The Thrifty Wife

Mission: When’s the last time you organized your pantry? Wait. I probably don’t want to know. Every time I opened up the pantry to get something, I cringed. There was coffee grounds that were spilled probably two-three months prior and other weird substances on the shelves.

Your mission today is to tackle the pantry. For many this is a big task. If you are busy, take it one shelf at a time. I suggest having some boxes close by too to make sorting easier.

Here’s the To-Do List:

• Trash anything expired or that has creepy crawlies (My whole thing of rice, yuck!)
• Put foods that you do not like or do not want (that are not expired) in a box for donation. Make sure to actually donate the box within the week.
• Group like items together. For example, put all of your noodles together and all of your breadmaking or cookie making ingredients together. Use baskets (I used a few from the 99-Cent Store) to help keep items together. This will make it a breeze to pull out what you need and put it back.
• If you have food storage containers, put them to use. Store your dried beans, rice, and noodles. It is probably wise to label them which I still need to do.
• Wipe down the shelves and vacuum if needed.
• Arrange items in a way that makes them easy to get to and use. Since I am 5’2, all the food I need is eye-level, and my appliances are easier to get to.

How Did I Do?

Finally a picture! I have been meaning to take before and after pictures, but you know how it goes. You get the momentum going and don’t want to stop to snap a photo. That’s what happened with cleaning the pantry; I forgot to take a before photo. Just imagine everything all over the place, every shelf full. And after – I had a whole shelf for something else. Who knows what will go there now.  Here are the changes:

• Threw out any expired items. Thankfully only a few.
• Grouped like items together, such as all the pastas and all the baking supplies.
• Moved kitchen appliances that I use regularly from the very top shelf to the second to last shelf. This will help me get them done and use them even more than I already do.
• Transferred open bag items and other pantry staples to plastic containers and glass jars. I would like to have a few more containers, but for now it works.
• Vacuumed and wiped down the shelves. Who knew they could get so gross?!

As I stood back to admire my handiwork, I felt so FREE! When things are organized, it is as if your brain kind of lets go of a little stress. Do you see my cute little helper in the bottom right corner? She is into everything, but it just motivates me to clean faster.

How did you do? Share your pictures and blog posts with me so I can brag about you tomorrow.

Mission: Go through your craft supplies with a very harsh eye. No more saving and scrimping every last thing when the reality is that they will just end up sitting in the same spot for many months.

Where to put it:

• Trash anything trash-worthy.
• Donate craft paper and supplies to a school or the kid’s church program. Or list it on Freecycle.
• If you have a collection of craft notions, such as thread, stamps, zippers, unused patterns, etc. you may be able to make a few dollars by listing them on Ebay.

How Did I Do?

I hate going through my craft pile because I always have so many ideas on what to use it for. However, I know I have to get it under control. So here is what I removed from my craft stash:

• I filled a large box with scrapbooking paper, fabric, paints, and other fun craft items to donate to the girl’s group at church
• Found a few items to give to a crafter friend
• Found craft items to donate to Mike’s Aunt’s garage sale for their church trip to Greece
• Finally, I weeded out a huge handful of unopened zippers and Ric Rac and listed them on Ebay for a craft lot.

I feel so much better now that all of this stuff is gone. I still have stuff to work with, but now it is definitely controllable and now I have 2 free baskets for other items. I think I see a pattern going on here; I thought the stuff would make me feel better, but it actually feels better to be getting rid of stuff.

How did you do? Share your pictures and blog posts with me so I can brag about you tomorrow.

Mission: We all have our skinny jeans waiting for us to finally lose those last 5 lbs (ahem, or more), as well as clothing items that we think are cute, but never get around to wearing. Now is your turn to start getting rid of some unneeded clothing. Start by getting rid of five pieces.

Also, what are some items that have seen better days. I’m talking to you – faded jeans or adorable sweater that became fuzzy from too much wear. Give them a final kiss and throw them in the giveaway bag.

I know some of your items are also inappropriate for your lifestyle. Stay at home mamas, do you really need your nice suit from your working days? If you are having back pain, do you really need your super cute, but make your feet ache heels?

Finally, make a pile of all of the clothing hat does not fit. If it is too big, get rid of it, and then brag to your friends how you had to get rid of a bag of clothes because you are just too tiny (wink, wink). However, as it usually is the case, for smaller clothes, be realistic. How many items are in your pile that are too small? Pick out 3-5 favorite items, put them in a spot you can see them every day and make a deal with yourself.

You have 6 months to fit into those clothes again, and if you don’t, you have to get rid of them. Add on another 6 months if you just had a baby. If you don’t lose the weight or get in shape in those 6 months, then you need to find another motivation than keeping your skinny jeans around. Don’t worry you can always buy new clothes when you finally hit your dream size.

How Did I Do?

Updated to add after picture. Before picture = just imagine a small room that has been hit by a tornado.

This was pretty hard for me since I had a baby. I kept thinking about how I would start to work out and lose all of the baby weight and plus some. However, many of my clothes did not fit before I had a baby either. A lot of my clothes were also from high school days. Another good portion were items that needed to be sewn or items that had seen better days.

I stopped making excuses and was brutal on my closet. I probably got rid of 100+ items. I consigned a few items, sold some in a garage sale, and donated the rest. It hurt, but I am so much happier for it. My closet actually stays clean. I feel like I can breathe again. I do wear the same outfits pretty frequently, but that is only because if I want new outfits, I have to get my behind in gear and lose some more weight.

Now it is your turn. How did you do? Send me your pictures/post links so I can brag about you tomorrow.