Getting your pantry/food storage organized can be a challenge. Sometimes it’s just a matter of purging and moving things around. But honestly, for most of us, it’s about making better use of the space. And that means you need to invest in a couple of inexpensive products to make it easier to see and store things. Here are my favorites:

• Under-shelf racks. These essentially add another shelf and it’s much better than stacking things, trying to balance them and having them tumble all over the place.
• Wall or door-mounted shelves. These allow you to use space you didn’t even know you have. Use spice rack size for small items and wider shelves if you want to store canned goods.
• An elevator. A graduated stepped shelf that you set on an existing shelf allows you to finally see what’s behind everything! You’ll no longer buy duplicates of black beans and tomato paste because you’ll finally be able to see what you own.
• Plastic shoeboxes. I love these to store bulk bags of spices I buy from Penzey’s, to keep all the individual size canned fruit packages from rolling around, and for tea and drink mixes. I also use one for my collection of sea salts. They’re easy to take in and out and keep all those little things organized.
• Square glass storage jars. These are my pick for storing baking goods, cereal, pasta, and other products. Because they’re square, they stack and fit together. Glass contains no harmful chemicals and they are see through, so you know exactly how much you have left.

The glass jars are the most expensive items on the list. You can get everything else for $50 or less. I suggest gradually replacing your plastic with glass over time. You can find many of these are discount stores like Walmart or Target. Amazon is a great online source. The Container Store also have a lot, but their prices tend to be a bit higher.

Getting your pantry/food storage organized can be a challenge. Sometimes it’s just a matter of purging and moving things around. But honestly, for most of us, it’s about making better use of the space. And that means you need to invest in a couple of inexpensive products to make it easier to see and store … Read more →

I’ve been bit hard by the New Year organizing bug and the kitchen was what was begging for attention this past weekend. I happen to have written a kitchen organizing book, so I have a little bit of experience in this area!

The pantry is the hardest place in my house to keep orderly. We have a pantry that is built over the basement steps, so it’s like a closet, but you have to go up a step to get in it. It’s filled with shelves and racks and baskets, as well as some risers to make cans easier to see.

The big problem was that this past year I became gluten-free, taking my family along with me (mostly). But I still had big tubs of flour (white flour, whole wheat flour, white whole wheat flour, rye flour, self-rising flour, bread flour, and cake flour) that were crowding my pantry, while my gluten-free flours were floating around in plastic bags. It was time to take action. Out went all the flour with gluten (except for one bin of all-purpose to use for school bake sales, etc.). I washed the containers and filled them with my new gluten-free products. I had enough containers left over to finally put some items (like gluten-free oats,  cornmeal, gluten-free breadcrumbs, and different rices) into their own storage containers.

Not only have I written the book on kitchen organizing, but I also unofficially apprenticed myself to Martha Stewart for several years (this blog used to be called MarthaAndMe). And Martha is the queen of organization. So I took a page out of Martha’s book and used my little P-touch machine (which prints labels) to label each and every container in my pantry, on the lid and on the side. So now I can tell exactly what is in each without fumbling around and trying to read my handwriting on the lids. It’s genius.

I kept some regular pasta, which the kids promise to use up on their own, but I separated it out so now I have a gluten-free and a regular section.

I made a bag for the food pantry with soups and other products that were unopened and contained gluten.

I still would like to switch everything over to glass storage containers instead of plastic, so that remains on my long-term wishlist for the pantry.

What condition is your pantry in?

I’ve been bit hard by the New Year organizing bug and the kitchen was what was begging for attention this past weekend. I happen to have written a kitchen organizing book, so I have a little bit of experience in this area! The pantry is the hardest place in my house to keep orderly. We … Read more →

Previous wrap storage

I started the New Year out with some organization projects.

