31 Days to Declutter Your Life - DAY 11 (Bathroom)

This will be short and sweet. I finished the laundry room and is pretty please with the way it looks now.  I got rid of quite a bit, condensed some things and put other things in their proper place.

The bowl on the dryer  has the girls' stickers for their sticker charts (taped to the dryer) for going to the bathroom.

The only thing that is left hanging up in a Girl Scouts vest.  

My goal is to eventually put up a curtain up in front of the 'laundry room'.  

31 Days to Declutter Your Life - Day 10 (Bathroom)

So here is the progress on the bathroom.  

I know this should be a given, but I have learned that it is much easier to take 5 minutes 3-4 times a week to pick up the bathroom (or any room, for that matter), than it is to wait until it is complete mess and have to go through all of the junk/randoms that have accumulated over a longer period of time.  

GOAL:  Spend 5 minutes 3-4 times a week, picking up and wiping down the bathroom/laundry room.  

I hate cleaning the tub.  :(  That is the absolute worst part of cleaning the bathroom (I think).  If you have any good suggestions for tub and shower cleaner, please let me know.  I have heard there are things that you can just spray and rinse.  Have you tried any?  Do you like them?

Tips for cleaning the MIRROR.  You always want to keep your mirror clean.  Guests will probably spend the most time examining themselves in your mirror. They will inevitably notice dinginess and streaks.  

You can use glass cleaner or VINEGAR.   Also, you can use newspaper to wipe the mirror instead of a rag or paper towel.  Newspaper won't leave any streaks!  My mother in law taught me that one.  :-)

Well, the bathroom isn't looking too bad, but I still have a long way to go.  The 'laundry room' part still needs LOTS of love.  Take a peak:

Here are my list of things to do tonight to put a dent in the laundry room:

- clean off the dryer

-find a better place for the towels

- organize toolbox

- get rid of hangers and put away clothes that are hanging

That will be a start.  

31 Days to Declutter Your Life - DAY 9 (Bathroom)

Our bathroom and laundry room are combine.  If we ever add on to our current home, purchase or build, I want them separate!!  I feel like there just isn't enough room in my bathroom to also have my laundry in there.  We also only have 1 bathroom, which is eventually going to be a problem when the girls get older. 5 girls + 1 bathroom = NOT GOOD!  But for the time being, we are thankful for what we have.

I have always wondered when I walk into bathrooms at other peoples houses, 'How do they keep it so clean?  Where are all of there things? They don't have their toothbrushes out on the counter.  Where do they keep them?"  I just don't get how some bathrooms have almost nothing in them.  I then find myself looking around their house for their laundry room or a linen closet.  I need to reassure myself that the reason their bathroom looks so much better than mine is because they have some other place to put all of those things that I have to keep in my bathroom because I don't have a laundry room or linen closet.

Here are some pictures of what my bathroom/laundry room looks like right now.

Our bathroom is just off our kitchen.  It normally isn't THIS messy, but Jason has been working on the backsplash in the kitchen so his tools are out.  I also use to keep our laundry baskets in the kitchen by the bathroom door.  Now that the kitchen in clean, I don't want to do that anymore, but I have no idea where I am going to put it now.  So it ended up in the middle of our bathroom floor for now.  

Here is our 'laundry room'.  We have some nice shelving above our washer and dryer.  I need to find a better way to utilize them.  

Alrighty, my goal is to get the 'bathroom' part of my bathroom done by Sunday evening. I think the challenging parts are going to be the drawers under the sink and the medicine cabinet.  I don't use a curling iron or blow dryer, but I have them just in case.  Most of the time 'just in case' items I would get rid of, however, these are items that I might really need and I can't just run to the store to pick up.  As a teacher I get several gift of 'smelly stuff' every year for Christmas and at the end of the year.  I can only use so much so I have a drawer devoted to these gift sets.  

I will work on the 'laundry room' part in the next week.  

$50/week Shopping

This wasn't a huge trip.  There were only a few things that I needed and I ended up getting some things that we could use or add to items I already have at home.  

Here was my list of things I needed to get for the week:

eggs

milk

cheese slices

bread

chicken noodle soup

cream of mushroom soup

tomato soup cereal

As always, I went through the ads at Kroger, Martin's and Meijer.  Here are the items that were on my list of things I wouldn't mind getting:

Joes

pasta sauce - .69 (3)*

tomato paste - .10 (3)*

waffels - .89 (4)

canned tomatoes - .25 already had 6 cans in the pantry

tomato juice - .99 (1)*

ketchup - .69 (1)* - I would have gotten more, but we already had two in the pantry.  

*Buy 10, get $3.00 off (the price shown is what I got it for).  

