Summer Cleaning Day 10

Today's Summer Cleaning project was to clean out and organize all the kitchen drawers. My kitchen here is small, BUT it has more-than-sufficient cupboard and drawer space, so this was quite the task!

First, I emptied out the silverware holder and washed that.

Confession: When we moved last summer (locally), I honestly didn't even empty out this little organizer. I put the whole thing (filled with the silverware) into a box, packed some newspaper in with it and sealed the box. When we found it at the new house, I just stuck it in the drawer and moved on!

Then I moved onto a random drawer and my spice drawer. I cleaned some items out of the random drawer, so it isn't quite so random anymore!

And I'm sure it's clear that I purchase most (all?) of my spices at Aldi, right?

These two drawers were probably the worst offenders in my kitchen! I removed everything, washed the containers and then reorganized everything - much more neatly this time.

There! It looks much better now. I think it will be easier to find kitchen utensils, too, now!

The final section of drawers that I tackled was my "skinny" drawers, where I keep my plastic baggies, foil, plastic wrap, and dishclothes and towels.

We get Monday and Tuesday of next week off from cleaning, as I will be out of town.

We'll pick up on Wednesday with this:

Clean your oven, stove top and microwave. Scrub down all three appliances, inside and out. If you choose, you can run the self-cleaning cycle on your oven (whether or not I will do this depends on the weather).

If you need to catch up:

• Days 1 & 2 - clean out your purse, wash throw blankets and clean the refrigerator.
• Day 3 - clean the freezer.
• Day 4 - vacuum underneath beds.
• Day 5 - vacuum underneath couches and chairs.
• Day 6 - clean the washer & dryer and clean out the car.
• Day 7 - clean the baseboards (and door frames).
• Day 8 - clean the switchplates and door handles.
• Day 9 - clean your light fixtures.

Summer Cleaning Day 9

Yes, I took this picture at an angle!

Well, today's Summer Cleaning project resulted in me located a lot of dust! Today's assignment was to clean all of your light fixtures.

The first place I found dust was on our dining room chandelier. This actually housed the least amount of dust today! In order to remove the "shades," I also had to remove the lightbulbs. I then washed the shades in soapy water and scrubbed the chandelier well.

After that, I moved onto to each of our bathroom light fixtures. Here, I found dust - and LOTS of it! The lightbulbs were caked in dust and the fixtures themselves were quite gross, too.

Boy, was it nice to get these fixtures scrubbed down thoroughly! I have a feeling that our bathrooms will be brighter now... :)

Tomorrow, here's your task:

Clean out and organize the drawers in your kitchen. Remove everything, wipe down the inside of the drawers, and reorganize the contents. Throw away or donate any items that you no longer use.

If you need to catch up:

• Days 1 & 2 - clean out your purse, wash throw blankets and clean the refrigerator.
• Day 3 - clean the freezer.
• Day 4 - vacuum underneath beds.
• Day 5 - vacuum underneath couches and chairs.
• Day 6 - clean the washer & dryer and clean out the car.
• Day 7 - clean the baseboards (and door frames).
• Day 8 - clean the switchplates and door handles.

Summer Cleaning Day 8

Thankfully, today's Summer Cleaning project was much easier than yesterday's project. This morning, I set out to clean the switchplates and door handles in our home.

This is one of those days when it's nice to have a small home because I didn't have very many switchplates and door handles!

Summer Cleaning continues tomorrow with this task:

Clean your light fixtures. Remove the shades and bulbs. Clean everything well and put the fixtures back together.

If you need to catch up:

• Days 1 & 2 - clean out your purse, wash throw blankets and clean the refrigerator.
• Day 3 - clean the freezer.
• Day 4 - vacuum underneath beds.
• Day 5 - vacuum underneath couches and chairs.
• Day 6 - clean the washer & dryer and clean out the car.
• Day 7 - clean the baseboards (and door frames).

Reminder: Summer Cleaning resumes tomorrow!

Just a quick reminder:

Summer Cleaning resumes tomorrow with a new task:

Move couches and easy chairs; vacuum underneath them. Vacuum beneath the cushions, too. Be sure to throw away any garbage or dust bunnies you find.

If you need to catch up:

• Days 1 & 2 - cleaning out your purse, washing throw blankets and cleaning the refrigerator.
• Day 3 - clean the freezer.
• Day 4 - vacuum underneath beds.

