Cleaning and Organizing the Refrigerator

August 28th, 2011 Posted in House & Home
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I just finished cleaning and organizing the refrigerator. I wish I had taken before pictures! How else would you believe that it appeared cluttered and full before? Oh well. I guess you’ll just have to take my word for it.

some magnets blurred to protect privacyOne of the things us moms struggle with when it comes to the fridge, is magnets and “family art”. I removed over half of the magnets we had on ours and the old family art. Actually, I removed everything and washed the outside of the fridge, but only put about half of the stuff back. I know there will be more things to “post” on the refrigerator soon enough, but I am going to reserve the sides of the fridge (one side for each kid) and limit and rotate what gets put there.

The inside was more of a challenge. Once again, everything came out and the shelves, walls and drawers were washed. Anything old and/or expired was thrown away. Vegetables went back in one drawer, fruits in the other. They are actually labeled that way after all. Beverages in the bottom shelf of the door. (Yes, that is a bottle of wine.) Condiments in the upper shelf of the door. Butter in the butter bin. Everything in it’s place. LOL! Same deal with the freezer.

As odd as it seems, and certainly not what it looks like, I didn’t throw that much away. I made a LOT more space just by organizing what was already in there. Now I know exactly what we have and what we don’t have. And when I go shopping for what we need, I will have a place to put it all.

It’s not perfect. The pics won’t be posting in Better Homes and Garden magazine, but I’m happy with it. It looks like a mom’s refrigerator… but it’s clean and organized.

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Trial Coupon Run – A Success

February 26th, 2011 Posted in House & Home
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Have you ever tried couponing?  I have.  It never worked out.  In order to get coupons, I had to buy the Sunday paper and clip tons of coupons.  Once I had these coupons, I either forgot to use the ones I needed or used ones I didn’t.  No.  Really.  It’s easy to buy something you wouldn’t normally buy just because you have a coupon.  Hey… it’s on sale, right?  (My husband is horrible with stuff like this.)

I actually got a little better at it after a while, but found that it was usually cheaper to buy the store brand instead of using a coupon on the name brand.  So, I gave up.

Several years have gone past since I even bothered to touch a coupon.   Then one of my colleagues starting posting about her couponing success.  Quite frankly, I ignored it.  Until she kept posting; one success story after another.  Now I’m not talking about some TV reality show incredible (unrealistic) story, but decent, honest savings.  I started asking questions.  And so did several other people.  She got so many questions in fact, that she put together an ebook explaining how she does it.  (If you are interested in the ebook, Click here!)

I broke down and spent my $9.95 on the ebook.  The ebook goes into detail on how to organize yourself and actually make couponing work.  Even better, there is a list of resources to places you can search and print coupons you actually want.

Armed with my ebook and the online resources, I made a sample run.  It was a small couponing adventure and a small shopping trip, but I am just a beginner couponer after all.  (Is “couponer” a word?)  I took a stroll through our grocery store’s weekly ad and compared it to the coupons I found online and made a list of what we needed or could get virtually free.  (Snacks for our kids are always needed!!!)   My small list was coffee filters, toilet paper, grated parmesan cheese, pizza rolls and frozen veggies.  Like I said, small sample run. The coffee filters and parmesan cheese were on sale at the store without a coupon.  For the toilet paper purchase, I used a catalina.  (“Catalina” is a couponing term I learned from a resource from the couponing ebook.)  The pizza rolls and frozen veggies were both on sale at the store and I had printable coupons.

My small sample coupon trip was a success.  I got $22.70 worth of product for $11.27.   That’s a 50% savings!  I saved $11.43 and only paid $9.95 for the ebook.  Worth the investment for the motivation alone.

Now I know a larger shopping trip probably won’t yield the save percentage of savings, but I’m already ahead of the game and learned a lot in the process.

 

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The Failure List

June 19th, 2010 Posted in Business
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There seems to be a theme in the blogs I’m reading today.  Fear and Self-Doubt.  And I just had a big long discussion about this the other day.  I have a LIST.  Yep, a whole LIST of reasons I can’t succeed in online business.  Since everyone else is sharing, I thought I would too.

  1. No Focus.  I have too many ideas and I’m committed to all of them.  I run a website consulting business, a home fitness for women business and this blog for WAHM balance.  I don’t know how to present myself.  As ONE person, or THREE?  So far, I’ve gotten no answer to this question… even though I’ve asked.
  2. Fear of Competition. I look at other websites that are similar to mine. I get jealous of what they have accomplished. I believe there is no way I can compete, so why should I bother?
  3. Guilt.  This one cracks me up because, logically, I know it’s silly. When I network online with others in my “field” or post a comment with a link to try and build traffic to my site, I feel like I’m stealing.  Who am I to take attention from them and try to turn it to me?  Who am I to ask them to “share” their followers?  When I actually CAN compete with a lower price, I feel bad for making others look over-priced.
  4. Lack of Support.  Okay… I don’t want anyone to take personal offense here.  This is my issue and I’m probably not aiming it at anyone in particular.  People don’t understand what I’m doing.  They think I should be out working for someone else earning a paycheck.  They don’t purchase from me.  They don’t tell other people what I’m doing.  They don’t believe what I’m doing is real, why should I?
  5. Delay of Gratification. I can spend days on a project or idea and have it go nowhere.  If I were working for someone else, I’d still get a paycheck… on a schedule… whether the idea worked or not.  I don’t always see immediate results from my work-at-home efforts and I’m impatient.
  6. Lack of Discipline.  I’m not going to get fired if I don’t work.  It’s sunny outside and I want to go enjoy it. Who’s gonna stop me? Oh, there’s a sink full of dishes that needs attending to. Let me just finish those up and I’ll get back to the website. I’d better get my workout in before it’s too late. Aren’t I supposed to be spending time with my kids? I know I have to make a schedule… but I don’t have to.
  7. The Failure List.  I HAVE A FAILURE LIST!  (And if I sat here long enough, I could make it even longer.) I’m doomed!

Maybe tomorrow I’ll come back and tell myself off for this…

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Summer Camp Alternative

June 14th, 2010 Posted in Family Time, House & Home
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WOW!  I can’t believe it was THREE years ago we had Camp Cleanup.  (I honestly thought it was only two, but there’s the 2007 date in print.)

Any way, the conversation of summer camp came up with my neighbor/friend the other day, so I told her all about the Camp Cleanup we held a few years ago.  She thought it was a good idea.  Oddly enough, my kids liked it too. The house could definitely use it.  And we still have the camp t-shirts from 3 years ago.  (The shirts were so big then that they still fit now.)

The idea behind Camp Cleanup is to give your kids something to do during one week of their school vacation and get your house clean at the same time.  While everyone else’s kids go off to camp, we stay home and clean.  (My daughter just said “we have fun”.)  We spend the mornings cleaning together and then do something fun (or even more fun) together as a family in the afternoon as a reward.  Make camp t-shirts, go to the park, get ice cream, etc.

Going back to read my old post, I remembered that we designated an area of the house for each day and drew from a cup every morning to see what it would be.  Sounds cheezy, but it really did add to the excitement.  We worked our way from ceiling to floor in each area, trying to make it as fun as possible.  You know, throw water all over the kitchen floor and skate around in it with wash cloths under our feet.  Stuff like that.  You’ve really gotta get creative!  (Which is hard for me to do… Not sure what I was taking when I came up with the idea.)

We are thinking about repeating Camp Cleanup this year.  I need some inspiration!!!  Do you have any fun ways to clean that you can share?  How about some great inexpensive rewards to fit the theme?

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