REARRANGING THINGS FOR BETTER USAGE OF SPACE AND BETTER ACCESS TO THINGS

 My apologies for my absence. I thought I missed a week – but I have never missed 2 weeks before. - EVEN WORSE - I NEVER FINISHED POSTING THIS ON MAY 6.

I have been doing some rearranging in our kitchen. As I have mentioned before about the organizing rule of “putting like with like” leaves open the question of what are like items. For example in the field of clothing is it all socks together and all underwear together? My husband pointed out to me about a couple of decades ago that this did not make sense. If I wear some types of underwear daily and some types of socks daily - I am opening two drawers every day. If instead of socks together and underwear together (which I had done since I was in my early teens) which meant I had to open 2 drawers every day. If, on the other hand, I consider types of items I wear just about daily- whether socks or underwear in the same drawer - and put the same of these items which I wear once in a long while in the other drawer I only have to open one drawer almost all of the days. Hmmm, I had never thought of like with like as wear daily together and wear rarely together elsewhere. It does work well.

In the kitchen I had changed several years ago from all of a type of items being together to putting what I use daily or almost so together and rarer used items together. Our everyday dishes – a set for 8 – was on two shelves in one of our 4 kitchen upper cabinets on the bottom and middle shelves (of 3 shelves). But there are only two of us. Every time I needed to use something from the middle shelf I had to get a step to reach the item. I now keep 3 dinner plates, our 2 lunch plates, some unrelated dinner plates that I use when cooking, 4 of our soup bowls (as sometimes they are also used for small serving bowls) and 4 of our small plates (for dessert, side plates, etc), as well as two of the same type of the unrelated plates smaller for use as utility plates plus since I have wire shelf to split this shelf in two I also have 2 small serving bowls. On the bottom shelf of the matching cabinet on the other end of the kitchen I have two each of the glasses we use (I like tall thin ones, he likes short wide ones), 2 mugs for hot beverages, some small glasses used for utility, measuring cups (wet and dry), two ice cream cups and some other similar items. I now can reach what I need to set the table for us without having to climb on a step.

But what about our other two upper cabinets? Well one of them is located over our stove – so very rarely used items are in it as I have to climb, not on my step, but on a chair to reach anything. So the good china and rarely used serving pieces/baking dishes are in it.

The fourth cabinet is next to eh 3^rd, but hanging at the same height as the first two – meaning I can reach the bottom shelf. This is the one in which I recently did some rearranging. On the bottom shelf I have some platters, 2 hot plates to put hot dishes or pots on at the table, and 3 serving bowls of the same size and shape with different designs – about minimum in size of the bowls we own. On the shelf above are other items used fairly regularly – the difference being that I can reach and take out the gravy server with the small pitcher kept in it (pitcher intended as for milk or cream when serving coffee, tea, etc, but more often used by me as an alternative gravy server which is why they are stacked together) and more bowls. In this case from my large bowls used for mixing and cooking, a wooden bowl bought to use for reenacting but replaced by a better one for same, and a medium sized serving bowl.

This setup worked well for us in the past as we did a minimum of cooking for the two of us as we ate dinner out 3 nights a week and lunch out daily. But since the pandemic life and cooking has changed.

Last week I thought to myself that I use that medium bowl on the second shelf of the cabinet at least once a week now – and each time I use it I have to climb on the step to get it down and then do the same to put it away. But it is rare that I use even 2 of the 3 serving bowls on the bottom shelf (they are bigger than my small and medium bowls but smaller than my large bowls. Mostly when I use one of them for the two of us I have made biscuits or rolls and need something to put them on table. Hmmm.

So I took one of the three bowls on the bottom shelf and climbed up and took the medium bowl from the second shelf out and rearranged the bowls on the second shelf to include the one from the bottom shelf and put the medium one on the bottom shelf – no more climbing to get it down.

In addition I have been using some pots which are kept in the lower cabinet, under where the bowls are stored, that I do not normally use with any frequency. It has been hard getting the wok in and out as it is in the back left side of the cabinet. In the front right side of the cabinet I have a 8 quart pot (just went and checked as I did not know how large it is) which normally sits unused in the cabinet except for cooking soup from scratch for holidays but I have also been using to make ravioli for dinner every couple of weeks during the pandemic. Behind it sits several items – some for baking, some for cooking – including a large round flat griddle with slightly raised sizes. These pots have sat in this cabinet for decades with no problems. But for some reason now that I am using the 8 qt pot it does not go back into the cabinet easily as the griddle is suddenly in its way.

I had taken the griddle out during the week – since it is rarely used I was going to move it to the basement storage closet (well, technically area where the gas meter is located in the finished part of the basement with walls and door to hide it). But then I started thinking again. I took it and put it in the back under where the wok goes and moves some smaller items where the wok goes to the other side where the griddle had been. It worked. The 8qt pot fits back into place in the front right of the cabinet (with smaller pots stored in it as before) and has no problem coming out and going back in. The left side of the cabinet has the wok in the back on the griddle and since it raised up slightly off the floor of the cabinet and some items which were there have been moved to the rear right, it can be more easily taken out and put back. I did have move one large pot lid to the small half shelf at the back of the cabinet over all of this – but it all works so much better now.

THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -

What area of your home just does not work even thought it meets the “like with like” rule? What other way can the items be sorted to still be “like with like” just using a different standard of “like”? How or when or how often things are used is just as valid of making them “like” items as the items actually being the same kind of item.

STORING ITEMS LIKE WITH LIKE - SOMETIMES WHAT IS USED ALL THE TIME WITH SAME AND WHAT IS USED RARER TIMES WITH SAME IS BETTER

 When I first started reading about getting organized I was a teenager in high school.  One mantra of organizing that I learned about then is to group like things together.  To this day my closet had my shirts sorted by color, my two skirts together and I have 3 hangers, which each hold multiple pairs of pants, hanging from a hook each attached to the back (2) and side (1) walls in the closet.  (These 3 hangers – one holds my jeans, one holds the 3 pants of non-jeans pants I own, and the third holds my old ripped jeans that I use as pjs.)  

My husband was always amazed at this organization – especially since most of the rest house is not so organized – by a lot.  (He is not the greatest organizer either.)  He has changed my thoughts on using this rule for everything.  

I had always (since I was maybe 14 or 15 years old) kept my underwear together and kept my socks and stockings together.  When I lived with my parents this was one drawer.  When we got married my underwear went into the top left drawer of my dresser – a half width drawer – and my socks/stockings went into the same size drawer below them.  

One day husband pointed out the waste of time – every day I would open the top drawer, take out underwear, close the drawer, open second drawer and take out socks or stockings and then close that drawer.  He knew I had in both drawers items that I did not wear as often as others.  That started me thinking – what about putting together items needed every day and ones that are not often worn?  I redid those two drawers – the top drawer now holds my underpants and bras and socks. In the second drawer are things like my slips (haven't worn in years, but if need to dress up will need) and my stockings and pantyhose – only needed for work, religious services and the extremely rare other reasons to dress up.  Now I only have to open one drawer most mornings.  

In the kitchen I organized my dishes.  My everyday dishes, a set of 8 servings, were stacked – all the dinner dishes together, all the soup/cereal bowls together, all the small plates together, etc.  This involved two shelves of a kitchen cabinet.  I am 5' 1”.  I can reach the bottom the shelves, but not the ones above.  This meant every time I needed something on the second shelf I needed the step to reach it to take it out and then again to put it back – which of course meant that items were left in the drying rack for days sometimes if I did not feel like climbing up.  I took out 4 dinner dishes (use for serving plates for us also), 4 bowls, and 2 small plates from our every day dishes.  I fit a stack of 3 small serving bowls in the cabinet also.  (The cabinet has a wire shelf rack I added in it so I have 2 shelves in the one cabinet.)  Mixed in with the dishes and small dishes are 2 lighter dishes each also – these I use as utility dishes – serving, cutting on, draining on, etc. Now it is rare that I need something from another shelf for dishes and I don't have to climb up daily – easy to take out and easy to replace.  I have our drinking glasses in the matching cabinet on the other end of the cabinet.  I have 2 mugs on the bottom shelf, two of the drinking glasses I like, two of the ones husband likes, 2 ice cream glasses and 3 measuring glasses.  There are other items on this shelf also, but these are the basic items use from it and I can use without needing to climb up.  Again the upper shelves hold items not used on a daily basis.  In the third cabinet I can reach (between stove and refrigerator) some platters and serving bowls on the bottom shelf.  

Perhaps the problem is “what are like items”?  In both of these cases if like items means all of the same type of items together, the idea does not work.  If instead it means “items I used all the time vs. items I don't use often” it does work.  

THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -

How are your items sorted?  Do you have items you use frequently and items you use rarely together as they same type of items?  Or do you put items you use frequently together where they can easily be reached and used and items that are rarely used together in places which are harder to reach for storage and retrieval?  Try the second idea – it works much better.

WHAT WORKS IN ORGANIZING FOR ONE PERSON DOES NOT WORK FOR EVERYONE - WHAT ARE YOUR PROBELMS OR SOLUTIONS?

 How about some of you write an email to tell me some of your problems with getting organized and declutter or something which you found helpful or a problem that you have.  I know that some of you are reading my posts – it would be nice to get some response.  

