Share your favourite tip for organising the fridge

A reader, Vickie, sent me her favourite tip and I thought it would be fun if we all shared ours.

Are you game?

Of course, my favourite tip is to label the shelves in my fridge as in the picture above.

Here's Vickie's tip...

I thought that I would tell you one of my favorite organizing tricks:

I use a clear shoebox in the refrigerator for making quick lunches. My family loves it because you can take the whole box out and make a sandwich. We put the cheese, lunchmeat, tomato, onion, lettuce in the box. All we look for is the salad dressing. It saves time.

Thought you would enjoy this.

Yes, I enjoyed it. Thanks for sharing, Vickie.

Now let's hear from the rest of you.

What's your favourite fridge organising tip?

I declutter because I'm cheap

When we first moved into this house nearly 4 years ago, I didn't realise how little storage space I had.

It seems the previous house had oodles and oodles of nooks and crannies that I just didn't appreciate until I moved here.

I had such a lot of stuff and I really thought I needed some additional built-in kitchen cabinets until I got some quotes.

And just couldn't justify spending thousands of rands to store STUFF.

So I decluttered all my kitchen stuff until I made it fit.

(that may have been the start of my decluttering frenzy)

And we've been happily living in that kitchen ever since.

Cut to a few months ago.

I realised that babies come with kitchen stuff too. A pregnant friend told me that she was having additional kitchen cabinets built and I swear those old tendencies came to the fore and I seriously considered getting some built for us too.

It's easy to justify until you think about all the other stuff you still need to get for the babies.

And so I thought - I've done it once; I can do it again.

So I did.

I decluttered half a shelf so that the baby bottles, etc. can fit in between all our lunch stuff.




I'll have to do a bit more decluttering soon because those bottles have multiplied.

Why do you declutter? What have you done differently because of being "frugal"?

Ask the organiser - what do you do with out-of-the-way storage?

Somebody asked a question - (sorry preggy brain) I can't remember her name and I deleted the email too quickly :)

She is a short person and can't access the top shelf in her pantry so she often has to throw expired items away.

Any ideas to get organised here?

Of course I do!

1. My suggestion is store surplus items here that you don't need to access very often.

2. Then use see-through plastic baskets so that you can grab the front, pull towards you and see everything on the shelf.

3. I suggest that you keep like items together - for example, I have a big plastic basket with all my baking supplies, like cake and self-raising flour, coconut, yeast, bicarb of soda, baking powder, etc.

this is my old baking basket - I've now transitioned to one bigger than this

4. You could also keep a list of contents on the inside of your cupboard door with the contents of that top shelf, like 5 boxes cereal, 20 boxes milk, etc. and be sure to cross off as you use them.

5. I'm also short and I keep a cheap plastic stool nearby my pantry so when I want to get to the top shelf once or twice a month, I can quickly access it.

Hope these tips help you.

What other tips can you share with this reader?

Quick time-saving tip in the kitchen

I was cooking some rice, not really thinking about how I do this when it dawned on me - someone might actually benefit from this tip.

So here goes - when you're measuring rice, or any ingredient really, measure it over the pot or dish so that if some of the food spills (as mostly happens, or is that just me?), you don't have to waste time cleaning up.


Share your quick kitchen tips in the comments.

10-minute organising project - the pantry!

I love organising projects that take very little time to complete but make you feel oh-so-good as if they were a lot more complex than they actually were.

I've shared the fridge organising with you before; today I'm going to share another of my 10-minute projects, organising the pantry.

• throw out expired food like sauce packets, etc.
• move older food to the front and be sure to use them up in the next week
• use baskets and other containers to keep like categories of food together
• as easy as that, you are DONE!
  

When was the last time you organised your pantry?

3 ways to use food so it doesn't spoil

I hate wasting food with a passion!

First of all it's money and also, I can't help thinking about all the hungry people right on my very doorstep.

So I have a few ways I use up food so that it doesn't spoil.

