project simplify continues: the front porch

Although Project Simplify is long over, I’ve been soldiering on with bringing more order to our home.  While the downstairs got a pretty thorough going-over, the upstairs seems to be where all of the resulting detritus landed.  I’m making my way slowly through that mess, but I did find success with the “Put-Off Project” that I began in April.
Both times that I’ve cleaned our front porch, it’s been during a frenzied flurry of third trimester cleaning. Strangely enough, the clutter always returns within a few weeks of baby’s arrival. hmmmm . . . So although there’s no impending baby this time (sorry, grandmas), I’m more hopeful that this cleanup will be permanent.

I couldn’t find a “before” photo; I was probably too embarrassed to take one.  But let’s just say that before, walking across our deck was a challenge.  Two full trash cans later, we have a lovely space to spend both rainy and sunny days this summer. 
One of my favorite things is to walk through a newly cleaned space throughout the day; it always lifts my spirits.  What about you?

lately . . .

We’ve been getting out there, and it’s been wonderful.  Hope spring is treating you well!
(last photo courtesy of Spud)

simple supper

Lemon-Garlic Rice
Salmon Burgers (mainly this recipe, with inspiration for using garden-fresh spinach from this recipe)
Cucumbers and grape tomatoes tossed with olive oil, lemon juice, and balsamic vinegar.
No complaints from anyone—delicious!

closets and piles ~ project simplify continues

It’s hard to stay indoors and clean when April is gifting us with the best weather we’ve seen in three or four years. I’m playing catch up with Project Simplify, but I’m determined to see it through to the finish.

During “Closet Week” I only had five closets to tackle, but didn’t even start on them until the first day of “Pile Week”. Taking a cue from Tsh’s closet project, I emptied our main coat closet that sits under the stairs; all of the used-once-a-year Christmas decorations were banished to the garage, and there’s plenty of room for toy storage in there now.  Our two linen closets were pretty easy, but I downsized much of our blanket and towel collections.

Then came my closet. There’s something about having a baby that turns my closet into a pit. I’m sure it has something to do with the combination of maternity, nursing, and regular clothes coming together into one giant vortex of chaos as soon as I arrive home from the hospital with baby. The “after” picture doesn’t look that great, but it really is a huge improvement over what was there before.
I still have to purge Spud & FB’s closet, but four out of five isn’t bad!
The beauty of cleaning shelves, drawers, and closets before piles is that anything that doesn’t have a specific place just goes in a pile. I felt a fantastic sense of freedom in putting things in piles because I knew I’d deal with them in week 3. Two pile magnets in our house are the bookcase at the foot of our bed and the desk.

I’ve cleaned the foot of the bed off more times than I care to count, but the clutter always returns. The problem is I don’t have a concrete plan for mail and paperwork, and so it all accumulates there. Plus I have several willing contributors who add to the mess.


As I’ve progressed through each week of Project Simplify, this pile grew as I found miscellaneous paperwork, bills, and filing.  As of yesterday it has almost all been taken care of with just a few stragglers .  My most fulfilling accomplishment was getting all of our medical paperwork scanned and tagged in Evernote—no more overflowing notebook of medical records sitting around!
This week’s Project Simplify challenge is an area that hasn’t been covered in the previous three weeks.  With the downstairs completely finished, I’m going to try and get the upstairs under control.
Have you been doing any spring cleaning?

an experiment kit (inspired by martin & sylvia of sparkle stories)

Much of Spud’s imaginative play is inspired by books we read.  In the past few weeks I’ve been “paid” for 500 pounds of butter--a la Mother in Farmer Boy--and on our frequent walks it is now tradition to “grease our boots” (rub them in mud) after the custom of Almanzo--also from Farmer Boy. 

After listening to the Martin & Sylvia story, “Martin’s Gold”, Spud wanted to conduct an experiment much like Sylvia’s.  This involved mixing a variety of spices, water, and flour, and generally making a mess (which I was resigned to from the start).  Since then, he’s asked repeatedly to do another experiment, but I always have an excuse as to why right now is an inconvenient time; his pleas have become so heartfelt that I really was embarrassed and ashamed that I hadn’t taken what little time I needed to help him out.
FB gets me out of bed sometime around 5 every morning.  After he ate breakfast he was in a great mood, and I realized I might have time to solve the experiment problem.  Since I’ve been cleaning out my drawers and shelves I had plenty of extra/stale ingredients on hand that were going to be thrown out and were perfect for an . . .


This came together in less than 15 minutes, and was waiting on the table for Spud when he came to breakfast 2 hours later.

Let’s take a peek inside . . .

Along with the ingredients, I threw in a whisk and two spoons of unknown origin.  The cookie cutters and canning ring were declared unnecessary, so I took them out.  I also gave him a large cottage cheese tub as a mixing bowl.  I closed all of the bags with clothespins, hoping to make clean up as independent as possible.  We laid down a few guidelines, and he got right to work!  Hopefully this is a workable, accessible solution for both of us! 

breaking with tradition

Every year since we planted blueberries I have absentmindedly neglected to pull back the deer fencing, remove the weeds and spread more mulch until after the branches on each plant have blossomed and partially grown through the fence, thereby decreasing our blueberry harvest by at least 90%. 

I think our average harvest has been something like five berries.  No more!  As of last week our blueberry patch is weed-free, with all blossoms still intact.

I can almost taste the blueberries now!  Until then, we’ll just have to settle for dirt!

project simplify ~ shelves and drawers (and some tips for storing bulk foods in glass jars)

My last attempt at de-stuffifying, organizing, and cleaning our home began with good intentions, but stalled out a few months back.  With a baby who is finally sleeping through the night, I’m feeling re-energized less sleep deprived and ready to tackle the mess again. 

Tsh over at Simple Mom kicked off Project Simplify 2013 this week.  I love the format this year.  First, there’s no pressure—you do as much or as little as you want/need.  Second, there’s just four categories—one per week, which makes it really easy to focus.  This week is shelves and drawers, and I’ve already broken one of the few “rules”, which was to take before pictures. 

Yesterday I made it through all of the kitchen drawers and shelves, and today I almost finished the laundry room/pantry.  As is often the case with projects like these, I find it easy to get distracted.  For example, usually if I find a piece of paper that needs filed, it’s tempting to go file it right then.  But, thirty minutes later I’m still at the filing cabinet, off on a rabbit trail.  That’s the beauty of working on a specific type of space each week.  As I was sorting yesterday I simply put filing, etc., into piles and embraced the freedom of knowing that next week is the time to deal with piles.

My cleaning and organizing efforts a few months ago did make my job this time a bit easier.  It also helps that we now have a local thrift store with convenient drop off/donation hours.  So far I’ve dropped off five bags and thrown out several others.
As I worked in the kitchen I spent a good portion of my time transferring stored bulk foods from plastic bags into glass jars.  I thought this would be wise for a couple of reasons:

1. We’ve slowly been working our way towards using as little plastic as possible for storing our food.  Coconut (insert random bulk food item here) should not taste like plastic.
2. It’s easier to look through labeled glass jars for ingredients, rather than paw through mysterious bags of bulk items piled on top of each other.

Along the way I figured out a few ways to make the process of filling the jars less frustrating and more efficient.

Labels
I’d love to have my jars looking uniformly Martha Stewart-y, but I’m limited on time and funds, so I devised a plan.

• Supplies: Sharpie and blue painter’s tape (peels off easily for washing or changing ingredients—thanks, Mom!)
• Label only similar-looking items or ones that you need help remembering.  For example, I wanted to be sure of which jar holds powdered sugar and which one holds cornstarch.  I didn’t label things like chocolate chips, brown sugar, and garbanzos.
• Cut first, then write.  I found it easiest to cut my tape, affix it to the jar, and then write my label.  If you have a scissor-wielding youngster around they can set you up with a supply of tape labels so that all you have to do is stick and write.
• Top or side?  As Tsh alluded to in her post today, place your label where it’s easiest to see it.  On a shelf?—put your label on the side of the container.  In a drawer?—on the top of the lid.
• Extra tip—When filling those plastic bags with bulk foods at the grocery store, if there’s a chance that you might forget or confuse ingredients when you get home, write its name on the twist tie beside the item number.

Contain the mess

Some bulk foods are harder than others to pour from the bag to the jar.  I definitely didn’t want to be cleaning up a huge mess after all the jars were full.  Since both of my funnels have disappeared to parts unknown via little hands I came up with plan B.

• Cut corners—Instead of pouring from the top opening of the plastic bag, cut off one corner (a la cheap pastry bag) and you’ll have much more control of your ingredients as they flow from bag to jar.
• Spills will still happen, but save your countertops and set up your pouring/filling station in the kitchen sink.  Any overflow can be washed easily down the drain or wiped up, and having the jar at a lower level reduces accidents.

Think ahead

• Stagger the placement of your ingredients.  Many of my jars are stored in the wasted-space corners of the kitchen cupboards.  By keeping one jar of each ingredient towards the front, rather than massing say, the baking powder, at the back of the cupboard you’ll save yourself time and frustration.
• Group like items together—For example, beans in one spot, baking items in another, grains in another.

So, what about you?  Are you participating in Project Simplify?  What tips do you have for storing food in glass jars?