I know that the blog wanders a bit for one about organizing.  When I wrote early posts I ended up discarding what I wrote – does anyone out there want a list of “I put 3 dinner plates on the bottom shelf of one of my kitchen closets with two utility dishes on them and our two lunch sized plates on the top of the stack.”  or I keep my good china in the cabinet over my stove set up so I can easily pull out 2 plates, 2 bowls, 2 cake plates, and one coffee cup and saucer”?  

I though not.  I sort figured the process of working on trying to get organized and what I do is more interesting than lists of where I put what.  

Let's face it, we all know the basics – get rid of excess stuff, find a place for each item you keep and put everything its in place.  But in real life does that actually work?  

One online organizing group which I am on, often has a post saying to make sure everyone in the house puts their dirty dishes in the dishwasher to make it easier.  This presumes that one has a dishwasher (not everyone does) and that it is used.  We have a dishwasher.  The first one came with the house when we bought it from the last owners.  Husband insisted I should use it, so I did.  My mom always said that the dishwasher does not clean as well as a person – she was right, it could not even get the newsprint ink off the dishes and such from when it was packed to come to the house.  

The dishwasher died a few years on.  Husband convinced me to buy a new one and we used it – I spent a lot of time rewashing dishes.  That dishwasher died in steps – first the interlock died (the device that lets the dishwasher know it is locked and it is okay to wash the dishes) I would lean a chair on the door of the dishwasher to keep it locked and in position for a number of years.  One morning I came downstairs and the dishwasher was full of water – the pump had died.  I bailed it out and dried it.  I turned it into a drying rack for hand washed dishes – not good as I had to keep drying it out from the dripping that went on.  It is now used to store some large items which do not fit into cabinets.

Husband pushed me to buy a new dishwasher.  I went looking.  After a year or so I found one liked, I was ready to buy it.  Then I read the reviews of dishwashers.  It was not rated well and it seems that the newer dishwashers work differently and often dishes need to be washed again.  So I did not and do not plan to buy a new dishwasher.  For two people who normally only eat 1 to 2 meals a day at home – do I really need one?   Even now - when we are eating 3 meals at day at home due to Covid and staying at home – it takes rather less than 10 minutes to wash the dishes, pots, etc after each meal.  

So, if I had my husband put his dirty dishes (a plate, maybe a bowl, and silverware three times a day and a glass also at night – we leave our glasses on the table during the day and reused them) in the dishwasher – I would have to wash the dishwasher also.  I clear the table after we eat and wash the dishes, etc – no big deal.  

Everyone and their problems in organizing are different.  Fixed rules do not apply other than the general idea of trying to have less stuff and putting it where it belongs – both of which vary person to person.

THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -

What problems do you have?  Do you consider your problems in getting organized and decluttered to be large or small?  What suggestions can you offer others about what you have done. 

THANKSGIVING IS HERE AGAIN

For those of you in the U.S., Thanksgiving is tomorrow, at least as I write this (by the time you read this, it is probably today or yesterday for you).  Rather than retell the story of organizing for Thanksgiving past, I will post links to my prior Thanksgiving posts at the end of this post.

This year is rather worse than even most recent years.  Until this past Monday we were still debating - cook dinner or go to an Asian buffet (they do put out a turkey for carving - and each person carves their own serving). 
On Monday we bought our turkey.  It is from the same specialty supermarket that we bought from last year and the year before.  Due to our letter about our problem last year  with the turkey not being fully cooked (the breast was blood raw) after following their directions, they sent us a gift card for about 3 times the price of the turkey.  So this year’s turkey (and next year’s and part of the year after’s turkey) was free.  Due to the warnings this year about problems with turkeys and salmonella, I was concerned about putting the turkey - even though it is still in its packaging - on the right hand top shelf of our refrigerator, the only one tall enough to hold the turkey - even though it is lying down.  So I was going to put it on one of my platters - but then realized that they are pottery and might absorb any leaks and any salmonella in the leaks.  I thought and thought where I might have a large enough glass plate to hold it.  So it is sitting on a lovely large dessert serving plate that we received as a wedding gift.  (Yes, we have used it to serve dessert over the decades.)  That left 2 small corners at the front of the shelf to put anything on it.  Husband, a few weeks ago, had decided that the caffeinated diet soda he has at lunch made his shoulder/arm feel better.  So we have a started bottle of decaf soda and one of caffeinated soda in the fridge.  I put the decaf one on the right corner of the shelf.  I then went to put the caffeinated one on the left corner of the shelf - I had forgotten that one of the reasons I hate this fridge (even before we bought it, but it was the closest to what I wanted that we could find in the emergency situation of our old one - around 30 years old - dying) is that the light bulb is in the front of it - in the middle of the fridge and one cannot put anything tall there - so the soda bottle could not go there.  I managed to balance it - 3/4 of it on the center of the shelf and the front end sticking off.  I warned husband - so he would be careful not to knock it off the shelf  - and made him repeat to me what I said - so he cannot say I did not tell him.  Of course right after this, he stopped drinking soda and switched to ice tea, so I have been drinking the decaf soda to get rid of the extra bottle.  It is down enough that the bottle can lay on a lower shelf as there is so little soda left, it does not reach the neck of the bottle while it is lying down.

Yesterday (Tuesday) we went out shopping for the other things we need for the dinner.  Of course the stores (we went to 2 different supermarkets and a Walmart) were jammed and out of things.  I am annoyed that since we waited this long items - milk, stuffing, eggs and such - that I would normally buy in Walmart as they are cheaper there, had to bought at the supermarket and we probably blew at least $5 on the difference.  (I think I have said that I am cheap.)  We had to go out again today for items we did not find yesterday - another Walmart and a different supermarket.  I never did get the mixed (green) beans I wanted.  Somehow everything we picked is what he wanted, the mixed beans were what I wanted - plain green beans it is. 

I have not cleared out the dining room yet.  Nor have I cleared off the kitchen counters to have room to work.  I guess whatever is in the way in the dining room will be pushed to far end - hey, it’s only us, I would like it nicer, but between dealing with his shoulder and the RV winterizing mess (which will be continued next week) I am soooo behind in getting ready.  In reading my prior Thanksgiving posts (I found I already repeated myself at least once, and not repeating myself was why I read them) I was reminded that I have to go to the basement, move all the boxes of Christmas decorations in front of the very small closet that has our gas meter, a blanket cut in half for reenactments (in sealed plastic bags and rarely used kitchen stuff and get the platter for carving out and wash it.

I don’t know if you go shopping on Thanksgiving or Black Friday, we do not.  Never found anything worth getting.  I have to wonder if people buy new TVs every year as that always seems to be the big draw.  Then again, as I have mentioned, we do very little gift shopping, as well as little shopping for us.  For us if we are shopping something needs replacing or there is something very new (and not expensive) that husband has decided he needs.

Remember that what you buy has to be paid for and you don’t want to be in debt forever for something that is gone in a year or two or less.  Also - everything you buy has to be stored - either by you or the person you give it to - think about that when buying items for yourself or as a gift. For example husband decided last week to buy a chair at Ikea. It is a small kitchen table chair and it has a low back and is smaller than our regular chairs.  He had noticed the chairs at Wendys where we have lunch are more comfortable for his shoulder and arm - after jokes about maybe since we go there so office we can borrow/rent a chair from them, he decided to look in Ikea after dinner last week.  Now, we are the type of people who can shop for a package of hair pins for a week or two, but he sat in several chairs and then announced one was perfect (and “only $39") and we bought it and assembled it that night and he loves it. This left me with the chair he used before (and hopefully will again).  It is now in the dining room against the wall (we keep furniture against the wall in the colonial “room at rest” manner) - out of the way until we need it again and looks decorative.

THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK -

Those of you in the U.S. - have a nice Thanksgiving. 

All of you - think before you shop during the holidays (and in general) before overspending or buying unneeded items which will quickly be unwanted - by yourself or as gifts.  One of the movie theater chains we used to go to had a trailer to sell its gift cards for holiday gifts.  It has people receiving gifts that were not appropriate and of course those who received their gift cards were happy.  I will never forget one sequence - a man receives a sweater as a gift.  The sweater is huge - his arms are lost in the sleeves and the sweater covers him to below his knees and he is so sad and upset and shaking his head.  You don’t want to be the person who gives a gift like that!  (And no, I am not pushing movie gift cards.)

Prior Thanksgiving posts -
http://wheredidileavethat.blogspot.com/2015/11/thanksgiving-and-other-holidays.html
http://wheredidileavethat.blogspot.com/2016/11/
http://wheredidileavethat.blogspot.com/2017/11/semi-unorganized-thanksgiving.html

THANKSGIVING TURNING INTO CHRISTMAS

I hope you all had a pleasant Thanksgiving (if you are here in the U.S.) last week.  Did you run out to shop during the day or the night - or did you at least wait until “Black Friday” to shop?  Or are you waiting still to start shopping?
                               
We had our Thanksgiving dinner, the two of us.  I managed to bang my head - not once but twice - on the corner of the dining room table while putting away a table cover which should have been put away months and months ago - I bent over to put it in a bag and hit my head.  I really screamed.  Husband came in, “are you okay, and there, there’d” me and then gave me a lecture on making sure it was clear in front of me before bending over.  He went back to cooking in the kitchen and I took 2 steps back and bent over again to put away the cover.  I hit my head again on the same corner and same spot on my head - just less of the corner and got to listen to the lecture again.  Worst of all it was the same spot on my head that I hit last month in our RV. 

