Organizing Mission Monday Link Party – Week 16

Organizing In The Kitchen This Week

That will still be my focus this week.  Last week I showed you pantry organizing and refrigerator and freezer organizing.  If you haven’t yet organized those, please try to get to those this week.  You will think about it every time you open your refrigerator or freezer this week I’m sure of it! Especially after that trip to the grocery! lol

I’m going to be showing you a few organizing products this week that are low cost and make good solutions for organizing some things in your cupboards.

See My Featured Bloggers For This Week!

Marcie from Timber and Lace used baskets with chalk board labels for her pantry.

I love the look of this!  Wouldn’t this be a wonderful pantry to have? omg… the shelves, the cubbies on the bottom, the counter top!
Marci, does not separate all her products out into separate containers either (like me). She sounds very much like me with the realistic part of having that awesome look. So the inside of her baskets look like this.

You can see the rest of her post on her pantry organization here.

Stephanie from Create Order organized her refrigerator.

She also used baskets in her refrigerator to organize. But she utilized baskets for those skinny shelf spaces and they work perfect for that.

Go look at the rest of her post called I knew It Was Only A Matter Of Time
Be sure to stop by both of my featured bloggers today and give them some “comment love” and mention you saw them here!

For those of you who were featured this week, please pick up your button (code below the button) for your blog!

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If this code isn’t working, you can pick it up off my sidebar. (I’m having trouble with these codes on my actual posts.. sorry)

Link up to my Link Party

Link up any organizing or cleaning post to my link party!!

But this week I encourage you to start working on your kitchens!  I’ll be working on some fun labeling and organization of kitchen cupboards this week.

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(You can also pick up this button off my sidebar, if this one isn’t working right for you…)

Rules

1) Link to your specific post – not your blog

2) Please Link back to my blog with my button or link (link just above underneath my button)

3) I’d love if you’d follow me on google and/or FB. The google is new and I’m trying to build it

4) Blog post related to Organizing or Cleaning

5) No sales pitches or web sites.

6) If I feature you I will use one or more of your pictures with a link back to your blog.

8) Feel free to link up more than 1 post.

Be sure to check out my list of link parties

If you have a link party.. please link it up! Underneath the daily buttons there is a list of text links I have compiled too! (Many more there!)

If you aren’t sure how to link up… see my link party tutorial here. It is simple.

This will be open until Saturday night April 9, 2011  This link party is continued from last week.

I LOVE your comments!!

My Freezer

How Does Organizing Your Freezer & Chris Mann Go In The Same Post?

You’ll See…

Now that we have the refrigerator finished…. of course the freeze is next.

I did it at the same time as the refrig, but the post would have been too long! lol

Here is my little freezer!  Messy…. and packed.

The top is usually the family food and if I have food just for me, example Lean Cuisine then I put them on the bottom.

Here is the bottom shelf

Here is the freezer door.  Frozen veggies, baking soda that is past it’s date.

You know what we do next don’t you?

Take everything out!

You need to go through and see what has freezer burn or something that you know you know you won’t eat.

Here is the empty…. dirty freezer

You can take the self out, but the top shelf wasn’t so bad… so I just wiped it down and got some good soapy water to clean out the bottom.

Also clean out the door.

I realized that I didn’t take any pictures of the clean empty freezer…. Oh well..

Time Out for a Chris Mann Commercial Break!!

Because he sings so freakin awesome I wanted to tell you all!

Ok… just a side note for all of you.  I have been listening to Chris Mann sing live on his #MannChat while I worked on this post. So I wanted to tell you about him.  If you don’t know who he is… omg.. you should.  Awesome singer.  He is one of the Warblers on Glee…. he just sang the theme song to that Lifetime show – A Beautiful Life on Lifetime about the solider who died.  He is also an awesome friend to a lot of bloggers.  He came to Blissdom 09 and sang for us and has been to several other events we have been at. He is always nice, poses for all the pictures we ask him to also. lol   The last time I got to see Chris was in NYC at Blogher. We had invited him to sing at a function that ended up getting canceled. But he ended up coming up to our small room party with about 15 ladies. Sang Happy Birthday To Courtney (@courtneydetroit) and just being the sweet self he is.  So here are some links to check him out yourself and you can become a Mann Fan!  Tell him I sent you if you stop by!

