Chewin'

the News

January 2002

Organizing Stories & Ideas

ORGANIZING YOUR KITCHEN
Re-organize your kitchen... stand back and take stock of what you have stored where, vs. where it gets used. Are your cups/glasses stored by the sink, when you get the majority of your drinks from the fridge? Is your mixer stored across the kitchen from the counter you use it at? The area you use most for your mixing/assembling of recipes should have your cookbook, measuring cups and spoons, mixing bowls, mixer, etc. all within reach. Are your spices stored over the stove (they get stale quick here from the heat and light) when you use them most in your mixing area? If you don't have a lot of drawers, buy small plastic baskets at WalMart to store things in... spices, plastic lids, baggies-freezer bags-wax paper-saran-foil, whatever works for you. If you have an appliance on your counter that you don't use at least 4 times a week, you should put it away somewhere, and de-clutter your counters. Uncluttered counters make your kitchen look bigger, and cleaner!

Tammy D. (our message board moderator) from Charles Town, WV


ORGANIZING YOUR MENU PLANNING
Use Worksheet G from the manual to decide your meals for a month and post it in the kitchen. Lots of freezer cooks find that this takes the pressure off on a daily basis. They plan the list at the beginning of each month taking into account meeting nights, home-late-from-work nights, ball practice nights, etc. I have meals that the kids can make beginning to end on their own. Yeah!

Here’s a great idea that I read on the Friendly Freezer elist. You basically plan a certain meal-type for each night of the week. Simple – but easy.

• Sunday - crock-pot or big dinner example: beef roast in oven, noodles, mashed potatoes, beef tips in crock pot, etc.

• Monday – tacos, burgers, or sloppy joes

• Tuesday - chicken meal

• Wednesday – casserole meal

• Thursday - pork meal

• Friday - Italian meal

• Saturday – soup & sandwich meal

Have an “etc.” list when these don’t work out:
breakfast (pancakes & waffles, scrambled eggs, egg biscuit sandwiches, mini egg pizzas, eggs & toast), hot dogs, choose-your-own-(frozen)-leftovers-and-nuke-'em!, canned soup or ravioli, cold meat & mac & cheese, chicken or beef and dumplings


ORGANIZING YOUR FREEZER
This is a personal tip that I use for organizing my large freezer (the one that does not have a refrigerator below it).
In order to know what's in my freezer, I keep an updated list on my refrigerator of what's in the freezer. Then when
I take something out of it, I mark it off the list.

Example:
Strawberries 4 pkg.
Zucchini 5 pkg.
Pork chops 4 pkg.
Pork steak 3 pkg.
Hamburger 10 pkg.
Patties 6 pkg.
Etc, etc.

Sheryl D.

*Note: Manual owners should make use of Worksheet F for the same purpose.

ORGANIZING YOUR GROCERY SHOPPING
Saving money... if you're willing to shop a few grocery stores to save money, put together a PriceBook. www.frugalmoms.com has more details, but basically, you get a notebook and keep track of items you regularly buy by noting the item, size and price for each store. You divide the price of the item by the size, so you can compare the cost ounce to ounce from store to store. Then you're familiar with what 'normal' prices are, and then you know when a sale is really a good price to take advantage of it. I find it very helpful when I go to Sam's club to know if buying something in bulk really saves me money or not. I just take my Pricebook along and put it in the seat of the cart so I can refer to it as needed.
I set my Pricebook up a little different than FrugalMoms does. I use a 3 ring binder and put tabs in my pricebook to go with the way my grocery list is divided on Worksheet D from the 30DG Manual... dairy, meats, frozen foods, breads, canned, etc. Then I have a page for each item. For example, under dairy, I have a page for shredded cheddar, shredded mozzarella, yogurt, sour cream, sliced cheese, etc. On the page for shredded cheddar, I list the brand, weight and price I pay at my local WalMart. If I shop the sales, I'll list the sale price info I got at Food Lion. Then when I go to Sam's, I can compare the cost per ounce to see if it saves me money to buy receipts after I get groceries and update my price book. If the price hasn't changed since my last visit there, I don't update it. Once you get used to it, it doesn't take much time to do at all. Great way to make good use of your time while you're waiting at soccer practice, the Dr's office, etc.
Another way to save money is to shop the sales at the different grocery stores. The regular prices at my Walmart can't be beat by the other grocery stores in town. Unless they're having a sale! = ) I check the sales ads and only buy what's on sale at that store. If they're having triple coupons (up to 50 cents), which they do every 4-6 weeks, I go thru my coupons and pick out the ones that are closest to 50 cents, so I can take the most advantage of the coupon! Sometimes I even find the stuff on sale that I have a 50 cents off coupon for...BONUS! I regularly save almost as much as I spend when I do this... the receipt prints at the bottom "you saved $23.80", and just above that is my total... $26.92. I love to save money!! = )

