Cleaning & Organizing
Forced Feedings
We’re buckling down and making ourselves eat as much of the remaining food in our fridge as possible. We haven’t gone grocery shopping for at least three weeks (except for the occasional under $30 run for milk, cereal, and some fresh fruits & veggies) and we don’t plan to go at all for the next two weeks (since there’s still plenty to nosh on before we move). We’re concentrating mostly on eating things in the freezer and the fridge since there will be at least five hours between handing over the keys to our current house and getting the keys to our new one (we were luckily able to coordinate both closings on the same day, but the bank still needs a few hours to transfer funds in between). So we don’t want to worry about keeping a bunch of things refrigerated or frozen in a cooler in the moving van (or over in John’s sister’s fridge) if we can help it. Here’s what we’re dealing with (MTV Cribs style):
So I devised a little look-how-type-A-I-am system to keep us focused when it comes to strategically stuffing our faces. I’m a sucker for a list, what can I say? It actually took a little while to get the whole list thing figured out. I knew we needed a reminder about what we should eat, so first I made a list of all the random ingredients and items that we ideally should scarf before moving day. But it seemed like a chaotic little crammed piece of paper with too many things to actually absorb. So I decided to compartmentalize, grouping items that we could eat together and listing things in these categories: breakfast, lunch, dinner, snack/dessert. Worked like a charm. We now have this list staring us in the face every time we glance at the fridge:
- Breakfast:
- eggs
- oatmeal
- waffles
- smoothies
- Lunch:
- peas and carrot sides (J)
- broccoli soup (S)
- grilled cheese (J & S)
- turkey, cheese, & deli flats (J & S)
- tuna on wasa crackers (S)
- laughing cow cheese or almond butter on wasa crackers (S)
- Dinner:
- breakfast for dinner omelette w/ frozen veggies
- pot stickers with frozen veggies
- burritos and frozen veggies
- pancakes with mixed berries
- spaghetti
- frozen amy’s pizza and alexa fries
- sides to eat asap: brown rice & cous cous
- Snack/Dessert:
- pumpkin bread
- ice cream
- tea
- mixed nuts & pistachios
We just cross things off when we finish them and then move onto other meals in that category. So far we’re on track to eat right up until moving day (since we have a few servings of a few of the things on the list- like pasta, pot stickers, a truckload of wasa crackers, etc). Here’s hoping we can get ‘er done. Have you guys ever strategically planned meals (for moving or just money management or organizational purposes?). Do you have weekly meal plans (Macaroni Monday? Taco Tuesday?). Growing up we had a pretty predictable rotation but there was something strangely comforting about it. I still miss Wednesday night pizza dinners…
Psst- I know the last few posts haven’t been very DIY focused (we blame our turkey coma) but soon we’ll be sharing some fun homemade holiday gift ideas along with a free downloadable calendar for 2011 and another home-related video. So as they say on SNL, stick around…
Second pssst- Holy bananas. Who watched Dexter last night? Was it not the single best episode ever? John and I couldn’t sleep from all the adrenaline rushing through our veins. Love that show.
UPDATE: See how we did when it came to cleaning out the fridge before our big move here.
Setting Sale
Apparently gathering over 100 things to get rid of didn’t take as long as we thought (see the full list of purged items here), so we got all crazy and decided to host a last-minute moving sale this past Saturday (just to get rid of stuff while we still had that no nonsense iron will- you know, before we caved and decided to keep a few things around). We took about two weeks to plan our last yard sale, so making the decision to hold this one just two days out was a bit nerve-wracking, but the days aren’t getting any warmer, so we figured why waste time? Plus, hosting a yard sale isn’t rocket science – especially once you’ve gathered all of your “merchandise” and mentally decided to pull the trigger. Plus with the weather channel calling for sunny skies and 69 degree weather we figured it was a sign.
So we placed a free ad on Craigslist and drew up some neon-tacular directional posters to hang around the neighborhood. You can read more tips for actually hosting a sale here in this post of yore.
