Odds and Ends in the Kitchen
I had big plans for this week. Big! I bought a rug and then accessories. I drove to IKEA and deliberated between finishes. Then I sat down on Tuesday to put together my Swedish find from China only to realize 15 minutes later that I had two right panels instead of a right and left. I quadruple checked my work and called the store to confirm that, yes, I bought a world-wide manufacturing error that wouldn’t get resolved before Friday. Oh well. Maybe next week.
On Wednesday I created a Plan B and worked towards wrapping up some odds and ends in the kitchen. I replaced the plastic containers I talked about last week with glass, stocked up on the canning jars I use to store almost everything, bought storage lids for the jars, and made two other small purchases I’ll talk about in a bit.
One project always leads to another, so I cleaned out the refrigerator, too.
It looks good from afar, but it’s far from good on the inside. The woman who used to clean our house said that before she did her weekly shopping, she deep cleaned her refrigerator top to bottom. Everything came out and she washed and disinfected the interior. While the refrigerator dried, she went through all the food (now on the counter) and tossed anything old or near expiration. Then she put everything back and made her grocery list. She made Martha Stewart look lackadaisical.
“Well,” I said, “that’s why you do what you do for a living, and why I pay you to do it.”
I miss her.
Cleaning out the refrigerator seemed like it would take a while, so I decided to first tackle the small projects to gain a sense of achievement. The first thing I did was lay out our new Dish Drying Mat. We’ve always used towels before, and aside from the inconvenience of having one less towel, we ran the risk of damaging our cabinets if the towel failed to hold all the water from drying dishes. Because of the way our sink sits, drainboards don’t work. We’ve never had a problem using just towels, but I wanted a proper dish mat. Done and done. I think it looks nice and simple, and it’s very absorbent. What a difference from using a towel! I love it. As far as dish mats go, of course.
Next, I hung a little towel bar on one of the cabinet doors (the cabinet doors I need to replace with news ones sitting in the garage). I’ve wanted one since August 28, 2008. I know the date because that’s when Nicole revealed her kitchen remodel, and I asked her about the towel bar. She said, “I got it at Bed Bath and Beyond!” I said, “Cool, I’ll go pick one up!”
Exactly three years and 8 months later, I did.
Tackling the storage drawer was a breeze. I decided to buy the Pyrex brand glass containers. The price worked better with my budget, and the BPA-free plastic lids don’t bother me as much as it would to store glass lids in a small drawer. It looks like I went from thousands of containers to just a few, but I only lost four pieces. Everything fits so nicely that the drawer seems cavernous. I’m going to buy a few ultra-small containers, and so that everything fits I’ll store the lids underneath the containers. Right now there is enough room for them to hang out on their sides.
The last task I used to procrastinate involved transferring nuts into canning jars. Fascinating! I ran out of canning jars months ago, but kept forgetting to buy more. I use them to store nuts and seeds in the refrigerator and pasta sauces in the freezer. I noticed Tamar Adler used them in the videos I shared yesterday to store her food for the week, so I figured now was as good a time as any to buy more. They are so inexpensive. I love canning jars.
And then, the refrigerator. It didn’t take as long as I feared. It never does.
Much better. The second picture is a close up of my canning jars so you can see how I store my nuts and seeds (I use them in salads). You can also see the BPA-free storage lids I finally remembered to buy. I drove ten miles out of my way to buy those things, but they’re worth the $200 extra I had to spend in gas. The standard silver ring and lid that comes with canning jars rusts easily. These plastic lids will last much, much longer and they are infinitely easier to use.
Now all I have left to do is the freezer. Dear God, the freezer.
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Potatoes and Onions
Today’s project is something I wanted to do in October. I didn’t, but I can’t remember why. It might have been because I forgot, or it might have been because this isn’t a project with show stopping results. When you are doing one project after another, a pretty “after” is a lot like a pat on the back. This project, organizing potatoes and onions, is a lot like your mother leaning over and picking the lint off your shoulder. Annoying, but helpful.
