Organization: Weekly Deep Cleaning: Living Room and Dining Room

It is yet another week on the schedule. We have been getting signs of spring though so it is making the cleaning much, much easier. Last week I was in the entry, laundry room and porch; this week I am working in my living room and dining room. I do these two rooms together because we have an open concept house which means our living room and dining room are just one big space pretty much, as I think most homes are this day in age. 

So, here is what the schedule looks like on my iPad:

Here is what I have:

• Move furniture and sweep/mop or vacuum. Use the attachment or long duster (aka broom) if need be to get up all the bunnies. If carpeted, steam clean if need be. 
• Vacuum couch & cushions & dining room chairs.
• Wash blankets and fluff pillows.
• Dust ceiling corners
• Using broom wrapped with a microfiber cloth secured around it with a rubber band get cobwebs and dust being careful of the sprinklers.
• Dust baseboards & wipe down with a rag.
• If scuffed use peroxide to get them up, if chipped fill in holes with paint.
• Dust window sills & wipe down with a rag.
• If scuffed use peroxide to get them up, if chipped fill in holes with paint.
• Remove all books from book shelves, thoroughly dust shelves and place books back in an orderly manner.
• Go through & tossing (or upcycling) any that are outdated or unwanted. I know for some of you this is a travesty, but believe it or not if our kid is 14 we may not want Hop on Pop up there any more. ;)
• After placing books back on shelves replace any holiday decorations that may have passed and we just didn't get them put away.
• If there is any paperwork that got placed here "to be filed" file it now.

This system seems to work and keep things in order. Believe it or not these items each only take 15 minutes or less to complete. They are so simple and keep the house so neat and tidy, plus my holiday decor us usually fairly up to date with this system. ;) Anyone else a chronic "ooops why is this bunny from spring still here in ...August?!"

See more in this series:
Weekly Power Hour
Morning & Evening Routine
Deep Cleaning: Bedrooms
Entry, Foyer, Laundry Room

Organization: Deep Clean: Entry, Laundry Room, Porch

Last week on my Deep Cleaning Schedule was the Bedrooms. This week on my cleaning schedule, since it is the first week of the month I am focusing on three small areas of my home: the entry, laundry room, and porch.

I can focus on all three of these areas at once because in my home they are small areas. 

• Dust ceiling corners: Using a broom with micro-fiber cloth wrapped around it and secured with a rubber band sweep around the top edge of the ceiling and get any cobwebs and dust that have accumulated the last month in all three areas.
• Wipe the baseboards: With a damp cloth wipe along the base boards. If there are any black marks use a magic eraser to get them off, paint over any scuffs or chips.
• Dust light fixtures
• Laundry room: clean lint traps, use vacuum if needed, wash reusable bags getting rid of old ones, stock up on any needed laundry supplies
• Porch: Wipe down furniture and dust railing, sweep.
• Foyer: Wipe down door, change wreath, wipe down door frame.

I love when I have these three areas all cleaned up and shined for the month. It makes it easy to have guests over and do my laundry in a tidy space. 

See the others in this series:
Weekly Power Hour
Morning & Evening Routine
Deep Cleaning: Bedrooms

March Goal Setting!

Wow, I cannot believe we are in to March already! Wow, wow, wow. I mean really, where is this year going?!

First off, yesterday I celebrated my one year blogiversary!!! This is the very first post I wrote on meal planning! It does not seem like one year has gone by so quickly already! Hard to believe!

At the beginning of the year I was super set on goals. I started out strong in January and mostly kept up with the stuff I wanted to. I flossed almost everyday, my most typical day I would "forget" is on Saturday nights, which is when we usually go out with friends and get in late so that was laziness. I kept it going somewhat through February, but once we got back from the UK I just sort of became unfocused.

The positive is goals are something you can pick back up on anytime, anywhere!

So, I have a few goals set about for March from my post original post:

Focus on Flossing {again}
Focus on clean eating

and

should help me focus on my clean eating. I just bought those two from our local bookstore. All my meals plans will be based off of them. Should make eating clean and healthy a no-brainer. I am also focused on eating/drinking at least two fermented foods a day. My focus there is kombucha, coconut yogurt, keifer, and organic pickles. 