Summer Cleaning Day 3

The contents of our freezer

Today's project for Summer Cleaning was cleaning out the freezer. Thankfully, my freezer wasn't as full as previous months, so I picked a good time for this job!

After removing everything (and tossing a few items), I scrubbed down the inside of the freezer really well.

Disinfected and reorganized

After I finished that, I loaded everything back and organized it, putting like items together.

One of the most complicated aspects of our freezer is that it didn't have any shelves when we moved in! When I opened the freezer after we finished moving, I believe I yelped! With no shelves, obviously everything was just tossed in haphazardly. We found those wire shelves at Kmart and they sort of work, but it's not a perfect solution.

And here's tomorrow's task:

Move bed(s) and vacuum underneath them. Be sure to throw away any garbage or dust bunnies you find.

*If you're up for it, this would be an ideal time to flip and rotate your mattress, if you haven't done so recently. You will likely need help with this one!

If you need to catch up:

• Days 1 & 2 - cleaning out your purse, washing throw blankets and cleaning the refrigerator.

Summer Cleaning Days 1 & 2

Today, I started my "Summer Cleaning...the easy way!" project for June and July. My first task was to wash all of our throw blankets. We have quite a few blankets because 1) We receive them as gifts and 2) We keep our house colder in the winter in an effort to save money, so we use blankets frequently. I piled all of them in the middle of the living room floor and then Simon guarded them for me. {Really, he just loves to lay on any blanket he can find!}

By the end of the day, all of the blankets were washed and hung up to dry.

The contents of our refrigerator

The next task was to empty out, disinfect and reorganize the refrigerator. Thankfully, I chose the perfect time (unintentionally, of course!) to do this because our refrigerator is rather bare. Truthfully, our fridge isn't usually much more full than this.

Clean and organized!

I am embarassed to admit that this refrigerator was more dirty than I anticipated! We moved in here last July and apparently the previous tenants hadn't cleaned it as well as I thought. It's nice to have it clean and organized now!

Here's what my purse contained...

My third task for today was to clean out my purse. There weren't too many stowaway items in my purse - just some earrings and a few hair bands. Apparently, my wallet dumped over at some point, too, putting change in the bottom of my purse.

When it was all said and done, my purse was looking quite a bit neater. Now the challenge is keeping it that way!

Here's tomorrow's task:

Clean out your freezer. Remove all the contents. Throw away any food that should be pitched (freezer burned, won't ever use, etc.). Disinfect the inside of the freezer. Reorganize all of the contents.

Check back tomorrow evening for an update on my freezer-cleaning adventure! It's sure to be a fun one...

Summer Cleaning: kitchen counters

One of my weekly goals last week was to thoroughly clean my kitchen counters, as well as clean out the toaster oven and toaster. This really was not a tough project and actually didn't even take me very long!

After I cleaned the toaster oven and cleaned out the toaster (yuck!), I moved on to scrubbing down the counters and washing a few items, like two unused canisters, my utensil canister, my spice rack, the knife block, etc.

It was so nice to have everything so neat and clean! We've lived here for nearly one year now, so the kitchen was definitely due for a good, thorough scrubbing.

Starting next week, I am going to dive headfirst into spring summer cleaning our home! Because I work in the schools as a substitute (which is sporadic, at best), spring cleaning is not feasible for me. Instead, I'm going to deep clean our home during June and July this summer. My approach has been inspired by Crystal at Money Saving Mom.com and while I don't care for cleaning, I am looking forward to attacking this project day-by-day. Look for more details next week!

Organizing: office carts {and guess what I found?!}

Last week, one of my goals was to organize the two rolling carts that we have in our office/second bedroom. I wasn't necessarily looking forward to this task, but I pushed forward on Tuesday and knocked it out. It took less than an hour and it sure was nice to have it done!

So my husband and I each had a rolling cart from our college days, plus he also had that smaller black organizer. I recently cleaned out our extra desk because we are hoping to sell it, so now I needed a better system of organization for the office supplies that we have.

Both carts were also disgustingly dirty, so they got a full scrubbing while I was at it. I am ashamed to admit that I have had my cart since 2005 and I don't recall ever taking it apart to clean it!

Anybody know what this is?!

Oh! It's a cassette tape! Ha! I had to laugh when I found this. I think the only place we could even listen to this anymore would be in my 12+ year old car. :)

(Seriously, though, I am not that young...we did have cassette tapes when I was a child!)