To the left of our sink is a lazy-Susan cabinet where we keep our casserole dishes and the potatoes and onions. Right now, the potatoes and onions sit in plastic mixing bowls (sometimes in their plastic store bags, sometimes not) and slowly rot from abandon. My mom has always stored these cellar vegetables in two separate baskets in her pantry and, to her credit, rarely has a problem with rot. Of course, potatoes and onions wouldn’t dare defy her will by getting soft or sprouting greens. And, if they did, heaven knows my immigrant mother wouldn’t let a little thing like decomposition stop her from making dinner. No food goes to waste. Ever. Slice off the mold! That sprout is good luck! Quit being a baby!
I don’t have the space to store my vegetables in a basket in the pantry, but I realized shortly after our kitchen remodel in 2007 that I could store them in small baskets in the lazy Susan cabinet. It’s 2012 now, so, you know. Tick-tock! (Hunger Games)
I pulled everything out and vacuumed out the cabinet. I didn’t put anything in the donate pile. I use everything here, perhaps infrequently. I’m not really a casserole person, yet I seem to have several. Honestly, the French white Corningware dishes were a wedding present for an acquaintance whose wedding we missed at the last minute. I tried for a while to meet up with her, but our schedules never connected and when we would bump into each other on the street, it’s not like I had the dishes in my purse. She later divorced. I use them now to store leftovers from dinner.
I dream of a plastic-free kitchen. In fact, I emptied out my tupperware drawer today intent on cleaning it out. I changed my mind at the last minute. I didn’t have everything I need to replace the plastic and I felt rushed, like I was doing the project for all the wrong reasons.
I’ve been housebound for a week now, and today was no different. Nicholas has the stomach flu and Mikey is recuperating from the flu I had last week. They’re doing fine, but I couldn’t leave the house for baskets. In the end, I think that was a good thing. I’ve put this project off for 5 years, and searching for the perfect basket sounds like something I would do to procrastinate. I found this old fashioned picnic-like basket in the garage and used it to toss in all my potatoes and onions.
I panicked a bit about mixing the potatoes and onions and even researched it on Google. The jury is still out on whether I did it for curiosity or to extend this project to six years instead of five. My gut says procrastinate, because in the 12 years I have mixed potatoes and onions like a pimp I never once pondered the ramifications of this crime against nature. In case you are curious, research says no, you should not store potatoes and onions together because the chemicals they release hasten hasten spoilage in the other. Research also says 99.9% of homeowners who don’t have underground cellars or large pantries store their potatoes and onions together because life is too short to worry about root vegetables.
All together now: zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.
In researching storing potatoes and onions, I did find these storage canisters, which are all the rage on sites like ChowHound, The Kitchn, and popular remodel websites. They’re cute, but large and expensive. I would consider buying them if I wasn’t so averse to items cluttering up my counter. I only have a few precious feet to work, and having large ceramic crocks (pretty though they may be) monopolize my work area would drive me batty.
- Please link to a specific post, not a general blog address.
- Your post must relate to your efforts to create an intentional home. I have a delete button, and I’m not afraid to use it.
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- There are buttons to add to your post or sidebar, too, thanks to the lovely Alex, of Type A Calligraphy. Please link the buttons back to this site.
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A Minute for a Life
I bought my first book on simple living (this one) shortly after I became a stay-at-home mom in 2006. I loved the idea of voluntary simplicity, of living within your means in an intentional home. I loved it so much I bought this book and then this book and many, many other books. And then I did nothing.
Sometimes it’s easier for me to do nothing than to do something and fail. And by failing, I mean not do it perfectly. Not be the best.
It took five years, several books, countless blogs, numerous videos, and the sudden, horrible deaths of Helena’s parents for me to finally take the steps necessary to make our home intentional–useful, beautiful, sometimes both.
And even after all that, I’m still not sure I would have accomplished as much as I have if it wasn’t for Nester’s 31 Day Project. I jumped in with less than 48 hours to consider what I was doing. I’m not one to quit something I’ve started (unless it’s a diet) so I put my head down and charged ahead blindly.
In plowing ahead I discovered the first rule of the William Morris Project. It takes longer to procrastinate than it does to act.
