Settling In September Post Series

September 12, 2013 by Jules Leave a Comment

This is the tentative editorial calendar for the Settled In September month long series.

{links will go live on the day each post is published}

September

Week 1: Living room

2^rd           collage wall
3^th           homemade mantel
4th          big Betsy
5^th           big Betsy/end tables/coffee table
6th          organization

Week 2: Eating spaces

Dining room
9^th Layout, art display frame & picture walls

Kitchen
10^th        Organizing Cabinets
11^th        Organizing the Pantry & Shelf Tutorial
12^th        Organizing Fridge
13^th        Mantel {and other décor} {DELAYED bc we haven't finished hanging it 😉 }

Week 3: Laundry room & School Room

Laundry
16^th        Moving and organizing shelves
17^th        Basket shelves
18^th        Cleaning tool hanger and Mudroom/bench {DELAYED bc of craziness}
School Room
19^th        School Corner and Supply Organization {possibly a day late bc of travel}
20^th        Toys and Organization

Week 4: Bedrooms

Jamin’s {and soon to be Ellie's} room
23^rd Dresser/changing table/Shelving {both sets}/Cityscape/brick wall

Girls’ room
24^th Glitter walls/Castle/shelves/letters

Guest room/Office
25th bed makeover/consignment organization/desk/office stuff

Master bedroom
26^th Stripes/quote/lamps/pictures/Painted furniture

Bathrooms
27^th cabinets, tub toys, in shower, towels

Week 5: Garage sale/Consigning

30th FREE Printables from the entire month!

Filed Under: Baking and Cooking, Cleaning, Decorating, Hand-Dandies, Homemaker, Organizing, Projects, Settled In September, The Ones about Post Series, The ones about the Rothacher Home

Organizing the Fridge {Settled In September}

September 12, 2013 by Jules 4 Comments

I hate learning a new refrigerator. You know, learning where the best place is to store things, how to make it functional, where to place shelves {if they are moveable}. This is what I have so far but am still moving things!

Freezer Zones:

Frozen Bread & Cheese
Frozen grease in emptied cans {freeze it so doesn't spill all over the trash}
Frozen Beef {divided into 1 lb bags}
Ice Dispenser that needs to be cleared of any blockage & has to be un-clogged all the time
Frozen Potatoes {hash browns, tots, fries}
Frozen Veggies/Fruit
Frozen {fast} Meals
Frozen Desserts

Refrigerator Zones:

Milk, Juice, & Large Pitchers
Sodas & desserts
Dairy & Breakfast
Leftovers
Fruit & Veggies
Cheese and Meat
Frosting & Tiny Items
Condiments
- Cooking & Salads
- Sandwiches
Salsa & Toppings
Water

Deep Freeze Zones:

Bread/rolls
Meats
Meals/casseroles
Ice Packs
Fruit/Veggies
Pizzas

Organizing in your fridge can be just like any other space in your home. Some times using organizational tools can make it that much more efficient.

I love using the Lazy Susan to store things like yogurt, biscuits, Cinnamon rolls, and other larger containers that seem to stack up and get in the way of accessing other items.
Plastic racks {like I use in my pantry} work good for winter stocking of the deep freeze. It will allow you to stack more items deeper in the freezer. I would recommend only stacking like-items so you don't forget what you've got.
Other tools that work well in fridges and freezers are plastic box-like containers. Ones with handles {like I use in our medicine cabinet} are also great for storing smaller package items like fruit, veggies, cheeses, and meats that seem to stack up.
You do have to be careful not to use containers that would take away from the cooling of items {especially if they are not already cold/frozen}. You always want them to be open-air or slotted so things don't heat up or get blocked from the coolness of the fridge/freezer.

Organizing the fridge/freezer is important for saving money, time, and sanity! If the refrigerator is disorganized, you don't know what you have you will

buy excess leading to things going bad
have a much harder time meal planning & preparing meals
end up with WAY too many leftovers and you have to declare Multiple "leftover day(s)".

For more tips on organizing your fridge or storing leftovers, you can click HERE to read an older post on the topic.

Remember, organization is basically grouping like items. Functional organization is grouping like items & storing them in the most practical place for easy usage.

Happy Kitchen Organizing!

find other post in this series HERE

Filed Under: Baking and Cooking, Cleaning, Homemaker, Organizing, Projects, Settled In September, The Ones about Post Series, The ones about the Rothacher Home

Shelf Tutorial & Pantry Organization {Settled In September}

September 11, 2013 by Jules 3 Comments

I love having a pantry! A place designated for something. And of all things- FoOd!

I've been blessed with a pantry in all our houses {even the 1200 sq ft one}. This is the smallest pantry I've ever had but I am not complaining. When we moved in, the pantry had great thick wire shelving. It was installed so even, level, and secure. The only downer? I use canned food. Lots of them! That, and stuff kept falling through the slats.

These poor shelves were buckling under the weight of my "can shelf". So, my sweet hubs did yet another perk project for me; I mean really, this wasn't necessary but I love how it turned out.

Taking the old shelves down was possibly the hardest part of the task. They were anchored into the wall in at least 3 places.

After removing the shelves {which will be used in the kids closets 😉 }, Matt measured how long and wide the old shelves were and then added a couple inches to the depth so I would have just a lil more space in this closet.

He used a saw and cut plywood the rectangle size of the 4 shelves and 1 bys for the braces he would use to anchor the shelves to the wall.

Thankfully, we had all these awesome tools at our house BORROWED from friends.

After painting each piece, Matt anchored the small boards on both sides and then used a nail gun to secure the shelves to the braces.

There ya go! Sturdy wooden pantry shelves!

