Avoiding the Frozen Waste

Since I've started actually cooking for my family, I've also started accumulating leftovers. I store them with the best of intentions (as I was raised not to waste food) and even deliberately cook extra just to freeze for later. The problem is, I lose track of things in the fridge and freezer; they get shoved to the back or stacked on top of until...well, they're unusable. Ugh. Who knew leftovers could look like that? [shudder]

When I was at Dollar Tree a few months ago, I saw these photo pockets and purchased a couple. I didn't have a particular use in mind, but there were several ideas floating around in my head — posting Scriptures to memorize, putting up my personal affirmations, menu planning, maybe even photos! LOL

Then I thought, why not use them to keep track of the stuff I put in the fridge and freezer so I can USE it before it spoils? I created a simple Word document, printed it onto blank 4x6 index cards and popped those into the photo pockets (which, I was pleased to note, completely contained the cards instead of leaving the edge poking out). Here's the PDF, if you want it!

Now whenever I put something "odd" in cold storage, I write on the outside of the pocket with some overhead transparency markers I found in my marker stash. (I intended to use dry erase but the tips were too fat and they wiped off too easily. The wet-erase transparency markers are very fine and won't come off if I brush up against the fridge.) In addition to the name of the item, I also put the amount being stored. That makes it easy to see if I have enough for a particular recipe or enough to make a meal.

The only problem now is that I need to buy a bunch more of those magnetic photo pockets! They're pretty darn useful.

the CSI project: wall challenge, entry #1

This first entry isn't so much a craft as an idea. Does that even count? I found a super-chunky, gorgeous frame at our Habitat for Humanity ReStore for $1. $1!?! It made me happy just to look at it, so I justified the dollar. As soon as I got home, I knew it had to go in my bathroom. You see, my prayer list/reminder and my daily positive affirmations are posted on the wall across from...our toilet. Where else is a busy mom guaranteed to see them at least once a day? :D Problem is, they've just been hanging there, taped to the wall. Ugh. So I framed them out (hid them, from the doorway) with this gorgeous, heavy frame, and now it's not so eyesore-y when you enter the bathroom.

Please check out my other two CSI wall entries! (yes, they're both crafts)

Works For Me Wednesday ~ Strewn-About Magnets

If you have a mobile infant (not to be confused with an infant mobile), chances are he leaves destruction in his wake just like mine. The magnet letters on the fridge seem to be of particular interest. He makes a beeline for them as soon as he enters the kitchen and, as if to demonstrate his contempt — or perhaps as a commentary on the magnets' thoroughly offensive presence — he furiously paws the lower half of the fridge door clean. Seriously, he is focused and relentless...

Well, sometimes he gets distracted by the fact that he's so near the cat food dishes (notice the barricade?).

Anyway, we recently scored a Leap Frog Word Whammer Fridge Phonics Set at OUAC for $8.50 and don't have room for four sets of cheapo letter and number magnets on the fridge anymore. Since there were already several magnets on the floor and Caspian was napping, that meant I had to pick them up myself. I decided to store them in an old metal Christmas cookie tin that used to hold our spare change (until we started our Debt Snowball).


When I remembered that magnets stick to this type of metal, I decided to use the lid as an incredibly lazy ingenious way to pick up the letters without having to bend over and scrabble for them each individually. Any that are on the ground already and are magnet side-up will stick to the lid of a metal tin. The plastic is too thick for the right side-up ones to stick. You'll have to leave them for your husband/child sweep them up into a dustpan pick those up by hand. Oh, and we are talking about the back of the lid, here.



You can just "wipe" them right off the lid into the container.


If you're just cleaning the floor, you're finished. Should you want to rid your fridge of magnets as well, you'll need the lid again. Lay it on its back under the fridge so it sticks out a little more than halfway. Then simply push the magnets down the fridge until they drop off into the lid. They will be drawn to the metal and stick inside. Dump the loose ones into the tin periodically and repeat the process until they're all off the fridge, then just put the lid back on the tin.


Then...cover the entire fridge with different letter magnets! There, wasn't that worth it?

When your toddler keeps spelling "poo" in the Word Whammer...? Yes, it's still worth it.

This post was submitted to Works For Me Wednesday.

Works For Me Wednesday ~ Fancy-Schmancy Art

We love Saxton Freymann's carved food illustrations and thought his mini wall calendar would be perfect art to hang in the kitchen.



We finally found these cheap frames from IKEA to fit the square calendar pages (only a little trimming was required). The great part is that there are mini wall calendars available for just about every subject imaginable, from kittens to Impressionist art. What an easy and inexpensive way to get great art into your home! For larger prints, just scoop up a regular-sized calendar — they can even be secondhand!



I'd just like to point out how much you should appreciate my "keeping it real" with ya'll and showing my human side and all that. No staging here, folks — that's pure, unadulterated everyday mess you're seeing! :) Don't say I never gave you anything special.


This post originally appeared on my family blog and is reprinted with permission.

"Works for Me Wednesday" - Organizing

Organizing: My Kitchen Pantry

I recently got fed up with my plastic food storage cabinet and my free-standing pantries. We couldn't see what we had, and there was never enough room for what we wanted to put in there. I took two days to take everything out of all three cabinets, lay it out on the kitchen table, re-organize it by category, and then put it back in and labeled the shelves with my Dymo.

The countertop-sized appliances (panini maker, George Foreman grill, Henrietta Hen, etc.) went on the shelves in the cabinet under the microwave, where the plastic food storage had been. The appliances are all large enough to be visible without having to move stuff around, and the cabinet isn't the easiest to look into at a glance — a perfect match.

The plastic food storage got weeded out (hallelujah). Identical stackable pieces got stacked together with all their nesting lids on top. Everything else got its lid put on top of it (to save matching time later) and stacked according to shape/size. Most-used medium-size containers got put on a lower shelf in the pantry, while large ones got stacked on top of the tall pantry (tiny ones got thrown into a basket on top of the pantry).

The categories that needed to be visible (canned goods, sweet snacks, savory snacks, crackers) because we keep forgetting what we have and buying more (or letting them go stale) got put on eye-level shelves. The categories that aren't used often or don't need to be visible because we always know they're there (breakfast, baking, chips, etc.) got put on high or low shelves.

All candy/tiny snacks got sorted into the plastic-storage-I-wanted-to-keep-but-never-used-for-leftovers, so it could be stacked for efficiency and ease of browsing...and so all our candy doesn't end up smelling like mint (which, if you've ever stored all your Christmas candy in one jar or bag before, you know will happen). Even new bags of M&Ms get dumped into their own container. Ahh, order.

Every shelf got labeled so my new order can be maintained by grocery-put-awayers.

It feels great to have all that stuff finally purged and organized, but heck, any day you get to use a label maker is a good day! LOL



This post originally appeared on my family blog and is reprinted with permission.