Chris Mann – Web Page and blog

Here is my last pic with him… of course I look like crapoloa…. but…he still looks hot as ever. Yeah… I can say that even though I’m old enough to be his mom (and I’ve talked to his mom too online) … cuz I’m not blind you know!

This post has been sponsored by me!  No… I didn’t get sponsored to say or post any of that. I just wanted to.

Ok… let’s get back to the freezer (boring stuff now huh? lol)  Chris…. has your freezer been cleaned out recently? #justsayin..

Back to your regular programing…

Oh yeah.. the Freezer -

Reassemble Your Freezer – Like with Like

I again decided to use these plastic baskets I found in the freezer too.

I put the meats in the top basket.. and see – you can pull it out and down and see what is in the back of your freezer!  I know this looks funny…. but I’m tipping it down so you can see in it.

The lower one has frozen fruit in it. I also put my cool whip in there, because I like it on my fruit.

I put a few things in my door.  The frozen vegetables and also my bag of cut up onions.  When I cut part of one for a recipe… I finish cutting it, or even if I have them and get all the yucky stuff out of the way at one time.  Then I separate it into 1/2 cup servings into little freezer bags…. take all those little freezer bags and put them into one big freezer bag. (If it is a really strong onion and I can smell it through that… I’ll put it into another freezer bag!)   Great for when you want to cook something fast that takes onions.

Then I opened up a new box of baking soda

Took off the lid and put it in my freezer.  I put the date on it so that I’d know when 3 months was up and to change it again (unlike I did on the last one that was in there)

Now I want to see YOUR Freezers! I also want to know how many of you checked out Chris Mann’s music!
I’d love for you to link it up to my Organizing Mission Monday Link Party
It will be open until April 9, 2011 to link to, so you have time to work on your pantry and refrigerator

I LOVE your comments

My Refrigerator

Refrigerators Can Get So Gross!

Have you had any science experiments growing in your refrigerator lately? lol

It is so easy for things to get pushed to the back of the refrigerator and get lost.  I don’t have a side by side, my freezer is on top and our refrig. isn’t all that big. When the milk and big things are on the top shelf that is just over waist high, then it is harder to see down to the lower shelves to see what might be on the bottom.

Plus ours had gotten so dirty! Yuck!  I did wait until the refrig was pretty empty to take on this project.  It is not normally this bare!

Before

You can see from this picture how some things are pushed way to the back. There is a pop can underneath the drawer and I’m not sure what is in that round container on the bottom in the back.  I don’t normally get back away from it on this level (like I am to get this picture)

Ok… fresh Parmesan cheese. That was from the beginning of December, wonder what the expiration is on that?

Looks like 2 open jars of applesauce. The mayo should be in the door.

Here is one of the things that drive me crazy.  I can’t get my hubby or kids to put lunch meat and cheese in the meat drawer.  Then they get pushed to the back of the refrig. and not found.

Then I open the drawer and see this – the cheese wrapper without any slices of cheese in it!  There is one underneath it.  For pete sakes… can’t anyone throw away an empty wrapper?  Do you have to deal with any of this at your house?

Here is the door.  I see duplicates …. it will feel so good to get this cleaned out.

Empty everything out of your refrigerator!  I suggest 1 shelf at a time.

This is the top shelf contents.

Check for Expiration Dates

Oh.. I’m not opening that to check it… would you?  It is what… 2 1/2 months old! lol

Here is what I was left with on the top shelf after I purged what I didn’t need or was expired.

Pretty amazing huh?  No…. pretty bad!!   Good thing I waiting until the fridge was practically empty anyway.