1. Use veggies to make stirfry (as in picture above). In fact, in the above picture, I had some chicken, some spaghetti and veggies. By cooking this one meal, I managed to use all of those up which makes me very, very happy.
2. If there are still veggies left (this particular night, there was also a lot of broccoli), throw into the freezer for use in soups whenever you get around to it.
3. We store bread in the fridge anyway because it's warm in Johannesburg and bread goes mouldy very quickly. Sometimes we still can't get to eat the bread quickly enough so I toss the bread in the freezer. I really like saving time so I package them in packs of 2 slices so that I can simply grab a bag, pop the bread into the toaster and I'm good to go.
   

Those are the only foodstuffs that spoil in this house because when I cook, I cook enough for two meals and immediately freeze the other meal.

What other tips can you share? What works in your house?

10-minute organising project - the fridge

Since I was about 6 - 7 weeks' pregnant, I have had NO energy whatsoever.

Which is bad because I'm used to being really productive but it's also good because I know that when I do have a sudden burst of energy, I need to focus and get whatever done.

I decided to sort out the fridge on one of those occasions and thought I'd time myself to see exactly how long it took, so you'd see it's not that overwhelming.

Main section - before

Main section - after

- grotty carrots were thrown away
- everything was put back in its section
- I also moved some things to smaller containers
- I moved food that we have to eat so that it's clearly visible

Fridge door - before

Fridge door - after

- threw away expired medicine
- moved all the spreads to the correct shelf
- moved bigger bottles of water to the door


By the way, the whole organising project took me just 8 minutes.

How often do you have to organise your fridge?

Let's get baking and cooking

We've been decluttering and organising in our KITCHENS this entire month and this week, we're decluttering our baking pans and cooking stuff.

If you missed out, here are the posts.

1. Tupperware and plastics
2. Mugs and glasses
3. Plates and bowls
4. Cutlery and utensils

(if you don't want to post on the theme, go right ahead and post on whatever you felt like decluttering, or other wise, just show us how you store your baking and cooking things :)

I've posted before about how I learned this tip from one of my organising clients. I worked with her nearly two years ago and my stuff is still neatly organised.



And this is how I store the rest - rolling pin on the side, mixing bowls at the back (I have one I use 90% of the time with my other plastic bowls), measuring cups and spoons in the left basket and the hand beater in the yellow basket on the right.

The more observant among you will see that the usual beater attachments are currently in the wash because I made these pumpkin muffins :)


Now tell me, did you declutter anything today?

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Have a look at the Organise your Home e-course and get your entire home organised in just 12 weeks.

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Now for this week's challenge

Please link to the post on your blog where you show off your pictures and talk about what you decluttered. If you don't have a blog, tell me in the comments about ANYTHING you decluttered this week.

It can be anything - physical, electronic, mental clutter or even the need to be a certain way. Like perfectionism! :)

What did you declutter this week?

Are you ready for tomorrow?

It's our last day of decluttering and organising our kitchens.

The theme is baking pans and cooking stuff (pots, pans, etc.) but remember, as always, if you're working on another section of your kitchen, go right ahead.

The main thing is you're making progress.


(Next month, we're going to declutter and organise our home offices - I can't wait - of course, Anne, our office makeover blogger, will be way ahead of the rest of us )

Let's look at your cutlery and utensils & chance to win a free ecourse

This is the third week of decluttering and organising in our KITCHENS and this week, we're decluttering cutlery and utensils.

(Remember if you don't want to post on the theme, go right ahead and post on whatever you felt like decluttering, or otherwise, just show us how you store your cutlery :)

The last time I decluttered this drawer was about two years ago and it's still working for me, so I thought I'd point out a few things.

See the elastic bands on the top right? Very useful for closing bags in the freezer (those freezer tags drive me nuts because they're too fiddly).

Then, at the bottom, I keep my scissors and the box on the left has a calculator (for when I'm doubling recipes, etc.), a post-it pad, a permanent marker and masking tape.


This is my second drawer. The closed container on the left has extra serving spoons, etc. that I use when entertaining and on the right you'll see all my everyday utensils, also neatly containerised.

