Life As Mom » Homekeeping

Books and What to Do with Them (Zone Defense)

Jessica Fisher — Sat, 19 May 2012 08:12:16 +0000

On Zone Defense this month, we’re tackling living spaces. Books play a big part in how we live, so let’s get them organized and avoid the visual and physical clutter.

As a family of book lovers and folks who do school at home, we have a lot of books. A lot.

Over the years I’ve tried to pare down our collection to those that we love, that we really need for school, or that are difficult to get from the library. We also like to give the kids books for birthdays and Christmas so that they can start building their own personal libraries.

There’s just something sweet and comforting about a well-loved and well-worn hard copy book. While we have a Kindle, an iPad, and numerous devices on which to read electronic books, I still love being able to turn a physical page. So, I don’t think that we’ll ever really say goodbye to real live books.

Who would want to?

But what to do with all those books?!

That said, books do take up space and can contribute to the clutter in a household if not organized and corralled in someway. Here are several different means that we use for organizing and storing our books.

1. Deep storage

Some of our books are those that are not needed on a regular basic, but are those that we dig out for a certain season. Many of our music books, holiday books, and school books which are designated for a certain grade level or subject are stored in boxes on shelves in our garage.

Since we live in a temperate climate, our garage rarely gets too hot or too cold, so this works for us. When we lived in Kansas, I stashed these boxes in the backs of closets.

Keeping these books that we reference once a year or once every few years in boxes helps relieve visual clutter on the shelves and helps me find them when I really do need them.

2. Book shelves

We have tall bookcases in my office, the school room, and in the aforementioned garage. We try to store books as close to the place of use as possible. So, personal and writing books go in the office, school and library books in the school room, and pleasure reading or other general school books that we want to reference on a regular basis go in the garage.

Bookshelves are a tricky thing. I love the looks of them, but kids, lazy or otherwise, have a hard time putting books back on the shelf in a way that lends itself to neatness. Just saying.

Our school shelves need to be straightened regularly, so that they don’t look like a jumbled mess. But, I’ve got some people that are now old enough to take on the task.

3. Sterilite boxes

Years ago I read in an organizing book about making things easier to put away that take out. It’s a brilliant idea if you can pull it off. One way that we do this with children’s books is to store them in Sterilite boxes on the book shelves. It’s easier for little hands to toss them into the box than to line them up on a shelf. And to retrieve a book, they just need to flip through the box like in a card file.

Keeping storybooks in these boxes also makes it easy to pull out a box to use in the car or bedroom or some other place in the house for easy reading.

This year we’re on Zone Defense, moving room by room, tackling clutter and disorder. This month we’re closing in on living spaces. Check out the month’s general assignment or browse the archives to see previous months’ assignments.

How do YOU organize your books?

Zone Defense: Living Spaces

Jessica Fisher — Mon, 14 May 2012 04:06:06 +0000

This year we’re on Zone Defense, moving room by room, tackling clutter and disorder. This month we’re going after those living spaces and all the “stuff” we use to entertain us.

By now you’ve noticed a pattern for our zones:

Personal space
Food (kitchen)
Clothing (laundry room/linens)

Now we move to the living spaces. I define “living spaces’ as those areas of your home where daily life happens, namely entryway, living room, family room, den. Whatever you call it at your house, you know what I mean, right?

These are the spaces that draw clutter as much as they draw a crowd. It’s where we “do life”. And life, as I know it, is messy. It’s in our best interests and that of our families and housemates to put some order into those general everyday spaces.

At our home, that one where ~~six~~ eight kids of all ages reside, that means a variety of stuff — and lots of little crumbs. Especially under the couch cushions!

Recently, in anticipation of the grandparents’ visiting, we gave our living spaces an overhaul. This is your task this week as well. Check out the tasks that may or may not be needed at your house. They were at ours!

Declutter the entryway by thinning out shoes and coats. What really needs to be there?
Clean out the coat closet.
Sweep and mop the entryway floor.
Dust furniture in living and family rooms
Vacuum couches and chairs. Yes, under the cushions.
Replace burned out light bulbs.
Remove clutter.
Rearrange/straighten books on the shelves.
Dust light fixtures.
Vacuum baseboards.
Wipe fingerprints from walls and light swithces.
Add some fresh flowers or other decorative touch to brighten up your everyday.

Your living spaces may need all of these or just a few. Don’t feel overwhelmed! You don’t have to do them all or all at once. If you chose two per day, your house would look like a new place in a week.

But remember to do #12 when you’re done. It will make you feel so good after all your hard work.