When it was all said and done, all of the office supplies fit in one cart (the one on the left). The other cart now contains old photos and other "memories." At some point, I hope to be able to clear out more of that cart, too. I am going to get rid of the small black organizer now. All of the other random items on the floor were either disposed of or put it a more appropriate location in our home.

Slowly but surely, our home is becoming more organized. I am learning how helpful that is when you live in a smaller home! So far this year, I have organized the junk drawer, the bathroom closet, the filing cabinet (a massive project!) and all of my clothes.

Organizing my clothing: lots of purging!

One of my weekly goals this week was to go through all of my clothes. I wanted to see if I need any tank tops since they are on sale for only $3 at Target this week, and we are planning a trip to La Crosse on Friday.

The first part of this task was to actually get to my box of clothes in the back of our walk-in closet. As you can see from the picture above, that's no easy task! On the right side of our closet, we hang all of our hanging clothes. On the left side, we store our empty totes and tubs (our condo has no storage space). Our off-season clothes are also stored on the left side, in the back (of course!).

I managed to get the box out of the closet (without hurting myself!) and then I proceeded to lay out all of my clothes, both summer and winter.

I spent the next 45 minutes trying on virtually every piece of clothing that I currently own. I think 75% of my clothing didn't fit anymore!

This is what I ended up keeping. (I also had a few pairs of sweatpants and pajama pants that didn't make it into the picture.) The end result is essentially that I am okay with shirts, but I only have two pairs of regular pants that work for me (one pair of jeans and one pair of khakis) and ZERO pairs of shorts for this summer. Oops. I think I need to hit the clearance racks and thrift stores!

This tub is overflowing with items that don't fit or are too worn. I haven't decided yet what I am going to do with them...I may donate them, but I'd like to try consignment if I can. I'm considering taking the tub to Plato's Closet in La Crosse to see what they will buy.

After all that, half of my dresser is empty now! I'm okay with that, though...I'd rather have fewer clothes that fit rather than overflowing drawers of clothes that I don't like and that don't fit!

Organizing the filing cabinet

One of my major goals for 2012 was to organize our two drawer filing cabinet. This was no easy feat - but I am happy to report that it is done!

In order to overhaul the filing cabinet, I resolve to work on a few files each week until the project was done. I truly think that this approach is what helped me get this project done. If I had told myself to go in the second bedroom and organize the filing cabinet in one afternoon, it never would have happened! It would have been so overwhelming that I would have avoided it at all costs!

Instead, I chose to work on just a few files per week (as part of my weekly goals). I typically spent less than one hour each week on this project and I completed it in about eight weeks!

We already a lot (and I mean A LOT) of files in the cabinet and they simply needed to be cleaned out and organized. In the process, I was able to throw away and shred many papers. I relocated other papers to more appropriate folders.

Because we are self-employed and have a housing allowance (because my husband is clergy), it is imperative that we keep solid records of our bills and receipts. When I reorganized the filing cabinet, I separated our utility bills, receipts and other paperwork - now I can find any paper in a matter of seconds!

If you have any other questions about my organizational system in the filing cabinet, please ask in the comments section!

Declutter: the bathroom closet

The finished product

One of my goals this week was to declutter, clean out and organize our bathroom closet. We moved in to this condo eight months ago and while I did organize the closet at that time, I didn't do as thorough of a job as I could have done! After eight months, it was getting to the point where I didn't even know exactly what I had in my stockpile anymore.

To tackle this project, I took all of the health and beauty items out of the closet (and from undeneath the vanity) and put them on our bed. After I did that, I seized the opportunity to sweep and mop the floor in the bathroom. That is multitasking at its finest! :)

As you can see from the picture above, I had a "helper" for this project:

Yeah...actually, he didn't help me at all! I suppose you could say that he supervised my work... :)

Once everything was on the bed, I began to sort through the various boxes, totes and tubs. I am telling you - I found things in those boxes that I didn't know I had!

I have four plastic shoe box-size totes (leftover from my college days!) that are now much more organized:

1. One contains all first aid items (bandages, antibiotic ointment, etc.).
2. Another contains medications (extra vitamins, pain relievers, nasal spray, etc.).
3. A third box contains feminine products.
4. And the fourth box contains things like toothbrushes, extra facial care products, and contact lens cases.

I also have a larger plastic tote that holds extra razors, sunscreen and bug spray, and a few larger medication bottles.