Every project took less time than I anticipated. Most of my projects take about an hour. Some take more time than others, but that’s because I’ve let things get out of hand or because I’m dealing with outside issues. I dread the project until I start. Sometimes I hate it while I’m doing it, but most of the time it isn’t as horrible as I anticipated. Then, I finish and wonder what I was all worked up about in the first place.
If you are alive you already know the second rule of the William Morris Project. Nothing stays clean forever.
Once I accepted I didn’t need to do it perfectly, I had to accept that my imperfect results will look even less perfect in two weeks, two days, or two hours. Lived in rooms reflect signs of life. There is no denying it or avoiding it, so I no longer let the irrefutable keep me from living in the home of my dreams. Most of the time.
Yes, I get annoyed and discouraged. Yes, I wonder why on earth the boys always put their baseball uniforms or practice gear in the hamper instead of the laundry room so that when they need it–just 48 hours later!–they have to upend their hampers to find their sliding shorts.
It’s always the sliding shorts! How they make it to the bottom of the hamper in 48 hours is a mystery.
If it doesn’t have to be perfect and nothing stays clean forever, then it’s only fair that rule number three of The William Morris Project offers a ray of sunshine. After you simplify, it’s easier to clean.
Before this project, I could never clean the house top to bottom in a single day. Impossible. Now, toys take minutes to pick up. The family room can look presentable in as quick as 15 minutes.
Everything gets messed up all over again, but you won’t ever again see me spending twelve hours over the course of three weeks to clean up toys. And if I do, punch me.
Of course, that’s when everything is smooth sailing. Sometimes, life gets a little crazy, and you have no choice but to use rule number four of The William Morris Project. Screw it.
Two weeks ago the Mister went out of town. No big deal, he does that often. Except I got sick. Really, really sick. And the boys had baseball practices. And choir practice. And school. And homework. And it was all too much. I crawled to Target, bought a pack of paper plates and plastic utensils, and fed them random bits of food from the pantry or fast food. It was all I could do to get out of bed. I couldn’t clean or organize or cook and that’s okay. I don’t feel guilty about it and, to be honest, the boys were in heaven. Fast food again?! Life is grand, mama!
That week of sloth left us with a house in shambles. And again, having learned nothing it seems, I dreaded cleaning the house and put it off until it started to affect my mood. I don’t do well when the house is a wreck. That doesn’t mean that I’m whistling Dixie and skipping off to scrub toilets. To be perfectly honest, if we had the budget I would have someone clean the house for me. Hah! So there you go.
We don’t have the budget for a cleaning service, so it’s up to me and my crew to keep the house clean. It’s not always fun, the projects take us away from what we would rather be doing, and we never seem to have the money to do things we really want, but the end result is worth the effort.
Try it and see if you don’t agree.
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Organzing Recipes
To the left of my sink is a slim, awkwardly sized cabinet that can’t hold much. I keep in it small decor items, the cookbooks I use most often, and a loose collection of recipes I found online and in magazines.
To the right of my stove, which is also diagonal to the slim cabinet, is a standard sized cabinet. Inside I store plates, bowls, platters, tea, my recipe box, and a loose collection of recipes I found online and in magazines.
This is a DELUXE RECIPE BINDER my dad bought me for Christmas, bless his heart. I put it in the return pile, and when I couldn’t figure out where he bought it, I put it in the donate pile. At some point I was curious and opened it up. It’s not my style and not anything I would buy, but it wasn’t half bad!
There are plenty of stickers and labels for food gifts and storage, matching loose-leaf paper, organized tabs and dividers (not enough, in my opinion), printer-friendly recipe cards, several at-a-glance cooking guides, and plenty of pockets (about 7) to store loose items. It’s not beautiful, but it sure is useful. I looked online and couldn’t find a DELUXE RECIPE BINDER with a modern aesthetic, but even if I did I wouldn’t buy one. This one is brand new and will do nicely. I would feel wasteful buying the same thing in a different pattern, especially since this one is nonreturnable.
I pulled out the recipe box and all my loose recipes. I thought the project would take me 20 minutes, tops. Fool!
