Monday, January 30th, 2012
52 Weeks to an Organized Home
(You can find all the challenges on Home Storage Solutions.)
Week 4 Update: The challenge for last week was the refrigerator and freezer. I had been meaning to clean out my fridge for a while now, but who likes to do that? This finally motivated me to do it. I’m ashamed to say that I definitely had some food to throw out.
I took advantage of the winter temps and put my cold food in baskets on the porch to keep them from thawing while I was scrubbing.
While I had everything out of the fridge, I decided to move a couple of the shelves since the way they had been put in made a couple shelf areas that were small and down too low to really see what was there. I made a smaller area up at eye level so that I’d still be able to see and made a taller area down below. I also put all the condiments into the door where they are easier to get to and moved some of the healthier foods up to where I could see them so that maybe I’ll be more likely to pick them up. It looks much better.
When it came to the freezer, I didn’t have any food to throw out. For me, it was mostly an inventory. I wasn’t really sure what I had. I organized everything when I put it back in, putting meats together, vegetables together, etc. I also mixed some of the frozen fruit together and into my smoothie packs.
I didn’t use any type of basket or bin for either the fridge or the freezer, because in the refrigerator, I like to be able to see everything, and in the freezer, space is at a premium. I also didn’t use the freezer inventory offered on the Home Storage Solutions website. As I’ve mentioned before, we have a store list hanging on the inside of the pantry door, so when someone opens the last of something, we’re running low or we’re totally out, it gets written down, and I know what to get on my next grocery trip.
Now, we just have to try to keep it looking like this.
Week 5: Organizing Recipes and Cookbooks
Ahh, another thing I’ve been meaning to do and putting off. My cookbooks are pretty organized. I keep the ones I use the most handy on the dishwasher in the kitchen and the rest on a shelf in the next room. But, I have a binder of recipes that’s bursting and out-of-control. So, that’s my goal for this week!