pantry organization

ok ... some of you know and some of you don't ... i signed up to sell tupperware. one of the main reasons why i did was because i want to organize my panty! the modular mates are amazing. seriously. but here's the kicker ... they are on sale in january for 40% OFF.

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if you live close i can come over and check out your pantry and help you pick what you need and i'll come over and help you organize your pantry when your order is shipped ... if you live far i can still help you through emails or phone calls ... and have them shipped directly to your house.

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email me at jodijeanbaird [at] yahoo .com ... or give me a call!

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did you have ants or bugs last year? did you throw away any stale cookies or cracker? are your cupboards a disaster? did you buy something and then come home to find the *same thing* "hiding" in your cupboard?

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an average "total kitchen" is generally around $430 ... at 40% off it would be $258. you don't have to do your whole pantry ... but after you do some of it, i bet you'll wish you had.

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here is a before and after of a pantry.

check out some more of the "after"s ... these pantrys look AMAZING ... let's get organized in 2009!!!

i couldn't sleep

on wednesday (11/12/2008) i couldn't sleep while the kids were napping, so i decided to be productive instead.
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i was having groceries delivered (i will be working on a separate post) that morning, so i cleaned out and reorgainzed BOTH fridges/freezers to make room for the incoming food.

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i put away ALL of the groceries (usually there are a couple bags that hang around on the counter or table) (i don't know if you can tell from the pictures ... but it was ALOT of food)

while i was trying to put away our food in the pantry i decided that it needed to be organized, so i pulled EVERYTHING out and then putting it all back.

all my spices are in the 2 plastic containers so i can find everything easily and they are moved out of the way to get to the things behind them easily

while everything was out of the pantry i realized that my counters could use a good cleaning, so i cleaned them entirely (like COMPLETELY moving the microwave, etc.) while i moved the microwave ... realized it was nasty and scrubbed it super good.i also reorgainzed 2 cupboards to fit everything better (you know all the plastic bowls and containers that always go crazy ... plus all their lids)

i even had time to make dinner ... ranch chicken (similar to my butter chicken) and roasted potatoes

aidan kept himself entertained by watching yo gabba gabba and imagination movers ... plus playing with fashion. he's very into socks right now ... especially MY socks. these ones are pink with silver crowns ... haha! and he has foam blocks on his arms (he sitck his arms through the holes) it reminds me of popeye and his huge forearms!after the kids were asleep i went to target to return some items, did some dishes (i haven't had any dirty dishes on my counter for a week ... we've been trying to empty the dishwasher immediately and put the dirty ones IN the dishwasher ... what an amazing concept!)

then i sat down on my sofa, flipped on the tv and worked on my new project (which requires a separate post!)

just thinking about it makes me tired. my feet were aching by the end of the day, but my kitchen looks great and i feel better when i'm in there cooking or whatever.

welcome to my nest

ahhh ... i'm totally nesting ... i guess it was bound to happen since i only have 4 more weeks until #2 is due to pop out.

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WARNING: the before pictures are scary ... and quite frankly i'm a little embarrased to post them, but how can i show you how much i accomplished otherwise? you've been warned.

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things i accomplished this week(in no particular order) -- yeah for LONG naps (for aidan) and late nights (for me):

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10 loads of laundry (washed, dried and put away) (3 loads of towels, 1 load of aidan things, 4 loads of whites, 2 loads of darks)

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4 loads of dishes (washed, dried and put away)

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my bathroom completely cleaned and reorganized. (i had to move all my makeup and hair stuff onto the counter because aidan thought it was the funnest game to empty my makeup drawer (the LONG skinny drawer) -- and hide products, some of which are still missing -- even after what the next part of my plan was!!!!!)

after i showed robby the bathroom ... i mean c'mon people i was pretty proud of it ... he commented, "but the question is, how long will it stay like this?!" ... OOOOO ... motivation, now i have to prove him wrong, so i'm gonna try to keep the counters clutter free!!
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next ... my bedroom completely cleaned and reorganized. there were just piles of CRAP everywhere (i've noticed i have WAY too much clothing, maybe after #2 pops out i'll try to get rid of some of it!!) ... where in the world was #2 gonna sleep? so it needed to be done. i think it looks a million times better, and i'm really proud of all that i accomplished.
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this is the left side of our bed ... yikes!! when i got out of bed after it was all cleaned it immediately brought a smile to my face, what a great way to wake up in the morning!!

this is the right side of our bed! (the storage bins now hold all the clothing that i want to go through -- 3 of them (i have a stack of 3 more on top of those ... waiting for organizing baby things), and 2 of them (on the left) hold knit clothing that no longer fits robby or me and will be turned into other things via my trusty serger!!)