Despite our fears that no one goes yard-sale-ing in mid-November, the sale was GREAT. We had lots of steady traffic, Clara napped through the first two hours of the sale (when we were busiest), and we made over $300. Three hundred beans are great, but the best part of the sale is that we got rid of about 85% of our stuff. And that’s stuff we now don’t have to pack up and move. Which means more energy for unpacking, painting, and all that much more fun stuff (yes, that stuff is fun to us- we’re weird).
Here’s what our driveaway looked like towards the beginning of the sale (I didn’t snap a true “before” shot because early bird shoppers kept us too busy for a while).
Here’s all that was left by the end of the sale. And every item made its way to be donated within an hour or so that afternoon (we had a strict nothing-goes-back-into-the-house policy).
We were also reminded that hosting a yard sale can be quite entertaining. Here are a few highlights:
- The only shoes Sherry sold were to an 11-year-old girl. Yep, apparently Sherry has pre-teen feet (size 5.5 for the most part).
- A pack of neighborhood kids showed up on their bikes towards the end of the sale and bought a random assortment of knick-knacks, half of which we’re not sure they knew what to do with (for instance, they were convinced a glass spoon rest was a shoehorn).
- We met the new neighbors who bought the “bed-and-breakfast” house that we’ve always admired (shown here). But at least now our patio furniture will get to live there.
- We got to chat with two blog readers who were pleasantly surprised about stumbling upon our moving sale (we don’t share our address for obvious reasons, which is why we didn’t post about the sale beforehand).
- Not knowing our names but recognizing us from our nightly walks, one neighbor called us “the baby-chihuahua family” – which we wish would stick. Gotta love a good neighborhood nickname.
- We learned from one customer about the Book Exchange in Midlothian, where we later exchanged our unsold books for a credit… that we immediately used to buy two new books for Clara. New obsession? Check.
- The sale eventually turned into an impromptu neighborhood party where we got to catch up on the latest gossip from everyone around the block (thanks to the sunny skies and mild temps, it ended up being such a nice day).
- Just like last time, a random dog-on-the-loose came to visit. Luckily this one was a bit less rambunctious than the one from our past sale (who ended up taking a swim in the small pond that we once had in the backyard).
Ok, so that’s the tale our little moving sale. Feels good to have that stuff out of our lives (and to have a bit more money in our pockets). It’ll probably be a while until we need to host another yard sale, but feel free to drop some tips for others (or fun stories from your own yard sale-ing experience). Anyone else always get visited by a random pooch? Or have freakishly small feet that make selling shoes to adults a challenge?
Psst- We’re talking about how we recently revamped our dirty diapers & wipes routine right here on BabyCenter. Sounds fun right?
100 Things.
Nothing lights a fire under your arse like making a public proclamation that you’re going to get rid of 100 things. So even though we’re not moving until mid December, we made our way from room to room paring down every single thing that we don’t love/need/use. The mantra as we went? No mercy. Because nothing is worse than packing, moving, and unpacking things that aren’t worth the time they took to transport or the space they’re eating up in the new place.
Here’s our getting-rid-of-it office pile:
Then we tackled the kitchen (Clara helped):
Here’s our outgoing kitchen pile (what you don’t see are a bunch of baskets and towels on the floor):
And here’s our den’s see-ya-later pile (cry not for the board games, they were doubles so we still have a copy of each one):
Our garage to-go pile:
Our basement done-zo pile:
And our big bedroom buh-bye pile (minus the baby and the dog of course- they stay):
And now for the full list of purged items:
- 11 pairs of shoes (10 of mine, one of John’s)
- 36 books (10 of which were cookbooks)
- 10 video tapes & DVDS
- 1 alarm clock
- 1 computer mouse
- countless padded envelopes & mailing tubes (from the days of our online print shop)
- 6 board games (some of which we had two identical versions, so we got rid of one)
- 2 yoga mats
- 1 radio
- 1 stocking
- 2 faux pumpkins
- 1 lamp
- 4 pillows
- 1 mirror
- 5 frames
- 54 items of clothing (including coats, hats, ties, tees, jeans, shirts, socks, etc)
- 4 plastic plates
- 6 ceramic plates
- 1 power screwdriver
- 4 outdoor chairs
- 2 welcome mats
- 1 rug
- 2 baskets of faux plants (they lived in the not-sunny-enough-for-real-plants basement)
- 1 floor lamp
- 4 plant pots
- 6 garden hooks
- 1 stencil
- 1 frisbee
- 4 old quarts of paint
- 2 buckets
- 2 metal tins (we came up with a new diaper & wipe disposal system- more details soon)
- 1 sprinkler
- 1 trash can
- 1 fabric basket
- 1 dark wicker basket
- 5 bath towels
- 1 nursing cover
- 8 baby toys & feeding supplies
- 4 glass cups
- 3 vases
- 4 pieces of faux fruit
- 8 wine glasses
- 8 mugs
- GRAND TOTAL: 222 items
Saweeeeeeeet. I mean on one hand it’s kind of embarrassing to admit that we were storing all that excess but boy does it feel good to get rid of it. Yup, that’s right. It’s all out of our house already – thanks to donating and selling every last item (we had an impromptu moving sale this weekend while we still had some steam and that no mercy attitude). We feared if things sat around for a while before we had a chance to donate or sell them we might have changed our minds and kept things that we didn’t need. And you know I have the patience of a 5 year old, right? More of those get-it-gone details coming soon.
What have you guys been purging? Have you identified any problem areas? We definitely held onto lots of books and clothes that we had no need for, but we were also surprised how many unnecessary kitchen items we were hoarding (many of which we had used exactly zero times).
Closer To Godliness?
If it’s true that cleanliness is next to Godliness, then selling our house is practically turning us into saints. Not that we weren’t teetering on clean freak status before, but I’ve always considered myself more tidy than clean (i.e. clutter’s a no-no, but the tub can go unscrubbed a little longer than I’d like to admit to my mom). But now that we’ve got strangers touring the place it has kicked us into cleaning hyper drive – which I should note is much needed considering that having a newborn all but halted it for a good while this summer.
Yes, that’s me breaking out the ladder to give a good wash to the outside of our sunroom sliders. Goodbye grime, hello sold house! Okay, maybe I’m getting ahead of myself, but here’s hoping my ladder hopping efforts don’t go unnoticed.
I’ll spare you photos of our other cleaning adventures (polishing all of the stainless steel fixtures, wiping down all of the kitchen cabinets, vacuuming, vacuuming, and more vacuuming…) and instead will subject you to photos of some of the curb appeal-ization that’s been going down ’round here. For example, got mulch?
It took me three separate trips to Lowe’s to get enough of it to spruce up our plant beds (I don’t normally go for the artificial color-boosted mulch, but it was on sale for the same price as the regular stuff and I figured this was one instance where “long lasting color” could do me some good). At least by the end of the day we had a crisper looking yard staring back at us.
Speaking of the yard, I’ve also been in the process of re-growing grass in some spots that the hot weather killed this summer. It’s been going surprisingly well – especially considering that our county is on emergency water restriction due to a long sweltering summer. Now I’m just crossing my fingers that mowing over it as much as I’ve had to (to keep that “maintained yard” look that buyers like) doesn’t harm those wee sprouts too much. Note: we just seeded and waited for rain- no sprinkler or fertilizer usage was required. Thankfully we’ve had our fair share of showers in the past three weeks and we’ve learned that grass really wants to grow in bare dirt. So rain plus grass seed usually equals luck.
And when I’m not mowing, I can usually be found blowing the driveway clear of acorns. We’re in the middle of our annual bombardment, courtesy of the oak trees surrounding our house, so our driveway gets littered with ‘em quite quickly. Just check out the collection I’m working on at the driveway’s back corner where everything gets blown. Methinks the squirrels should hoist me over their shoulders and sing “For He’s A Jolly Good Fellow” for this service to them:
As much as keeping the house in ready-for-a-showing shape is exhausting, we have to admit that it is nice to live in an über-tidy house almost 24/7. And we’ve got our fingers crossed that the extra effort will pay off soon when it comes to wooing a buyer. Ok, off to remake the bed…