In the coming weeks, we’ll be looking more closely at the items that can bring great joy to our lives: games, books, movies, and music. They can also bring a huge mess if we’re not careful. So we’ll be talking about ways to tame and organize these entertainment beasts.

What living space will you tackle this week?

Sorting and Storing Kids’ Clothes (Zone Defense)

Jessica Fisher — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 02:27:31 +0000

This year we’re on Zone Defense, moving room by room, tackling clutter and disorder. This month we’re closing in on the laundry room, linen closet, and clothing storage.

Two weeks ago I gave you your linen closet/laundry room assignment. Last week I shared my results in tackling those two related zones. At least they’re related at your house.

Today we’re talking about another area of textile storage: kids clothing.

Save Those Hand-Me-Downs

Chances are if you’ve got more than one child you have some type of clothing storage. With four boys born in quick succession, you can bet that I held onto their outgrown clothes to pass from one to another. Some of those articles of clothing have even survived long enough for their sisters to wear! Saving hand-me-downs has saved us a boatload of money.

In the kids’ younger years, it seemed that we had dozens of boxes of clothes to sort each time the seasons changed or a kid moved up a size. Especially with a baby in the house, you’ll find several groups of sizes: newborn, six months, nine months to a year, etc. The increments are small and outgrown quickly, so it’s in your best interest to have a sorting method.

Now that my kids are bigger, it seems that the immensity of our hand-me-down collection has lessened. But, we still need a good sorting method, nonetheless.

Tips for Sorting and Storing Children’s Clothing

1. Limit what your kids have access to.

While I wouldn’t call us minimalists, I think hubs and I realize that we have an abundance of stuff and we try to curb it whenever we can. And we try to do that with the kids’ clothing. We aren’t flashy dressers and we live in a moderate climate, so this helps in limiting ours and the kids’ wardrobes.

We want to make it easy for our kids to put away their clothing, so we limit how many articles of clothing they have access to on a regular basis. This amounts to about:

4 pairs of shorts
4 pairs of pants
5-7 tshirts
4 long sleeved shirts
2 sweatshirts
an abundance of socks and underwear
For the girls, 3 to 4 dresses are in the mix

If there are extra items, we store those in a box in the closet. It’s easily accessible, but not in the way. Since I do laundry everyday, there’s rarely a shortage. But, if you have a different system for clothes care, you may need to change the amounts.

Limiting the kids’ wardrobes limits the amount of laundry that could accumulate so at least Mount Washmore isn’t as huge as it could be! I don’t know about your house, but I often find clean clothes strewn about the floor or stuffed in the dirty hamper. I’d like to limit their ammunition for this type of activity.

2. Don’t store things you (or your kids) don’t like.

When money is tight, it’s tempting to save everything. However, to hoard clothing items because you “might” need them clutters up your house and prevents you from sharing with folks who really do need them.

If it’s stained, torn or a decade out of style, don’t save it. The stains deepen, the tears aren’t going to fix themselves, and your kids will bless you for not dressing them in tasteless clothing.

Instead trust God to provide for the needs as they arise.

3. Store clothing that is in good condition.

That said, feel free to save clothing that is in fair to “like new” condition. Utilizing hand-me-downs is a great way to save money and conserve resources.

4. Use dust-free, bug-free packaging.

Storing clothing implies that you hope to use it again. Be sure to package it in a way to help it hold up over time. I like to use plastic totes with lids to keep out dust and bugs. You can add bay leaves (cheap when bought in bulk) to further deter bugs.

Be sure to label the boxes so that it’s easier to find what you need at a later date. I have blue boxes for boys, and label according to size, and beige boxes for the girls. Store the boxes in a cool, dry place, out of the way of your household traffic, like a closet.

What about maternity clothing?

These same tips hold true for storing maternity clothes if you hope to have another pregnancy. Remember, though, that pregnancy is the time when we are tempted to feel the blahs about our looks. If you can help it, don’t hold onto the clothes that make you feel frumpy. It’s not going to boost your spirits as your body changes.

Consider loaning your maternity clothing to friends in the interim. Hopefully, your friends are good about laundry and stains. If they’re not, don’t sweat it. It’s still a great way to bless someone else and free up space in your closet.

Do you have a trick for sorting and storing kids’ clothing?

Cleaning Out the Linen Cupboard & Laundry Room (Zone Defense)

Jessica Fisher — Sat, 21 Apr 2012 04:54:27 +0000

Are you on Zone Defense with us this year? This month we’re tackling laundry rooms, linen cupboards, and clothing storage. Get in the game!

