Organizing the Fridge {Settled In September}

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!

ORGANIZING the Refrigerator

Freezer Zones:

Freezer Zones

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

Refrigerator Zones:

Fridge Zones

  1. Milk, Juice, & Large Pitchers
  2. Sodas & desserts
  3. Dairy & Breakfast
  4. Leftovers
  5. Fruit & Veggies
  6. Cheese and Meat
  7. Frosting & Tiny Items
  8. Condiments
    • Cooking & Salads
    • Sandwiches
  9. Salsa & Toppings
  10. Water

Deep Freeze Zones:

Deep Freeze Zones

  1. Bread/rolls
  2. Meats
  3. Meals/casseroles
  4. Ice Packs
  5. Fruit/Veggies
  6. 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.

A weeks worth of leftovers= Leftover Lunch Leftover PlatesRemember, 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

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Shelf Tutorial & Pantry Organization {Settled In September}

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

Empty Kitchen Pantry

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.

Full Pantry Full on the wire shelving

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.

removing the anchors from the pantry walls

After removing the shelves {which will be used in the kids closets šŸ˜‰ }, 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.

Pantry with Shelves Removed

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!

upgrading the pantry with wooden shelving as well as organizing the pantry

As for our simple pantry organization:

Pantry Organization

find other post in this series HERE

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Eating Spaces: Organizing Kitchen Cabinets {Settled In September}

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.

The Rothacher Kitchen labeled

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

Medicine Cabinet Medicine Cabinet Orgaization{click for this image withOut labels}

Glassware Cabinet Glassware and Mug Cabinet

Serving Dishes Cabinet Serving Dishes Cabinet

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

Baking Cabinet Baking Cabinet Organization{click here for this image withOut labels}

Cookbook Cabinet Spice Cabinet Orgaization{click for this image withOut labels}

Plastic Serving Dishes Cabinet Plastice Rarely Used Serving Dishes Cabinet

Starting with the drawers from left to right:

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

Cleaning Towel DrawerCleaning Towels

Hand Towel Drawer Hand Towel Drawer

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

Less Used Utensils Used Less Often Utensils Drawer

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

Back of Plates, Bowls, & Cups Cabinet

Pitcher CabinetPitcher Cabinet

Cleaning Supplies Cabinet Cleaning Cabinet

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

Pan Cabinet Pan Cabinet Organization{click here for this image withOut labels}

Back of Pan Cabinet

{Frying} Pans and Lids Drawer Frying Pans & Lids Drawer

Pots DrawerPots 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 Baking & Rarely Used Items Drawers Organization{click here for this image withOut labels}

Random Drawers Random Drawers

Starting with the lower cabinets, left to right:

Snack Cabinet Snack Cabinet side 1 Snack Cabinet side 2

My "Monica's Closet" Cabinet My Monica's Closet Cabinet Organization Bwahahahaha{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

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Living Room: Organization {Settled In September}

Wednesday, we talked about ā€œBig Betsyā€ and that fun process. One of my favorites thus far by the way.

Today I wanna talk about the seemingly eternal process of organizationā€¦ I love organization but I hate the ā€œit gets worse before it gets betterā€ truth!

Organization Gets Always Gets Worse Before it Gets BetterToday I'm going to share the four general areas of organization in our living room that keep it functional and uncluttered while storing sooooo much!

1. Blankets

  • Throw Blanket StorageAfter getting rid of our giant coffee tables, I was very aware of just how many throws we have. Donā€™t get me wrong, we prefer to keep our house cool year-round and not all of guests are cool with that so itā€™s convenient to have lots of choice for our frigded friends. I chose to get rid of several, store some in the newly emptied guest closet, one on the back of the couch and others folded and stacked under our up-cycled end tables.

