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.

Pantry Overhaul

Mindy here, and we have officially moved into the big house. Things aren't perfect, not that they ever will be. Some finishing touches still need to be done, like the exhaust pipe for the venthood over the stove, some shelving, etc. Little things that we can get by without for a short time.

In the meantime, there's still that physical act of moving-in. While most of our things had been moved into the house the day after Thanksgiving, we didn't spend our first night in the new house until December 15th. Then it was a rush toward Christmas, hopping into the car Christmas morning to meet the rest of the family in Ft. Worth, welcoming baby Taegan, coming back for a day and half with one daughter and her 4 boys before I headed back to FW for 10 glorious days of getting to know my new granddaughter.

I can't believe she's 3 weeks old already.

And this little guy...

He's 8 months old now and trying his hardest to crawl.

But I digress. Babies will do that. 

Moving in. Yes, that's what I was talking about. So you know how it goes. You're unpacking boxes, not sure where most things are going to go, but shoving them here and there as you go. Then, once you get most of the rooms kinda settled, you go back and figure out where to put all that stuff you just stuck somewhere for the sake of putting somewhere.

Which leads me to my pantry. For two months, it pretty much served as a catch-all. When something needed to be out-of-sight-out-of-mind, we stuck it in the pantry where it wouldn't be in the way of the workers. I mean, not only did it have all those shelves, it was also the the first space that was truly "finished." So by the time we got somewhat settled, the pantry looked like this.

Which was okay, for a time. I mean, for the most part, we knew what was in there. Then I woke up one morning with a determination for some sort of organization in the house. Living in chaos for several months will do that do you.

And so it began.

But where to begin?

At the bottom.

Bet you weren't expecting that. 

Notice all the crapola on the floor, rendering our walk-in pantry un-walk-inable. So the first thing I did was remove everything cluttering the floor.

This isn't all of it, but these boxes took up a lot of space. We'd purposely kept boxes for things, knowing we'd be moving, but now that we're in our forever home, it's time these things had a permanent place to live where they're easily accessed. 

Next, I segmented similar-use items into their own areas. Like my baking supplies.

Of course, flours and sugars were already at home on the counter.

Cereals were grouped together in clear containers so with one look I can see which ones need to be added to my grocery list.

Even snack foods were grouped. Now I just need to come up with something to hold all those individual little packets, but that's a job for another day.

Once everything was grouped and put back in, this was the result.

The stuff I rarely use went on the top shelf. While the things I use regularly...

Are easy to grab. Note the air fryer on the shelf. Now it's ready to go whenever I want to use it. No unboxing necessary.

Notice how much more free space I have. And would you look at the floor.

No more tip-toeing around things while I'm looking to see what I need from the grocery store. 

You know, when I envisioned my new house, everything was perfectly appointed and clean as a whistle. Reality, though, is that I am not an organization freak, nor a clean freak, and my rooms rarely turn out as beautifully decorated as they were in my mind. However, I'm pretty proud of my tidy little pantry. And all it took was some time and determination. If only the rest of the house were that easy to tackle.

Now it's your turn. Does organization come naturally to you or do you have to work at it? If you're a natural, the rest of us would love some tips. 

Mindy Obenhaus lives on a ranch in Texas with her husband, the youngest of her five children and two dogs. She's passionate about touching readers with Biblical truths in an entertaining, and sometimes adventurous, manner. When she’s not writing, she enjoys cooking and spending time with her grandchildren. Learn more at www.MindyObenhaus.com  

My Kitchen Quirks

You know the story of the woman who cuts her pot roast ends before she puts it in the roasting pan? Why? Because Grandma always did it that way. When asked, Grandma did it because her pan was too small.

When it comes to cooking and our kitchens, I guess we all have things we do that may make other folks raise an eyebrow.  Here are mine:

I saw this type of cheese made in the town of Gruyere, Switzerland.

I only eat imported cheese.  I don't eat shredded cheese because they put cellulose in the packing. I never have food allergy or tummy upset problems when I eat in Europe, thanks to their far stricter food laws. I'm trying small batch, organic American made cheeses in order to branch out but it's tough.

So pretty!

I only eat brown omega cage free eggs.  My body likes cage-free eggs better. No bloating. My eyes love the color. And the omegas are a bonus without having to take one more pill.

This scares me every time.

I live in fear of having to unload the silverware from the dishwasher.  I don't know where it started but I can tell you this. I can't stand to sort silverware. I have no problem dropping it in. I have not problem taking dishes out. But putting forks and spoons in the right spot, the right drawer is something I will avoid for days. Yes, I said it, DAYS!

I have more quirks but that will do for now. I don't want to overwhelm you!

What about you? What do you do in the kitchen or while cooking that might strike others as different, odd or unfathomable? Or do you just have some things that HAVE to be done a certain way? This is a tell-all or maybe just tell-some, so share away!

SPACE-O-RAMA and a little more organization Laundry room redo

Hellooo, everybody! The Fresh Pioneer is back. Sort of. What is that saying? Better late than never?

Well, here I am, up after an entire night of fevered editing and polishing, checking in to Yankee Belle Cafe (before I try to grab a few hours of sleep) and what do I see? Mindy's post is still up!

I laughed a little. UH OH, someone forgot to post!

And then I realized.... that someone was ME.

Yeah. So, I thought I'd talk a little about organization. Because, clearly, I don't have any.

 Setting the stage:
This is my laundry room table. To be fair, we were redoing the living room and all the supplied somehow ended up here. Yikes.
                                      
Intro character number one: an old entertainment center that I had just convinced my husband to let go of, since it was half broken and was a $30 cast-off when we picked it up 15 years ago.
                                                 
I was celebrating my victory and chatting with my friend Christalee. She said, "Have you seen those Pinterest pics of entertainment centers repurposed?"
Um.... No?
All it took was one picture and I was converted! I would SAVE the entertainment center and make it work in a whole new way!
                                             
Behold... the power of spray paint.

 All the painting supplies in one box- shocker!

 All my vintage canning jars gently nestled into another box.

 My curious doodads, buttons, beads, and shiny things... waiting for their turn to be put in a box...

They didn't wait long!

 My acrylic paints and brushes, antique camera and other tools... carefully set on the shelf.
                                                          
TA-DAH!! Isn't that amazing? Final product! (And yes, that is a tank of frogs there on the shelf. There used to be a hamster but he passed away.)

So, I hope this post inspires you to organize the messy place in your house... or perhaps just inspires you to use a calendar to make sure you DON'T MISS ANY COMMITMENTS.

 Apparently, I can't rely on the old memory anymore. Please tell me you all are forgetful, too. (If not, just lie. I'll never know.)

  Until next time!