So, last week, I said that we were going to clean out the laundry room and the linen cupboard, right? Confession: I didn’t really want to. Status quo has worked for so long, so well, why change?

It wasn’t really working, but lies and justification can sideswipe us when we least expect it, can’t they?

But, if I told you to do it, then I had to do it, too. So I did. It took me about an hour to an hour and a half, with interruptions and no music. Music might have moved things along a little more. Note to self: play music during the next project.

So, here’s the tour:

You’ve seen my linen closet before. Didn’t I just clean this sucker out? Apparently, in two years’ time, it’s a little worse for wear. This closet opens to the hallway here:

I started with the linen closet:

I completely emptied it. I moved the laundry table closer so I had space to pile things. All kinds of interesting things: luggage, baby blankets, baseball hats, toiletries, medicines, and oh yeah, sheets and blankets.

I’m a firm believer in using your space for the way you live. So, there aren’t any towels in our linen closet. They belong in the bathrooms. That’s just how I roll. So, typically, this is storage for linens (aka sheets and blankets) as well as other things that we need regular access to.

Here’s how it looks now. Whoohoo! I like to open the door just to admire it. Here’s what I did:

refolded the sheets and blankets
corralled the toiletries in the baskets that were already there: dental stuff, body stuff, hair stuff, bandaids, shoe cleaners/polishes/extra laces
tossed outdated medicines and old toothbrushes (I had a small collection of mystery toothbrushes that I had run through the dishwasher to sanitize, but I figured I could chuck them.)
discarded some old “stuff”
rolled the Tinkerbell sleeping bag
moved the luggage to an unused bedroom closet
reorganized the stuff that stayed: vacuum cleaner bags, baseball hats, etc

Next I headed to the laundry room. It’s got three upper cupboards and three lower cupboards and one drawer. Check out my unused storage.

Cupboard 1:

Cupboards 2 & 3:

As you can see, I have plenty of storage space that I was not using effectively. Time to fix that. So I did.

Previously, all the extra paper towels and toilet paper were in my closet. Yes, after I cleaned it all up, I tossed paper products in there! Scandalous! We don’t use paper toweling that often, but I bought this supply months ago at CVS on a great sale. Usually I have a big stockpile of laundry soap, too, but I’m running low on that. Looking for a good sale….

I consolidated the clothes care stuff on these bottom shelves.

On the other side I corralled all the cleaning cloths in a Sterilite box. Love those boxes.

One of my “donation stations” is under the laundry room sink. I had stashed all those clothes from my closet purge under there and conveniently forgotten them. Status quo, you know. So I emptied that out:

Looking good, eh? Check out what went out the door:

Four big bags, plus a small paper sack not pictured.

At this point, I’m feeling pretty good about my efforts. Until I remember The Drawer. Oh yeah. I almost walked away.

Almost.

But, I knew you’d want me to do it.

Scary, isn’t it?

I wonder if I have junk drawers in every room of the house. I decided to go for it, and it wasn’t as bad as I feared. In fact, most of it went in the trash.

And guess what I earned for my pains?

I’m not sure how much the gift card is, but it has one of the kids’ names on it. So, I made seven cents. Cool.

And now, the laundry room really is clean and tidy. Yeah!

So, there you go: cleaning out the linen cupboard and laundry room. If I can do it, so can you! Head back to last week’s post for tips on how to get started cleaning this zone. And then come back and tell us how it went!

What’s your biggest laundry/linen cupboard challenge?

How to Go Green on a Shoestring Budget

Jessica Fisher — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 08:47:14 +0000

Yesterday I shared some easy ways to live a “greener” lifestyle. Today, contributing writer, Prerna Malik shares tips on how green living can save you time and money.

Does going green mean tossing out all the plastic in the house and replacing it with glass or steel? Does ‘eco-friendly’ imply expensive? Will green living eat into your limited time?

Read on to find out how going green is actually easy when you’re on a shoestring budget and in fact, can end up saving you money AND time:

DIY Does Save Money and the Planet

Yes, going the DIY route is not only eco-friendly but also economical. From making your own homemade all-purpose cleaner to washing dishes by hand, you’ll end up saving money and protecting the planet. Plus, most eco-friendly activities don’t need a LOT of time or money. In fact, some, such as organic gardening, can become fun family activities as well and be a good substitute for too much television or inactivity.