2. Movies/Entertainment Center Organizing the Entertainment CenterOrganizing Movies

  • Our awesome entertainment center, the only piece we bought when we got married we havenā€™t gotten rid of, has crazy amounts of storage. The only reason I havenā€™t replaced it. It has these really cool drawer door things that slide out with shelves upon shelves for movies. They are large enough for VHS or DVDs. We have gotten rid of all our VHS but have tons of movies and TV series because we donā€™t have TV in our house.
  • One drawer is full of nothing but grown-up movies organized by rating. The more grown-up rating the higher the shelf. The opposite door it full of our TV series.
  • The 2 bottom drawers are full of kids appropriate movies {which are taking over and may likely needed on of the larger drawers after Christmas this year}. We placed them down low for easy kid access.
  • We removed the top part of the TV console door so we could keep our DVD player open to the remote as well as open to replacing movies easily without having to open and close the glass doors all the time.
  • The glass door storage are just full of more decorative items like picture frames {imagine that} and scrapbooks.

3. Games Game ClosetGame Closet shelf break down

  • This hall linen closet works great for our stockpile of games. Having everyoneā€™s extra bedding in the room it goes with as well as only enough towels that would neatly store under the cabinets in the each bathroom saved us this closet for just such storage.
  • We organized these similar to our moives. The more mature the game the higher the shelf. I also stacked them for easy access otherwise no one would want to play a game much less put it back wehre they go it.
  • Things like cards or card games went into a big ben on the floor. Theres not way those jokers were going to stay on the slotted wire shelving.
  • We also have an upcycled wipe container for ā€œMissing Piecesā€ because, letā€™s be honest, there are always random dice, cards, or figures/paws for random games. When you get that game out next time, youā€™ll know exactly where to look for that missing piece.
  • 4. Craft Supplies Big Betsy Craft Storage & Organization
  • This was the biggest organization undertaking in the living room.
  • "My name is Julie and I am a craft crap hoarder." I know its illogical but you never know when youā€™re going to need 10+ round cardboard pieces from frozen pizzas for makingā€¦something. If it helps any, this was at Least 8 years of collecting that was unorganized so I had no real count on the amount of craftiness I had stocked up- hence the nearly 30 glue sticks. {blush}
  • You can see the pictures above of how I ended up breaking down and sorting our craft tools and supplies.

Organization {basically}: sorting into like things.

I hope you enjoyed today's peak into our living room organization! See ya next week for "eating spaces" {i.e. dinning room and kitchen}!

find other post in this series HERE

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Living Room: Table Redos {Settled In September}

So these are the tables Matt and I have had since we got married back in '04. I like(d) them.

old tables

I did however decide it was time for a change. I sold them thinking I wanted something completely different. I bought this lil table at a flea market & gave it a makeover.

Coffee Table blue & white before after and soldI liked it alright...but what I thought I wanted wasn't gonna work. So I sold it. {have more pics of process if anybody really wants to hear/see about how I did the 2-tone table}.

The things I liked about the old tables:

  1. large- can hold lots of guests' drinks, plates, feet, etc.
  2. height- the end tables were a great height for setting drinks, remotes, and randomness
  3. storage- the 2-tear tables allowed you to have decorative items as well as practical things stored on the table

Things I'm moving away from in the old tables:

  1. uniformity- having bought this living room furniture when I was 19 {yep- married Young}, I feel like I either didn't know what I liked or have changed my taste a lot since then. I've come to find out that I don't like matchy-matchy furniture.
  2. massiveness- I know I said I liked the size BUT the square tables just felt bulky
  3. glass/nice wood- we want to LIVE in our home which for me means having tables that don't make people worry about setting a moist glass on

Here are 2 tables we already had at home. Aren't they awesome?!? My husband inherited them from "the queen of end tables" when he bought his 1st home. Out of the gazillion he had, these 2 have made the cut through 4 moves and NOW are getting yet another facelift.

End Tables Red before and after End Tables Yellow before and afteroh, avoid doing this spray paint in 90+ degree weather...at least I think that's what caused these bubbles that had to be popped with a needle and squashed down. OR maybe it was because I painted this with a satin-esk paint last time and didn't bother to sand the table down 1st... hmmm

Living Room blank slateSorry, not much of a tutorial today. Just my favorite method- SPRAY PAINT! {anybody know where I can get a sponsor for all this paint šŸ˜‰ }

find other post in this series HERE

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