So many of my online recipes were duplicates! And a few of them–the ones I’ve made over and over again–I remember printing out multiple times. My “system” was so unorganized, so nonexistent, that it was easier for me to go to the computer and print out another copy than rifle through a stack of stained, crumpled paper spread across two cabinets for a recipe I wasn’t sure I had.
I then tackled my recipe box, which was equally pathetic. I kept only a handful of recipes, three from my grandmother that I didn’t even know I had. The rest went in the garbage. I will write out the recipes I cut from packages or ripped from papers on the recipe cards provided. They are huge, which I like. My writing is large and sprawling; I can use the room.
I also did what I should have done years ago, and that’s slip the recipes into sheet protectors. That’s what took forever! But it’s done. Yay. I love that the binder tabs account for that and far enough that you can still see them. Fun fact: I blogged that recipe almost two years ago to the day right here.
In the end I was left with a neat, tidy, and easily accessed collection of recipes.
That didn’t fit in the cabinet. Sad trombone. Eventually (like, five minutes ago at 10:55pm as I was showing off my handiwork to the Mister) I figured out I could fit the binder if I stored it in the middle of the cabinet, away from the hinges and frames. And by “I figured out,” I mean the Mister pointed out what should have been obvious.
Before that revelation, I had decided to store it where I used to keep my recipe box. It wasn’t ideal, but I quickly found a silver lining. For starters, now I know what William Morris project I’m going to be tackling next week. Yowza.
- Please link to a specific post, not a general blog address.
- Your post must relate to your efforts to create an intentional home. I have a delete button, and I’m not afraid to use it.
- No links to giveaways, please.
- There are buttons to add to your post or sidebar, too, thanks to the lovely Alex, of Type A Calligraphy. Please link the buttons back to this site.
- Let’s use this weekly link up as an opportunity to gather inspiration and motivation. Click links. Discover new people. Say hi and good job. I know I will.
Cleaning Out the Toys
This post is sponsored by Glad. We’re taking small steps to do our part and want to help you waste less too. Visit GLAD.com for more information.
This is a story with a beginning, a middle, and an ending yet to come.
A few weeks ago I went into Nicholas’s room to grab his hamper of dirty clothes. I walked out confused. It wasn’t there. I went back in, thinking I made a mistake. It still wasn’t there. I walked back to the laundry room, thinking I already grabbed his hamper and forgot. It wasn’t there, either. I know it sounds silly, but I went back into his room and did a slow circle in place. No hamper! Again I walked back to the laundry room, this time staring into corners and walkways. Nothing. I gave up and assumed I was losing my mind.
I went into Mikey’s room to grab his hamper, and that’s where I found Nico’s. In the center of the room, somewhat lopsided, for all the world to see. I called out to Nicholas and asked him if he put his hamper in Mikey’s room.
He said yes. “I’m ready for my bunk beds, mama.”
Apparently, he was moving in. I told him before that was possible, we were going to have to get rid of some toys. Two boys with too many toys can’t fit in one room.
We reduced Mikey and Nico’s toys and books by 75% over the course of three weeks. What’s amazing is that Mikey and Nico are thrilled with the results.
I have yet to immerse myself in this month’s book club pick. Instead, I went to the library and checked out Simplicity Parenting once more. This time, I took copious notes and read it cover to cover instead of trying to cram it in between dozens of books almost due. I devoured it and will buy a permanent copy for our home soon.
I love this book and everything it has to say. Not everyone agrees with me. Some find the practices the books recommends difficult to follow. I could spend an entire post on this book, but for today I’ll share what we did and how the rooms look now.
They are a work in progress. I still have a ways to go before Mikey and Nico can share a room! The biggest piece of advice I can give to anyone planning a major overhaul of a child’s toy storage is that you do it on your own or with your partner. Don’t involve the children. It’s what Simplicity Parenting recommends, and having done it both ways (before and since the purge) I can tell you it’s excellent advice.
I always included the boys when purging out their toys in the past to make sure I didn’t get rid of something they truly loved. The problem is that every toy is a toy they truly love. Their memory is astounding. The know the who, what, where, and how of every single plastic widget in their room. The 5″ stuffed toucan they won at a flea-bit carnival that lived underneath the bed for two years is suddenly of utmost importance. You can spend hours arguing the necessity of keeping a Star Wars action figure with missing arms.
