized Home: Healthy Meal Planning and Creating a Grocery Shopping List (Week 8)

This week for the 52 Weeks to an Organized Home, the focus is on healthy meal planning and creating a grocery shopping list.

There are a lot of helpful tips on that site. Some of them, I already follow and others are good reminders of things I should be doing.

One of the ideas, and which I did this week when planning meals, is based on the idea from the 52 Weeks to an Organized Home which suggested, as a way to save money and not waste the food on hand, is to first take stock of what we had have in refrigerator, freezer, and pantry, and try to use as many of those ingredients as possible.

I set up a preliminary meal plan from this week until the second week of March. Each of the days is listed on the left hand side and then I divide the page into three columns: breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

Some days/meals have more items in them if there are a couple of recipes that I'm using. Some meals don't have anything listed or are rather sparse (e.g., applesauce). For those meals, I'm anticipating using leftovers.

One of the cookbooks that we'll be using over the next few weeks is Olivia's Five in a Row Cookbook. She's been working on it for several years now. Each of the books in the Five in a Row curriculum have suggested recipes along with space to put photos. It's been a nice way to visually remember all the recipes she's made - as well as see how she's grown over the years.

The boxes next to the recipes are what photos that need to be taken and the direction (either a vertical photo or horizontal photo).

So, for the upcoming few weeks, rather than making a lot of new recipes using ingredients I didn't have on hand, I inventoried what was in the freezers and refrigerator, and created a meal plan around that. Many of the Five in a Row recipes use what we have on hand which is good.

By doing that, I easily saved more than half of what I normally spend on groceries. As the 52 Weeks to an Organized Home website notes, "This isn't about deprivation, this is just about using what you have more consciously."

My goal this spring is to use up the food I have on hand and start fresh by the summer. Back in December, Sophia and I got rid of a lot of food - either donating it to the food bank or throwing it out (if it had expired) in preparation for her "16 Sweet Things" for her 16th birthday project.

This freed up a lot of room in cupboards and freezer which was nice. Now, any new purchases are easy to find and are used within a couple of weeks.

Another idea - as we get closer to Summer is to look at the ingredients that we have on hand, and get creative with how we can use them to make a meal. The goal would be to make as many meals that we can using the items that already are in our cupboards, refrigerator, and freezer.

Preparing a Grocery List

One of the things we've started doing this past year is having a white-board on the refrigerator. When we run out of something, we add it to the list. This idea was from one of the CNAs who used to care for my Mom. The CNAs and personal care attendants would add items they needed to the list. Then either my sister or I would purchase those items when we were visiting my Mom.

So, n the past, I've written grocery lists in my notebook. On Tuesday, I took the time to create a shopping list based on the aisles at Wal-Mart and the direction that I go through the store when shopping there.

It was a bit time-consuming to do this - both the trip through the store writing down the items as well as typing them into a list. However, now I have a two-page customized shopping list that I can transfer the items from the white-board onto before I go shopping.

Once I'm at the store, it will be much more efficient and less time-consuming since I'll have the list of items I need in the order that they are in the store.

Because of this weekly challenge, I'm getting things in my life significantly more organized and streamlined than they have been. I'm also providing a good model for Sophia and Olivia who can learn some of these ideas and use them when they are adults.

52 Weeks to an Organized Home: Organize coupons (Week 7)

On the seventh week of the 52 Weeks to an Organized Home challenge, the  focus was organizing coupons.

I used to clip coupons each Sunday from the paper. There were colorful inserts packed with coupons. However, I found that many of the coupons that I clipped eventually would expire because I didn't need the particular items.

Also started looking more closely at the price of generic items versus brand-name items. Even if I'd use a coupon with the brand-name items, the generic items always came out less expensive.

The type of coupons I do keep and sometimes use are ones for places like Joanns, the co-op, and local businesses.

So, when this task for this week came up, I went to the basket on my desk where I used to put coupons. It was filled with many expired coupons. Got rid of those.

Also found a Christmas candle that's battery-operated in the basket. That will be going in the Christmas bin for next year.

As I was looking through the basket, there were many pleasant surprises:
- $55 in iTunes gift cards
- $50 on a Kohl's gift card
- $30 in movie passes
- $25 at a local thrift shop plus a 30% off coupon
- $6 in $1 off cards for the co-op
- $1 off a large pizza at the local pizza place
- 58 cents remaining on a gift card at the grocery store
- punch cards that I had already had stamped and was almost at a reward level (e.g., one dozen free bagels, $10 off a Fare for All order at the warehouse)

That's $167.58 that I found just by going through the coupon basket!

I'm super excited about organizing coupons and gift cards this week. That was a very productive use of my time.

52 Weeks to an Organized Home: Create a home recycling center (plus dealing with trash) (Week 6)

For Week 6, the focus is on creating a home recycling center (plus dealing with trash).

We use a waste management company that takes both our garbage and recycling. For recycling, we don't have to separate anything. It all goes in one bin.

This makes it very easy for us to recycle. All we have to do is have a bag under the sink and fill it with recyclables.

Bag for recycling under the sink.

I also have plastic bags upstairs in the closet for gathering newspapers, magazines, and any other recyclable paper or plastic products from the bedrooms and bathroom.

When a bag is full, we bring it to our recycling can that is picked up bi-monthly. It has a lid which is nice. This prevents animals from accessing the contents.

The recycling bin is on the left and

the garbage bin is on the right.

The recycling can is on wheels, so we just bring it to the end of our driveway which is about a hundred feet long. It's not a long walk, so we don't have to do anything special in terms of hauling the cans back and forth.

In terms of trash, many rooms have trash cans (e.g., kitchen, two bathrooms, two home offices, two bedrooms). Since we live in an 1890s home, many of the rooms are so close to one another that we can just walk a few steps and put trash in another room. In this way, we don't have an excessive number of trash cans throughout the home. Seven trash cans seems more than sufficient.

52 Weeks to an Organized Home: Organize pantry, spices and food storage areas (Week 3)

For the third week of 52 Weeks to an Organized Home, the focus was on organizing the pantry, spices, and food storage areas.

I actually have canned goods in a couple other areas of the house, but I'm going to tackle those areas at another time during the year.

This week, I just focused on what was in the kitchen.

First, the spice cabinet:

Before (left) and after (right).

There were duplicates, expired items, and items I know I wouldn't be using. So, they were either combined with other like-items or tossed. This freed up a lot of space.

The next step was grouping the items so that all spices used for cooking are on the lowest shelf; the spices for baking on the middle shelf; the dog medicine on the middle shelf to the right; sprinkles and surplus spices on the upper left shelf; and sunscreen and insect repellent on the upper right shelf. It's nice knowing what we have and where it is located.

The next cupboard has rices and noodles.

 

Before (left) and after (right).

There's a little shelf over the stove/oven that has cornmeal, specialty flour, and gluten. There were oats and picking salt for canning. These items went into other cupboards.

Flours - before (above) and after (below).

There a two-shelf cupboard that has baking items. It's a pretty deep shelf and I end up just putting stuff in it and not organizing it...until now.

Although it does look full in the after picture, there is a lot more room and things are grouped by category (e.g., dried fruit in one area, brown sugar in another, nuts in another).

 

Baking items before (left) and after (right).

There's one more cupboard, but I included that with Week 2. That one has a lot of non-perishable food that is canned or in boxes.