On the right there are drinking straws and some markers for our calendar. In the front I have all my sandwich bags that I actually don't use for sandwiches. I use them like this and this. And to the left of the sandwich bags are Ziplocs I want to re-use.



Did you declutter any cutlery or utensils this week?

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Have a look at the Organise your Home e-course and get your entire home organised in just 12 weeks.
Remember you can win an Organise your home e-course right here!

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Now for this week's challenge

Please link to your Friday Declutter Challenge post on your own blog and post a link back here. If you don't have a blog, tell me in the comments about ANYTHING you decluttered this week.

It can be anything - physical, electronic, mental clutter or even the need to be a certain way. Like perfectionism! :)

What did you declutter this week?

Come on - show me your plates and bowls!

Remember we're decluttering and organising in our KITCHENS this month and this week, we're decluttering plates and bowls.

One of our challengers last week donated her surplus mugs and glasses to charity - what an excellent idea!

(if you don't want to post on the theme, go right ahead and post on whatever you felt like decluttering, or other wise, just show us how you store your plates and bowls :)

There are some bowls I'd dearly love to declutter because I think they're ugly. In fact, I've been trying to get rid of them for years.

The problem is my husband loves them. Apparently they're just the right size for his 2 1/2 Weetbix!

As a side note, there's not much he cares about in the kitchen so I let him have his ugly bowls and a purple mug I also don't care for but is again "the perfect size for coffee" :)

So I haven't decluttered anything but before you get cross, here are some pictures of how I store my plates and bowls.



Now tell me, did you declutter any mugs or glasses?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Have a look at the Organise your Home e-course and get your entire home organised in just 12 weeks.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Now for this week's challenge

Please link to the post on your blog where you show off your pictures and talk about what you decluttered. If you don't have a blog, tell me in the comments about ANYTHING you decluttered this week.

It can be anything - physical, electronic, mental clutter or even the need to be a certain way. Like perfectionism! :)

What did you declutter this week?

Friday Decluttering...a day late!

Oh my word. Do you know what no internet does to me???? Makes me crazy.

We've been on holiday for the last week and thank God I delegated email to my virtual assistant just in case because there was absolutely NO SIGNAL up there.

There was one shopping centre with free wifi but after waiting for 20 minutes in the HEAT for the guy to show me how to connect to it (my laptop wasn't showing that little icon and I'm a technophobe as you know), I left, still not knowing, because he was still busy with a customer. Grrr!

Of course that means I couldn't blog yesterday so here we go, a day late :)


Remember we're decluttering and organising in our KITCHENS this month and this week, we're decluttering mugs and glasses.

This is your challenge to throw out any chipped or surplus mugs or glasses that you can't use anywhere else.

(if you don't want to post on the theme, go right ahead and post on whatever you felt like decluttering, or just show us how you store your mugs and glasses :)

Since I wasn't home, I'll show you some boxy t-shirts I unearthed and decluttered before our holiday.

Why do we think that unflattering clothes will hide our unsightly bits?!



Now tell me, did you declutter any mugs or glasses?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Have a look at the Organise your Home e-course and get your entire home organised in just 12 weeks.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Now for this week's challenge

Please link to the post on your blog where you show off your pictures and talk about what you decluttered. If you don't have a blog, tell me in the comments about ANYTHING you decluttered this week.

It can be anything - physical, electronic, mental clutter or even the need to be a certain way. Like perfectionism! :)

What did you declutter this week?

New format Friday Declutter Challenge for 2009

This is the last challenge for 2008. Wow!

I'm so proud of you, even if you only participated a couple of times.

I've been thinking about doing this challenge a little differently next year.

How about we have a "theme for the week" every week? It will be something small and manageable....what do you think?

(if you don't want to post on the theme, go right ahead :) It's mainly to help those who want more direction and guidance with their organising efforts)

So, some housekeeping...

We're decluttering and organising in our KITCHENS for the month of Jan

2 Jan - Tupperware in the kitchen
9 Jan - Mugs and glasses
16 Jan - Plates & bowls
23 Jan - Cutlery and utensils
30 Jan - Baking pans and cooking stuff

Get your entire home organised in 2009.