It was relatively easy to take out the china and items we needed.  I had gone through the cabinet where it is all stored last year and donated a lot of items we did not need.  Instead of needing to take out stacks and stacks of items, only one or two had to removed.  How pleasant.  I plan to work on the serving pieces stored in the living room next - I have better uses for the storage space there than bowls and platters we bought or received as gifts and have never used.  Hmm, maybe I can finally get husband to hang two handled cups from when we were each a kid that match which are stored in the living room.  He had the juice cup, I had the orange juice cup - but they match.  They must have been popular cups for children back then.

The turkey had directions on it - basically we were to cook it at 325F, when the little popper popped we should test the breast with a thermometer and make sure it was at least 180F.  There were also instructions to tent the turkey with foil and then remove same, and brush will oil a few times.  Also on the turkey wrapping was a list of times to cook the turkey - only this said for a turkey cooked at 350F - 25 degrees higher than the instructions said to cook at.  We discussed this - for a quite awhile.  In the back of my head it seemed to me that I remember the same problem with the turkey from the same place last year, but could not remember what I did. We cooked it at the 325F with the logic that it could always be cooked more, but cooked not be cooked less if it was overcooked. About a half hour longer than the chart said (for cooking at 350F) the popper popped and I checked the turkey breast with a thermometer and it was 180F and rising.  We took the turkey out and set it aside on the kitchen table to “set”. 

In the interim we finished cooking other food items and had our soup.  Husband then went to carve the turkey.  The turkey breast looked wonderful as he carved into it - but as he went beyond the breast - the turkey was terribly undercooked.  He finished carving the breast - moving it to another platter to do so.  He then cut up the rest of the turkey - wings, legs, dark meat - and we placed it all on two oven trays to heat it further.  I ended up with the 2 extra trays and 2 extra platters as a result of all this.  We are not sure what went wrong - should we have cooked it at 350F instead?  But the popper popped and it was the correct temperature on the thermometer.    Husband has written a letter to the supermarket’s owner (this is one of those of stores where the owner’s photo is all off and he does the ads himself and is actually involved in his company day to day) asking what happened. 

The dishes and all were washed Thanksgiving night.  I have put all away.  When I put my large platter back in the basement, I took out my “everyday” Christmas dishes and glasses.  I washed them and we are using them.  I move some of my normal everyday dishes higher in the cabinet - where I can’t normally reach stuff - to make room for these to fit in. 

We had the leftover turkey etc for the second set of leftovers tonight.  There is at least one dinner’s worth of turkey left - but that is all.  It will either be eaten early next week or will be frozen.

We do not go shopping on Thanksgiving.  We don’t go out for Black Friday sales either.  Okay, one time husband wanted a small laptop that was going on Black Friday sale at a chain electronics store and we went and waited in line for it.  He did get the laptop, but then again, it was still on sale at the same price - and in stock - the following week.  It was not worth standing in line in the freezing cold.  This store was rather well organized.  There was a line.  Items which were limited had coupons for them handed out to people by employees walking along the line, so the coupons were handed out to people based on where they were in line. 

We have many times, including this year, while out on Friday to have lunch (at Wendys of course) and run errands gone past empty looking stores and malls by the time we went out.  I had needed to renew a medication at the Walmart pharmacy and figured it would be ready over the weekend, but we were called Friday afternoon that it was ready decided to see how bad the crowds were.  It was empty!  Items which had been put out late Wednesday sealed up until the sales started, were still plentiful for the most part - husband started rooting through the DVDs.  We have been in Walmarts again since then and still sale items are still in their displays - either less people came in than they thought would do so, or they intended for the sale items to be available long beyond last Friday.

When we woke up today I noticed the temperature was 61F - 61!  I pointed this out to husband and suggested that today was the day to put up our outdoor Christmas decorations.  He agreed.  We checked our box at the post office, had lunch at Wendys and came home.  We keep our outdoor decorations on a platform in the top of the garage.  We used to have everything there for Christmas, but as we have aged and it is not that easy for husband to climb on a ladder and get everything - much is heavy - down, I moved the rest into our basement.  He can now stand on his worktable (after clearing it off enough) and get the, only, two boxes of lights and wires, three potted artificial poinsettia, and 3 light up candy canes down.  No more balancing on a ladder to hand me things.  Much safer.  We have some wreaths, swags, and such in our shed, but are not putting them up any longer - maybe again in the future. 

We put the poinsettia in the same stands that hold our flowers the rest of the year.  Husband made these poinsettia in pots.  We bought artificial poinsettia which could go outside in the weather and 3 pots to fit the holders.  He then bought a couple of cans of spray insulation - the kind that is a foam and expands to fit what it is in.  He filled the pots and we added a poinsettia to each.  The foam was topped with fake greens and they look great.  5 minutes and they are out in place.

We put lights on our bushes and a dwarf spruce tree.  (The dwarf tree is now over 6 ft tall, I am so glad that I talked him out of a full size one.)  Of course two set of lights did not work when tested - one of the ones which goes on the bushes and one that is red and white and goes around the white plastic pillar of our mailbox a bit of a candy cane look.  We have in the boxes with the lights two electric boxes which stick into the ground.  One is placed on one side of the front of our house and the other is placed on the other side of the front of our house.  A long flat outdoor extension cord is plugged into the outdoor outlet and run across the front of the house, over the top of the stairs (under the door mat so no one trips) and the electric box on the side away from the outlet is plugged into it - and then the lights are plugged into the electric box.  The electric box on the side of the house near the outlet is plugged into the other outlet in the wall box and the lights on that side of the front of the house plug into it.

After we put out and plugged in the lights that worked, we drove to Walmart to buy replacement.  No white and red lights - no red lights on their own.  We came back, put up the new light set on the bush that was short a set.  Husband then took the red and white set into the garage, plugged it in and started shaking it.  One half started working.  So we wrapped the lit half of the strand around the mail box pillar and dropped the rest on the ground. 

The wreath we bought last year for the front door was in the basement with the rest of the “in the house” decorations.  The former one was decorated by husband as a copy of one we saw and liked at Colonial Williamsburg - only we used plastic fruit instead of real fruit so we could keep reusing it.  The problem is that it had to hung on the outside of the storm door as it did not fit between the door and storm door - this involved annually rigging strands of fishing line around screws in the storm door and trying to adjust it so we could still see through the peep hole of the door - and remember we both on the short side.  The new wreath has lights on it - lit by batteries with a timer so it is on for 6 hours every night at the same on and off time.  Went up in less than 20 minutes with a magnetic hook on the door - and it is out of the weather, unlike the old wreath which if got covered snow might break free and fall. 

So our house now looks presentable to the world.  Husband is still trying to figure out where we could put one of those projector decorations - but the front of our house is just not set up for it.

Notice that because fixed place for the Christmas decorations in the garage and plastic boxes to hold the lights, wires, and plug in boxes for them, as well as an assigned spot in the basement to hold the Christmas decorations, it was easy and quick to find everything and put it out.  The empty boxes in the garage were stacked on each other with the bags that the lights were kept in stored inside, relatively out of the way so that when we go to take down the lights - they will be easy to find again and then they will be put back up in garage along with poinsettia and the candy canes so that next week we will find them again.

Sometime next week I will put away my few Thanksgiving decorations in the house and then I will start putting out the Christmas ones.  This year the holidays seem to be going okay. 

THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK -

As you take out your holiday decorations and other items try to leave the packing in a way that it will be easy to find and put everything away after the holiday.  If it is all a mess  - try to figure out  while you unpack items how you can better store them away at the end of the season to make them either to access next year, while not being in your way all year. 

MAKING CHANGES TO GET MYSELF GOING AGAIN

I admit it.  Just because something is written in my task list does not mean it gets done.  Sound familiar?  I have my house cleaning scheduled for Wednesday.  In the old days before husband was home all the time and my schedule went topsy turvy this worked.  On days without appointments I would wake up around 9:30 am normally or 10:00 am on a lazy day.  I would work in my home office most mornings until around 1:30 or 2:00 pm and then I would go out for the days errands.  Most days this would be a quick run to the post office - send out any mail and pick up mail at our post office box.  Then lunch at home (except Fridays - my day out alone) and then back to work in the office.  On Wednesdays however, I would do my housework.  When during the day I did it, depended on which Wednesday it was.  I also start the laundry Wednesday night - right now while I am writing to you the second wash load is in and the first dry load.

I have different chores to do on different Wednesdays.  On the first Wednesday of the month I have my embroidery chapter meeting in the morning, so I have a lot of normal stuff to catch up on during the day of daily things, so I keep it light.  I am suppose to dust upstairs and clean the floors.  We have only three rooms with carpeting - our office, the Teddy Bear’s room (aka the just about never used guest room), and our craft studio.  The rest of the house is easy cleaning - either 1950's hardwood floors or some sort of vinyl flooring.  I used to do this in the afternoon after I came home from my meeting and while husband was at work.  It includes dusting the computers and related in the home office.  Well, now when I get in there husband is working at his computer.  He does not find it funny when I try to clean around him.  So this is no longer such an easy thing to do.

