Glass Cabinet Clean-up


Do you ever look at something everyday, and I say "one of these days I am going to deal with that!"

Yeah me too.

So finally I took a few minutes yesterday, and it litterally only took me about 15-20 minutes to do, and dealt with my disorderly glass cabinet mess.

When we re-did our kitchen a few years back, and in effort to open up the dining room to the kitchen, I lost space in my dining room for a china cabinet, so I made sure I had some glass cabinets, so I can display all of my glassware.

Here is the before... 

Somewhere a long the line, it became really messy and disorderly with too much glass and I was running out of space to stuff any more glasses in there. 

So I went into purge mode and took everything out and cleaned the glasses with dish soap and the shelves with Basic H2.

This martini glass was glued on to the glass, so I had to take the entire shelf out (with glass still attached) and soak it in sink with hot water and some dish soap.

It was easy enough to clean but awkard to remove from cabinet.

I was afraid it would dislodge itself and fall off.

Then I happened to go to the other side of the room and noticed the top of a corner cabinet

shelf full of more wine glasses. I forgot I had those.

hmmmppphh

So I figured, I might as well take those down too and clean them and add them to my glass cabinet.

Here's the after!

I packed up all the mismatched glasses, the chipped glasses and the extra wine glasses and only left my pretty ones and the ones that we will actually use.

Do you see that red dot on the bottom right? It says WILD THING. It was the only glass that had a tag, so I left it on, cause it's cute.
I still have way too much, so next time I'm in a purging mode, I'll probably get rid of more.

You can still see the shaker from the side view, but looking head on it's hidden by the door frame.

(I forgot to take a picture of it head-on.)

hmmm... I'll probably move it, cause now it's bugging me.

Here's a before and after....

BEFORE

After

So much better!

I'm linking up to

And cause I'm so happy that I finally finished a project around this house, I'm motivated to get more done.
I'm starting my own weekly party every Wednesday... starting tomorrow, Feb 9.

Here's the cute little button.

I could you can come back and link up your projects, and motivate me to get off my patootie.

Keeping Track of What is in your Deep Freezer.

Since we are eating from the pantry this month and spend $60 dollars (or less) every week on groceries, I knew I needed to be really organized.  My pantries are already organized, but their were a few things buried in the deep freeze that I had no idea about. 

So i took everything out and quickly took inventory of what I had in there.

I then, typed it up and printed and taped it on the top of my freezer with a pen.

Everything in there already has a date on it from the last 3-6 months, and since I'm hoping to empty it, I'm not going to keep track of the dates.

My plan is, as I take an item out of the freezer I will check it off.

Also, as I add anything to the freezer I will write it on or add at the bottom of the paper, since I've left space, and add a new diamond to the line.  Each diamond shape represents enough for our family's meal.
(Does this make sense?)

Here's my current inventory.

How do you keep track what is hiding in your freezer?

Keeping track of open Containers in your Fridge/Pantry

Do you ever look in your fridge and wonder when it was that you opened a jar/bottle?  How long as it been sitting there?  Now, I'm not talking about containers with cooked food, I'm talking about the ketchup, chutney, pesto, cookies, flour, etc.  I know, I know.  They all have best before dates, but I personally think the best before date changes after it's been opened.  What about the pantry?  Does some cereal hang around forever sometimes? So here's my tip...

Use one of these... 

Just add the "Opened-on date" to your package and there is no more guessing about when you actually opened it.

I use my sharpie as well to date packages that end up in the freezer.  Sometimes it has smudged a little, but it don't really matter to me.  I'm not that picky.

How do you keep track of your opened packages?

Purging, Organizing and Cleaning!

Sorry I haven't posted in a few days but I've been a little busy.  At the end of 2009 I made a plan for my first week of freedom after the Christmas break.

So here's what I have been up...

PURGING,  ORGANIZING AND CLEANING!!!

I went into my 9 year old daughter's room and found this on her dresser.  We have a rule around here that the grown ups do the laundry, but you have to put it away. hmmm... doesn't look put away to me.