Reusing is Easy and Economical

Like DIY, reusing is another great way to go green and save some green too. From reusing sheets of paper to turning old t-shirts into art smocks or cleaning rags, you can find a way to reuse just about anything. It doesn’t cost you anything and hardly takes any time. I, personally, am a big fan of reusing glass jars and random small containers to store craft and office supplies and jewelry.

Take Green Baby Steps

Going green does not mean taking giant steps, everyday. Baby steps work. Wonderfully. Here are a few baby steps that you can start taking today to save the environment and your hard-earned money:

Switch off the lights each time you leave the room.
Unplug the laptop and other electrical appliances when not in use.
Encourage kids to turn off the faucet when brushing their teeth.
Switch to e-versions of bank and credit card statements as well as other notifications. Feeling ambitious? Stop buying paper magazines and read them online instead! I do it and love it.
Walk to the grocery store instead of driving, at least once a week, if not more.
Use cloth to clean spills and kitchen countertops instead of paper towels.
Spend an hour a day outdoors, away from the television, laptop and other gadgets. Give them a rest and get yourself some exercise.
Line dry your laundry.
Get Jessica’s eBook and save paper on your homemaking binder!

How can you go green on a budget and without spending too much time?

– Prerna Malik is a mom, a wife, a writer and woman who believes in parenting with love, being postively productive, and creating a home that invites you to put your feet up and relax. Find her sharing her simple tips and easy-to-do ideas at The Mom Writes or follow her on Twitter.

It’s Easy to Be Green

Jessica Fisher — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 05:17:46 +0000

Being green may be easier than you think.

I confess that I am a total geek. You probably knew that already.

But, in January our city moved to co-mingle recycling and whoops of joy were heard from my home when I opened the flyer advertising as such. You see, when we first moved to this house in 2009 we found out that the city’s recycling program did not allow for easy collection or storage of recyclables. They insisted that everything be sorted and placed in these itty-bitty open boxes that were just one rat fest waiting to happen.

Since we know I don’t do rodents, that didn’t work for me.

Needless to say, we didn’t recycle. And I felt guilty every time I put a milk carton in the trash. But, no longer! Co-mingle is here to stay. Oh happy day! We have several LARGE barrels with lids where we just toss all our paper, plastic and glass. Easy peasy.

Even if you don’t have co-mingle recycling where you live, here are a few other easy ways to go green:

4 Cheap and Easy Ways to Go Green
Tips for a Greener Homeschool and Office
Tips for using Reusable Shopping Bags
13 Ways You Can Go Green
Plant an Orchard
Total Green Living
Cloth Diapering
Do It Yourself Recycling
Washing Produce
How to Decorate Cheap and Green
Reducing Waste in the Kitchen
Frugal Ways to Go Green
Upcycling (Using What You’ve Got)
Worm Composting
Composting

How do you live green?

Zone Defense: Organizing Laundry, Clothes & Textiles

Jessica Fisher — Sat, 14 Apr 2012 08:50:04 +0000

As we work through the different zones of our homes, we’re tackling clutter and disorder and make sense of our living space. This month we’re looking at clothes and textiles.

Long ago, I learned the secret to happiness. Okay, it’s not really the secret to happiness, but it’s definitely a key to survival, whether you’re a busy college student or a mom managing much.

Food and clothing.

Food and clothing are the two things you need to provide or have on hand for happiness, contentment, and pure survival. My college roommate’s translation of this was “sour cream and clean underwear.” Not together, of course, but that’s what she needed to be happy.

But, that’s clearly fodder for another post.

So, in case you hadn’t noticed, that’s been the method to my Zone Defense this year. First we talked about some basics of organizing. Then we tackled personal space. You need to feel right about you and your personal stuff before you can take on the world — or the clutter in your home.

After you, well, it’s food and clothing, baby.

Last month we talked about the kitchen and getting all the food, tools, and dishes in order. This month, we’ll be getting clothes and textiles in order.

Apparently, I’m in need of such order. This is my laundry zone. It doesn’t always look like this. I promise. But, it was such a blogworthy moment, I had to take a picture.

We have a long, narrow laundry room on the second floor. I love it that it’s upstairs and that it’s a dedicated room. However, since I haven’t made it happen, there really isn’t a place to fold clothes in the laundry room. Unless I want to stand at the dryer. Which I don’t.

We have 10 to 15 loads of laundry every week. With 7 beds, 8 bodies, a working kitchen, multiple hockey players, and children who put perfectly clean clothes in the dirty hampers, we’ve got a lot of towels, sheets, and clothes to wash.

But, this month?