The bulk of my stockpile is kept in two large cardboard boxes:

Keeping those items in boxes on the floor of the closet works so well for me. I do look through the boxes regularly so that I know what I have on hand!

When it was all said and done, I had "decluttered" quite a bit:

I threw away quite the collection of old, unused, unneeded or broken items. I also came up with a nice bag of donation items for the women's shelter: hair color, hand soap, Bengay cream, and a few other things.

The organizational part of this decluttering project took me about one hour this week. Now, the most important thing is keeping it clean and organized!

Declutter: the Junk Drawer

This week, I resolved to clean out the junk drawer in our kitchen, inspired by Crystal's post last week. We only have one actual junk drawer in our home, but man, was it full of JUNK!

To be quite honest, some of the stuff in that drawer was in there when we moved into this rental condo - which means I never cleaned it out then! Yikes. Here is the oh-so-scary "before" picture:

Before

I found so many things in that drawer! Here's an idea of what I found:

• Packing tape, Scotch tape, masking tape (Do ya think we have enough tape?!)
• Brackets for anchoring the appliances - those belong with the condo.
• Three little notebooks - those got moved to the "gift stash."
• A single hole punch - I've never seen this before...maybe it was left behind by a previous renter?
• Two pairs of scissors (what?!)
• Floor guards for our furniture - not needed here because we have carpet in the family room and dining area.
• Four different phone books for various counties, dating back as far as 2009!
• A lightbulb - that was burnt out! (That wasn't ours, either.)
• Cable splitter (?)
• Batteries
• Picture hangers, nails, random tools, measuring tapes
• Pens, pencils, markers, higlighter, sticky note pads
• Two keys - I can honestly tell you that I have no idea what these are for! I'm guessing they were in the condo before we moved in.
• Some random plastic clip-like pieces - We have no clue what these are for, but we found them in the kitchen.
• AND I found my large Sharpie marker! I have looking for that marker for months! I thought for sure it had disappeared in our last move...

After some work, I had a much cleaner and more organized "junk" drawer. Actually, now, it doesn't really look like a junk drawer!

After

There were some items that went directly into the trash can. Other items were relocated to more appropriate places in the house.

All told, this project only took me about ten minutes and it feels so nice to have it cleaned out and more organized. Working on this project certainly gave me some laughs, too!

My next organization project this month is our bathroom closet, which is where I keep our health and beauty stockpile. I am positive that project will take me far longer than ten minutes!!

Five tips for living in a small space

Much to my surprise this morning, I am featured in a guest post on Money Saving Mom today! I am writing about living in a small space. Here's a snippet of the post:

This summer, we (suddenly) downsized from a four-bedroom, one-bathroom house to a two-bedroom, two-bathroom condo. We simplified everything, reexamined what we really need on a regular basis, and reorganized our home to fit us better.

However, living in a small space can be challenging at times. As I am learning to focus more on being intentional in my homemaking endeavors, I have five tips for those of you who live in smaller homes.

Head on over to Money Saving Mom to read the rest of my tips for living in a small space!

Have you “liked” Our Frugal Happy Life on Facebook yet? We have lots of fun over there, too!

My 2012 Goals

In an effort to be more intentional and successful in 2012, I have set a list of goals for myself for the year (inspired by Crystal at Money Saving Mom!). By writing down my goals, breaking them into mnageable pieces and holding mysef accountable, I hope to inspire success in myself!

Look for an update toward the end of each month about how I am doing with my goals.

Personal

• Read 36 books in 2012 = three per month.
• Completely reorganize our filing cabinet. I intend to spend at least one hour per week on this (during an average week).
• Complete one Do-It-Yourself project per month.
• Exercise regularly - at least three times per week. We just bought a Nordic Track treadmill, so I will be working on creating some workout routines that work best for me.
• Create monthly goals (a new concept, but similar to my weekly goals) for my personal life.
• Continue creating weekly goals.

Blog

• Post a Do-It-Yourself project update at the end of each month.
• Post a monthly reading update at the end of each month.
• Post two new recipes per month.
• Create monthly goals for my blog.

Marriage and Family

• Continue reading through the Bible together according this two year plan (we are on year two).
• Read several books about marriage and family: The Meaning of Marriage, 7 Habits of Highly Effective Families and Power of a Praying Wife.
• Continue supporting each other through a huge upcoming change in our lives.