On the second Wednesday of the month I am suppose to clean the floors and dust downstairs as well as clean the downstairs tiny bathroom.  I used to do this when I returned from the post office - long before he was home.  If he is working at his computer this is not too bad to deal with in terms of dealing with him about it as he is not near where I am working.  If he is weaving or otherwise working downstairs - I have to clean around him - and invariably he will need the bathroom immediately after I have cleaned it and it is still drying.  Downstairs are not the hardest  floors to clean - they are basically “swiffered” and the kitchen and bathroom floors washed.  BUT the dining room often has items in transit which makes it hard to clean around them and the living room has some of the furniture out of place (the coffee table is wedged between two chairs to clear the middle of the room for example) and has husband’s warp table and loom in the middle of the room which also makes it hard to get around and clean. 

On the third Wednesday of the month I am suppose to again dust and clean the floors upstairs, as well as cleaning the bathroom upstairs - only slightly larger than the downstairs tiny one.  This used to be a “do in the morning” job, but no longer.  Now, again, I have to work around husband in the office - and like downstairs - if I clean the bathroom, he will immediately show up and need to use it.

On the fourth Wednesday of the month I again do downstairs - dusting and floors and clean the kitchen - same problems as the second Wednesday.

If there is a fifth Wednesday I would find some special project that needed doing.

Well, now the days are later days then before.  In addition I have a new project on Wednesday nights when I should be getting the cleaning done - writing my post for all of you.  Now, I am suppose to do this on Tuesday night, but never get to it. 

SO, I have decided that as of September I will move my cleaning to Tuesday nights.  I will see how this goes in terms of actually cleaning.  It won’t help with husband, but it might work on Tuesday to get me up and doing it. 

Late this afternoon I found my desk clear of things to do and an hour before I had to go make dinner.  Too late to make a phone call to our local real estate tax assessor’s office - which I have been calling for a couple of weeks and actually get a message telling me that no one is available to take my call - call back another time.  One more try and I call my county legislator.  What to do? 

Ah, now that the Teddy Bear Christmas village was packed away and the boxes moved to the dining room (see what I mean about it being a holding area) to go to the basement, and what needed to be stored in the trunk the village sits on, I could put away the line of bears and Cabbage Patch Kids waiting to see Santa.  First I had to take the bears sitting on the bed in the Teddy Bear’s room and put them on the trunk in the hall - where they are suppose to be.  Then the crew that goes on the bed went there.  Wow, one could actually walk into the room again.  I then started poking around to see what else I could deal with.  I pulled out the empty boxes that were floating around in there and put them in the hall - husband is going to store assorted papers he has collected on movies in the boxes, which will free up the shelves they were on for books - which we need space for.  But that is his to do.  I then went through some bags and boxes in the Teddy’s room to see what I could get rid of - I found in the closet there when I cleaned it out for husband to use for storage an entire carton of Teddy Bear items packed away when the house was treated for bed bugs - in 2009 - which have never been put back in place.  Not enough time to go through it , but a quick look showed I did still want most of what was in it.  Perhaps I will get a matching box to use for my storage in that closet.    Well, now at least I can get in and out of the room and I can get to the bear figurines I put out in the living room by month again - right now March is still out!

Why am I suddenly trying to get things done and get back on schedule?  I think it is the dish drying rack.  Since the dishwasher broke, I would wash the dishes and put them in same to dry.  It was large.  It was out of sight.  I would then take out what I needed each time we were eating, add whatever else I needed that was not in the dishwasher and put that all in to dry.  So basically nothing was put away unless it became too overcrowded in the dishwasher or it was a holiday and I knew I would need extra space. Now after each meal the dishes (and of course etc. is included in dishes) are washed and piled in the rack.  When next we eat I take out what we need as I go along.  Then before I wash again - everything else is put away.  Not easy - some items had no place to go, such as spare pudding size cups which I use for storage of extra half can of soup, extra frozen tomato sauce, etc. - but I have found homes for them.  Generally the glass we each use for the day end up never being stored away as it is used meal to meal and sometimes between.   I am not sure that this putting away of the dishes has not gotten me motivated to clean, declutter, and organize more again.

THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -

Sometimes a small change can inspire you to do more.  Go with it.  I use anything I can to help me get the inspiration to make the house cleaner and more organized.

BISQUICK ALL OVER !!

Well another week has gone by already - hard to believe.  We, again, did not go away last Friday as it was not only to rain, but there was a chance of snow also.  That is 6 one day trips planned (to more or less the same place) since the start of the year- and one trip taken. 

As an accountant I have been busy doing income taxes - well, not so busy - I used to do many more returns than I do now - but somehow it takes the same time - I am sure you all know the concept of the work expands to fit the time.  I have 3 returns sitting here each missing one piece of info to finish.  I have extensions and estimates to prepare for one client who is not ready to file yet - an annual practice as he is away the first part of the year.  I have another client who owes me info for 3 - yes 3 - years of tax returns and promised to send it.  I would hate for them to lose their refunds. 

Today we went out food shopping - sometimes one just has to do a big food shopping instead of just fill in.  So there was a lot of food to put away when we got home - luckily none of it for the fridge or freezer.  Well, I had planned to get butter free with the order and buy eggs, but the coupon for the butter was from another market - oops - and they did not have any extra large eggs.  So we were able to stop at the service station and have our mechanic install two air filters he ordered for us.  So when we got home, of course I just left the food out in the kitchen and went upstairs to pay bills and check for tax info.  This left shopping bags and and a box of food around our tiny kitchen.  It needed to be put away before I cooked.

Of course I got downstairs late to prepare dinner and had to do it around the groceries as I did not have a chance to put anything away.  I had bought a box of Bisquick which I planned to use to make biscuits tonight to have with dinner - chicken, cream of mushroom soup, and vegetables over the biscuits.  I have make biscuits like this many times, although not for this reason.  The recipes I use is no longer on their boxes, so after coming downstairs late - I had to go find my backs of prior Bisquick boxes collection - in a folder of loose recipes on the shelf with the cookbooks.  I knew where it was, but I had to climb over stuff to get to it and find which box back had the correct recipe.  So now I am running late, have bags and large box taking up most of the space in my kitchen, have used more time looking for the recipe and I am about to start cooking. 

Chicken defrosted in the microwave.  We each have a different soup - but it is the second night we are having same so I can dump it into pots as both were split in half last night.  So into the pots they go.  I look at the recipe for the biscuits. Hmmm. They can be made as dumplings.  I didn’t know that.  Well, that is basically what we are using them for.  I’ll make this recipe instead.  And so started a nightmare.  The dish I was cooking was simple - chicken breast cut in bite sized pieces and browned in the skillet.  Cream of mushroom soup with 1/4 cup of milk for sauce.  We wanted vegetables - husband carrots and me peas and carrots - so frozen vegetables had to be boiled - not a problem, it goes quickly.  I made it into major cooking and a major mess.

I put up a medium pot - a couple of quarts - of water to boil as the recipe said to drop the mixed biscuit batter onto the boiling stew.  Uh oh, says cook 10 minutes with no cover and then 10 minutes covered but that should be okay as we would have the soup before we needed it anyway.  I mixed up half the recipe as it was just for two.  I dropped the batter into the boiling water by the spoonful - per the recipes.  I actually got the right number of dumplings - per the recipe.  I then stepped away to cut up the now defrosted chicken. 

I hear a noise at the stove and look over - the water is boiling over even though I turned it down to medium.  I run over to see as it is the burner that has a bad thermostat and it sometimes goes to high when one is cooking at a lower temperature.  No, the water is boiling over and the dumplings are, well, messy.  I grab a large pot and slowly and carefully pour it all into the larger pot - after all - the problem must be that the pot is too small for the water and the dumplings.  No, that is not the problem and the water is soon boiling over again.  I finally get the stove to a low enough temperature for the water to be simmering and not boiling over.

I made the rest of the dinner.  Husband comes down for dinner and I am still cooking as in addition to be late starting and working around the groceries it is taking much longer - and more pots - than I expected.  The entire sight when he comes down is sort of like the end of “Woman of the Year”.  For those who do not know this movie Katherine Hepburn does not know how to cook.  She is coming back to her husband played by Spencer Tracy who she left a couple of days  into the marriage and now she knows she made a mistake and has returned.  She is a writer for a newspaper and is the Woman of the Year of the title and does not know how to cook or keep house.  She attempts to make coffee (in an drip pot as was used then) and make waffles.  When he comes into the kitchen he sees her struggling and sits down to read the newspaper.  When it gets to the point that the coffee is shooting out the top of the coffee pot and the waffle has an air bubble in it that is about to burst and she starts crying he finally goes and shuts everything off.  Well that is what the entire kitchen looked like tonight.  (If you have not seen this movie - this one scene alone makes it worth while and is one of the funniest scenes ever filmed.)

My husband is surprised that he does not smell biscuits baking when he comes down and sees what is going on.  Dumplings?  Well, I figured we were using the biscuits as same anyway and I found the recipe on the box...  He was disappointed.  I tell him that if it is awful I will start over and make the biscuits - after the decades we have been together he takes this sort of thing passably well.  (I suggested to him that he look at it as if we are newlyweds and I am still learning to cook and making a mistake - it would make us feel young again - he did not appreciate the idea.  So in the end I had 3 dumplings and some small pieces instead of 5 and at least they were cooked through and we could eat them. 