“Mom, he’s been injured in battle! We use him in our war scenes.”
Nice try.
We dropped the boys off with my parents for quality time and the Mister and I spent the eve before Super Bowl Sunday purging toys. It was fun! We called the shots, we flew through boxes, and we ended up with a pretty clean room for Nico (no train table, a great reduction of books, etc.) and a head start on Mikey’s (most of the expedit purged).
When we brought them home, we were nervous what they would say, especially about the missing train table (that they never used except to pile their toys).
They loved it. All of it.
Although we cleaned out the closets in October, Christmas brought another avalanche of toys from the grandparents. It was depressing and annoying. I worked so hard to clean out Mikey’s closet, and then worked hard to keep it clean. The simple truth is we were storing so many unused, outdated, or broken toys before Christmas, we had nowhere to store the new Christmas toys I didn’t feel they needed.
We’ve since come to an agreement on how gift giving will go from this point forward.
This past holiday weekend I emptied out all the toys from the closet and began purging those, along with what was left in the expedit.
I normally include lots of progress shots when I do these William Morris posts but this is all I have. It was so exhausting, so discouraging, and so absolutely overwhelming at times to be surrounded by all those toys that it was all I could do to keep from crying. I wanted to give up a thousand times and hated every minute of it. I don’t know if it’s because the boys were with me the second time around (and Nico especially slooooowed down the process) or if it was because I was coming down with a cold, but I felt really frustrated and alone.
I would pick up two toys and then stop. Pout. Wonder why I even bother, since I’m the only one who even cares if the house stays clean. Pick up two more toys and a book and then stop again. Imagine the homes of all the natural living bloggers I admire and compare it to my plastic strewn disaster.
Towards the end I cheered up as I watched Mikey take ownership of the project. When I told him he could work at the garage sale and sell toys he didn’t want (and keep the money for whatever he wants to buy) he was beside himself. He started making advertisements for all his toys and has big plans for all the money he is going to make.
19.99? Lasts only thru Monday. Buy it now and you’ll only have to pay 15.99$!
I mean, come on. You can’t stay in a bad mood in the face of superior marketing. I called it a day shortly after that and didn’t tackle their rooms again for a few more days.
This is a coincidence, but Nicholas is looking in the direction where that train table used to sit.
This is his room now. That little Target cubby system (worthless) holds his shoes in the bottom row. The rest is empty, minus what you see. We’ll sell it at the garage sale.
Here is the expedit. It’s empty! Not empty-empty, but close enough. I could have moved what’s there into the closet, but I was too tired. We’re going to sell this, too.
In the closet are toys we are going to donate, sell, or keep but are too large to store anywhere but under the bed. I prefer not to store them there because of Mikey’s allergies.
And here are the remaining toys. The three bins at the bottom store what they play with most often: dinosaurs, Hot Wheels, and action figures. They also love legos, blocks, and construction sets. I somehow managed to fit all their books onto this shelf, too. (Also worthless, also from Target.) We’re going to sell it and buy something more substantial that can actually fit picture books. Ridiculous.
In the end, we had over nine trash bags of toys and books, both functional and to discard. They’re all sitting on the back porch, waiting for the garage sale/trash day. Amazing what you keep when you aren’t paying attention.
This post was part of The William Morris Project, a weekly series that details the steps I am taking to create an intentional home. You can see more of my goals and completed projects here. To learn more about this project, start here.
Now it’s your turn! Feel free to share how you have lived according to the William Morris quote, “Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful.” Made a plan? Cleaned a drawer? Bought a sofa? Tell us about it with a link or comment. A few guidelines:
- Please link to a specific post, not a general blog address.
- Your post must relate to your efforts to create an intentional home. I have a delete button, and I’m not afraid to use it.
- No links to giveaways, please.
- There are buttons to add to your post or sidebar, too, thanks to the lovely Alex, of Type A Calligraphy. Please link the buttons back to this site.
- Let’s use this weekly link up as an opportunity to gather inspiration and motivation. Click links. Discover new people. Say hi and good job. I know I will.