We’re streamlining. I’ll be rearranging the cupboards in my laundry room. They’re almost empty, so it’s time to make better use of the space. I have great hopes for a hanging bar as well as some hooks on the walls, too. And the linen closet?

Yeah, that space could be used better as well. A little.

So, this month, dig into your laundry room, your linen cupboard, and anywhere else you store clothing and textiles. (Need to downsize the kids’ or hubs’ wardrobes? Now might be the time to do that, too.)

Tackle your laundry area and linen closet.

The process is going to be the same as we’ve discussed before:

Empty the area. Give it a good cleaning while it’s empty.
Ditch the trash or unwanted goods.
Organize what’s left in a manner that suits your family and your life.

Special for this month:

Revisit your laundry system. Is it still working for you? Check out Lauren’s tips for Easing into a Laundry Routine.
Need a refresher in how to fold towels or fitted sheets? Check out my vlogs here and here.
Wondering how to stock your laundry supplies? Read Prerna’s No-Fuss Guide to Laundry Tools and Products.
And don’t forget to read up on Sock Matching and the Mystery of the Lost Socks.
We’ll also be talking about sorting out old clothes and storing hand-me-downs later this month.

Ready to get to work?

Laundry Woes: Fighting Stains

Jessica Fisher — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 16:19:29 +0000

As a Resolve® All-Stains Brand Ambassador, I’m learning a lot about fighting stains and “resolving” one of my biggest laundry woes.

As you may remember, I don’t like to clean. I avoid it at all costs. Early in our marriage, hubs and I arranged a little division of labor. He would do dishes if I did laundry. Suh-weet! This was a great arrangement!

You see, I don’t really consider laundry “cleaning.” It’s pretty easy, typically doesn’t smell bad, and, thankfully, doesn’t get moldy like week-old leftovers in the refrigerator.

Plus, I rarely have to get my hands dirty.

Laundry is therapeutic for me. I’m a fairly lazy laundress. I rarely sort the clothes. I delegate whenever possible. But, I do try to do something every day because eight people can create a lot of dirty socks!

And, truth be told, I’ve been fairly lazy when it comes to pre-treating stains. While many garments have been passed from boy to boy to boy to boy for the last 14 years, rarely has there been a “hand-me-down” that didn’t sport a stain or two. I’m feeling a little convicted to change that.

Especially now that I’m buying cute girl clothes. (Just saying.)

So, when Resolve contacted me to check out their stainfighter, Resolve All Stains, I figured it was a great fit.

I remember reading one of Martha’s stain fighting cheat sheets and thinking, “My life is too short.” I love a good mystery, but there’s no way I’m going to spend time trying to figure out what kind of stain that is and what to do about it.

Not with six kids! No way, no how.

But, Resolve All Stains, the Stain-fighter-formerly-known-as-Spray-N-Wash, combines oxygen and enzyme stain fighters in the same bottle, so you don’t have to pull a Remington Steele. I was surprised at how easy it was to pre-treat this very cute dress that my girl had blotched with ketchup and mustard.

You squeeze a little bit of both stain fighters on the stain at the same time and rub them together. Wash within 5 minutes and voila! Brand spanking new.

Are you tired of playing the guessing game? Hop on over to Resolve’s Facebook Page and take the Resolve All Stains quiz for your chance to win a washer and dryer along with a year supply of Resolve All Stains. Sweepstakes ends on May 4, 2012. While you’re there, you can also print off a $1 coupon to try Resolve All Stains yourself.

Win a Stain Gambler Prize Pack

This week Resolve is providing “Stain Gambler” prize packs to 2 Life as MOM readers. Along with Resolve All-Stains product, the prize pack includes: a garment bag, steamer, delicate care laundry bag and lint brush.

To Enter:

Simply fill out this form with your name and email contact.

Please note this information is being gathered solely for administrative purposes to send the winners their ebooks. This information will not be given out, sold, or otherwise shared with any other sources.

This promotion is open until Saturday, April 7th, at 8 pm PST and is limited to US residents, 18 years or older. Friends and family of Jessica Fisher and Life as Mom are ineligible for entry. The winners will be chosen randomly and notified via email. This post will be updated with the beginning of the winner’s email addresses. The prize for this promotion is provided by and shipped by Resolve and/or its representatives. Jessica Fisher and Life as MOM will not be held responsible for unclaimed or undelivered prizes.

What’s been your success at fighting stains?

Congrats to the winners: mworkan82@, nanwickham@

Disclosure: I am serving as a Resolve® All-Stains Brand Ambassador. I have been compensated for my time spent writing and received a complimentary bottle of Resolve® All-Stains. All opinions are my own.