But  - the problem was the mess.  The stove was covered with goo that was the Bisquick and water that boiled over.  The stove needed to be cleaned as a result of this.  (Well, it needed to be cleaned anyway.)  Luckily I managed to pick up most of the goo with paper towels and a large spoon and toss it out.  I took the burner out that it had cooked on as it needed cleaning too and then I saw that It had oozed under the burner pan and I had to clean underneath also.  “Oh well, there goes my night” I thought  - not even sure I would get to write a post tonight. 

I washed the dishes and other pots then dumped the large pot from the dumplings out in the toilet bowl - the stuff was too liquid for the garbage and too solid for the sink drain.  I then set the pot to soak in the sink next to the dish pan I use to wash the dishes and started on actually cleaning the stove - having just sopped up the goo from it.  I dropped the decorative rings around the burners and the burner pans (not their foil liners - they were tossed out) into the dishpan which still had hot soapy water in it to soak.  I cleaned the stove - with lots of spray cleaner and paper towels. 

When that was done I turned to the burner pans and rings. I had to go at them with steel wool and got them mostly clean.  They are currently air drying in the dish washer (remember it doesn’t work and I use it as drying rack).  The skillet from dinner still needs to be cleaned - it is cast iron and needs to go on the stove afterwards to heat to get water out of it so it doesn’t rust, so I figured that I would let the stove parts dry a bit first while I started the second load of laundry (I managed to get the first load started before starting to wash the dishes) and wrote this post.

Well, the stove needed cleaning anyway and now that is a job that can be checked off the list.  I had spare foil pan liners for it and climbed up in the closet and got them out - ready to go into the burner pans when they go back. 

THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK -

Put stuff away as soon as you get it home.

The entire mess tonight would have been easier if I had put away the groceries when we got  home.  I would have at least the space to work.  I still would have ended up making a mess and having excess stuff plus the stove to clean, but I would not have had to drape a towel over the groceries so that if water dripped on them they would not get wet - as they would not have been next to the sink.

I have since put away all the groceries. 

A NEW YEAR

Another week already?  Seems hard to believe.  We had a quiet New Year’s Eve at home and then went out to Ikea for dinner on New Year’s Day.

Since then I have been doing my regular chores while archiving last year’s computer files.  I transfer the files from last year to an archive drive.  When I am done with what has to be archived at this point I will make 2 DVD copies of the archive drive for backup and then update the archive files on my “offsite” drives (the ones I take to the bank vault each month) so I have additional updates of the archive files.  Not all the files can be archived right now - I will wait to do my bank recs this month so the year end rec is in the 2016 records.  I will archive my Quickbooks files after I close them out for the year, which will take a couple of months to do the taxes.  After I have the archive copies made I will remove the matching 2016 data from my data file.             

I had decided that my good china was in the wrong spot in the cabinet over the stove and needed to come down a shelf - those dinner plates seem to have gained some weight and gotten heavier over the years.  When I put away the dishes after New Year’s I thought it a good time to deal with this.  I took everything off the bottom shelf and brought the china down from the middle (of 3) shelves.  I then went through the rest of what was on the 2 bottoms shelves (I can’t reach the top shelf without a ladder - I was on a chair - so it had to weight).  I looked at each item and thought about when I had used it last, if I would use it, could I buy one if I decided I needed it if I got rid of it, and a number of pieces were not put back in the cabinet.  Today I took them to Goodwill and donated them.  I am trying to find stuff to get rid of and take to Goodwill each month on the day I have my embroidery club and go out alone - husband always insists we need to keep whatever I am donating, so best not to have him along (although I am not taking his stuff to donate, which I would never donate without his permission - only what is mine or basically mine, such as the kitchen stuff).

Husband has a craft business through an online site.  Somehow I missed his renewal of about 15 items in mid December and never changed my records to match up to the end of month statement of fees charged. We had a sale on January 1 (we have few sales in general and we hope this is a good sign for 2017).  When I found out that I missed the renewals I found out that we did not sell the item listed in July, but the relisted item in December and had to fix the inventory records.  (We accountants actually like this sort of stuff so while it is boring to you, it is fun to me, if annoying that I had to do it to close out last year’s inventory.)

I also received an email from our reenacting group that we needed paperwork done for an event coming up soon.  I managed to get that done and out.

My embroidery chapter president had me send out a notice that a project we had been working on needs to be done by the Wednesday meeting - on Tuesday.  I forwarded out the message and finished my part of the project.  At the meeting I found out that I was suppose to do something on the piece, which I did not know and now have to get it finished again, as soon as possible (notice that I am not working on it, but writing my blog.

I had a half hour waste of time returning plastic bottles.  There were two women in the bottle room who did not seem to completely understand the set up.  They would put a small plastic watr bottle in the plastic bottle machine.  The machine would reject it. (Don’t know why.)  They would try again with the same result - then try putting it in the can machine.  They were putting cans in the can machine which were not deposit cans - I could tell by what they were for.  Again they would try twice and then put the can in the plastic bottle machine!  Then they would again try the bottle/can in the correct machine to have it rejected again.  I go to this location as normally no one is there as it is hidden away and the supermarket next to this “big box store” has a bottle room adjacent to the entrances to both stores and tends to pick up most of the business.  One of the other plastic bottle machines was out of order and the last one was full.  Not wanting to be the always complaining customer, I waited for the machine.  They finally gave up.  I put a bottle in the machine, then a second one - machine full.  I started towards the store entrance and 2 employees approached.  I followed them back into the bottle room and asked if either could deal with the machines - no, but they said they would call.  10 minutes later, no one had come and they were gone.  I headed into the store and asked for someone to be sent to the bottle room.  10 minutes after that I gave up and went to the supermarket bottle room.  I walked in to the room - no line coming through the door and looked at the people with carts full of small water bottles.  A woman nastily said to me that there was a line for the machines.  It was too crowded for me anyway and I left - outside there was a line of shopping carts filled with more water bottles!  I was about to head back into the store when I saw an employee who asked me if I was the one waiting for the bottle room and he went and emptied the 2 full machines.  I was surprised at who it was.  It was an older gentlemen, who is normally at the door of the store as one goes in.  He has an excellent sense of humor - I think he used to be a comedian - and he was efficient at his job and told some jokes while doing it.  I thanked him and finally got rid of the bottles (maybe 20 of them at most) - about 45 minutes after I started.

After dinner I called my mom.  I love my mom.  She is 87.  She lives alone in the family house.  She has two master’s degrees.  But I can talk forever and so can she - so tonight’s call ran around 3 hours.  Most of it while she was unpacking her food shopping as she was preparing for the huge snow storm coming this weekend - huh?  I try to guide the conversation to subjects that we won’t get into arguments about.  We discussed needlework - the project my group started today and pieces she did decades ago.  My Christmas decorations and the holiday.  New Year’s.  Medicare.  And I don’t know what else. 

When I started this blog my idea was that I would tell people about what I do to organize and how I do it.  I ended up doing a series of posts towards the beginning of the blog about where I put what in my kitchen - something like 3 columns and one or two cabinets later I realized that I was putting myself to sleep.  I then decided to write more about what goes on in my life as I try to get more organized as that seems, to me at least, more interesting.  I have been thinking and decided that to get back onto organizing more formally I will offer a “thought” as opposed to calling it a tip or suggestion on organizing each post.

TODAY’S THOUGHT ON ORGANIZING -
Start with today.  Do something today to take a step towards organizing.  One thing.  Pick up the clothes on the floor and put them in the laundry.  Wash the dishes and put them away.  Go through today’s mail - toss the junk (always shred or rip up anything with your name or address or the name of any of your financial institutions on it first) - decide what to do with the rest - check the bills, mark the date and amount due on the outside of the envelope ( I do this on the end of the envelope and date it for a week before it is actually due) and put them together in date due order somewhere - deal with other important mail now & find a place to keep the mail to be dealt with later.    Clean the cat’s litter box. 

Do any one thing, but do one thing.  Tomorrow do it again.  Do it every day and you will be cutting down on what stacks up for you to do - you will be making your future easier and more organized and then you can start on dealing with the past.

TRYING TO GET EVERYTHING DONE FOR THE HOLIDAY

Well, here it is - another Wednesday night.  I feel like I got did nothing this past week as I see so much I need/want to do with so little time left before the 25th.

I managed to start putting up some of the smaller Christmas decorations, okay, I set up my Christmas bear figurines which go in the living room and this week I set up the ones which go upstairs in a little village and a small tree which goes with them which has all teddy bear ornaments.  I did not finish setting up the lighting for the village though.  We did get the outside lights up on the bushes - and the new wreath for the front door as you know.  That leaves about 8 boxes of decorations for inside the house and three trees of varying sizes to go. We don’t have much other of the holiday other than the decorations so I go big on the decorations.

I know, I know almost 2 weeks to go seems like plenty of time.  But I don’t have all that time free. I took off time tonight to take a 3 hour online test I needed to take to be able to continue to work next year - I already finished 5 smaller tests - and the reading for all 6 courses.  I managed to finish the exam with 6 minutes to spare and pass it with an 88 - 70 was needed for credit.  Now at least I have that behind me and know that I can work next year.  I promise myself, next time I will get the courses earlier in the year and get them done earlier to avoid the last minute rush.