Complete my TESOL certification for tutoring English Language Learners. I am almost through the program so it should be easy, I just need to focus and spend a few hours on it everyday.  

My final goal is to get pictures of some projects I have done and post them to my Etsy shop so I can finally get that store up and running. 

How are your goals coming along that you set at the beginning of the year? What specific goals do you have for this month to work toward those beginning of year goals?!

Organizing the house: Master Bathroom

So, many, many months ago I joined an awesome organizing challenge on A Bowl Full of Lemons. It was the Home Organization 101.  Winter was busy for us and I was adjusting to all the rain up here in Vancouver and just couldn't get motivated. So I didn't do a whole lot. But, in January they decided to "revisit" the organizing so I jumped right in. However, before I go into my Master Bathroom let me give you some background....

Now, growing up I was a very, very organized person. Heck, my best friend and I when we would get bored would reorganize my drawers! How lame right?! Well, I got married at 18, had a baby at 19. Hubby was working full time as was I, and we were both going to school full time! That left the house typically neglected. It was never a pig sty, (well, okay, sometimes it was lol), but eventually it would get picked up. It was organized somewhat, never to my full standards though and it was always clean "enough". Well, slowly but surely as this hectic schedule became the norm we fell into a routine with cleaning and organizing. Well, about two years ago when we were on our, I think, 7th move across country I finally told hubby that I would find a job if after a year we decided to stay where we were, well that didn't happen so we moved again. So, I am on my second year of staying home and I am more and more perfecting my home. I am planning on going back to work soon but want my home to be "perfect" before I do and have a full on system in place so the house practically takes care of itself. This is where the Home Organization 101 comes in. I am a procrastinator by nature, but, if someone gives me a schedule or I get sick of it I'll take care of it. So, Toni, over at A Bowl Full of Lemons gave me a schedule. I have adjusted the schedule to my needs as I have areas that I felt were more needy at the beginning than at the end. I chose to showcase my master bathroom today because I just did it yesterday and I felt it was a beautiful transformation. Plus, I have a super fun tutorial!

So, I started with my tub. I made a paste of baking soda and vinegar and I scrubbed, scrubbed, scrubbed my grout. It is now a beautiful off white and matches the tile again, no mold or mildew to be found! Second, I took a little (maybe an inch or so) of rubbing alcohol and water (maybe 4 or 5 inches of water) and scrubbed the really scummy areas of tile to get the soap scum off. It worked like a charm, then I scrubbed the tub and got rid of any old razors and bottles. Then, I moved on and emptied and cleaned the trashcan (using the alcohol and water mixture here to disinfect). Then, I sprinkled some baking soda in the toilet with about 20 drops of tea tree oil and then sprayed it with some vinegar, let it bubble and scrubbed. Then, I sprayed down the toilet with my homemade all purpose spray (equal parts vinegar, water, 10 drop of lavender essential oil and 4 drops of tea tree oil). Then I moved over to the sink and put away all the toiletries organizing under the sink as I went (wiping down all the bottles and making sure all the first aid stuff was together). I then wiped that down with my homemade grout cleaner (1/4 teaspoon Dr Bronner's, 1/4 cup rubbing alcohol and 2.5 cups of water, I also added a few drops of lavender essential oil).

Then, it was time to organize the make up. I love make up. It is fun for me to play with it so I have quite a bit. I went through it all and took out my brushes and set them aside (you do this too because I have an awesome fast and easy tutorial at the end here). Then I wiped down all my make up getting rid of really old stuff and stuff I didn't like (if you use a lot of MAC then save those pods because you can turn them in for a free lipstick or a free eye shadow when you have 6). I then put it back in the storage container I use grouped by like items.

Here are a few pictures:

Now, here is the amazing brush cleaning tutorial.