As for our simple pantry organization:

find other post in this series HERE

Filed Under: Baking and Cooking, Cleaning, Home Tour, Homemaker, Organizing, Projects, Settled In September, The Ones about Post Series, The ones about the Rothacher Home

Eating Spaces: Organizing Kitchen Cabinets {Settled In September}

September 10, 2013 by Jules 2 Comments

Today, I wanna show you around our kitchen. This was possibly The first room we had set up and organized. The kitchen is most often the center of the home. It keeps the family fed, energized, and running. Its also the forerunner in hospitality. Wither that's serving a simple drink, a snack, a full fledged meal, or simple conversation over clean-up- the kitchen, although overlooked in the organizational department, can function with so much more ease if de-cluttered and organized.

Here is a simple layout of our kitchen. Its not huge but its definitely not tiny. I love the basic layout and it has plenty of storage for everything we could possibly need. I've labeled all the cabinets and drawers and then I'll have pictures of the insides of each of those below. This layout is so you can visualize where each cabinet/drawer is in relation to the staples of the kitchen: sink/dishwasher, oven/microwave, and refrigerator. I've also tried to give you an idea of where things are located in relation to other rooms so you can understand my logic in its placement.

Starting on the top row of cabinets, working left to right:

Medicine Cabinet {click for this image withOut labels}

Glassware Cabinet

Serving Dishes Cabinet

Storage Container Cabinet {click here for this image withOut labels}

Baking Cabinet {click here for this image withOut labels}

Cookbook Cabinet {click for this image withOut labels}

Plastic Serving Dishes Cabinet

Starting with the drawers from left to right:

Silverware & Empty for Baby Items Drawers{click here for this image withOut labels}

Cleaning Towel Drawer

Hand Towel Drawer

Knife & Often Used Utensil Drawer {click here this image withOut labeles}

Less Used Utensils

Starting with the lower cabeinets, working left to right and ending with the bottom 2 {of 3} drawers between the oven and fridge

Plates, Bowls, and Cups Cabinet {click here for this image withOut labels}

Pitcher Cabinet

Cleaning Supplies Cabinet

Paper Goods Cabinet {click here for this image withOut labels}

Pan Cabinet {click here for this image withOut labels}

{Frying} Pans and Lids Drawer

Pots Drawer

Moving to the other side of the kitchen past the laundry door and pantry is the "buffet".

Starting with the drawers, left to right:

Baking Tools Drawers {click here for this image withOut labels}

Random Drawers

Starting with the lower cabinets, left to right:

Snack Cabinet

My "Monica's Closet" Cabinet {click here for this terribly nasty image withOut the labeled excuses}

That's our kitchen...I didn't give much description of these images but I'd love to answer any questions you have about them. I didn't want to bore those who just wanted to see. Thanks for coming by!

find other post in this series HERE

Filed Under: Baking and Cooking, Cleaning, Decorating, Home Tour, Homemaker, Organizing, Projects, Settled In September, The Ones about Post Series, The ones about the Rothacher Home

Eating Spaces: Dining Room {Settled In September}

September 9, 2013 by Jules Leave a Comment

When asking you guys, "

Post by as Jules is going.

The main response was anything to do with food {click 'comments' to read the insightful conversation} and that's one of the reasons I'm excited to move into the "eating spaces" this week!

Before our ‘borrowed house’, I’d never had a dining room that wasn’t actually a separate room. I was unsure who to set it up to begin with. It almost felt like any way I did the table, it was in the way of something.

Our new home sorta has a separate dining space. It goes from carpet in the living room to tile and the high ceilings drop giving it the appearance of a separate room even though its just wide open {no door way}. I like the feeling of openness it gives, flowing from the kitchen into the living room. I can see every easily from one room to the next making mothering as well as entertaining much easier.

When we moved in, we just brought the necessities. I actually brought in an outdoor table the women had left and served diner to guest on it with lawn chairs one night. When our friends helped us move in, I was still unsure of how best to use this space and the tile patterned lent to set it up either way. I liked the idea of running it long ways as soon as you came in but then that left a big unusable space between the table and bar area of the kitchen.

I am very thankful for a friend with similar taste who suggested I put the table at an angle. I love when things aren’t all straight and boxy! Why hadn’t I thought of that? Lol So, our table is set up ‘sideways’ in the corner of the dining room filling the space well and giving an easy and spacious walk way in the bypass between rooms.

This is what I’ve come up with right now for decorations. I had all of these matching frames in a single line around our dining room in our old house and decided to keep them in our new dining room but I didn’t want to use them in the same way. After playing with them on the dining table, I picked a layout I liked and used the same technic for hanging them as I did for our “collage wall” in the living room.

After adjusting a couple nails because my measurements were off because of my impatience, we got them all up there! I also decided to use the giant red frame {we already had} in here rather than the living room and opted to wait on the clock wall I was hoping to do.

How to Make an Art Display Frame {Settled In September Series} Currently I hooked fishing wire across the back of this frame and anchored with tacks to hold the kids art work that was piling up on the fridge after just a few days of school.

Later, I’d like to get a big print for it. I’ve heard about huge black and white prints {engineer prints} you can get from places like office depot for just a few dollars. That may be my route!

Well, that’s our dining room! Wanna come over for dinner?!?

Where did you get....

Table & {dirty LOL} chairs- JC Penny's ~5 years ago {not a set}
Bench- homemade by my grandparents
Wooden High Chair with plastic tray- Graco from Baby's R Us 5+ years ago
Blue Boaster Seat {we actually have 2}- church giveaway & Goodwill
Red Frames- wooden set from the Goodwill & then spray painted
Black Frames- Wal-Mart umpteen years ago
Red Polka Dotted Frame- Rothacher Special
Giant Red Frame- local Flea Market & then painted {SPRAY}