I went to a client this week - work must be fit in also - it is very important of course, but that was another day gone from my time.

The next 4 days we will be involved with our reenacting unit for a candlelight nights event at the local restoration village.  Our unit takes over a house there from our period (late 1700s) and interprets it as if there was a period holiday party going on in it.  The event is only from 5 pm to 9:30 pm, but we have to dress in period clothes, drive to and from the village, set up the building for the night, and then close down the building at the end of the night, so the 4 and half hour event takes us seven hours plus and when we come home afterwards we first make and eat dinner - so it basically takes up the entire day for the 4 days.  Today we went out and ran our errands for the rest of the week and mailed out bill payments for all bills due between now and Monday.  It is an event we enjoy, but it does take a chunk of time.

So in between all this I will need to finish clearing out the dining room - stuff for the RV will go out to the RV and stuff for husband’s weaving will be stored in our studio.  I was pleasantly surprised today when I came downstairs after working at my computer in the afternoon to find that husband cleared out most of the living room of his weaving stuff for me to decorate the room.  The original agreement was that I would have it from after Thanksgiving - something I never expected to happen and I had planned to put all the decorations up around his loom and related items - I had even figured that at least I could use the table he uses for warping (setting up the threads to weave through) the loom to put ornaments and such on while I set up, though he has stored the table away.  I was very happy that he had the consideration not only to stop weaving, but also to make room for me. 

On Monday I received the paperwork I mentioned last week for my embroidery club to reserve our meeting room for 2017.  I filled in the papers at the table at Wendys while I waited for husband to get us lunch as the papers have to be notarized - we then went to the bank and had same done.  Later when we came home I did the rest of the paperwork needed and husband mailed it for me yesterday (Tuesday) so it is on its way.  I also had promised to write something for the chapter president and had started it a couple of weeks ago and mostly finished it today and sent it to her for her to read and see if changes or additions are needed.  I also have some questions out to members (by email) for info I was missing. 

See, I got a lot done, it just does not register as there is so much else to do.  As I sit here writing to all of you, I am also doing the laundry - one load has washed and is in the dryer and the other is washing - more loads to do, but when these 2 are done, we are okay through the weekend if I don’t get to the other loads.  Dishes are washed daily - well, three times a day, I wash them after each meal.

How are you coming along with your plans for the holiday?  Remember one can only do what one can do.  When time runs out - then one is done - by definition.  Okay, I admit it, I will keep putting stuff up until it is all up, even if that means the day after Christmas. 

ORGANIZED THANKSGIVING?

Thanksgiving, as I sit here and write is tomorrow.  Thanksgiving was very important to me growing up.  Since my family (and I) are Jewish most of the mainstream family holidays (Christmas, Easter) were not our holidays and we did not observe or celebrate them.  But Thanksgiving was different - it was for all Americans (and any one visiting the country also).

When I met my husband (who is Roman Catholic) and as we progressed through dating to marriage we started celebrating each other’s holidays with the each other’s families.  That left Thanksgiving as the only holiday both families wanted us for.  We tended to go to his family, but sometimes went to mine.  We got married and this continued.  Then came the year his sister got married - a week or so before Thanksgiving.  We did not want to go to dinner with just his parents and grandmother, but did not want to leave them alone and go to dinner with my family.  What to do? 

I then made a suggestion that shocked and surprised my husband - “Let’s have both families here for Thanksgiving dinner”.  I then found the real difference between the two families.  It was not being from different “old countries”.  It was not the difference in religion.  It was - his family ate out for almost all holidays and mine ate home for almost all holidays.  The concept of making dinner for and having 10 people shocked and scared him.  My mom used to have that and more for family holiday dinners and to do so was what I expected out of life.  He was further concerned as we lived in our apartment then - “Where would we put everyone?’  We had a long living room and I figured we would get (we ended up borrowing from his parents) folding tables and set them up end to end to make one long table. 

Both families agreed to come.  We were a little rocky that first year.  We overreached.  Luckily we started the night before.  We planned on making our own stuffing which used chestnuts - I never knew that under the shell chestnuts had a skin, which also had to be removed - it took forever.  We put together some food dish or other and had it on the counter.  I dropped a glass - the food was covered in glass and had to be thrown out.  But we did it.  Lack of serving space?  Cover the portable clothes dryer with a table cloth, push it in the corner of the living room - bar.  People had a problem walking past each other at the table, but it all worked out.  I even saw a different side of my, always seemingly austere, grandfather - someone made an inadvertent double meaning comment (meaning off color in the unintended meaning) and my grandfather laughed like crazy with everyone else and so did husband’s grandmother. 

It was so successful that we continued for 25 years to make Thanksgiving dinner for the combined families.  We got much better at it.  The year we moved to this house we moved in October.  I promised that we would make Thanksgiving dinner - even if we ate off of paper plates.  (The china was on the table for the dinner.)  The problem we found we had was that the dinning room was square, not long and we had to deal with fitting in tables.  Until we bought a dining room table some years later we came up with plywood pieces which clamped to our old kitchen table and made a huge square table and had to be assembled and disassembled each year. 

The only thing that stopped us, finally, from continuing to make Thanksgiving dinner was bed bugs.  Since we no longer feel comfortable having anyone in the house we no longer have people in.  Since then my family eats dinner at my sister’s house and his family goes out for dinner.  We eat alone. In the 8 years since then we have eaten Thanksgiving dinner in a chain buffet or made dinner for the two of us.  (One has a lot of leftover turkey when one makes dinner for two.)  The chain buffet closed this year.  That left us looking for an alternative.  There was one possible place that we could sort of afford, but we had never been there and reviews online were not the best.  So this past weekend it was “officially” decided that we make dinner at home. 

Now to keep organized over the years I made lists.  Starting the second year we made Thanksgiving I wrote them in a spiral notebook.  At first it not only included a list of what we would have, but also lists of what each item would be cooked and served in.  Over the years since the menu mostly repeated I knew which items would be used for cooking and serving.  I knew that, as odd as it sounds, the first thing to start cooking when we got up Thanksgiving (late) morning was the potatoes for mashed potatoes.  The first year we had found out that there was a large local deli which was open on Thanksgiving and we could order the turkey cooked and ready for a hot pickup in the afternoon - my sister and her husband (and children) would pick it up for us on their way here (we paid) as they went past the place anyway.  Over the years the place shut down and we started getting the turkey from their other location - closer to my sister than us.  Not having a turkey in the oven left room for everything else.

At the height of our hosting Thanksgiving I would start cooking on Tuesday having already cleared the dining room as much as possible - including moving small pieces of furniture to our studio on the other side of the kitchen.  I baked Venetians (aka rainbow cookies).  They had to be baked and put together with the jellied centers on one day, left overnight with a heavy book on them and then chocolate melted and frosted it on another day.  I would make beef vegetable soup (PA Dutch recipe) on Wednesday and bake an apple pie and brownies (brownies were from a mix).  Wednesday night we would put together the sweet potatoes (no marshmallows, Colonial Williamsburg recipe) and bake the pumpkin pie.  Thanksgiving day we would make the rest of the items and bake the sweet potatoes.  A couple of times I made and baked rolls from scratch and once a baked a tea bread (CW recipe again) from scratch.  Sometimes I made biscuits instead.  Nieces and nephews however like the can popping open however, and we mostly made rolls from refrigerated dough.  (These rolls are no longer made by the popping can company or any other.) 

Each year I would look at my list of dishes from the year before.  We would discuss it and possibly make changes - Would something new work?  Do we need more of less of something. More of something? Did his sister want salad?  Was my sister vegetarian that year?   Did my niece decide she was kosher that year and would bring her own food? (Did not last beyond 2 years.)  We would adjust the menu.  But year to year it remained organized.  My sisters, mom and I were used to working together on getting out the food and clearing up and husband’s sister made her best efforts to help.  As nieces came along they helped - young children like to help - but nephew preferred the living room and playing.  I would do the dishes, etc. after everyone left.  In the apartment by hand and here in the dishwasher.  Here in the house I would also wash and dry the tablecloth and napkins overnight.  Since we stopped having the family in, the dish washer has broken so I am back to washing by hand.  When we went to/go to sleep at night on Thanksgiving everything has been washed (or was being washed in the dishwasher).  It does take a few days or a week to put it all back, but all is always cleaned that night.

Our guest list would change - it got smaller when my dad died, larger with each niece or nephew, a boyhood friend of husband’s who lived out of town, was down for the holidays a couple of times and joined us for dinner.  Husband’s sister’s mother-in-law was added to the guest list for several years before we stopped.  We first heard that his sister and her husband were going to adopt a child at dinner one year.  My niece had her first “food” - applesauce - at Thanksgiving dinner one year.

I have the recipes in the computer.  I used to use a cookbook program, but it needs a parallel printer directly hooked up to the computer on a specific port, so it is no longer usable.  It used to be great, it would resize recipes and calculate the revised ingredient list and had a shopping list feature.  I had put in the location of foods in our supermarket and I would have a shopping list printed out in the order I needed to find the foods.  When I saw its life coming to an end I printed all the recipes and scanned them back into the computer as pdf files so I would not lose the recipes.  I have to calculate ingredient quantities for changes in servings and make my own shopping lists, but I still can print the recipes out.  One advantage to this when making an assortment of items, is that when an item is done being prepared, the recipe is tossed out.  Helps keep track of what is done and what needs to be done.