I know my number don't add up, but I picked up 2 things for my sister which brought my total to 10 items.  

My total at Joe's came to $7.61.

Kroger

hamburger/tuna helper - 10/10 (2)  I ended up getting a couple of these because they didn't have the cheese slices

cream cheese - 10/10 (2)

tortilla chips - 10/10 (2)

marshmallows - 10/10 (1)     These were cheaper at Aldi.

cheese slices - 10/10   (2)      I had to get a rain check because they were out. 

muffin mix - 10/10                Not a necessity.

pizza rolls - 10/10                 Cheaper for a larger bag at Meijer.

milk - 3/4 (about 2.67/gal) (4)

sour cream - 10/10 (1)

shampoo - .89 (2)                  Found another brand at Kroger for only .79!!

pasta roni - 10/10 (2)

biscuits - 10/10 (1)                Got this because I got the marshmallows at Aldi.

My total at Kroger came to $16.16.  

Aldi - Aldi is usually my first stop.  I usually don't have a list when I go to Aldi.  I am looking for anything on my list that is not on sale somewhere else and to see if the items at Aldi are at a better price than they are on sale at other stores.  

This week I was able to get bread for .40!!  I got 4 loaves and put 3 in the freezer.  

I also bought a bag of frozen chicken.  

My total at Aldi was $19.59.

Meijer - Didn't end up getting to Meijer.  :(

Chicken Stripes - $3.50 for 32 oz

Pizza Rolls - $1.99/40 ct.  

Martin's

Nothing from Martin's this week.  

My total for all three stores came to $43.36.  I used the last $6 to get some fresh fruits and veggies.  

My first trip on Thursday.  

Meals for the week:

Monday - Chicken and Rice (made during our last 'freezer meal' day)

Tuesday - Nachos (tortillas from this trip, taco meat from our last 'freezer meal' day, lettuce, cheese, tomatoes, onions)

Wednesday - spaghetti and garlic bread

Thursday - hamburger helper

Friday - Dinner at my mom and dad's for my birthday. :)

Saturday - Leftovers for lunch, Pot Roast from 'freezer meal' day for dinner

Accountability

So this is exactly why I needed to let people know that I had a blog.  I went out of town last weekend (Thursday- Sunday) for a retreat for Thirty-One.  My husband is AMAZING and had the girls the entire time so that I could go.  While I was gone he got into a car accident on his way t work and totaled our van, which is our only vehicle that could fit all of us, and we found out some bad new about my brother-in-law (he has brain cancer and it is covering 95% of the left side of his brain.
So needless to say, when I got home things were definitely out of sorts.  All the work I had done in the living room, dining room and kitchen.......gone.  We had to start looking for a new vehicle and Jason and I hadn't had a good chance to talk about how he was feeling about his brother's situation.

So all week, I have been wanting to move onto my bathroom and start getting caught back up on my 31 Days to Declutter Your Life, but I'll admit it has been REALLY hard.  I have felt like I have let people down who read my posts and are looking forward to seeing my horribly messy house, because I am sure some of your think, "Wow, at least my house doesn't look like, THAT!'  LOL!!

This weekend I have a girls youth retreat in Chicago, but here is my plan.....
I will start cleaning the bathroom before I leave tomorrow and will have it finished by Sunday night.  I will get those posts to you soon.  I am hoping to get back on track this weekend.  Also, be watching because I am going to be posting my $50 shopping trip in the next day or two!!

Thanks for keeping me accountable.  I know that if I didn't have people reading, I could just not do it and no one would know the difference.  My house could stay a mess and it wouldn't matter, except I would be miserable wading through the mess.  So thank you to those who read and keep me accountable.  I really appreciate it!

31 Days to Declutter Your Life - DAY 8 (Kitchen - Fridge & Freezer)

Today is going to be my last day in the kitchen.  I PROMISE!!  The last thing I need to do is clean out the fridge, which I am not looking forward to at all.  :(

I started by taking everything out of the fridge and setting it on the counter.  Then I took a really warm rag and SCRUBBED!  It was pretty disgusting. I didn't think about taking a closer picture of the shelves, until after they were all clean.  Those would have been better pictures to show.  The ones below, but show it looking a little more organized and a little more bare from throwing things out.

BEFORE

AFTER

BEFORE

AFTER

Here are a few random tips for cleaning your kitchen.  

 - Only keep the things on your counters that you use everyday or at least twice a week.  If you don't -   

    Find a new place for it!!

 - Put out one decorative bowl or dish to collect odds and ends.  Then be sure to put them in their place,

   at the end of the week.  

