Remember when I blogged about my resolutions for the new year? Well, I figured to hold myself accountable, I would check in near the end of each month and let you know how it's going. :) Feel free to check in with me as well and let me know what you did in the comments!
This month, I was really focused organization. The kitchen and pantry were what I concentrated my efforts on in the first two weeks. I'm no expert on deep cleaning homes since this is the first one we have owned, but I'm trying my best to get it organized and cleaned. I scoured a few blogs, pinterest and gave it my best shot.
Here is the list of what we did (and hope to do each January)-
*I meant to take photos for this but was too busy cleaning to care. sorry, even thought I'm sure you wont care.*
Clean out fridge and freezer
-Wipe down everything and toss anything expired
Wipe down all counters and dust ledges
Clean out each drawer in the kitchen
-wipe down drawer, sort out anything broken/no use, make sure everything is clean and washed
Clean microwave
-Boil mix of water/vingear/lemon juice. Wipe down sides and wash plate. Use a rag/water mixture to clean underside. Take off filter, wash and dry.
Sharpen Knives
Clean the oven
Scrub down all baking dishes, pots, pans, appliances.
Dishwasher
-Take out bottom rack, make sure nothing is blocking the drain. Place a cup of vinegar on the top rack and run through cycle on hot. Sprinkle baking soda on bottom and run through another cycle. Scrub down sides.
Pantry
-Reorganize and toss anything expired. Restock.
Wipe down insides of trashcans
Sweep and clean the floors of kitchen and pantry
We still have a few things left to do (like re-caulk around the granite countertops, get a bin for recyclables for the pantry, etc) and a few long term projects like painting and adding a backsplash but I feel pretty good that our kitchen is starting off the year clean and organized.
I've been restocking our cleaning supplies with more green and homemade solutions.
Anyone have any favorites they use for the kitchen?
The second half of the month was spent on organizing the photos we took from this past year (which was a lot), making sure everything is backed up and starting the first 2 months of Logan's baby book. I've made books with Shutterfly and Blurb before but decided to give MyPublisher a try this time around. So far, I like the software and am excited to add to my book each month.
After picking out my favorite... oh 422 photos (no lie) BEFORE adding in my iphone photos and uploading them to the book making software, I got distracted by my external hard drive and mess of CD/DVD backups. I took this past week to go through and re-organize.
Here is what I did.
(Note- I am a freak about photo back-ups. I like to have mine on an external hard drive, on a DVD and then on a photo storing site. I have a Flickr account and also upload my best Logan and Travel photos to my photography website as well. I plan to get a second external to rotate back ups and store in a safety deposit box for an additional back up since I know disasters happen.)
I went through my external hard drive and made sure each folder had working photos in them. Labeled them in order by year and month all the way up to 2012.
I found a bunch of CD's of older photos from college that I am currently going through, checking on photo quality (I did have some corrupt files from my trip to Egypt I already found... sad) and adding them to the hard drive.
Then I'm transferring them to DVD's since they can hold more photos on each.
Sound crazy? It is. I feel silly doing all this but I know I will have piece of mind when I am done. Hopefully then I can stay on top of things so I don't find myself in this mess of photos again down the road. (Wishful thinking I know)
As for my others, I have re-started to track my meals. This time I switched to MyFitnessPal (name is littlepetals- feel free to add me as a friend!) because some of my friends are on there and we can encourage each other along the way. I have been more consistent on going to the gym as well.
One thing I am struggling with is screen time. I am trying to put down my phone more and just be with my family. It's so hard because Logan will be playing and I'll pull it out to look up a recipe for dinner... or take a photo and upload it to Instagram, or text it to family and before I know it 15 minutes have gone by and I'm scrolling through facebook to see whats going on (which is usually nothing). Obviously February will yet again give me another chance to work on this!
I think for February, I am going to hit closets. This one might take most of the month but I would at least like to have an idea of how I want them to be organized and then give myself time to look for baskets and hanging organizers.
The other half, I will continue with the photos organization and next month of the baby book. Pretty sure that will keep me plenty busy for Feb.
Thanks for reading that long mind dump!
Feel free to give any advice or let me know how you are doing with your resolutions!
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