Supplies:
Small bottle of Dr. Bronner's Magic Soap (you can use any kind here I had the unscented one on hand so it is what I used)
Water
Cup
Your dirty brushes

Fill your up about an inch or two from the bottom with warmish water, then add about 20-30 drops of Dr. Bronners. Take the back of one of your longer brushes and stir it to get the soap really mixed up in the water. Then, wet one of your brush a bit with warmish water then dip in the soapy water. Trace it back and forth on your palm. Do this until the water runs clear. You may have to do this a couple of times if you have a pretty dirty brush or if you haven't cleaned your brushes in a long time. Now, if you have a brush that has never been cleaned, fear not I have a short cut for you! Simply squeeze some Dr. Bronner's directly on your palm. Wet the brush a bit then rub directly in the liquid soap. Your palm will turn colors simply run your palm under the water, do the same with the brush and repeat until it is completely clean. (The single picture on the right, if you look on the left was completely pink it hadn't been washed in YEARS, it took 3 passes through the straight Dr. Bronner's, but it is 100% white again!) My brushes and my daughter's brushes look brand new! Just check out the pictures:

So, that is all I have for you today! Try the gentle brush cleaner and let me know how it works for you!!! 

Getting the house together: Meal Planning, part 2

     So, it has come to my attention that I am a horrendous blogger. I have told myself for years that I really want to blog and write about my everyday life, experiences, projects, etc., yet I don’t really take action on it. So, my goal for this week is to write a blog post every single day. My secondary goal is to get that blog post up in the morning!  But, we’ll take that one in stride; so far it isn’t going so well. ;)

Anyhow, I am continuing to focus on becoming increasingly more organized around the house. Baby steps I tell myself. So, the last post I did was about my monthly meal planning. I do the big one for dinners so I can make sure that when I do my monthly Costco trip I get enough protein for all my meals. I try to go to Costco just once a month as you can rarely get out of that place for less than $100 and if I go more than once I can easily blow my whole grocery budget!

     So, quickly, go print off one of the weekly meal planning sheets from my last post, or simply grab a sheet of notebook paper & label it “Meals: Week of March 18-24, 2013”. Then, come right back….

     ….WELCOME BACK! Ok, so I like to write down each date, then label the lines B, L (this gets 3 separate lines labeled K, M, C for each one of us as we don’t often all eat the same thing for this meal), D (Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner…duh.) I fill in breakfasts first. My method for this is to decide on two rotatable things to make ahead so there is little work to be done in the morning.  Then, I fill in my dinner from my monthly menu (changing things around where needed as when I made that menu I wasn’t sure what my come up, so be flexible people, it’s just foodJ). Once I fill in the dinners I then evaluate how much leftovers 

     I will have and I assign those as lunches for one or more of the three of us, sometimes using those leftovers to make a completely new meal as hubby is a slight bit opposed to leftovers.

So, here it goes, my step-by-step (does anyone else here New Kids on the Block here) instructions:

•   Paper  and pen
•  Monthly dinner menu (if you made one)
•   Evaluate what is in your freezer and pantry
• Write down those meals!
• Go to the grocery store if need be
• Prep/portion out that food so most of the work is already done for you!
• Freeze anything that you are afraid may go bad before you can use it.

So, here is my menu for the week:

Breakfast:

Monday, Wednesday, Friday: Whole Wheat Chocolate Chip pancakes (tripled & ones we won’t use this week frozen in freezer bags).

Tuesday, Thursday: English muffin breakfast sandwiches (premade, wrapped in foil, frozen).

Saturday: Omlette’s , bacon

Sunday: Donuts, coffee

Lunch:

*This week is a bit different for us as my daughter is on Spring Break

Monday: K, C: Leftover smorgasbord; use up all leftovers so nothing is wasted; M: Sausage coins, corn, apple

Tuesday: K,C: Shredded tofu and black bean salad with tortilla chips; M: Blackened chicken breast with bacon & cheese potato coins.

Wednesday: K, C: Teriyaki tofu ramen; M: Lunch out

Thursday: K, C: Picnic lunch at Capilano Suspension Bridge: almond butter and jelly sandwiches on homemade flax bread, apples, grapes, water; M: Leftover spaghetti and salad

Friday: K, C: Leftover smorgasbord; M: Lunch Out

Saturday: Mini Pizzas and salad

Sunday:Snack on leftovers, breakfast will be big and late so make it light.

Dinner:

Monday:  Soup and Quesadillas

Tuesday: Spaghetti (double recipe to freeze for later meals), salad, homemade garlic cheese bread

Wednesday: Sweet and sour chicken with rice and mixed veggies (http://pinterest.com/pin/94857135873773887/)

Thursday: Honey apple pork loin with ‘taters  (http://pinterest.com/pin/114912227963028635/_

Friday: Cheese fondue with steak bites, leftover garlic bread, veggies, etc. (this is just a cheese from the local grocery store made for fondue.)