 - How many of you get the stained plastic containers??  Well, before you put that pasta sauce in those 

   containers, spray them with nonstick cooking spray.  

Away

I am out of town until LATE Sunday night.  I will return to my postings on Monday!! 

Items for next week:
*Bathroom
*$50 Shopping Trip!!

31 Days to Decultter Your Life - DAY 7 (Kitchen - Clean up)

I really didn't think the kitchen was going to take me this long.  I think I have all my cabinets pretty well done, but now I need to clean up all the other stuff that had accumulated on the counter tops.  Most of it is items that I need to take to Goodwill or just get rid of.  For instance there is absolutely no reason we needed 16 McDonald's throw back glasses!!!  They are not all from the same year though, just in case you were thinking we ate at McDonald's a lot this past year, but this is still a ridiculous amount of them!!

As I was trying to organize my canned goods in the pantry, I started looking for racks and thing to put in the pantry or hang from the doors that would help make things more organized.  I found this awesome can rack that I plan on ordering next time I get paid.  The only problem I think I would have is that you can only get 3 cans deep.  There are many things that I have twice that many on hand.  

As you could see from one of my earlier pictures, I kept most of my canned goods on the bottom shelf in one of our pantry cabinets.  While reading some articles on organizing pantries I saw that you should have all your most used items at an easy reach height.  I know this sounds obvious, but I had never thought about switching the location of my canned goods until I read this.  It would make it so much easier to keep organized and see what I have.  Right now, most cans just get thrown (literally) and it makes it really hard to see what I have when I am making my grocery list.  

So after sorting out all of my tupperware items and getting rid of things that didn't have matching lids and all the glasses from the picture above, cleaning out and rearranging all of my cabinets and drawers, putting away the piles and piles of things on the floor and washing the floor, here is the final product.  

'Before' pictures are on the left and 'after' pictures are on the right.  

                      BEFORE:                                                                   AFTER

   

These don't look too much different, but we were able get rid of more than half of the glasses in the upper right cabinet and move them to the other one.  That left room in the far right cabinet for our pitchers and baby food and formula.  

              

I think most of my cabinets look more bare even though most of the same things are in them.  It is amazing what a little organizing will do.

Tupperware organized into my new drawers. 

The following pictures are the same angles as the ones I took on Kitchen - Day 1

Not sure what to put on, or even what to use the bakers rack for, but I LOVE it and don't want to get rid of it.  

We need to get a new door on the one cabinet.  I was thinking about getting a smaller trash can and keeping it in there.  Not sure though.  

Here is my 'command center'.  I use my Hang Up Home Organizer' from Thirty-One Gifts.  If you like it I can definitely get you the link.  Thirty-One has some amazing organizing products.  

These days of the week chalkboard adhesives were purchased from Stampin' Up!  

Even though we still need to get the wall finished behind it, I LOVE my pot rack Jason got me for Christmas!

I just had to share this picture.  The tree has an 'F' for Feathers and the leaves each have one of our initials on it.  I purchase it from my friend Shelley who has a small business, Paper Lullaby, on facebook.  You can find her page here.  I purchased several of these for family and friends for Christmas this past year.  

31 Days to Declutter Your Life - DAY 6 (Continuing the Kitchen - The Cabinets)

Now that the counters are clear, toaster is cleaned out, the microwave has been cleaned and everything that was on the floor is put away (Well, that was me.  You probably didn't have to do that part), it is time to move onto cleaning out the cabinets.

I opened all my cabinets and took pictures first. 

Pretty embarrassing, huh?!?  I really need to have my husband make a shelf so that there are two levels in this cabinet.  Right now it is horrible to stack things, so I, literally, just throw things in here after they have been washed.  

This cabinet isn't in our kitchen anymore.  We moved it to our mud room (you'll see that later).  I still have all sorts of tupperware in here as well so I thought I would include it in my organizing of cabinets.  

Not too bad, but there is still stuff in here we don't need.  

I started with all the tupperware.  I took everything out of the cabinets and dumped them on the floor.  I the sorted to make sure all my containers had lids.  If they didn't have a lid, I pitched them!  While everything was out of the cabinets, I wiped them out to make sure they were clean and ready for everything to go back in.  

I also went to the Dollar Store to pick up some clear shoe box containers.  I wasn't exactly sure what I was going to use them for, but I knew I could use them for something.  :-)  What I really want to get are some of the organizers that you can screw on the inside of the cabinet doors to put things in.  But right now we are trying to watch our spending to the $1/ea shoe boxes will have to work.  

As I clean, I will let you know more about how I decided to organize things.  

Freezer Meals

While I am finishing up my 31 Days to Declutter Your Life post for today, I thought I'd post about some freezer meals I made today.  