My pantry is always an ongoing project. Last year we put shelves on the inside of the door. I kept my food

New wrap shelf

wraps there (plastic, aluminium, parchment, etc.) but they often come flying off when the door moves. So yesterday we installed a shelf just for them inside the pantry, inside the wall it shares with the kitchen (so you have to go in and look behind to see it).  This not only contains the wrap and prevents it from falling on my head, but it also opened up two whole shelves for me on the pantry door. I moved rice, broth, and pasta sauce to take up the space. It’s given me some breathing space inside the pantry itself.

In other organizing projects, I did all the filing that had piled up and put away some paperwork for finished projects. Then I did a major sort of books. I have a huge collection of textbooks I use for some textbooks I co-author and I went through those and purged the ones that are now old. I also went through my regular bookshelves and got rid of some duplicates of my own books and created a giant donation box for the library.

I sat down with my cooking notebooks and filed all the recipes I’ve ripped out of magazines or printed from web sites in the past year. While I was doing this I made a list of some to try, so I’ll have some dinner ideas for the next week or so.

I started an accordion file for travel information I’ve ripped out of magazines or printed. I used my P-touch to label each section and then filed it all alphabetically.

I still need to pull out all of the bills and receipts from my files and get them organized for taxes. It’s a job I don’t look forward to at all!

I started the New Year out with some organization projects. My pantry is always an ongoing project. Last year we put shelves on the inside of the door. I kept my food wraps there (plastic, aluminium, parchment, etc.) but they often come flying off when the door moves. So yesterday we installed a shelf just … Read more →

My husband was recently out of town for 10 days. Being a single mom kept me busy, but I found the evenings and weekends very long. I used this time to tackle some home projects. I cleaned out the fridge and pantry. I cleaned the inside of the dishwasher (possibly the nastiest job ever). I put away the Halloween decorations and got out the Thanksgiving decorations. I washed the duvet cover. I grocery shopped. Several times. I decided the dog was no longer going to be allowed to eat poop outside, which meant he could only go out on the leash. You get the picture – it was a long 10 days.

A job that needed doing was my top desk drawer. I spend most of my time at my computer desk and my regular desk is mostly for storage and stacking. The only time I use it is to write bills. As a result, the center drawer was a hodgepodge of notepads, pens, paper clips, old insurance cards, rubber bands, and a few treasures. I tackled it on a Sunday afternoon, first emptying everything out.

I tested all the pens and threw out those that didn’t write (a surprising number!). The remaining pens went into two narrow plastic organizing trays.

I threw out the numerous business cards that were lurking. I purged the notepads tearing off pages that had been written on and throwing out those that were crumpled, ripped, or useless (like the pens, there was a surprising amount of junk). I did the same with the post-it notes. I stacked the notepads and post-its in an organized way so I will be able to grab them when I need them.

The paper clips were sorted by size (big and little) and placed in two paper clip holders (after I undid the paper clip necklace a child made at some point). The binder clips were placed at the front of the drawer. The rubber bands were removed and put in a plastic bag in another office drawer since I never use them. I gazed longingly online at some cute ways to organize all of this, but I don’t have room in my drawer for china teacups, muffin tins, or pottery bowls. The most efficient use of space was boring office paper clip holders!

I realized I have not one, not two, but three staple removers. Those got tucked in the front corner. I also have two rulers, which fit nicely against the front of the drawer.

I did discover a couple of treasures: several of those pennies you flatten in machines to be souvenirs of places you visit. I came across a wooden coin from a horse riding stable we visited in Colorado. And a very weird strand of beads I got as a product sample once: it’s supposed to be used a fertility/cycle tracker with different colored beads for different parts of the cycle. That one got stuck in another drawer: maybe someday there will be grandchildren who will want to play with some colored beads. I found the instruction manual for my office phone – maybe I can finally figure out how to change some of the settings!

I think I will now finally be able to find a pen, post-it or paper clip when I need it without a lot of digging.

