My 52 Weeks of Organizing

I finally sat down and drew out my plan for the 52 Weeks of Organizing Challenge. I do reserve the right to make changes and tackle items in a different order then stated here.

Here is my initial list of 52 organizing tasks:

1. Clean off/out buffet
2. My desk
3. Entry table
4. Entry bench
5. My Car
6. Living Room Tables
7. Hall Closet
8. My nightstand
9. My dresser
10. Hubby’s nightstand
11. My closet
12. Master bathroom
13. Hall Bathroom
14. Linen Closet
15. Kids Closet
16. Kids Dresser
17. Rest of kids room
18. Playroom Closet
19. Playroom shelves
20. Rest of playroom
21. Pantry
22. Refrigerator
23. Freezer
24. Kitchen Cart
25. Bakers Rack
26. Pots and Pans Cabinets
27. Kitchen Island
28. Family Cork Board
29. Spice Cabinet
30. Tea Cabinet
31. Remaining Kitchen Cabinets
32. Storage Room – Kids Clothing Tubs
33. Storage Room – Out of Season Clothing
34. Storage Room – Food Shelves
35. Storage Room – Household Items Shelves
36. Storage Room – Toiletries Shelves
37. Storage Room – Cleaning Supply Shelves
38. Storage Room – Office Supply Shelves
39. Storage Room – Laundry Shelves
40. Storage Room – Toy Shelves
41. Storage Room – Old Bar Storage Area
42. Storage Room – Under Steps Storage Area
43. Basement Bathroom
44. Laundry Sorting Area
45. Family Room Bookshelves
46. Family Room Game Shelves
47. Family Room Desk
48. Family Room – Storage Closet
49. Family Room – Everything Else
50. Playroom (Again to prepare for Christmas gifts)
51. Garage – Outside Toy Storage Area
52. My Car

You can find more information and links to other participating blogs over at Org Junkie’s 52 Weeks #1 post. From here on out I plan for my posts to be about my progress and to hopefully include pictures.

January Pantry Challenge

For the month of January Jessica at Life As Mom is hosting a Pantry Challenge. The point of the challenge is to use what you have, whatever that may mean for you.

Here are the areas I want to address for my personal Pantry Challenge:

1. Limit grocery spending to $60 a week.
2. Eliminate unhealthy foods from our pantry.
3. Inventory and organize my pantry.
4. Inventory and organize my freezer.

That may not seem like a lot, but with everything else I have going on right now it will be a stretch for me to actually complete all of this.

What about you, does your pantry need attention?

I plan to post weekly updates about my progress with this challenge. I also plan to have a wrap up post at the end of the month to see how I did and set some goals for our family’s grocery budget for the next month.

Goals for 2011 – Getting Organized

Much like everyone else, the New Year gets me to start thinking of what I want to accomplish this year. Naturally there are lots of various goals I have and I want them all accomplished NOW. I need to work on my patience and keep in mind that it takes time. To help pace myself I joined the 3 in 30 group on Facebook. The plan is to set 3 goals for yourself each month. That way you don’t overwhelm yourself by trying to change too many things at one time.

Here are my goals for January:

1. Write in my journal daily.
2. Track everything I eat and drink daily.
3. Declutter my Dining Room

To help track my progress on these I goals I am looking for an iPhone app that tracks goal progress. I had a few recommendations that I am checking out. Once I make my selection and try it out I will post a review of the app.

You can find links to other blogs participating in this challenge over at The Tuckers Take Tennessee.

Also to help me keep on track with some of my larger goals, like decluttering and organizing my whole house, I have decided to join the 52 Weeks of Organizing challenge over at Orgjunkie. The goal of this challenge is to complete one small organizing task each week for the whole year. Well, you could do a larger task if you’re so motivated, but a smaller one will work better for me. Since I want to declutter and organize my whole house this year, I definitely think this is a good fit for me. I just read about this challenge today so I will probably be a day late posting about this week’s challenge, but my goal is to post my weekly updates on this challenge every Friday from here on out.

Have you set any goals for yourself this year? Did you join any online challenges to help keep yourself motivated?

Reading Challenges

It’s the end of the year and that means that I, like so many others, am spending time looking back over 2010 and making plans for 2011. One of the areas that I want to improve on is my reading. In the past I have been able to read 100+ books in a year. My children do keep me pretty busy so I don’t expect that I will hit the triple digits in 2011, but I do hope to read more in 2011 than I did in 2010. To help me with that I have decided to set some reading goals for myself and to join some reading challenges to help keep myself motivated. Right now I am still reviewing various reading challenges, so look for a post later this week detailing exactly which challenges I will be joining.

For this week, to help finish the year up in a way I can be proud of I am joining the Out With a Bang Read-A-Thon. This challenge only runs from December 29^th thru December 31^st. Since I do have to work this week I don’t expect to get a ton of reading done, but I do hope to finish up the 3 books that I’m currently reading and I would really like to complete one additional book.

Are you trying to finish up any books before the end of the year?

Menu Plan Monday – November 1st

I have gotten so tired of spening half our weekend running around. So I’ve decided to try out monthly menu planning and grocery shopping. This past weekend I sat down and made up a menu plan for our family for the whole month of November. We then hit the grocery store and Target to pick up the items we needed. I will still have to make a quick stop once a week to pick up milk and produce, but the bulk of our shopping is done for this month. 