Tammy D. (our message board moderator) from Charles Town, WV

ORGANIZING YOUR HOUSE
Hi Nanci,
Here is my success story about organizing:

I am a pack rat and it was out of control! ( : I would let it go until I could stand it no longer and did the obvious – ATTACK!!!! That only worked for a short time. I retired this summer and made plans to get rid of all the clutter. I was especially excited to organize my kitchen. I kept putting it off waiting for winter to set in since summer is so busy. Then I put it off because it would soon be the holidays. Well you can see the trend here.
I had been praying for help on this and it came one Fri. afternoon as I turned our local PBS station on for my son to watch his favorite show. The show was not on as they were doing fundraising and so they had a woman featured named Julie Morgenstern and she was talking about “Organizing from the Inside Out.” I was fascinated by what she was saying and taped the show and also went to the book store and purchased her book by the same name.
WOW!! What a help she has been in my efforts to de-clutter and organize. I started with our information center, which is part of our kitchen area. I will be finishing the kitchen zones shortly after the holidays. The zones idea comes from her observation of the most organized place, namely a kindergarten classroom. She also uses the acronym SPACE (sort, purge, assign a home, containerize and equalize), which comes after analyzing and strategizing has taken place. She explains why we keep “stuff” and that helps me to understand myself.
Anyway, just wanted to pass this along to you – maybe it can help you also.

Patti W from Cheyenne, WY

There are a ton of 'get organized' books out there... I went to the library and checked out all they had, 2 or 3 at a time. I read thru them and used what I felt would be useful to me. (Except for Flylady, nobody's system was 100% useful for me. Then you get caught in the trap of starting and failing with each different system. I had tried a few different ones, and failed, which is how I knew FlyLady would work for me as soon as I read about her!) I did the same thing with the cleaning/get rid of clutter books at the library... 2 or 3 out at a time, read thru them and take what I could use from it. I much prefer to do that than buying all those books only to find they weren't quite what I was looking for!

Tammy D. (our message board moderator) from Charles Town, WV


ORGANIZING YOUR LIFE
If you have trouble in the whole area of organization (who doesn’t) I really recommend that you at least visit the Flylady website. She will encourage you, make you laugh, and hold you accountable. It’s free and it could change your life!
www.flylady.net

Planner/calendars
I used the Franklin Planner when I was in the biz world (or attempted to, at least!). When I became a stay-at-home-mom, I couldn't schedule my day by the half-hour, and became frustrated with it. I tried a few different planners, but none were 'quite right'. Then I read about MommyTracker. It was developed by a mom, for moms. 2002 will be my 3rd year using MommyTracker, and I love it! It's laid out with just enough structure that you can easily personalize it to work for you. It's spiral bound, so I can fold it open on itself, and it doesn't take up much room. I clip a mechanical pencil in the spiral binding, so I always have a pencil -and eraser! handy. Lots of room for notes, as well as an address section in the back. I take notes in it when I talk to someone on the phone, so I'm not forever hunting down that scrap of paper I wrote on. And the price is right too! Check it out at www.mommytracker.com

Tammy D. (our message board moderator) from Charles Town, WV

 

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