My husband was recently out of town for 10 days. Being a single mom kept me busy, but I found the evenings and weekends very long. I used this time to tackle some home projects. I cleaned out the fridge and pantry. I cleaned the inside of the dishwasher (possibly the nastiest job ever). I … Read more →

Photo credit: ZeRo`SKiLL / Foter / CC BY-NC-ND

I’d been ignoring it all summer. The closet. It was totally out of control.  My daughter wedged in there with me recently and I showed her blouses and suits from when I practiced law (15 years ago) and a dress from before she was born (20 years ago). I was shocked that I still had all this stuff AND that it was so friggin’ old. So I took an afternoon and purged. It was painful, but I did it and filled two garbage bags to donate. Here are my tips for how to get yours under control.

1. Count. How many t-shirts do you have? How many sweat pants? How many pairs of black pants? I was shocked to realize I had enough t-shirts to wear one a day without doing laundry for more than a month. Counting how many I had of each item made me feel more comfortable about giving some away because I would never ever need the 15 t-shirts I ditched, not when there were 20 more at the ready.

2. Fight stains. How many digging in the garden, painting, stripping wallpaper outfits do you need? I kept one. The rest were just taking up space I needed.

3. If it doesn’t fit, you must donate. You know those things you buy and they seem like a good idea in the dressing room, but then they look not quite right at home, and you never wear them? Why are you saving them? They aren’t going to magically become suitable. Yes, you wasted some cash on them, but you’re wasting space by keeping them. Donate and know they’ve clothed someone else.

4. No pain. Shoes, bras, waistbands that cut in, anything that makes you uncomfortable is bad closet karma. You feel miserable when you wear it. So just stop the insanity and let it go. It’s never going to feel any better on your body.

5. Stragglers. Somehow I had managed to keep a sleeveless shell from a sweater set from which I no longer had the actual sweater. I kept it thinking it might someday match something else. 10 years later, I can say I was wrong! Out it went. Don’t keep halves of sets like this.

6. Too big to fail. We all have those “just in case I gain it all back clothes.” And I can admit in the past I’ve ditched them and then gained the weight back and regretted it. My solution is to keep the really good pieces but take them out of the closet and store them somewhere else (under the bed, in the attic, etc.) until you are certain your weight loss is not temporary.

7. Out of synch. I will never take a job that requires me to wear a suit every day, so why am I keeping my lawyer suits? If you have clothes from a job, hobby, type of exercise or other lifestyle you aren’t going back to, get rid of them. I kept 2 suits that I could wear to a funeral, but the rest went out the door.

Other ways to make sense of the closet madness:

– Rotate. Put seasonal clothes in front and out of season things in back. This makes your space more functional.

– Fold and stack. If you have shelves in your closet, you might have the tendency I do to just stuff things on them. If you take a few minutes and neatly fold and stack everything you will fit more on the shelf and you’ll be able to easily see and access what you have there.

– Put extra hangers elsewhere. I keep all of my extra hangers hanging from the edge of a shelf up high. This leaves more room for clothes. When I take clothes out, I put the hanger up there. When I hang clothes up, I take a hanger.

– Hang shoes. Buy a shoe organizer and put it on the back of your closet door.

– Assess non-clothing items. My closet has extra blankets, tote bags, and old throw pillows lurking in the nether regions. Purge! Put the ones you really want in plastic zipped bags and get rid of the rest.

– Keep the “I’m going to fit into that someday” clothes, but separate them out so that you aren’t grabbing them, putting them on and then chucking them across the room in a fury. Stuff them in a bag and put them in the back of the closet. If you lose the weight, they will be there.

– If donating doesn’t make you feel excited enough, take your stuff to a resale or consignment shop. My kids LOVE taking old clothes to Plato’s Closet and it is a huge motivator to get them to get rid of things that no longer fit.

Now it is time for confessions. I kept the 20 year old dress because it is beautiful. I doubt it will ever fit but I’m allowed one non-functional item. I also kept a few of the lawyer blouses because they are classic and will work with the funeral outfits.

When was the last time you cleaned your closet?