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This is what I decluttered this week - some old pyjamas I've outgrown :) - too much of these and these.

This is a great week to declutter some items, especially if you received new __________ for Christmas.

Why hang onto those old __________ ?

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Now for this week's challenge

Please link to the post on your blog where you show off your pictures or talk about what you decluttered this week. If you don't have a blog, tell me in the comments about ANYTHING you decluttered this week.

It can be anything - physical, electronic, mental clutter or even the need to be a certain way. Like perfectionism! :)

What did you declutter this week?



P.S.

Decluttering and organising your vitamins

Is it just me or does your kitchen counter also sometimes look like a pharmacy?

One day the vitamins are all organised. Then someone gets the flu, and someone else has to take other medication and before you know it, one little basket has grown to two.

So I took out all the stuff, packed everything neatly in the green basket shown above. And then I made this pile...

The pile on the left has to go back to the bathroom where I keep the main supply and the three tubs on the right get thrown away because they've expired.


And all of that took about 2 minutes, while I was waiting for the kettle to boil for my tea.

What do you do while you're waiting for the kettle to boil?

August declutter challenge - day 30

Literally, scratching around to find things to declutter.

• disposable cups (to a friend - I know they're having a party soon)
• communion glasses (to same friend since we don't run cell groups any more)
• egg-holder
• water bottle
• other rubbish :)

What are you decluttering today? If you've been going along with us all month, you deserve a huge pat on the back!

Get ready tomorrow to link up for the GRAND PRIZES!

August declutter challenge - day 25

We're in the home stretch now, everybody - don't feel despondent - keep going :)


This is from my baking section. That white thing is an ice bucket but we really don't need it - I actually don't think I've ever used it.

And I definitely don't use the biscuit cutters (cookie cutters) since I discovered my oatmeal drop cookies. Less mess and oh so yummy!

The blue mats are silicone - I bought a big one and cut it into smaller pieces to fit my baking pans. I don't need them anymore since I discovered baking paper. Oh my - my life really has changed since Glad's baking paper. No greasing baking sheets any more - it saves so much time!

Here's how I organise my baking pans. I love it and am pleased to say since I posted that picture in October last year, it still looks exactly the same, so it's working for me.

So that's today's contribution. What are YOU decluttering today?

August declutter challenge - day 23

Okay, so I finally made it in here. I go through the kitchen regularly but I decided to look through the cupboards as if I was with a client.

So this stuff came from my corner cupboard - I bought a whole set of microwaveable "goodies" YEARS ago. I used to use these regularly but somehow, I don't think I've used these things in the last year or so, so out they go.

What will you declutter today? Have you been to your kitchen yet?

5 steps to organise your kitchen counter

I often get asked, "how do you keep the kitchen counter neat, tidy and organised?"

A kitchen counter can get out of control very quickly because of all the different things happening, like children's papers, meal preparation, cooking, homework/ crafting, shopping, etc.

Because of this, I don't think you could ever just leave the kitchen and hope it would stay neat and organised!

However, here are a couple of tips to help you at least try:

1. have clearly designated areas for each activity
We have one little corner just as you enter our kitchen where we pack and unpack lunches, sort papers and so on.

The rest of my smallish kitchen is for meal preparation and cooking.

2. remove anything you don't use on a daily or weekly basis
The more stuff you have on the counter, the more you have to clean and wipe down those appliances.

If you only use your slow cooker once a month, then store it in your pantry and enjoy all that wonderful counter space.

3. keep things where you use them
When your utensils are stored far from your stove and you have a lot of back and forth, that's when your kitchen starts getting disorganised.

4. have a method of dealing with the paper
The more paper you throw away, the less you have to file ;) Use a plastic drawer system and clearly label the drawers. Once you have this set up, there should only be paper on your counter for a maximum of 5 minutes a day (only while you're sorting and checking you have all the notes from school, etc.).