Zone Defense: Cleaning the Kitchen & a Progress Report

Jessica Fisher — Mon, 02 Apr 2012 05:33:44 +0000

This year we’re on Zone Defense, tackling clutter and disorder. Each month we’re tackling a different zone of home and life. March’s zone was the kitchen.

I told my husband that I could just forget working out. If I simply cleaned our house, I could lose weight and have a cleaner house! You can guess what I did this past weekend. I gave our kitchen the complete overhaul.

My overall goal was a decluttered kitchen, especially with the counter tops. Stuff piled up just really grates on my nerves. And while I need to be practical about what we use on a regular basis and how limited we are on storage space, I really wanted clean surfaces. So, it was with great satisfaction that I took this picture.

Yeah! Mostly clean surfaces. I left out the things that we use almost daily: the toaster oven, the mixer, the knife block, my canister of utensils, salt and pepper, water carafe, hot water pot and our Keurig. Everything else found a home or left the premises.

I had already reorganized the food storage areas and some of my kitchen equipment, but there were still several cabinets to tackle. I didn’t take exhaustive photos of my messes, but imagine this:

and this:

pretty much EVERYWHERE.

My boys are on Kitchen Patrol three times a day. They are the ones who wash and put away dishes, clear and wipe the table, sweep the floor, and wipe the counter tops. I orchestrate their jobs as well as cook and wash the pots. When I feel like it, I mop or delegate that to someone.

Since things have been fairly busy around here and since children are apt to skip over things they don’t want to do, the kitchen needed a deep clean and organize. My dish-putter-awayer tends to just stuff the cupboards and hope the door will close. Despite our numerous conversations about “nesting” the mixing bowls, etc. it still was a hodge-podge.

I love the help and I want to set my kids up for success, so I did a fairly thorough dejunking of the cupboards and drawers. We needed a little more elbow room so that it wasn’t so crucial that everything be put away “just so.”

Much better. I retired the nonstick pans that were losing their coating and am sticking with the Kitchen Aid set that came with our refrigerator. I also moved out several items that I don’t use very often into a “kitchen overflow” box in the garage. Now, there’s lots of easy space to put things away. Baking dishes still need to nest in order to fit, but there’s a little more breathing room. (And there were a few pots in the sink when I took the pic, thus the sparse cupboard on one side.)

I also moved some items like my canning supplies and seldomly used items out to the garage so that they aren’t in the way.

I emptied every drawer, vacuumed it out, wiped it down and dejunked it. The last time I did that was during the Mouse Invasion, almost two years ago. So, it was definitely time. I also did some rearranging:

Dish towels are in a drawer next to the sink instead of across the room.
The BBQ tools are in a dresser drawer next to the back door instead of in the middle of the kitchen.
I took freezer wrapping out of the wraps drawer so I can stop getting upset when folks use a gallon size freezer bag for half a sandwich.
I put my cookbooks/recipe notes that I consult daily in a drawer instead of on the counter.

These are small but significant changes to help the flow of our kitchen work. There are more, but these are some that might be more universal than others.

FishPapa joined my efforts in moving the fridge. Yes, really. Ick! I vacuumed and scrubbed this little area while he took care of the coils, etc. Hopefully, it will run cooler now.

I love clean surfaces, especially on the fridge. But, I also need a place to hang notes and reminders. My trick?

I hide the mess on the side of the fridge that folks aren’t likely to see, at least not when they first enter the kitchen. It visually makes the room much more appealing.

Every drawer and cupboard has been emptied, cleaned, dejunked and organized. The fridge top and bottom has been scoured. The counters have been wiped clean as well as the appliances. It’s amazing how nice it feels!

However, I surely wouldn’t have done it if it weren’t for YOU. Thanks for joining me on Zone Defense!

How’s your kitchen cleaning going?

I Hate Cleaning

Jessica Fisher — Tue, 27 Mar 2012 18:05:42 +0000

Daily housekeeping can be a chore. But, with a few tricks, we can change-up our systems and put the joy back in having a clean house.

There, I admitted it. I hate cleaning. I love things to be clean, but it really takes effort to motivate me. Kind of like exercising. I love how it makes me feel. But the distance between my chair and the exercise is far.

However, I know I think better when things are clean. Thinking is always a good thing.

To inspire us both, I dug up some cleaning articles from the archives. Hopefully, they’ll help put a spring in your step (and mine) as we go about caring for home sweet home.