I’d been ignoring it all summer. The closet. It was totally out of control.  My daughter wedged in there with me recently and I showed her blouses and suits from when I practiced law (15 years ago) and a dress from before she was born (20 years ago). I was shocked that I still had … Read more →

We take tons and tons of photos on vacation. In the past five or six years, I have concentrated on trying to get a really good photo of the four us in whatever fantastic location we are at. We have photos of us eating shave ice in Hawaii, at the rim of the Grand Canyon, in front of a castle in England, in the Colosseum, in front of a glacier in Alaska and lots more. I pick a really good photo from each trip and frame it. However, my shelves and tabletops quickly became cluttered.

For a long time I’ve wanted to do a staircase display of photos and finally I realized that if I gathered all of these photos together from around the house, they made a rather grand collection. Fortunately, the frames they were in worked together. We had an empty wall along part of our staircase, so we got to work.

First we photocopied the photos in the frames and cut them to size. We were then able to tape these up on the wall and move them around to find the perfect arrangement. Then we had to do the hard part – remove the stands from the backs of the photos, so they would lie flat on the wall. That was a commitment because now they can only be displayed on a wall.

Next, we decided to make our lives easy and we used the new 3M removable velcro attachments for wall hangings. One piece goes on the frame and one goes on the wall and they velcro together. The sticky stuff comes off if you pull on a tab, without damaging the wall at all. Miraculous. It also allows for those “oops” moments when you need to correct a mistake.

I am hoping to be able to add to this collection of photos, so being able to remove them and rearrange if I add new photos really helps.

We take tons and tons of photos on vacation. In the past five or six years, I have concentrated on trying to get a really good photo of the four us in whatever fantastic location we are at. We have photos of us eating shave ice in Hawaii, at the rim of the Grand Canyon, … Read more →

Photo courtesy FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Laundry stains are something I spend far too much time on. Yes, there are the usual kid stains, but I also manage to spill everything all over myself, all the time. Whatever I am eating, cooking, working on, or touching invariably ends up on my clothes.  I am also guilty of putting away clothes I wore briefly, only to take them out months later and find those yellow stains on them. I have developed a huge stain fighting arsenal to deal with it all.

Cold water and soap: This is the best way to get out blood, chocolate, and tomatoes, as long as you work on the stain as soon as it happens. You have to do this by hand and scrub hard and continue to rinse and scrub until it disappears.

Alcohol, soap, and cold water: This will get out ink stains, but is another process you need to do by hand over the sink, continuing to reapply and scrub until it comes out.

StainStick: This is now called Resolve, but is the same product. It’s a gel stick that you rub on stains when you take the clothes off. It helps prevent them from setting in so they will come out in the wash. I take this with us whenever we travel and keep one next to the laundry hamper. It really cuts down on stain removal work.

Shout: This is my first line defense against stains. It never ruins clothes so it’s always safe to try first. I spray it on and let it set for half an hour, then wash the stained clothes.

Shout gel: This is a more concentrated Shout which also will not ruin clothes. I also let this sit for a while before washing.

Biz: This is a powdered color safe booster you are supposed to add to the wash, but I make it into a paste and put it on tough stains. I let this get almost dry then wash. Sometimes it can bleach out clothes, so it’s always best to test it first.

OxyClean spray: This is also good on tough stains and I like that it comes in a spray bottle.

OxyClean powder: I buy this in a tub and make it into a paste to apply to tough stains. I let it get almost dry before washing. This has also ruined some items, so always test it first.

Chlorox Bleach pen: I use this only on whites and only on stains I can’t get out any other way. It allows you to apply bleach directly to one single spot without getting it everywhere. I usually apply, then immediately rinse with cold water so the bleach does not spread.

Grandma’s Secret Stain Remover: My mother-in-law bought this for me and it sometimes works when other stainlifters will not. It comes in a tiny little squeeze bottle and can be hard to use, but I’ve had success with it.

DL Hand Automotive Hand Cleaner: This looks a little out of place on the list, but it works! This is a pink no-water needed hand cleaner that cleans grease. It’s marketed to mechanics. My husband and father-in-law used to repair office furniture and used this to clean grease off their hands. It is spectacular for tough, greasy stains. Rub it on. Let it sit a while, then wash.

