Whether it’s in the kitchen, bathroom or bedroom, I love having my tools ready and at my fingertips so that my work is made easier. However, I’ve found it so difficult to keep them neat and organized. I had this issue in my bedroom where I store all my hair tools – dryer, round brush, curling iron and styling spray. I had thrown them all into a small basket and every time I’d get one out, it would be tangled up with the others. The cords stuck out like serpents, wriggling all over the place. What to do?
If you have a home and a car, you always have something to do!
Like anything, a home needs constant maintenance. I think closets and pantries that are used every day need frequent refreshment. Things need to be reevaluated to know if the space is working at its optimal potential.
We have lived in our house for nine and half years and we are going through and slowly giving each room a fresh coat of paint. It feels amazing. This week the entry way, living room and kitchen were painted a lovely white called, Blue kiss. It’s a white paint with blue hues. As I was getting the rooms prepped for the paint job, I realized that my pantry was also a spot that had the “old” paint color. Soooo, I pulled everything out, put it on the kitchen table so it could get brightened up with the new white shade. It was a good bit of work, but I knew it was going to pay huge dividends!
Last week on Instagram I saw Ree Drummond (Pioneer Woman) do a reel showing how she stocked her refrigerator. She started with a fridge that clean and empty. Then she added all new, unopened grocery items –
Bottles of water
Condiments
Piles of fresh lemons and limes
Eggs
Cheeses of every kind
Several kinds of meats
Sodas
Milk
Juices
Deli meats
Veggies of all sorts, all washed and wrapped
Freshly roasted chicken
Homemade soups and hummus
And lots more
It was pretty incredible to view the video, but as I watched, I wondered what “regular person” could really purchase all that so they could end up with that lovely, satisfying result? What do you think? Could the average person fill their fridge like that all at one time? I don’t think very many would be able to follow her example.
But I have some good news! I have a few ideas for you today to help your fridge be as organized and lovely inside as Ree’s – and it will cost you nothing extra!
Since we’ve just come through the holidays, perhaps your fridge is nearly bare. Great! Or maybe it’s still full of little leftover containers of this and that. That’s okay.
Start by emptying the shelves one at a time. Analyze each food item as to whether it should stay or go. Check the expiration dates and pitch anything out that’s old.
Once the shelf is empty, wipe it down with hot, soapy water. Then begin to put the items for that shelf back in.
Keep like items together – condiments, salad dressings, sauces, dairy itms, etc.
Place each item with labels facing out so it looks uniform.
I like using vinyl placemats in my fridge because it makes it easy to wash. I plunge them into the hot, soapy water, then dry them and put them back in their spot! You’ll notice the turquoise ones in the picture below.
I like putting my blueberries and strawberries into Mason jars (after the berries have been washed). They stay fresh SO much longer that way! You’ll see the jar in the left drawer below. They also look pretty displayed in the fridge that way! Mason jars are also great for leftovers!
I try to keep all the leftover containers together on one shelf, that way nothing gets forgotten, and it keeps the fridge from getting cluttered up with little dishes.
Start the new year with a fresh start in your kitchen by taking what you have and getting it clean and organized. You’ll be inspired to keep it that way. There’s something very satisfying about opening up a freshly straightened up space – especially something as big and important as the refrigerator!
Is your fridge full or empty now that the holidays are past?
When your garage is messy a disaster and needs some good organization and then you see that your neighbor is giving away a lovely piece of furniture that would make the perfect mini-mudroom, you slam on the brakes and go get that piece of furniture! That’s exactly what happened to us last weekend!
Garages easily become catch-all’s for everything that you don’t know what to do with or don’t need anymore (can I get a witness?!). Over the winter months, our garage got Out. Of. Hand. Now with this beautiful piece of furniture in tow, I decided to use it to make a mud room of sorts. It will be a place where shoes can be slipped on and off, and also used for some extra storage space for the thing my husband needs more room for – his books. I failed to take a picture before we moved the piece in, but here it is just piled up and not yet organized.
I’m married to a sentimental guy. He likes to hold onto things that were his from long ago, his parents’ possessions and maybe even his grandparents’. That means an old cell phone from his mom, a CD player/Boom Box, a ton of CD’s (you know what those are, right? Ha!), letters, and year books are treasures to him. I wanted to help organize his belongings, not really toss them, so that was part of my task in this garage clean-up job. I made a place for his mom’s CD player (and have it plugged in and accessible) and also found storage for the CD’s. I also made a place for his shoes when he comes in, as well as space for some car accessories, yard games and fire pit tools.
Since we always come in through the garage, I like to make it inviting. A wreath, a cute greeting on the door say, “Welcome Home!” If you’re going to hang art work in your garage, why not hang up a picture of a cool, old truck?! A young man at our church gave that to my husband a few years ago.
I also added a tin for bats, balls and other toys so that my grandsons could easily access them. The aqua cushion on the furniture was one I had already and wasn’t using anymore. Now it’s providing a soft place to sit down and lace up shoes!
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I love that this new space cost me $0, thanks to kind neighbors who needed to unload a piece of furniture. If you have a garage that could use some organization, why not look on Facebook Marketplace? People are often selling pieces like this one for little to nothing, or maybe you’ll be blessed with a free piece like I was!
What could you do to create an inviting space in your garage or car port? Sometimes just adding a wreath and a pretty rug can transform the garage from just a place for the car to a place that welcomes you home!
Refresh your garage with a little spring spruce up!
For many people summertime means travel, travel means packing and packing means stress! It’s stressful because it’s hard to fit everything in, then when you get to where you’re going, you can’t find items easily, which means tearing your suitcase apart to find it!!
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