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Tuesday, July 8, 2014

Week 4: Tame it Tuesday's, a summer series on taming the mess


week 1
week 2
week 3

Welcome to week 4 of of my Tame it Tuesday series, a summer series on taming the mess. Wow we are half way already. Oh please Summer-- slow down! lol! So as I stated in last week's post our home has been suffering from what I call "drop and runs" Which makes it unorganized and messy. Areas of my kitchen have not escaped this either. Lets tackle the worst part first shall we?
Yep that's right, this is the first counter top when you enter the kitchen. I really don't know how it happens... I clean it off but it ends up becoming the catch all of the whole house it seems. A lot of it is mail and paperwork that I need to deal with immediately instead of letting it pile. The rest of it is stuff that needs to be put away back where it belongs. The rectangle cupboard right above is "Dear Hubbies" so some of his stuff I put there for him to put away when he is done using it (like his drill and charger). I do not have to clean that cupboard. It is his alone and he does get to it several times a year. Once all the stuff is put back where it belongs I start in on the paperwork.
Once I start it really doesn't take long. I make several piles as I go through it. My piles are shred, garbage, current bills and to file piles. I have an area already at our desk to deal with all the paper it is just old habits coming back into play. I need to remember when I come in with mail to deal with it right away. It only takes a few minutes and really saves on the mess building up again.
Within less than 10 minutes all is well in this space again!
Next up are these two spaces. Inside they hold a lot of our supplies for homeschool and some kitchen items I don't use as often. Those will be reorganized in another post. For now I want to deal with the top of them.
We were given the hotdog buns and I just needed to use some up and then freeze the rest. The inside of our microwave is actually clean. We do use a cover to heat and I am in the habit of wiping things up as soon as the mess happens. The 2 crockpots I have out a lot because I have been using them so much lately for freezer meals. Then there is garbage to be thrown away and the top of the microwave just needs dusted and cups in the sink. I forgot to take an after picture, but it looks good again too!
This cupboard is on the other side of our table in the kitchen. This counter is only supposed to hold cookbooks and my bread machine. It was overflowing with some borrowed cookbooks, coloring/drawing stuff, counting blocks, and some antique appliances that I was given this year that I just hadn't made a home for yet. So first, above our laundry area "Dear Hubby" made a shelf when he enclosed it in so I would have a place for some of my decor. I dusted everything and made room for the new appliances (iron and waffle iron) up on this shelf.
Then I gathered the borrowed cookbooks and placed them in my car to return to my friend. Next I needed to put away the school/art stuff. I quickly realized that I was going to have to tackle one part of the cupboard after all. This drawer holds coloring, drawing, painting books and Highlights magazines that "Sunshine" owns. I cleaned out all the Christmas books and stored them away with Christmas stuff. Then Sunshine herself went through the remaining books and magazines. She was willing to throw out the ones she had completed.

Much better! The last part of the post today is my food prep area of the kitchen. The dishes for the most part have stayed caught up. But in the middle of this busy schedule I have made time to get extra food in our freezer. Which is why this area looks like this:
 You cant even see some of it. I have bottles of seasonings left out from a freezer meal workshop I attended along with wax paper and freezer bags for all the flash freezing of cherries and berries I have been doing.
So again I just needed to put everything away that I was finished with. I also pulled every appliance out and washed behind it. Then washed all appliances off. Last I put everything back in nice and neat order. And I hope to keep it this way!
Thank you for stopping by! Next week I hope to organize the pots/pan cupboard and the spice/can cupboard. Do you have specific things you do to help keep order in the kitchen? Please share in the comments.






Tuesday, July 1, 2014

Week 3:Tame it Tuesday, a summer series on taming the mess

week 1
week 2
Welcome to week 3 in my summer series on taming the mess. Where I am attempting to claim back some of the areas of our home that have been overrun with what I like to call "drop and run" sessions. The busier we seem to be the more unorganized and disarrayed our home seems to get. I say "attempting" because this will not be easy for me. I had 5 orders go out this last week!

So Saturday afternoon after another busy week, I was wondering what I can organize and clean for Tuesdays post? I was also wondering when I was going to find time to post my 4th of July DIY that I had been wanting to do (I even already had the supplies for it). So I decided to combine the post. I hope you don't mind, doing it this way saved me some sanity and I got to go to bed at a normal time. lol!
First up I needed to straighten the back porch. I forgot to take a picture of the before. It wasn't in horrible shape, I just needed to finally put away all the stuff that had accumulated there. You know things like the fall decor bins to the garage, some tools back in the garage, take the broken metal bed frame to the garbage. Dust and sweep up the remaining leaves, dirt and cobwebs, etc.
Now we can sit out here again in the cool of the evening and I can have morning devotions out here too.
 This is also where I wanted my DIY 4th of July decor to go. I have been wanting one of these ever since I saw on Pinterest. After a trip to the dollar store and getting a clearance box of lights from my friend Heather. I am ready to make it!
Here is what you need: a hula hoop, lights, garland, twist ties, cup hooks, ribbon and extension cord.
I want this to be able to change out with the seasons so I am attaching it with twist ties (I save these when they come in a box of bags).
I wrapped the lights first then followed up with festive garland and wire star garland attaching them all with the twist ties. To hang the light I put cup hooks in 3 different positions in the roof of the porch. Then tied a loop of ribbon at each spot on the hoop where it would hang from each hook.
This hangs just over the table and chairs. It is a small back porch so one is enough. Eventually I want to add some rope lights under the railing. But we love this! We are even doing bedtime stories out here! This was so easy to make the hardest part was getting the cup hooks in the wood.

Here is another super fast and easy DIY 4th of July decor from my friend Heather.
Supplies to make: some super adorable July flowers from Walmart, foam ball, ribbon, 1 straight pin and a glue gun. Take the flowers off of there stems, hot glue them into the foam ball (arranging them in a pattern). Then pin and glue the ribbon to the top of the ball. Then hang and enjoy!


Have a wonderful, safe and blessed 4th of July!