So if we have been so organized and good at it, why has this year been such a mess?  We did not decide until the last minute that we were making dinner for ourselves.  (We had kept waiting for the magic restaurant to appear for us to go to for dinner.)  On Sunday while in Costco we saw turkeys for 99 cents a pound.  We were not going straight home and did not want the turkey sitting in the car for hours so we did not buy one. 

Tuesday we had a list of what we would make and needed ingredients. - some our traditional ones, some husband picked to make it easier for me.  We set out to food shop.  In my mind we would buy items which did not need refrigeration (since they were more Thanksgiving related they might sell out) and then get a turkey at the Costco near us.  Husband had planned to buy the turkey first in case we had a problem finding one - but did not tell me why he was buying it first, so I pushed to get it later.  We bought stuff at Walmart and the supermarket next to it.  (I may or may not have mentioned that our Walmarts do not have the supermarket Walmarts commonly have and there is a separate, unrelated supermarket next to the Walmart we normally go to.)  We then set off, not to the Costco near us, but to the one we normally go to (which we like it better than the one near us) to get the turkey.

Horrors! There were no more 99 cent a pound turkeys!  The only turkeys they had were $3.29 a pound as they were organic.  Panic!  My mind went to what we could have instead of turkey.  I remembered we bought 2 ham portions - one for Christmas and one for whenever - when last in Lancaster, PA and I figured if stuck we would have “French Turkey” which is ham.  Husband drove to a specialty food store located near Costco which had opened here this year - a chain from Connecticut.  We had been very disappointed when we went to see this store after decades of hearing about it - very expensive, but I followed him into the store.  He moved so quickly that I lost sight of him before I got to the store.  I kept thinking I was seeing his red winter jacket - but when I got to where I thought I saw him it would be an employee in a red apron.  I finally caught up with him at the turkey case.  They had LOTS of turkey - even better and - important at this point - was that the turkeys were not frozen.  We picked out one that is probably too big for us, and brought it home. $1.69 a pound, not the 99 cents we planned, but not $3.29 either. 

Today Wednesday we went to the supermarket to buy the items which we did not buy yesterday as they need to be refrigerated and we did not want to drive around with them yesterday while getting the turkey.  We ended up changing the menu while there.  I had planned on baking him a pumpkin pie.  He decided we should buy one instead.  I make it for him with less sugar and no pie shell (believe it or not the latter part - no pie shell - is from Libbys and uses its basic pie recipe).  He decided it was too much trouble, so we bought a pie and I ran around putting back things such as eggs which we were buying to bake the pie.  What had settled the matter was a free apple pie for me with the purchase of his pumpkin pie (or vice versa).    Both treats for us which will be eaten over many days as we are limited in eating sweets.   

I had planned on clearing out the dining room yesterday and today - in particular the items for the RV which sit under the dining room table in RV season and get stored in the RV for the winter, but did not have a chance due to the running around shopping.  We keep our dining room table,  without the boards to the table, against the wall when not in use.  (This was done in the 1700s and is very convenient allowing use of the empty space in the middle of the room for other projects.)  I will pull it into place in the middle of the room and stack the RV stuff (and any weaving stuff, etc. stored in the dining room) against the wall out of the way.

I did polish the silverware we will use.  It has been some years since it was polished and the heating of the house to kill the bed bugs did not help.  I have been picking out for us the less tarnished looking pieces. Surprisingly it did not take as long as I remembered to polish what we needed - and I put the pieces in a zip bag to keep them relatively free of tarnish.  Perhaps I will finally get around to polishing the rest of the silverware and lining the drawers they are kept in with the special fabric to prevent tarnishing to protect it.  In the meantime, the pieces I have polished will be returned to the sealed bag when we are done with them.

Somehow the dining room will be ready.  I will get up tomorrow and put the turkey in the oven and go back to sleep.  Everything will come out okay - worse comes to worse, it is just us.

My best wishes to all of you who are in the U.S. for a wonderful Thanksgiving.

ANNIVERSARY

This week is our 37th wedding anniversary.  The years went past in an instant. 

What does this have to do with organizing?

Well, for 37 years I have been cooking, cleaning, doing laundry, paying bills, we have been taking care of each other when one of us was ill - or each other when we both were, and in general dealing with the day to day matters of life.  This had taken a lot of organizing.

We had both lived with our parents until we married.  Before the wedding we went ahead being the organized people we thought we were - we got an apartment, bed, bedroom furniture, living room furniture, borrowed a folding table and chairs for the kitchen.  We bought the dishes we wanted, the matching glasses, tableware, sheets, and pillowcases.  We had carpeting installed in the bedroom and living room and vinyl flooring in the kitchen.  We had the utilities started - sometimes I went and waited for whoever was coming - at least once my mom did.  (I had my first meal at the place we still get Chinese takeout from while waiting for something or other - the place was in view of the apartment and I stood out at the curb watching while they cooked - so I could see if someone came to the door of the apartment.  I had not brought the silverware there yet and had to get a plastic fork to use.)

Have you noticed what is missing from the list of what we bought? I made the bed before our wedding so it would be ready when we returned from our honeymoon.  We planned to bring our individual pillows from home, so we did not buy any.  We married, went on our honeymoon and returned home somewhere after midnight.  As we drove home we realized that we had no pillows and we had no towels.  We stopped at my in laws (as they lived closer to us than my parents) and husband slipped into the house without waking them and took his pillows (we shared them) and borrowed some towels.  See - no matter how organized one thinks they are, they are not.

I had to use a public laundry as there was none in our building.  The first time I fell behind we resolved the problem by buying a third set of sheets and pillow cases so I didn’t have to run out and do the laundry on the weekend when we had time together.  We later also lost a weeks worth of clothes, towels and bed linens there when someone left a lipstick in the dryer and it melted all over our stuff!  The biggest problem is that we both are short and have trouble getting clothes - so replacement was not easy.  We dealt with this by getting a small, portable washer and matching dryer.  After this I spent most of the week doing the laundry as the washer could hold about a week of shirts for either of us - so we had to do a lot of loads - and the dryer did not vent to the outside, but rather into the room through the lint filter in the door.  It took much longer to dry than a regular dryer and vented the heat into the room - horrible in summer.  The dryer did make a nice serving surface with a table cloth over it if we had company in - it easily pushed into the living room.

I used to clean the apartment on Friday nights.  Husband would be exhausted from working all week and would go to sleep early.  I would close the bedroom door and clean the bathroom and kitchen - within feet of the bedroom - and then the living room.  I only had to clean the bedroom when he was awake. 

We could not find bedroom curtains we liked, so I got my first sewing machine to make the curtains.  (One day soon I will get it fixed so I can use it again.  When we had the bed bugs in this house the wire in the cord seems to have melted or detached.)  We returned the living room furniture we had bought as there were problems and bought a new set of furniture.  We bought a kitchen set. We settled in. 

About 9 years in we bought this house - within extended walking distance of the apartment.  We planned to save money moving - we would bring as much as we could to the house on our own.  So we would fill the car and the van and bring the stuff here and unload it - by this time we had our craft business and all of the inventory and other items had to be moved here also.  On the weekend before we were to move, my sister and her husband joined us in moving things.  We would fill the 3 vehicles and drive them over and unload them.  Oh, did I mention that my sister had recently had my niece?  So the four of us loaded up at the apartment.  When we got to the house she would take care of niece - feeding, changing, etc. while the 3 of us unloaded.  After a couple of trips we thought we were okay and all went out for dinner.  They left.  We went back to moving stuff - and we realized that we were not going to get it done in time.  We called husband’s father - he came and helped us load up and unload once.  After that we were on our own.  The moving company came on Monday - they took the furniture, the books (9 feet of floor to ceiling shelving) and vinyl LPs.  Then we went back to finish.  Still not enough time.  So on Tuesday - the day we had to vacate - I was back alone taking out the last of the stuff - one of the best birthdays I have had.

Well, each problem, situation, and year we got a little better at keeping up with everything.  We learned that something will always happen to throw us off (like the recent computer mess) and that we just have to go with it and catch up after.  Our house is far from magazine perfect and I found out today that I have bought black markers 3 times - as I have 3 started packs - so we are not as organized as you might think.  One has to take life as it comes and do ones best. 

What’s next?  Another 37 years?  That would make me.... probably not.

PROCRASTINATION AND CLEANING UP

I finished our tax return yesterday and I only have left extensions for 1 of my clients to prepare.  I would say I finished record early, but my practice has gotten so small, that it is easy to be finished earlier.  Have you finished your tax return?  If not file for an extension of time to file, but make sure you have paid enough to cover the amount of your taxes, as it is not an extension of time to pay.  Oh, and this year the Federal returns and many, if not all, state returns are not due until April 18 - two states not until April 19!  Okay, I know, enough with taxes already.

Now, on to today’s subject.  Keeping up with what you are doing.  I am a major procrastinator.  I know many other people with organizing or clutter problems are also procrastinators.  I try to keep up with what I am doing and clean up from what I am doing right after I do it.  I am on several Yahoo groups about organizing and someone on one of the groups was talking about having to wash the dishes - apparently there are stacks of dirty dishes.  It reminded me of a children’s book when I was young - The Man Who Did Not Wash His Dishes.  It is, of course about a man who does not wash his dishes as he uses them and by the end of the book he is using soap dishes to eat out of and ends up piling all his dishes on his truck and leaving them out in the rain.  (Obviously the book was enough of an explanation of why one needs to do their dishes on a regular basis that some 55 years later I still remember it.)