This picture is from my study but I always suggest to clients with children that they have one of these in the kitchen and use a drawer per family member (mom and dad can also share a drawer).

5. maintain regularly
This will depend on how busy your kitchen is. When both of us are at home the whole day (like when we're on holiday), I do a quick 5-minute tidy and wipe-down of the counters after each meal and also before I prepare supper.

For more help organising your kitchen (and the rest of your home), check out the Organise your Home e-course.

For more great tips, visit Shannon at http://rocksinmydryer.net

Edited to answer Tami's question in the comments...
No, Tami, the picture is from my study. I don't have space in my kitchen at all for paper, so I sort my paper as I walk in the door and throw the junk away right there and then.

The rest goes straight to my study where I put it in my in-tray (which lives on top of those drawers, incidentally ;))

I attend to my filing about once every week or two, depending on how much there is. Remember I'm ruthless about only keeping stuff I actually need, so there's never very much.

Tackle it Tuesday - under my sink

When I was doing the homemaking meme, one of the questions was “what’s under your sink?” so I went to have a look and got a huge fright.

Looks like a big mess so I took a picture quickly and decided that would be my tackle this week.

So here’s the before.


And here’s the after – much better.

On the right side is my basket with all the everyday cleaning goodies. Behind the basket I keep spare cleaning cloths.

On the left side is where I keep my crafty stuff. Now I use that term very lightly. I make candles when the mood hits me and I like to make bath salts and foot soak (easy stuff like that). I think it’s from my chemistry background that I like mixing things.

In the front is a bucket I keep my “recipes” and all my mixing bowls, funnel and mixing spoons. At the back I keep the bath salts that are ready for decanting into special bottles, my Epsom and coarse sea salt, essential oils, and so on.

And at the bottom we keep all our trays and chopping boards.

Now please share, what’s under your sink?

Critique my blog

Oh by the way, I submitted my blog for a critique and here it is. What a nice man Bill is.

Oct 2006 - organising challenges

Week 1 – Declutter your kitchen counter tops.
Do you really need everything on your counter tops?

Go around your kitchen with "new eyes" and see what you can declutter.You should only have things that you use more than once a week on your counter top. If, for example, you have an electric frying pan out that you use once a month, consider storing it in a cupboard and only taking it out when you use it.

Tip - use vertical space wherever possible. Instead of a canister with your cooking utensils, consider mounting hooks above your stove for them.

Week 2 – Organise your clothes on shelves.
I would suggest that you put all the clothes you frequently use at shoulder height and the rest either one shelf up or down.

I swop mine around every winter or summer and I find that it helps to keep my shelves neat and tidy. My jeans and T-shirts are now at shoulder height and the long-sleeved tops and jerseys have been moved a shelf down now that it's Spring.

Week 3 – Declutter and organise your recipe books and files.
This week, we are going to sort out all those recipe books in the kitchen. I know what it's like because I'm just like you.

You see some gorgeous books at the bookshop, imagine cooking all those delicious meals and buy the book. If you're lucky, you make one or two recipes and then that's it - they start gathering dust.

So our challenge is to sort the books into two piles - books I use (or have used) and books that just look pretty and take up space. Let go of the second pile to other cooks, second hand bookshops, etc. and free up some space in the kitchen.

Once you've decided on the ones to keep, buy a pretty magazine folder and keep them together neatly. I download things off the internet too and use plastic flip files to organise those recipes.

Now and again I go through them and throw out recipes I know I have no intention of ever making.

I don't know if I'm lazy or if I just prefer to cook more creatively but the only recipes I tend to keep are for baked goodies.

Have fun with this one - maybe you'll even get inspired to cook or bake up a storm this weekend. THink of me if you make any muffins (I LOVE baking muffins because they're so easy).

Week 4 – Spruce up your coffee & end tables.

Do you have an organising question for me?
Email your question

There are less than 3 months left before Christmas. Wouldn't you like to have an organised, peaceful Christmas? Go to http://takechargesolutions.org/12org.pdf to see how I can help you.