Something I quickly figured out is that the poor kids drawers were full!  So she had no where to put them.  Since she gets alot of handing me downs from her older sister and alot of clothes for Christmas (she's the fashionista in the family), they quickly get out of hand.

I went through her drawers and closet and streamlined all of her clothes.  Does she really need 5 black long sleeved shirts (considering two are exactly the same?).

This is the pile of clothes that ended up getting packed up for donation.

This is the pile of hangers that were hanging up in her closet.  I ended up with 6 dozen that I added to the donation pile.

I put back only the stuff that she loooves and wears and because of all the "extra" hangers I had I was able to be selective and only use the ones that matched and were sturdy.

I ended doing the same for the pants and skirts... and left a few extra for the clothes in laundry transition.

Then I moved unto organizing the kitchen.  I went into the cupboards and removed  any expired foods and put into trash.  There weren't too many of things since we're pretty good about keeping up with our inventory.

However, I need some new containers to corral certain items that I use often (teas, past, crackers, etc.) 

I found these containers at the Dollorama and these mini Slate labels. 

I ended up buying four and added pasta and tea bags to each one.

Notice the "Calm" tea.  I drink that at about  3 p.m. when kids start getting in from school.

So next I moved unto the en-suite Bathroom.  Here's underneath my cabinet.  Yech

I removed items that I don't use... like... emmm.. 4 bottles of hair mouse and 2 of hairspray!!  I don't use hair mouse or hair spray. Don't ask.  Then I ran to the basement to get this...

And this is what it looks like now!!

So Clean!

Well, so that I don't bore you any further I'm off to do a drop off before these end up back in the rooms they came from!!

Happy Organizing!!!

Christmas Packing

Happy New Year!

I spent the day packing the Christmas stuff away today.  I was determined to be organized this year when packing my stuff.  I got out my handy dandy totes and from an idea that I got from Thrifty Decor Chick , I vacuumed all of my totes before I put anything in them.

I started with packing my Dicken's Village and Nutcracker collection.  (notice nothing above the sideboard table... I'm looking for a mirror)

I use this divided paper box that I got for FREE.  I pulled it out of stockboy's haul to the dumpster at Walmart did other day.  He looked at me funny, but look at it now.

It fits perfectly inside my storage totes. I tucked tissue paper around the houses so that they don't move around and then packed the other bigger houses in the tote.  And filled in with more tissue paper.

As I took down the tree I put each type of ornament in different piles, so that it would be organized next Christmas when I get them out again.

Silver with Silver.

Gold with Gold.

The rest with the rest.

And of course the new purchases from Boxing Day sales this year.  Aren't they shiny?  Oh the possibilities for next Christmas.

So that is it! I'm all packed up again and most importantly organized!!  Have you put your Christmas stuff away yet?

How many kids do I have??

I went into the kids bathroom today to get dirty towels and I notice this...

I count six toothbrushes; but, I only have 3 kids. One of them, I can tell belongs to A (red spiderman) and the blue one with a little brush belongs to S (for her braces), but what about the other 4? Where did they all come from.  I am assumming that they opened their toothbrushes from their stockings stuffers. But now I can't tell which is new and which is old.  Arrrggghhh...  I guess I'll ask them...

Any ideas on how I can keep toothbrushes organized? 

Waterproof labels?

Five Days to a Fresh Start

While prowling  reading Blogland I came across Centsational Girl's website and her post reflected exactly my feelings of overwhelm right after the hustle and bustle of the Christmas.

Kate is on a mission to simplify everything in the New Year...  Well, her mission is my mission too!

It's crazy to think that ANYTHING will get accomplished over the next week while the kids are home from school.  So I'm not even going to try.

However, before I start any projects around the house, I am going to follow Centsational Girl's lead and aim for the first week of the year to simplify my life around here.

• January 4 - Declutter
• January 5 - Donate/Recycle
• January 6- Organize
• January 7 - Store/File
• January 8 - Clean

 So, that's the plan.  Do you want to join us?