Dinners:

• Monday: Turkey Chili
• Tuesday: Tacos
• Wednesday: Meatloaf
• Thursday: Tuna Noodle Alfredo
• Friday: Pizza
• Saturday: Burgers
• Sunday: Roast Chicken

Breakfasts:

• Lemon Blueberry Scones
• Cereal
• Saturday: Oatmeal
• Sunday: Pancakes and Bacon

Lunches:

• Sandwiches
• Leftovers

To see more great Menu Plans, head over to I’m An Organizing Junkie.

Menu Planning Monday – October 25, 2010

Menu planning makes my life so much easier, yet I still tend to let the planning slip and wing it throughout the week. I’m trying to change that and have actually setup menu planning time on my weekly schedule. Hopefully I can get the habit to stick this time. 

Dinners:

• Monday: Pizza Bagels
• Tuesday: Chicken Nuggets and Macaroni and Cheese
• Wednesday: Chicken Quesadillas
• Thursday: Grilled Cheese and Soup
• Friday: Tuna Melts
• Saturday: Lasagna
• Sunday: At a Party

Breakfasts:

• Cranberry Apple Muffins
• Cereal
• Saturday: Oatmeal
• Sunday: Pancakes and Bacon

Lunches:

• Sandwiches
• Leftovers

To see more great Menu Plans, head over to I’m An Organizing Junkie.

Review: Barbie A Fashion Fairytale

For our family movie night this weekend we watched Barbie A Fashion Fairytale. Since my daughter is just 3, this was her first Barbie movie. She is just getting into Barbie so I figured this movie would be a special treat for her.

Movie Description (from the dvd case):

Join Barbie in a colorful, modern-day fairytale filled with fashion, friends and fun!

Barbie and her dog, Sequin, jet off to visit her aunt’s amazing fashion house in Paris, and much to her surprise it’s about to be shut down forever. After she discovers three enchanting Flairies with sparkle-magic powers, Barbie comes up with a brilliant idea to save the business. She even inspires Alice, a shy fashion designer, and together they create a dazzling runway fashion show.

Barbie shows that magic happens when you believe in yourself.

The movie is 1 hour and 23 minutes long. That may seem a little long for a 3 year old, but my daughter loved it and was absorbed in the movie the whole time. Ever since we watched it she has been asking to watch it again.

This was also my first time watching a Barbie movie. I have to say that I enjoyed it more then I thought I would. I loved that the movie had a good message for kids about believing in themselves and not giving up on their dreams. This was an enjoyable movie and one I am sure we will be watching again.

Disclosure: I received a copy of this movie for free from Barbie and Mom Select in exchange for my honest review. No other compensation was provided.

Gift Cards and a Spending Challenge

On my last credit card statement I saw that I had a bunch or rewards points so I decided to cash them in. I was able to get $80 in gift cards to Safeway and $40 for CVS. For fun I want to see how long I can make them last. Lately I have been doing most of our grocery shopping at the farmer’s market so the Safeway cards will mostly be used for dairy products. But the CVS card should be a lot more fun to stretch out. With a new baby in the house we are always looking for diaper deals and CVS always has deals on all kinds of other products. Join me each week as I post an update of what I was able to get with my gift cards and how much money I have left to do it with. I’m excited to see how much stuff I can get for “free”.

I have also decided to cut our weekly grocery spending for awhile. For the next month I will be posting a tally of how much I spend and where I spent it as it relates to my grocery and household spending. My goal is to keep my spending below $40.00 for food and $20.00 for baby and household items. It will be interesting to see how I do with this and if these are realistic figures for our household.

How much does your family typically spend for food and household items? And how many people are you buying for?

An Early Arrival

I know I haven’t been posting regularly lately, but our new baby girl decided to arrive 2 1/2 weeks early. We’re still finding our new normal and I’m just now finally getting some time on my computer. Meanwhile the house is a mess and my older daughter still needs attention so we’ve been very busy. I hope to return to a more regular posting schedule by mid-July. Until then I post when I get the chance.

Homemade Preserves and Canning Planning

This weekend it was all about homemade preserves at my house. On Saturday we went and did pick your own strawberries at a local farm. We managed to get some strawberries, but the fields were very picked over so we wound up paying a lot more for local strawberries at another stand. Next year we decided that we will have to do pick your own the first day the fields are open to get the best berries possible. At least my daughter got to enjoy her first pick your own experience. She may have even sampled a berry or two in the field.

On Sunday my mom and I got together and actually made the preserves and canned them. It was a long day with a lot of time on my feet, but I think it was worth it to have the delicious homemade preserves. My daughter even sampled some straight out of the bowl. She didn’t need any bread of a cracker to go with her preserves.

The jars in the picture are all the preserves we made yesterday. We wound up with 17 jars of strawberry preserves, 9 jars of pineapple preserves and 8 jars of strawberry pineapple preserves. I think my favorite is the strawberry pineapple which was a last minute addition. Here is the recipe for the strawberry pineapple jam. We did use fresh pineapple instead of canned though. Seriously, if I’m going through the effort to make homemade then I’m going to use fresh ingredients when at all possible. The thought of using canned pineapple in syrup to make jam just seems wrong to me.

I’ve already started thinking of what other items I want to try making this year. I came across a recipe for Pineapple Banana Jam that we’re thinking about trying. I also want to try making some of this Four Ingredient Tomato Sauce and either canning or freezing it. And of course I plan to freeze and dry various herbs and veggies from our garden.

What about you, are you planning to do any preserving this year? If so I’d love to know what.