Our dishwasher died several years ago (the machine, not a person).  I went out looking for a new one.  I am a cheap person and looked at dishwashers towards the bottom of the middle of the range of dishwashers.  I was not seeing ones that did what I wanted them to do.  Finally I saw it - a dishwasher with tines which looked far enough apart for my ceramic dishes, a timer to start it, the silverware basket was in sections so I did not have to use the entire basket and waste space for a few pieces of silverware and the tines folded down for putting in pots.   Even better ,when I pulled the bottom rack out it did not fall off the track and need to be picked up and put back in place (there is major company highly recommended and when we looked at their dishwashers the bottom rack did not stay on the track and had to be picked up and put back on - try that with it loaded with dishes and pots!)  Then I saw the problem with my dream dishwasher - it was almost twice the price of the others.  I was not in a rush to buy one and we kept looking.  I had just about decided to spend the extra money for the one I liked and then I checked reviews - it came in dead last on one major reviewer!  So now I was really confused.  I read further online and found out that there is a problem with the dishwashers being made and they do not clean and do not dry.  So over my husband’s protests (imagine a husband who wants his wife to spend money - that’s how cheap I am) I decided I did not need to replace the dishwasher.  After all it is not a refrigerator or a stove, I can wash the dishes by hand.  He protested this idea with the comment - “Wash them every day?  You can’t do that.”  I reminded him that the first 9 years we were married and living in an apartment I did that.  He swore we had a dishwasher in the apartment until I asked where it was and he realized we had not had one.

So now I wash the dishes (and pots and pans, and bowls and glasses and tablewear and cooking utensils and serving pieces) by hand.  I figured out it takes me about the same time to wash them and put them in a rack to dry as it did to load the dishwasher.  When I started washing them by hand I used a dish rack next to the sink to let them dry.  After we had mice I started using the dead dishwasher as a drying rack as everything is safely inside and unexposed while drying.

So I suggested to the person on Yahoo who was having a problem with her dishes that it might be easier to wash the dishes after each time they were used.  I explained that after we have lunch I wash the 2 plates, 2 drinking glasses, and (generally) 2 knives and a spoon from lunch.  This takes perhaps 5 minutes and then we are free to do whatever we need to do in the afternoon and the dishes are finished with.

After dinner we watch TV in the kitchen (well, we watch it during dinner also as we eat on the late side, around 8 pm).  I read the newspaper while the TV is on and when I am done with the newspaper I wash the dishes.  Pots, pans (my major pan for cooking is a cast iron skillet - it has to be washed by hand anyway), silverware, dinner dishes, soup bowls and plates, salad bowl, sometimes a gravy boat or small pitcher or a serving bowl or platter. Notice I did not wash the drinking glasses this time.  We use them during the evening and for late night snack, so I leave them on the table.  This takes about 20 minutes and all is done with. 

Later in the evening we have our late night snack.  We go to bed late and wake late, so lunch is our first meal of the day and this is our third meal of the day and substitutes for breakfast.  When we are done and ready to go up to bed, I wash the glasses, cereal bowls (I told you it was a substitute for breakfast), silverware and anything else we have used.  Again, it takes maybe 10 minutes to wash up.  When we get up the next day I open the dishwasher “drying rack” and all is clean, dry and ready to go.

When I think about the idea of the dishwasher running for a couple of hours and using electricity, even if the new ones do use less water and electricity (which is why they apparently have problems washing and drying properly), hand washing seems like a better idea for me.  I have nothing against dishwashers and will probably get one again (my husband always worries when one of us is ill about the dishes being sanitized enough without a dishwasher), so don’t think that this is a screed against them.  It is a suggestion to keep current on washing dishes, etc. to make it easier to keep your kitchen clean and neat.

The person I posted this to replied that “I guess it is a good idea to wash the dishes as we use them.  It would be easier.”  I sort of hope that this is not someone who is stuck eating out of soap dishes and will have to take their dishes out to the car when it rains to get them cleaned.

Dirty dishes (etc) have other problems too - they will attract bugs and mice, but this idea works for other problems also.  Take taxes (sorry, I guess I am mentioning them again) - when I finish a tax return I assemble all of the papers to go back to a client and staple the stack together.  I write up the instructions, cover letter, invoice (you didn’t think I did it for fun did you?  Well I do like filling in forms, but...) and put it all together to mail to the client, put it in the envelope, put a mailing label on the envelope, seal it up and put it where I keep the outgoing mail.  (If the envelope is too big I have a card which says “Mail in bag” and I put that in with the outgoing mail and put the large piece in the bag used to carry the mail to the post office so I remember it.)  I also gather together all of the papers which I want to keep for my records - a copy of the return, information notes I made, copies of some forms the client received, information the client wrote and sent to me, etc. I scan them into the computer and save the file to a “Current Clients” file and then staple the papers together and put them in my “to file” box.  This way I have a hard copy to work from next year and permanent copy on the computer (of which I will make several backups which are kept in different places and on different media).  I shred last year’s return’s hard copy as it was also stored on the computer last year.  This way everything which needs to be sent to the client is done and everything I need to keep for myself is done.  No lost papers.

After a craft project I try to clear up from it.  I store any usable supplies left over, throw out what is not usable or too small an amount to used, and put the finished piece where it will be or where it will be held until it goes somewhere else (gifts, exhibitions, items to be sold).

So give it a try.  Yes, I know you have heard it before, when you finish with something don’t leave it lying about - clean up!  Each time you clean up as you finish or as you go there is that much less which will be needed to do something with in the future.  Sometimes it even encourages me to clean up something else related - if I am putting away left over embroidery floss (thread) from a project and I see some other floss about or scissors or needles - I put them away too.  The less new clutter, the easier to clear the old clutter bit by bit.

KITCHEN CABINETS - PART 3

Before we get to “the right cabinet” I am proud to say that my Christmas dishes and glasses are packed away in their boxes and the boxes put back in the basement gas meter closet. The items which were displaced to in both the left and right cabinets are now back where they belong.

The right cabinet is called same as it hangs to the right of the sink.  It is the same size and shape as the left cabinet and is also 4 shelves in height. 

The bottom shelf contains a hodge podge of items.  I have the glasses we use for every day - 2 short, wide plastic ones for my husband and 2 tall, thin glass ones for me.  Generally one of each is in the dishwasher, but when they are put away, this is where they “live”.  I also have measuring cups.  I have 2 each of liquid 1 cup and 2 cup measuring cups and 2 sets of dry measuring cups.  I also have a larger size 1 cup measurer (meaning there is more space at the top above the cup) which is good for mixing 1 cup items in as it does not run over the top.  I also have a “shot glass” (1 oz) measuring glass that allows measurements of small amounts of liquid - by 1/4 oz increments or teaspoons.

I have a spare set of soup bowls to my everyday dishes here also. The company changed the size and shape of same and when I complained about needing to replace a couple of bowls and not being able to get matching ones, they sent me 8 bowls.  I am waiting until I break over half of the original bowls and then will switch them - 2 bowls to go.   I have 2 larger bowls that match nothing which I keep in here and we use for salad at dinner. 

I have funnels in here in 3 different sizes, one of which is a canning funnel with a larger out spout than the others - great for pouring tomato sauce, gravy and the like into a small pitcher or gravy bowl without making a mess.  Two glass ice cream glasses and some plastic glasses (no breakable glasses are allowed upstairs and no food).  The smaller 2 of the plastic glasses have lids which clip on and a straw hole in the lids.

The second shelf up has the glasses which match my dishes - stemmed and goblet, 8 of each.  These are the glasses that I plan to donate to make room for our “good glasses” to move from the living room secretary so husband can put more DVDs there.  It also has the bottom cup part of my stick mixer (the part for grinding and such). 

The next shelf up has my middle set of dishes - not the everyday, but not the good china.  (It is ironstone).  It is not stored in quilted dish storage containers and can be used whenever I want it.  In the past when we had people in, I would use it for smaller groups as it is service for 8.  Similar to my everyday dishes, the cups hang from hooks at the top of the shelf.  The matching sugar bowl, bowl and platter are on the shelf with the dishes.  The matching milk pitcher is on the shelf above as the handle broke on it and I can’t use it until we fix it.  The dishes were a set and that is why I have the matching service pieces.  Again, I need to climb up to reach this shelf as I needed to do to reach the same shelf on the left side.

The top shelf has, other than the milk pitcher mentioned, items I rarely if ever use.  Again, similar to the left side, I need to climb onto the counter to reach this shelf.  It has the juice glasses that match the glasses which match our dishes, a footed cake plate, a mold for making ice pops and 2 cylinder shaped pitchers.  I think I can get rid of everything on this shelf  when I get rid of the glasses below. 

There you have it.  The contents of 2 of my 4 kitchen cabinets.  During the week I plan to store the good china used for Christmas and New Year’s Eves by my husband and myself.  I will also start taking down the Christmas trees after Monday.  I think I have found a new place to store the tree ornaments and other decorations in the house in the basement, rather than the garage.  It will be interesting to see if they fit and where what is currently in that space will go.

See you next week.