My sister and I decided that we were going to get together once a month to make some freezer meals.  We figured even if we only made 8 meals that was twice a week that we wouldn't have to worry about actually cooking at night and twice a week will DEFINITELY help me!

This is me and my sister, Molly.  

Here are the items I got from the store today.  I just went to our local store, so I didn't get the best deals.  My total for these came to $38.01.  Everything else I needed for the meals I made I already had.  

3.5 lbs of chicken

3 lbs of hamburger

pot roast

2 bags of mozzarella cheese

tortilla shells

cottage cheese

evaporated milk (I didn't end up using this)

white rice

taco seasoning

hoagie buns

I was able to make the following meals:

chili 

taco meat (to use later for tacos and nachos)

lasagna

chicken and rice

pot roast

baked potato soup

tortilla soup

chicken enchiladas 

cooked hamburgers patties (for Jason to take for lunch)

So that ends up being 9 meals, not including the hamburgers for Jason's lunch.  I didn't think that was too bad for a couple hours hanging out cooking with my sis!

31 Days to Declutter Your Life - DAY 5 (Continuing the Kitchen)

Well yesterday went pretty well.  I got both of my counters cleaned off, did all the dishes and as you saw, I cleaned out the microwave.  Today is might be an easy day for you.  I am going to get everything that is piled up on our kitchen floor put away!  This is definitely going to be a chore for me, but it is another thing I want to get done before I head back to work.  So, unfortunately I don't have any cleaning tips for you today.

Tomorrow is going to be cleaning out the cabinets!!  I promise I will have some good stuff for you tomorrow.  :)

31 Days to Declutter Your Life - DAY 4 (Kitchen)

My kitchen is a room that I was hoping to try to clean before I showed you my 'before' pictures.  That's how messy it is.  When you see the pictures you have to keep in mind we just added a few cabinets and a counter top in the last week, we still have several Christmas gifts stacked in the kitchen and some boxes of Christmas decor that need to be taken down to the basement.  I shouldn't be making excuses, but I needed to say SOMETHING about how awful my kitchen looks right now, but I knew it would probably take a few days to clean and I wanted to try to get it done before I went back to school.  I will be cleaning this on Friday which is our teacher work day, so these steps aren't going to be very big.  So it will be achievable when I get home.

Okay *sigh* here goes nothing......

You can see the difference in the cabinets that have just been put in.  

LOVING my pot rack Jason got me for Christmas!!  

Isn't that awful!?!?  For me, this is going to be a job that takes a few days (counters, floor, cabinets, fridge, freezer, etc).  For most people I would suggest using the piles system from DAY 2.  With how messy my kitchen is right now, I am going to have to use a different method.  

My first day of cleaning the kitchen will consist of clearing off all counter tops, doing ALL the dishes and cleaning out the microwave and toaster (yes, opening the bottom and cleaning out all the toast, waffle and poptart crumbs).

I don't know about you (well I guess I might have an idea), but I hate cleaning out the microwave!  I am going to share with you how I clean my microwave and how easy it can really be.  Maybe you already know this tip, but humor me.  

BEFORE:  Doesn't this look awful!?!  Another picture I really didn't want to take and actually share.  

The bowl in the microwave is filled with water.  Yep, that's it, just water from the faucet. 

I 'cooked' it in the microwave for 5 minutes.  The water turns to steam and the steam softens all the gunk.  When it got done all I did was wipe it out.  No muscle power, just simply wiped it out and this is how it looked!!  

Big difference, huh?!?  I did it one more time (5 minutes again),  just to get it a bit more clean.

So with how easy that was, there is really no excuse for how awful my microwave looked in the first place!  

See you back here tomorrow for my next step for cleaning the kitchen.  

31 Days to Declutter Your Life - DAY 3 (Finishing the Dining Room)

Yesterday we decluttered the dining room today we are going to finish the dining room by doing a good deep cleaning.   Begin by working around the room counter clock-wise (or clock-wise) and start wiping things down, sweeping, and vacuuming.  

Here is a check list that I found on The 'Unworking' Mom 

Dining Room:
1) Dust everything
2) Scrub chairs and table (all of those sticky fingers!) 
3) Clean blinds/insides of windows
4) Wipe down ceiling fan
5) Wipe down baseboards
6) Move table - move rug - steam mop the entire floor; put rug back and vacuum the entire rug; move table back 

(I didn't actually move our rug, but I did lift it up and sweep and mop as far and I could without having to move the table.

Hopefully by the time you finish your room looks much cleaner than it did when you started!!  HAPPY CLEANING!!

My after pictures: