Ribbon Storage

I have been looking for an organized way to store my ribbon for years. I have looked for storage box solutions, even trying once to make my own out of a cardboard box and a dowel. Recently I came up with this solution. While it didn't solve all my ribbon dilemmas, it's certainly a start in the right direction.

This is my armoir. All of my craft and office supplies are stored here. And now, so is my ribbon collection. Part of it anyway.

I still have more ribbon to store. Some of the holes in the cardboard ribbon holder are too small to fit over the smallest tension rod. This is still leaves me with the annoyance of eventually having to remove spools of ribbon from the rod in order to discard empty ones. Oh well, I can't have it all I guess!

Do you have a great way to store

ribbon you can share with me?

My Closet Makeover

I took my own advice yesterday and cleaned out my closet. It was truly therapeutic. I realized I'm was a clothes hoarder. Don't get me wrong, I clean out my closet regularly. At least twice a year. But....I also shop a lot, and my weight fluctuates a lot. Who new that an extra 10 lbs would disagree with so many of my outfits? Apparently not me, or maybe I really just couldn't let go. Maybe I just knew, soon enough I was losing that 10 lbs and I'd be right back in those clothes. You wouldn't believe how many size 2 pants I found in there. Really, size 2? That's not happening anytime soon, if ever!

They say if you haven't worn it in 6 months you should get rid of it. I disagree and say at least a year so you can get through  and back to the season. Anyway, I didn't take any before pictures, it was too dangerous. Here's how I tackled it. I tried on anything questionable, I separated into a few piles. Garage sale, not mine, and consignment.

 Here is the garage sale pile:

Here is the consignment pile:

Here is the less cluttered final product:

I have organized my closet like this for as long as I can remember. Items are grouped together such as shirts, dresses, jackets, skirts, pants/jeans. Then those groups are organized by color for shirts, size for pants, length for skirts, weight for jackets, and formality for dresses. It may seem crazy or complicated, I didn't really sit down with a plan, it just kind of ended up like that over the years.

Black shirts and jeans:

 Dresses:

I feel better :)

The Pantry

How I Organize My Pantry
So, I'm in a constant state of spring cleaning and reorganizing. I'm always straightening up the pantry. Between my kids and my husband it gets unorganized fairly quickly. But, recently I gave it some real, much needed attention. A couple weeks ago, I reorganized Chloe's room. I bought her a taller bookshelf and brought this small black one down to the pantry. My girlfriend couldn't believe I needed even more shelves in my pantry! I also shelled out some cash for some new bigger, clear canisters so I could store things like flour, sugar, rice, and beans. I love being organized, but I hate spending money to get organized!

The pantry is organized by groups, by how often I use things, and by how I need to see things. For example, all cereal, snacks and bread are located right in front, at grabbing and eye level for the kids and hubby. Nuts and chocolate chips are stored next to each other, and anything related to breakfast is also stored together. Paper products, baking goods, condiments, can foods, teas, and pasta are also stored in their own groups. Baskets, cake stands, and vases are stored at the top of the pantry because I don't use these items very often.

I feel so much better! This time I really got into the depths of the pantry and was able to get rid of some seriously expired food. Perhaps it's not really that organized, but it is to me! And now I can find what I need when I need it, and I don't have to buy things I already have, but just can't find!

How I organize Recipes- Part II-Meal Rotations & Dinner Games

Meal Rotation List

I have a list. It hangs in my pantry. The list contains the most popular meals I prepare. These are 'tried and true', they've been cooked many many times. They don't fail me, and when I make them, my family knows exactly what to expect. I have prepared the list in two different forms. Alphabetical & Categorical. The list has many purposes. It serves to me as a reminder of things I cook that my family loves. I have approximately 70 recipes on that list, and it's always growing, so of course I forget sometimes what I know how to make! Or I may just me in a cooking rut. With 70 recipes I can go two months and not cook the same thing twice. Sometimes for the life of me I just can't think of what to make for dinner! Do you ever have that happen? Well, this helps.

The List can be found here.

Also, when I plan my meals out for the week,  I stress the when, I like to let the kids look at the list and pick out something for that week too. It lets them feel involved. Separately, I'd like to mention that sometimes at dinner we play games. One of their favorite DINNER GAMES is "The Ingredient Game." Pretty self explanatory. They take turns picking out ingredients that are in the prepared meal. {If I still have ingredients on the counter I will catch them peeking.} They name everything down to the spices. We also play the "Alphabet Game." Basically, you pick a category. Vegetables, singers, historical figures, animals, countries, cities, etc. The first person starts with 'A'. The have to pick an animal that starts with A, like Antelope. The next person gets B, and would say Baboon, and so on and so forth. Obviously Q, U, X, and V are difficult. But, you'll figure it out. That's what Google's for!

I always buy Costco’s frozen fish and chicken. It’s boneless, skinless, and easy to store and prepare. I use a lot of recipes from friends and family. My favorite recipe website is AllRecipes.com and my favorite cookbooks are from the Saving Dinner Series by: Leanne Ely as shown in the photo above.

I love my Crockpot and wish I had more recipes for it, especially chicken crockpot recipes. I also love my rice cooker. I keep all recipes stored in one place. Recipes that are printed get put into one of several binders as shown in the previous post.

One note on my storage system: The magazine storage boxes really store those little recipe booklets, not full size magazines. They are the smaller in size, mostly Pillsbury and Pampered Chef, and the like. Recipes I do get from magazines, get cut out and stored in page protecters in the back of the binders. Also, I have an entire list of salad combinations that are stored in the binder as well.

How do decide what to cook each week?

How I Organize My Recipes-Part1

The Cupboard

I love cookbooks, I love recipes, and I love cooking. I also love being able to find a recipe when I need it! So, here is the way I organize my recipes. I struggled with the best way to do this for a long while before I decided on the "Binder Method." I knew this would work best for me because most recipes I get that are not from cookbooks, come from my printer. Either from recipe sites, bloggers, or my email, they all end up being printed on standard paper. This is precisely why a recipe box would not work for me.

Now, I have a lot of different recipes that come from different sources as previously mentioned. I usually remember a recipe by where I got it. I knew I couldn't properly organize everything into one binder and still be able to find everything. So this is the system I came up with. The photos explain how I do it.

A few things I have to do to keep everything in order are: I always print out a recipe I think I will like right away. Otherwise, when I go to look for it later, I will never be able to find it in cyberspace. Also, I am working on getting a photo with each recipe. Recipes in the "recipes to try" binder have to be cooked and liked, THREE TIMES before they graduate to the "tried and true" binder. Last, I have a divider in my "tried and true" binder marked "holidays." I think it is important to note, because some things are remembered simply by that.

How do you organize your recipes?