Chlorox 2: This is my newest stainfighter and it got stains out of a shirt that nothing else on this list could touch. I was ready to throw the shirt out and had a free sample packet of this so I decided to try it. It’s a thick liquid, so I poured a little on and let it sit for about half an hour and then washed it. It was magic.

Some other tips about stain-fighting:

• If at all possible, work on the stains before sending the clothes through the wash. The dryer seems to set tough stains in.
• Sometimes if you scrub at a stain with a toothbrush this will help to remove it.
• If you have a piece of clothing with a lot of stains, instead of targeting each one separately, try soaking the garment in a tub with Oxyclean or Biz. I use about a cup of powder to a gallon of water and let it soak.
• Always check your stained item after you pull it out of the washer and before you put it in the dryer. As mentioned earlier, the dryer will set it and you won’t have as good a chance to get it out.
• Washing your clothes in cold water will help prevent stains from setting as well.
• Avoid detergent stains on clothes by always starting the washer, putting in the soap, then putting in the clothes. If you pour detergent over the clothes, sometimes it will stain them.

Do you have any stain-fighting tips?

Laundry stains are something I spend far too much time on. Yes, there are the usual kid stains, but I also manage to spill everything all over myself, all the time. Whatever I am eating, cooking, working on, or touching invariably ends up on my clothes.  I am also guilty of putting away clothes I … Read more →

Fall is always when I make time to work on projects around the house. Our summers are very busy with a vacation and spending almost every weekend at my parents’ lake house, so I feel like I’m never really here, and I feel as though I let it all go to hell in a handbasket around here. Once school starts and we are on a normal schedule, I get down to brass tacks, getting things into shape and re-organizing.

Managing Meds

This week I tackled the kitchen medicine cabinet. I have a pull out cabinet in my kitchen where I keep all of the prescriptions and supplements we take. I use a lot of herbal supplements and I have a pretty high turnover in what I use, depending on what’s going on. When we were in the cycle of going to the lake every Friday night through Sunday, I just left a bag of meds on the counter, since there was no sense in unpacking and packing them every 4 days. I’ve finally put them away and cleaned out the cabinet, putting away herbals we aren’t using in a closet, and making room for new ones. Having that off my counter has made my kitchen feel bigger and better organized.

Bathroom Closet

Next on my organizing list is my bathroom closet. I was looking for something in it this week and became so frustrated I just took everything out and put it in a laundry basket. I need to go through it, toss things I’m not using, and reorganize it. I have a big container of travel sized items that needs to be purged and I would really love it if I could get the closet to the point where things do not fall off the shelves every time I reach in.

Freezer

We have a side by side fridge in the kitchen and an upright freezer in the basement. The upstairs freezer was a disaster. We emptied it out and organized it and now I can actually find things. Note to self: stop putting meat in there. I just forget about it and it gets freezer burned!

Household Catch Up Weekend

We took a weekend and made a huge list of all the little things that needed to get done around here and just worked out way down the list: installing a new toilet seat, self-cleaning the oven, cleaning  up piles of stuff, cleaning out the dryer vent, oiling squeaky hinges and more. Making a list of little things and then methodically working through it helps us get a lot done!

Hanging It All Up

An ongoing project that is on the list is dealing with the artwork and photos from our trip to Italy. We took some things for framing, have a few more to go and I bought frames for photos. Now I have to figure out what to do with them!

Wastebasket Clean Up

On my list is to take all of the wastebaskets outside and scrub the insides with soap. This is one of those once a year jobs that I need to remember to get to.

Artificial Plant Day

I am planning a day to bring all of my artificial plants and silk flowers into the kitchen and clean them thoroughly with a soapy cloth. They attract dust and never really get clean when they’re lightly dusted.

