Tag: GO Month

Organize Your Kitchen in Little Nibbles and Big Bites

Our kitchens are truly the hearts of our homes, which means any time spent organizing this very important space is time well spent.  However… organizing our kitchens can seem really overwhelming, since there are things, both useful and scary, behind every door and in every drawer!

So let’s break down this big and useful project into several little projects, instead:

  • Food and Pantry Items
    Tackle your food storage areas first.  To minimize the overwhelm, review your kitchen a cabinet at a time.  Start with grouping your food categories (canned goods, boxed pastas, baking supplies), and review all your items for their expiration dates.  It’s likely at least a few items will be expired, and those will go in the trash.
    Decide, too – even if a food item isn’t expired, will you and your family ever eat it?  (For example, when my sons were young, I bought a 10 pack of boxed mac and cheese and then they announced they didn’t like it).  If an item is still within code but of no use to you, share or donate it to a local food pantry so it doesn’t go to waste.
    Plan your next week of meals around the food you have on hand, to continue the clutter clearing!  And always check your cabinets before you grocery shop, to avoid having to throw out expired foods again.
  • Reusable Water bottles and Coffee Mugs
    To get started, pull them out of ALL THE PLACES THEY ARE STASHED, and pair up the bottoms and tops.  And Yes, if you’re asking, you probably have too many of these.  Decide just how many you feasibly need.  I’m the only one that uses go-mugs, and I use the same 2, rotating them daily.  We have a few more than 2 water bottles, but not too many.  And next time you’re at an event where they are giving away free water bottles or can wraps or coffee mugs, just say “No, thank you”.
  • Cleaning supplies
    Good golly.  I’m always amazed at the full inventory of cleaning supplies most houses hold, and most is stashed under the kitchen sink.
    Which makes no sense, because you can’t really see it under there.
    Take everything out, line up the items by category.
    See anything you can just toss? (why are there always a few empty windex bottles?  Go fig.)
    Are there any items that are clearly past their prime?  Off color, bad odor, rock hard, etc.?
    Any partial bottles you can combine?  (The dribs and drabs of dish soap or hand soap?)
    Look around your kitchen or pantry, and see if there is a better place to store your cleaning supplies.  If there is not, corral the different categories into plastic baskets and store them under the sink so you more easily access your supplies when you need them!
  • Spices
    Here is the link to my recent article on organizing your
    spices!  
  • Junk drawer
    Here is the link to one of my most popular articles ever,  “If You Call It A Junk Drawer, Guess What Ends Up Inside?”
  • Plastic storage containers
    Yes, it is time to organize these, too!  Click here to read my recent article “What to Do With All These Storage Containers”!
  • Top of the fridge?
    Ohhhh, yeah.  This space can be great storage or it can be a crazy no-man’s land of scary stuff.  Click here to read “Reclaim The Top of Your Refrigerator”.  (And there are even some words about Cookbooks in this one!!)

Fight the overwhelm, and tackle these projects one at a time to get your kitchen on track!

The Unexpected Benefit From Email Problems!

Did you know?  It’s “National Clean Out Your InBox” Week.

An interesting phenomenon occurred a year ago.

I had a handful of tech issues.  My website was down for a few days, and in getting it back up and functioning, my email then disappeared for a few days (Heres’ a shout out for my web guru at Amplify7 who saved me!).

It was a fun time, let me tell you.

Ok, it wasn’t.  A terribly frustrating and unproductive 10 days.  But that is not the point.

The interesting part was this:  apparently, when my business email addresses were down, they generated “undeliverable” auto-replies to emails, newsletters and retailers that tried to send me messages.

And for those few days, the “undeliverable” auto-replies served to unsubscribe me from most of my daily / weekly blog followings and newsletters, as well as retailers and their daily advertisements.

Oops…

Since I send out an email newsletter every week, I understand how this happens.  When I check my statistics for each newsletter, I am prompted by Constant Contact to delete any “undeliverable” email addresses as well.

It was interesting, though.  Once the challenges were resolved, I was so appreciative to return to my normal productivity that it took me a few days to realize WHY my inbox seemed so uncluttered and calm.  For example:

…Actual emails from actual people rose to the top of the list like rich cream to the top of milk.

…I could actively seek out information I DID want without looking at the information I didn’t want.

…Distractions were diminished, and there was just LESS.

 

I DO NOT recommend shutting down your email just to clear out your inbox. With far less drama and frustration than I experienced last year, you can achieve a similarly Calm and Clutter Free InBox with these suggestions:

  • Unsubscribe, unsubscribe, unsubscribe.  This is a favorite suggestion for this time of year.  My friend Jan calls it the gift that keeps on giving.  Let go of subscriptions that no longer appeal to you, remove yourself from retailer mailing lists, or choose to receive fewer emails on the preferences page.  A client is having her teenage daughter help her with this on their regular commute to school.
  • If you have GMail, there is a Promotions Tab that automatically filters out email advertisement and promotions from your general in-box (google or you-tube for directions if you don’t have this yet).  If you are using another email platform, check for this type of option, though unsubscribing may still be the best option.
  • Learn from my most recent (just this past week!) email challenges – what is it about this time of year?  Set up your email addresses with recovery information that get’s texted to your phone or is directed to a different email.  I had these safeguards in place, of course, but when Yahoo switched over to a new business email platform last week, POOF!  those safeguards were gone (all is well again, thank you Customer Service).
  • I occasionally suggest creating an alternative free email address (like gmail) just for subscriptions and retailer messages, but ONLY if you plan to check it at least once in a while.  Some folks use these alternate email addresses for their bill-paying and notifications, but again – ONLY if you will check them regularly.
  • Passwords.  Oi.  This will be a future article just on getting our Passwords under control, like Password Management Apps to track such info.  For Clean Out Your Inbox week, I’ll remind you to keep track of your email passwords and log-in info, and while you don’t have to grant others access, let at least one trusted person know where you keep your info.
  • Don’t use your in-box as a to-do list, a place holder, a keepsake box, or… well… anything other than an in-box.  The term “in-box” leads us to believe there should be an “out” box as well.  Items should come to our in-box, be completed, and then moved OUT of the IN box.

Spend just a little time this week cleaning out your In-Box, and reap the benefits for a long time to come!