Monday, February 25, 2019

Tackling a Long-Neglected Chore

I used to be a good housekeeper.

I had a schedule for cleaning the house and other chores, and actually followed it. I taught my children to do the chores, rotating the assignments occasionally so they would become proficient in all areas. My house was usually clean...except for a few spots that were always in need of decluttering or whatnot.


Our house in Kansas - just before I started writing
for publication.

I even helped to write a book about homemaking for girls where I shared my schedule and how to clean the house! It's still available, although I sold my rights to it a few years ago. It's fun to see it pop up on Amazon!

Here's the link to the listing on Amazon!

On the whole, things hummed along smoothly in my homemaking life.

Then two things happened, almost simultaneously:
1) Our children grew up and started leaving home.
2) I started writing.

Before I knew it, the house was back to looking like we lived with a passel of toddlers!

The children and their grandparents, 1994

I can only blame myself.

But recognizing the problem is half the battle, right? Balancing housework and writing has been a struggle, I admit it.

There are some seasons when the writing consumes all of my time. There are other seasons when thinking about writing consumes every minute. And yes, there are those days when procrastination is the overriding force (although they are becoming fewer.)

But all of that doesn't keep the house clean. To help my problem, I started following someone else's decluttering schedule (hey, doing it on my own wasn't working!) I downloaded a calendar from Home Storage Solutions 101

I follow her 365 decluttering missions and the weekly organizing challenges...but not in a timely fashion. Using the schedule, I work on the tasks when I can, knowing I will never finish in a year...but I WILL FINISH!

And I'm making progress!

On Saturday I tackled the freezer.

I forgot to take a "before" picture, but here's what it looked like when I reached the bottom:


Quite the mess! Saturday was the warmest day we had had for weeks - we reached a high of 33°. Not quite freezer-defrosting weather, but it worked. I filled a gallon pitcher with hot water and set it in the closed (and unplugged) freezer for a while. Then repeated the process. Then repeated it again.

Meanwhile, I took care of all the stuff I had hauled OUT of that freezer.


It was cold enough in the back of the garage to keep everything frozen for the afternoon. I sorted through the items, dumping anything that was too old or freezer burned.

Then I took inventory, sorting the different kinds of foods into their own baskets or boxes: meat, herbs and spices (I buy in bulk and store the excess in the freezer), grains and cereals, miscellaneous.

*By the way, you might notice a big category that's missing: fruits and vegetables! I keep those in the kitchen freezer to save space in the big freezer for the 1/4 steer we're expecting soon.*

I wrote down what we had and how much we had on a chart. I'll use that chart to keep a running inventory from now until next year when I do this again.

By that time, the frost was thawed and I finished cleaning the freezer.

So clean!

Then it was time to reload the freezer again. Since I had sorted each kind of item, and each kind had a container, it was easy to organize it with the meat in one place, grains in another, etc.


And now we have room for the beef we ordered. It should be arriving around the end of March.

We still have a little bit of meat from our 2017 order, and now that the freezer is organized, all that meat is in one place, and I know exactly what we have, we'll be able to use it between now and then. Without my inventory sheets in place, I had no idea how much beef we had left. I thought there might be a pound of hamburger left (we actually have six!), and a couple steaks (we have one.) It turns out we have quite a few ribs, too.

So we'll plan to have ribs sometime soon!

There's nothing like organization! The refrigerator and freezer in the kitchen are next on my decluttering and organizing schedule, and after that comes the pantry.

How is your housekeeping going? Are you an semi-organized wanna-be like me? Or are things pretty much under control?





Jan Drexler lives in the Black Hills of South Dakota with her husband and growing family. When she isn't writing, she loves hiking in the Hills or satisfying her cross stitch addiction.

You can find Jan on Facebook, Jan Drexler, author, or her website, Jan Drexler.com.

14 comments:

  1. Funny you should mention housekeeping, Jan. Just Saturday I tackled a bunch of stuff I'd been procrastinating on for far too long. It was a nice, open-the-windows kind of day, so that helped. And it does always feel good. Until you turn around weeks later and realize you have to do it again. One of these days maybe I'll learn to stay on top of things. Just as soon as these books figure out how to write themselves. ;)

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    1. Oh, wouldn't that be nice! Except that I'd much rather be writing than keeping up with the housework, LOL.

      Wait a minute. I think I found the source of my problem. ;)

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    2. Honestly, Jan, if I'm caught cleaning during the week, it's usually because I'm procrastinating on writing.

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  2. Ha! My house is upside down because I got the organizing bug and started switching things around. I moved everything out of my little den and took the daybed apart but my organizing came to a screeching halt when I realized I couldn't get all the bed pieces down my twisty basement stairs by myself. So now, I'm living in chaos until some unsuspecting person comes a-knocking at my door! :-)

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    1. LOL! I've been there, too! Knee deep in decluttering and reorganizing, then...uh oh. I can't move that piece of furniture. Or I mis-measured and everything has to go back where it was.

      Sigh. At least I vacuum as I go. One part of the house is clean by the end of the day!

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    2. So does putting big glue traps behind the walls in the attic count as organizing? It does if I finally catch the critter that has eluded two traps and doesn't seem to die from Dcon.... I shall be thwarted no longer!

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    1. This comment has been removed by the author.

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    2. Hey! I could delete the post since I'm an admin!! LOL You'll never know what that horrible typo was. :) Now, here's what the comment was supposed to say:

      I'm a wreck at organization!! My refrigerator and freezer and pantry all look like a bomb exploded. (The same with my closet!) I'm afraid I'm hopeless.

      I subscribe to the cleaning regimen I read about where you clean one part of your fridge every week. That way you don't ever have to empty the whole thing. When I get a somewhat clear area, I go ahead and remove the items and clean that shelf or drawer.

      I really miss the extra freezer we had at our last house!! It's tough to live out of one small freezer (part of our refrigerator). That's partly why it's such a mess. It's bursting at the seams.

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    3. I can feel your pain!

      Whenever we move, everything gets turned topsy-turvy and it's HARD to get back to the routines...because all the routines need to be different!

      I would have a hard time giving up my big freezer. We've had one for thirty years, and I use it constantly. You need to find a place for a new freezer, Missy!

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  4. I am beyond embarrassed. Like SO EMBARRASSED that I can't even tell you the absolute truth about the condition of my freezers. Oh my stars....

    You may have inspired me.

    I want you to inspire me.

    But then I might have to do it!!!!!

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    1. I hope I inspired you, Ruthy!

      The thing that really inspired me to get this job done was when I realized I had no idea what was lurking on the bottom level of my freezer. All I knew was that there was something. But was it edible? And I had to do something - that beef will be ready for us, and we need to be ready for it.

      Who knows what you might find at the bottom of your freezer? Maybe someone hid some cash in there!!! Or maybe there's some leftover chocolate! You never know until you look!

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  5. I'm trying - note trying, not succeeding. There is just so.much.stuff of my husband's to sort through. But it won't get done if I don't do it.

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