Deep Thaw: Time to Defrost The Freezer

The freezer is full!

    My freezer is packed to the gills or rather the wings since I have a plethora of poultry. In case you have been on the edge of your seat wondering if I bought the extra freezer contemplated on in  The Big Chill, I have not. I know I could buy that extra chest freezer and find a place for it in the basement. However,  since I bought these turkey burgers for a summer camping trip I think it is time to clean out the freezer.

    My main motivation for the weeding of the freezer isn't so much that I'm concerned about freezer burn.  It has to do with the sales circular.  I keep hearing about great sales and specials from my couponing friend and there is no where to store the stuff.

   Okay so here we go.  I am not buying any more meat until we free up the freezer.  I bet we can get a week's worth of meals using up what we have on hand. First night is turkey burgers.  I will defrost the chicken too for the next day.  I usually buy whole chickens or thighs.  I got the big bag of breasts again to make it easier for the camping trip.

   Stand by for some creative meals.  I may have to stop at the store for some milk or bread, but dinner is coming from the freezer this week.  Brr! I better get started!

Mummy's Nightmare: Attack of the Toys

EEK! A CLOSET TO MAKE ME SHRIEK!

     My youngest child looked up at me and declared, "Mommy you aren't afraid of anything!"  Since I didn't run shrieking at the sight of a bug I had won the bravest person in the world award.  I told her that there was one thing that scared Mommy...messes.  Dirt came into my kitchen on sneakers and spread across the house.  Spills happened and toys tripped me like tangled roots. She giggled at the thought of Mommy running from the dirt, mud, and messy monsters in fear.

     Her room held more surprises then a haunted house.  When I opened her closet to get Playdough it was difficult to reach it without turning my ankle. This was not a boo-tiful closet like her brother's room. It made me think of watching a horror movie and shouting to the screen, "Don't open the door!"  I called in reinforcements for this task.  No it wasn't ghostbusters, more like clutterbusters. I waited until my daughter was on the school bus before my friend helped me tackle this beast of a pile.

   First to find the floor we dragged everything into her room.  Then we sorted pieces, removed outgrown toys, and filed miscellaneous drawings under G. My friend smartly brought a garbage bag in before we started. The stuffed animals  relocated to a bin in her room so she can play with them. The outgrown toys were passed down to younger friends. Dress up clothes were moved to the playroom.

 
     We shelved the books.  My friend suggested we use a clear plastic shoe box for small books.  I combed through the books to find the little readers.  It saved a lot of shelf space by turning the box sideways and made it easier to find skinny paperbacks.

I love this space saving books in a box.

Clear boxes make toys easy to find.

      The addition of  a few clear plastic boxes contained the small toys. I normally used baskets, but these were stacked to save room. All the baskets of craft materials were removed from the closet. There is no work space in the bedroom and I've encountered a few surprises with markers and glue lately.  I have a new 3 bin drawer to house all the craft materials near the homework table outside her room.  

   The result was one happy girl.  After school she immediately went for her closet and played with her favorite toys.  She was happy to get into the closet and find her things. Now for what is lurking beneath the bed!  

   

Boo-tiful: A Dream Closet

There's a floor in the closet.

Books on shelves

      Unlike the skeletons in my closet, my son's closet was a fairly simple job. I didn't take a before picture so let me walk you through it.  I set the timer for 20 minutes on Sunday afternoon and got to work.

     The kids had made a habit of making a secret reading area in his closet.  It sounds like fun, but his sister is not fond of the clean up part.  The result was a twisted pile of sheets and books. He helped me put the books up on the shelf.  That was step one. Next we folded up the sheets and put them away.
 
    Now we had a floor.  The next step was to remove a few games from the top shelf.  They were put up there to keep little hands out of reach years ago.  The outgrown games were donated to the church rummage sale.  What a great excuse to get me to clean things out. I put the games immediately in the car and dropped them off the next day.

    The only other thing taking up a lot of closet space was a bucket of stuffed animals.  I wondered if they reproduced while we were sleeping.  There just always seemed to be a pile of them.  I put his favorites on his bed and the overflow in the camouflage sack so they take up less room.  The bin was cracked so I disposed of it.  Then I triple checked for outgrown clothes and his boo-tiful closet was finished!

Skeletons In My Closet: It's Scary In There!

The Secret Stash of Clutter

Ahh...that's much better!

 

      My favorite blogger Barb from Cleaning Up The Clutter inspired me to take a look at my mess.  I worked hard to keep to a daily chore schedule and tidied up the house.  Meanwhile, my closets were a fright worthy of the Halloween line up.  Somehow out of sight out of mind kept it from getting done.
 
    I set a goal this month to work on making the closets more livable.  I worked 20 minutes a day until it was done. First step was the repair/stain pile.  My Mom is the ultimate stainmaster.  Seriously she could get the mud out of a puddle.  She took a look at my pile and marked stains with pins and sewed a blouse with a tear. Thanks Mom you are the best!

  My husband built me this wonderful storage shelving unit for my birthday.  I needed to clear off the top surface. The box held LL Bean items that didn't fit.  Back to the store they went. What was left?  Clothes that didn't fit.  Time for them to get donated.  Now we had the little surprises I had picked up for the children.  They were moved to an undisclosed hiding place where they were more secure and out of the way.

   With the summer clothes stowed away in the cubbies and the fall apparel in the dresser the closet was complete. I wanted to leave the door open so I could admire a job well done!