Saturday:  Chicken wings from Safeway with macaroni and cheese and broccoli

Sunday: Steak quesadillas with salad and corn (I just use steak meat meant for stir frying or slice up a skirt steak & cook until almost done then add 4T of homemade taco seasoning with 2/3 cup of water or a pack of Old El Paso Taco Seasoning and cook until done, then put in quesadilla with some cheese & cook in pan until quesadilla is brown on both sides.)

This is my menu for the week.  I’ve provided links where possible and recipes when used. Many times I don’t use recipes I just sort of “wing –it”.

What are some of your family’s favourite meals? Do you always use a recipe or do you “wing-it” like I do?

Getting the house together: Meal Planning

Happy March 1^st, Everyone!!! Who can believe two months of 2013 have flown by already?! Not me, that is for sure! So, coming up this month is St. Patrick’s Day, Spring Break for my (not so) little, and Easter; tons will be happening! So, I’d like to start the month with my meal plan.

Why meal plan? Meal planning helps you feel organized and like you have your crap together. Bottom line; when nothing else is going right, at least you have a plan, some kind of plan. This plan can bring your family together at the end of the day & bring peace & joy to your home.

I try to plan one month at a time. If you are new to meal planning this will be a huge undertaking, it’s a huge undertaking for me & I've been meal planning for 13 years now! So, if you are new to menu planning sit down right now & plan next week’s meals.  Try & include using up leftovers as a new meal or for lunches, & make sure to account for going out to eat if that is something your family enjoys once or twice a week. We try and eat out just once or twice a month, but those are for dietary reasons. Also, when planning your meals look at your schedule. What do you have going on this week? For us we do something easy on Mondays as my daughter has an evening activity. Friday I like for us to try and do a family movie night so I try and do something everyone can customize. Saturday’s are our typical date night, I try to do something light on those days so if we want to get a late night snack or dessert we feel like we have the calories left to do that!

So, the first thing I do is print off a month calendar (I just google whatever month & year it is then print off a free one); or you can print off a weekly menu planner. Here are some of my favorites:

Weekly:

http://mineforthemaking.blogspot.ca/2011/09/food-licious-friday-44-weekly-meal-plan.html

http://anythingbutperfect.com/2009/08/free-printable-weekly-meal-planner/

http://thisdesignercooks.blogspot.ca/p/free-printables.html

Month:

http://www.thenesteffect.com/p/free-printables.html

http://creativemamma.com/free-printable-doodle-2013-write-in-calendar/

http://www.imom.com/tools/get-organized/2013-printable-calendars/ (this is the one I used)

So, now that you have found your ideal monthly calendar and/or  weekly calendar (I do print 4 weekly planners of the second one as I like to be able to plan out lunches & snacks as well, but I do that weekly not monthly) let’s see what my menu looks like!

So, what I did was took a look at Friday’s planned what movies we would watch and planned things that would be fairly easy & customizable. That way we are spending Friday after a long week at work as a family. They are also things that are easy to make a lot of in case the kid decides she wants to have a friend spend the night. I also planned for two dinner’s out the 9^th (which now that I think about it will change to another day due to parent/teacher conferences). Also, I planned to eat out on Easter because I am trying to eat very healthy this month & I love to make ham as fattening as possible so I figure if we go to a nice brunch I can have some salmon. I have something special planned for St. Patty’s Day on the 17^th . I also plan to make something cute & fun for Dr. Seuss’s birthday tomorrow!  Finally, the last two weeks of the month are Spring Break so we have easy things planned that can be prepared ahead then thrown in the oven or thrown in the crockpot. As after a long day of hiking, ropes courses, or looking at museum’s the last thing I want to do is hang out in the kitchen!

So, I hope this will get you started on your new menu planning adventure! On Sunday I will share with you my Menu for the upcoming week as well as my “Sunday Plan” for premaking snacks, breakfasts, as well as prepping vegetables and what not for the upcoming meals!

Have a great weekend!