Five minutes and one dollar

Granted, some organization projects are huge.  Cleaning and organizing a house, room or even a closet can take days, but not all organization projects have to take a long time or a lot of money to complete.  There are many, many projects you can do in five minutes.  If you are having trouble getting organized, then that's my recommended starting point for you:  find a small area that needs to be organized, set the timer for five minutes, and get to work.  You'll be amazed by what you can get done in that time, and that success will motivate you to accomplish more.

Take the top drawer of my nightstand, for example.  It was a mess:

Enter three baskets I bought at the Target Dollar Spot for...you guessed it!...one dollar:

Side note: whoever came up with the Dollar Spot (or is it Stop?) at Target is a genius.  I hope that person is lounging on a beach somewhere enjoying the fruits of their million-dollar idea. Because I'm pretty sure that's how much money I've dropped on Dollar Spot/Stop items over the years.  Seriously. 

Not much in my nightstand drawer had to be thrown out, it just needed some serious categorization. The pens, note pads and headphones got their own bin.  The headphones don't really belong there, but for now, that's where they are staying.

It took two bins to capture my hand lotions and fancy lotion gloves/socks.  The funny thing is...prior to this organization smackdown, I had a hard time finding hand lotion.  And now I have too bins full of it.  Go figure!

Here's the finished drawer, completely organized with a budget of only one dollar:

I even have a bit of room to spare on the left side and in the back next to the spare jar candle. 

See how easy that was?  Five minutes is all it takes to organize a drawer, purse, shelf.  Break big projects down into five minute increments and tackle it a little bit at a time.  Step by step and bit by bit, you'll eventually have an organized closet, room, house.  You can do it!

More kitchen fixes

Some cabinets and drawers in my kitchen are just perfect the way they are--I wouldn't change a thing in there. 

For example, I'm in these cabinets and drawer every day, and the organization and tool placement works just fine for me:

The cabinet that holds my mixing bowls and baking supplies was not as neat and clean, however.  In fact, two specific things about it were driving me nuts.  Take a look:

Do you see the problems?  My Silpat mats (second shelf up behind the Pyrex mixing bowl) were constantly unrolling and getting all over the place.  The top two shelves were also a mess. 

I solved the Silpat problem by securing them with plastic cuffs meant for gift wrap rolls.  Worked like a charm!

And since I bake pies and cakes a lot more often than bread, I moved the cake pans within arms reach on the third shelf and moved the bread pans up to the top shelf.  Doesn't that look so much neater?  It certainly is a lot more practical.



It's important to me that my kitchen is organized and neat. Obviously, it makes navigating the space to prepare meals much easier.  But more than that, I find that a neat kitchen does wonders for my mood.  If I can manage clutter in my kitchen to make it a fun and efficient place, then surely I can do the same for the rest of my house.  A clean, organized kitchen gives me hope!   Onward to the rest of the TMI house!

Double up

This is a quick public service announcement from The Martha Initiative...

Fall is rapidly approaching, major holidays will be here before we know it, the days are getting shorter and somehow, much busier.  Putting a quality dinner on the table for your family can be more than a challenge most nights...in this house, some nights it is damn near impossible. 

But, there is hope!  And here's my suggestion:

When you are making a meal (especially one that is labor-intensive), double it.  Triple it even.  Freeze the extra dish and you'll have a quick, and quality, meal even when you don't have time to cook.

For example, over the weekend I made macaroni and cheese.  Yum!

I consider this a labor-intensive meal because it takes me, from the time I begin to set out the ingredients to the time I'm pulling the dish out of the oven, approximately one hour.  That's a lot of time, and sometimes this dinner is not an option during the week because I need dinner on the table a lot faster than one hour.  Plus, I have two small kids...all the interruptions would lengthen the process to a full two hours, I'm sure.  And that's just too long to spend on a weeknight dinner. 

So.....

...I doubled the recipe.  It doesn't take any longer to do this, nor does it make any extra messy dishes.  I made two batches of mac & cheese: one for immediate consumption, and one for the freezer to be eaten in a couple of weeks.

In fact, I'll actually be saving an hour of my time and several dirty dishes in the future.  How's that for planning?  If this isn't a current practice in your house, give it a try.  Good luck!

Cheery utensil crock

For the longest time, I've kept my most-used cooking utensils in a small stockpot by the stove.  It's functional, but not very pretty.  In fact, sitting on the gray countertop in front of the gray-ish backsplash, it's downright blah.

Enter this new...thing.  I'm not quite sure what it is. Decoration?  Cookie jar? 

Whatever it's intended purpose, I thought it would make a great new utensil crock.

Which it does.  I like the color it adds to an otherwise mostly-gray kitchen.  My only issue now is...what do I do with the lid?

The poor, lonely, sad lid. Sigh.

Bread crumbs

Did you know that instead of buying bread crumbs from the store, you can make them yourself?!

Oh, you did know that?

Huh.

Well, until a year or so ago, it hadn't occurred to me that I could (and should) be doing this myself.  Now, it's a regular practice whenever I have old bread languishing in my pantry.  For those who haven't made your own bread crumbs before, it's super easy.

Step One:  let old bread sit out for a day or two on a cooling rack.

Step Two: pulverize the bread in your food processor.

Step Three: store in an airtight container until you need the breadcrumbs.

Step Four: use the bread crumbs to top your homemade macaroni and cheese.  Yum!

Now, if there were only some way to make my own croutons instead of buying them at the store...

Garbage bag storage--a good thing

With two kids in diapers/training pants, we go through a lot of wipes in the TMI household.  Which means we empty a wipe container or two every week. 

Fortunately, I've starting putting those plastic containers to work for me. 

We use regular plastic grocery bags to line the small trash cans in our house, of which there are nine.  To corral the seemingly-endless supply of plastic bags, and to make sure we always have liners on hand when we need them, I use the empty wipe containers to box the plastic bags. 

I keep a container in the car as well, which is helpful when I need to clean out the car or simply put the bottom half of one of my kids in a plastic bag.  Yes, we have moments like that here.

Plastic bag reuse and organization--it's a good thing!

NOTE TO EVERYONE:  I'm pretty sure Martha Stewart has copyrighted the "It's a Good Thing" phrase, so that's all hers. Just an FYI.

A good thing--portable diaper caddy

We're just 13 days from the due date, and the TMI household is in full baby mode.  I wanted to share one of my favorite baby "good things."  It's a portable diaper caddy, and a real lifesaver for anyone who's just expelled another human being from her body and has no energy or strength to carry a baby any distance in order to change a diaper.

Trust me on this. 

Our portable diaper carrier will be kept in the family room.  It's a large plastic bin with a latching lid and filled with all sorts of helpful items. 

The caddy is filled with diapers, wipes, washcloths, a changing pad, vaseline and powder. 

As soon as I know what size Baby Girl is, I'll include a fresh onesie in there as well in case for when we need an emergency change. This also makes a great baby shower gift.  What a good thing!