when aidan woke up this morning and ran into my room to play, he was disappointed when he saw the bins ... he couldn't get into anything anymore. poor kid!! haha! those 2 rolling drawer carts hold all of what we have for #2 right now. organized and ready to clothe her when she pops out!! now all we need is something in here for her to sleep in. and i'm gonna try to get robby to move the changing table back into our bedroom, hopefully that happens on saturday.
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i also reorganized my closet ... i know it doesn't look like much, but believe me ... its WAY better. before i had piles of madness in front of it, it was hard getting to the clothing actually in the closet, and i moved things around. (sorry ... no before pictures, but i'm sure you're scared enough as it is) i think this configuration will work well. the top shelf is all my purses (yikes ... i have a bunch!) the second shelf has my pants and my boots. then on the left side of the closet hangs my skirts (on 4 tier skirt hangers, from target ... LOVE them!!), then dresses, then my shirts, and then i have a hanging thing that holds my shoes (tennis shoes, slippers and flip flops!) and then under my shirts i have 2 rolling drawer carts that hold my undergarments, socks, swimsuits, lingerie ... etc. and this is behind my bedroom door, i LOVE this. my nice (church) shoes all lined up in the pockets and my jewelry ready to be worn. it makes me soooo happy! this is front of robby's side of the closet. as you can tell it needs reorganizing, but i'm leaving that to him (well at least i'm hoping he'll take care of it!)

this is my pile of laundry that still needs to be done ... YIKES!! (this pile has since shrunk since i took the picture ... but there are still probably 3 more loads to do -- definately more managable)this is on top of rob's dresser ... it just seems to accumulate all kinds of crap!!! (all of which is mine ... not his)our headboard ... another dumping ground!!

clean out your closets

go head on over to the jocole blog today for some tips on cleaning out your closets. stay tuned for more tips on getting rid of specific categories.

WFMW - organizing jewelry

it's wednesday, and every wednesday shannon at rocks in my dryer hosts a carnival called "works for me wednesday" where people blog about tips that work for them. i love reading the tips but have never posted one of my own -- until today.

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we just moved and i've been in the process of trying to make sure that i keep everything organized after i unpack it. i *hate* jewelry boxes. i love wearing necklaces, but when i put them in the box they get all tangled and it drives me nuts. so after i was putting together some cubes for our office and had some grids left over i had an epiphany. i got out 2 3m command adhesive wall hooks and voila! hooked all my necklaces on it, see for yourself, it works for me.

our house, in the middle of the street

i'll try to get a real post put together, it's been hard because all my freetime is trying to get our house settled. i try to busy myself unpacking boxes whenever aidan is sleeping or happy playing by himself.

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here is the house

come on in

oh wait, robby wont let me invite friends over until all the boxes are unpacked. (don't you like how you can see boxes in the window on the left???)

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but aidan and i are enjoying the madness.

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actually the living room is basically done. my goal is to have the main living scapes (where visitors visit) done by the end of next week. wish me luck! and i really don't want to post pictures until we get some window coverings going on. tomorrow we are going to ikea to see what we can see, rob's mom is going to babysit aidan, wish us luck!!

flylady.net

i don't know if any of you have heard about flylady.net, but i recently discovered her website and i signed up. my house is always a mess, and i figured that it couldn't hurt to try out her system. i've also decided that i need to try to get a routine down, or some sort of system in the works before this baby arrives and throws a new curve ball at me. the whole flylady system is based off of what she calls "baby-steps" and "routines" etc. and you get about 10 e-mails a day.

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so far i like her system. i don't follow it EXACTLY though. when she tells me to dress to my "lace-up shoes", i figure if i have flip-flops or heels on: i'm good. when she tells me to "shine your sink", i figured as long as my sink doesn't have dirty dishes in it: i'm good. i figure that anything is better than nothing, right?

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but i like using her principles and adapting them to fit my lifestyle and schedule. no my house isn't miraculously clean all the time. but it's better than it was. hey i had family over the other day and my apartment was actually pretty presentable.

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the e-mails can get kind of annoying sometimes. having to read through people "testimonials" about how wonderful her duster is, or how great the CD is (which i mostly view as marketing, "buy flylady merchandise -- but hey she offers her programs for free, can't blame a girl for trying). and i just delete the reminder e-mails when i do them or if i already did it for the day. some of the tesitmonials are great reminders, and some are just "my life was sooo bad until i met flylady, and now my life is wonderful." GAG ME -- delete!

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here's *some* of my routines:

• get up, make bed (haha), shower, get dressed, fix hair and face, start a load of laundry (wouldn't that be nice if i could get myself to wake up a little earlier to fit that in -- then i could switch it out when i get home from work -- maybe someday)
• swish and swipe (as in your toilet and counters, its amazing how doing this everyday for like 5 seconds makes it so it doesn't take 15 minutes when you never do it)
• 15 minute de-clutter (seriously, set a timer and just do it, when the timer dings stop. this is wonderful -- although i do it when i get home from work)
• check calendar and "to-do" lists. (i've become much more organized with my planner now, and i always know what's going on, and what needs to be done)

she also has a thing called "home blessing hour" which means you bless your home and family by cleaning, and it only takes ONE hour. that's my kind of cleaning, this usually gets done on saturday, or i break it down over the week. she also has a basic weekly plan which breaks down what needs to be done over the course of a week, weekly checklists, and a different "zone" for each week. (week 1: entrance, dining room, front porch, week 2: kitchen etc.)

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anyways, i would recomend trying it out if you have any trouble with housework, or you just like looking for new systems. i love her routines (morning and night) and i love how she breaks the housework down into mangable "zones". i've thought about setting up my own system so that i don't have to get a million e-mails that are sob-stories -- i know those probably help some people, just not me. i want just one e-mail a day. we'll see, if anyone else, want to work on trying to keep our houses clean together, let's do it.