If You Can’t Beat ‘Em, Join ‘Em

Getting back into the school routine isn’t always easy. In the past I have sounded like a broken record, telling my son how important it is to eat breakfast before school. Some mornings he just can’t seem to find anything. Everyone here agrees that eating protein in the mornings helps us get through the days and keeps our hunger in check, so I try to encourage that (I even agreed he could eat leftover sesame chicken a couple of mornings ago). He loves, loves, loves breakfast sandwiches from places like Dunkin’ Donuts. However, he does not like cheese. There are no frozen breakfast sandwiches without cheese (and I really hate buying premade frozen things like that). So I bought bagels and frozen sausage patties (I would much rather buy fresh organic patties, but we’re working up to that! He’s pretty particular). Then I scrambled a dozen eggs and cooked them up in a giant pan, breaking it up into 7 bagel-sized pieces. I froze each egg item in a ziploc bag. Now when he gets up he can throw the egg and sausage into the microwave and toast a bagel and he has an instant breakfast sandwich.

Fall is always when I make time to work on projects around the house. Our summers are very busy with a vacation and spending almost every weekend at my parents’ lake house, so I feel like I’m never really here, and I feel as though I let it all go to hell in a handbasket … Read more →

My book, The Organized Kitchen has just been released and as it happens, January is National Get Organized Month. Here are a few tips to help get your kitchen organized for the new year!

• Tackle one drawer, cupboard or shelf a day to make progress. Completely reorganizing your entire kitchen is an overwhelming task, but if you can find 5 minutes a day (while your pasta is cooking or your broccoli is steaming), you can get a lot done over a week.
• Think about the activities that are happening in your kitchen. Most people use the kitchen as a multi-purpose room and homework, laundry, crafts, bill-paying, and more all take place in this one space. If you can shift some of these activities to other areas of the home, it will free up storage space (keep your scrapbooking supplies in a hall closet and move your household files to a box under your bed, for example) and make the kitchen feel less cluttered and over-used.
• Too often when we organize we forget about comfort. The kitchen needs to be a room that is welcoming and warm, so although you are clearing your counters and shelves of clutter, don’t forget to keep some touches that express your personality and make the room comfortable.
• Transfer pantry items like flour, pasta, cereal, rice, beans, etc. into square glass or plastic storage containers. Square containers stack and fit together on shelves much easier and actually save space (eliminating those gaps between round containers).
• Create zones. Store all baking equipment in the baking zone. All items for drinks such a blender and glassware should be together in one area. Cookware and cooking tools should be positioned near the stove. This way everything has a place it belongs which also makes it more convenient to use and reach for.
• Find extra space by using metal standing shelves to add an additional layer inside cabinets. Bring in an unfinished book case and paint it to match your cabinets and give it the same pulls–it will look like additional built in cabinetry.  Use the insides of cabinet doors for storage for spices, pot lids, a message board, plastic bags and more.
• Look up for more storage. Install a shelf over the doorways of the room. Hang a three-tier basket from the ceiling. Put shelving around your soffits for tons more storage. If you have a separate pantry with a door, install storage above the door on the inside.
• Get rid of your junk drawer. This is additional storage space you are losing out on. Everything in that drawer belongs somewhere else. Move it to where it belongs and suddenly you have an additional drawer.

With a little thought you can make your kitchen a place you love to cook in!

My book, The Organized Kitchen has just been released and as it happens, January is National Get Organized Month. Here are a few tips to help get your kitchen organized for the new year! Tackle one drawer, cupboard or shelf a day to make progress. Completely reorganizing your entire kitchen is an overwhelming task, but … Read more →

I just had to share my excitement. My book, The Organized Kitchen, is now listed on Amazon (for pre-order – it comes out in Jan, perfect for New Year’s resolutions). I was excited to get to see the cover at last and see it up on Amazon!

The book is all about making your life in the kitchen easier, simpler and more streamlined.

I just had to share my excitement. My book, The Organized Kitchen, is now listed on Amazon (for pre-order – it comes out in Jan, perfect for New Year’s resolutions). I was excited to get to see the cover at last and see it up on Amazon! The book is all about making your life … Read more →