So I kept going….  and cleaned and purged  the rest of my refrig.  This is actually good to do routinely before you go to the store (not clean the whole thing, but get rid of old things and make room before you leave, it helps you to see what you need and it eliminates stress when you are trying to fit everything into your small fridge and have to do it while your food is melting sitting on the counter.

Clean your refrigerator!

Look how gross this is!  Don’t just take a rag and clean it off !  You need to clean thoroughly!  ewwww!

Take out those shelves… make a big sink full of soapy water… and go to it!

This way you can really clean it well!
Look at the difference from one that has been washed to what another shelf looks like pre-wash.Big difference!

So pull out all the shelves and all the bins off the doors…. and then clean the rest of the refrigerator good too.

Warning…… Naked Refrig Alert!!  lol

Reassemble the Refrig and don’t forget that your shelves are adjustable!  You can decide where you want them.. it doesn’t have to be traditional.

You can use your tallest item (pop bottle, wine bottle) to check that you have at least one place that is tall enough in your arrangement of shelves.

You may have seen my lime green baskets I got at Old Time Pottery for my pantry.  I found red ones for my refrigerator too.  They are plastic, so they are washable. They have a handle, so you can pull them out easily. They came in different styles and sizes.

It just seemed to me that this might help take care of the problem of things getting stuck in the back of the refrigerator shelves…. (never to be seen again)

It makes it really easy to just pull out the basket to see what is in the back of the shelf.

My only concern is that they “just fit”.  So if someone pulls them out, and doesn’t push them all the way back…. then the door might not close completely.  I will have to keep an eye on it… and might realize that I have to go back and get a smaller size.

Here is the door of my refrigerator.  I like to keep the condiments and smaller items in the door.  Again, decide what heights you need your door shelves to be.  We don’t keep milk in the door, mainly because we generally have 3-4 gallons at a time in the fridge.  We go through on the average 1 gallon of milk daily.

So…… what do you think?  Have you ever used baskets in your refrigerator?  This is a first for me I have to admit.  It is a trial and error kind of thing. I think I will like it… it makes sense. But we will see.
Your turn to organize your refrigerator!  I want to see what you have done.

The freezer is coming up tomorrow!

I’d love for you to link it up to my Organizing Mission Monday Link Party
It will be open until April 9, 2011 to link to, so you have time to work on your pantry and refrigerator

I LOVE your comments

I’m linking this post up to

HandyMan, Crafty Woman
Organizing Junkie

Spring Cleaning – The Refrigerator

Organizing Your Refrigerator

Do you open your refrigerator and see something like this? Or does it look worse? Old food, expired left overs that the lids have popped off of. Several containers of cream cheese because you forgot you had some in the back?

Your refrigerator can breed all kinds of things!  It is just like anything else….it needs to be kept up.

To Organize and Spring Clean your Refrigerator:

1) Take everything out of your refrigerator.

2) Pull out the shelves and wash them with warm soapy water.  Pull out the drawers and do the same. You can also use vinegar to clean.

3) Be sure to wipe down the walls of the inside of the refrigerator.

4) Go through all your food. Throw out anything expired.

5) You can adjust your shelves so that they work best for you. Maybe you need some shelves that taller items (milk, bottle of wine or pop) can fit in. Some others can be a smaller space between the shelves for things like eggs, cream cheese or dips.

6) I like to put my condiments, salad dressings, mustard, ketchup etc in the door.

7) Keep your lunch meats, cheese etc in drawer. Be sure to keep them covered with plastic bags or plastic ware to keep fresh.

8) Try to keep like items together.

9) Clean the outside and top of the refrigerator before you are finished.

10) If you like your children’s pictures or artwork on the outside of your refrigerator…..I suggest one magnet with either a picture of them or one piece of their artwork only. It will seem much more special if there is one item per child and you notice it rather than a bunch of stuff that is all cluttered.