Day 18 - a cave fiesta!

My day off! It's always nice to be home - I'm glad to say I got a little relaxing done and a lot of work! As I said yesterday, I wanted to save my cleaning for today. So, after breakfast I dove right in. I decided that since I had cooking plans for the afternoon I needed to reorganize my refrigerator and freezer.

Let's go step by step...

First, I emptied the contents of my refrigerator onto the counter. Yes, at some point I thought to myself "What am I doing?!" But it turned out alright!

Next step? Organize the inside. The shelves are organized by category and the door is organized by how often the items get used. Hopefully it will make things a lot easier to find!

After my fun in the kitchen, I tackled the rest of the house - mainly the living room. I wanted to do a little something different over my mantle, and clean up some stuff that was still kicking around the pellet stove area. I found a little Valentine's Day wall hanging, and put some candle holders and pictures up.

Next - it was time to cook!

I wanted to get a minestrone soup made for me to take to lunch this week. I halved the recipe from last time and after it cooled a bit, separated it out in between 4 plastic containers. Off to a great start!

Next, I made some Fiesta Rice. Since it is Tex-Mex week around here - it's delicious and makes a lot so I can use it throughout the week. I made a chipotle bean burrito filling, and for dinner tonight we had the fiesta rice and the burrito. It was delicious! The bean filling was super easy to make and I found it in my new "Cooking Light" magazine!

To make the burrito filling...

Heat a tablespoon of canola oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium heat.

Add a minced garlic clove and cook for 1 minute.

Add 1/2 teaspoon chipotle chile powder and stir constantly for 30 seconds.

Add 1/3 cup water, 1 (15 oz.) can of drained black beans, and 1 (15 oz.) can of drained kidney beans. Bring to a boil.

Reduce heat and simmer for 10 minutes. Remove from heat. Stir in 3 tablespoons fresh refrigerated salsa. Mash the beans with a fork to desired consistency.

I got fat-free tortillas and made burritos with a little reduced fat cheese, chopped tomato, lettuce and sour cream. It was very easy - and even Dennis commented that it was "a lot of food!"

Back to work tomorrow...

Day 9 - I Hate Wal*Mart

Wal*Mart has advantages.

Of course, the prices are low... you can't beat that. I did my weekly shopping - including some more expensive "grocery" items (laundry detergent, deodorant, face cream, eye makeup remover), and a large plastic storage bin. All this, and I only went over my weekly grocery budget by $8.00 - which I think is pretty impressive.

Another Wal*Mart advantage? They sell everything. Where else can you buy a rotisserie chicken, wiper blades, a bra, tampons and a shotgun all in one place? No where but Wal*Mart.

This being said. I hate that place.

There's never any parking. People always leave their carts hanging out in parking spaces so it's often necessary to get out of your car and move it before you can park. The carts. They suck. They pull, and are hard to push (I know I sound like an old lady - but notice it the next time you go - the carts are really hard to push. You can shove it and it doesn't roll. It just stops.). There are always poorly behaved children in the store. I have to listen to whining, crying, and scolding. In the frozen food aisle some kid kept trying to hand me her dirty tissue. "Here. You take this." My response was "No thank you." and her parents' response was to ignore her - and me. The produce is really bad. I was supposed to get zucchini - but every one in the bin looked like Bunnicula had visited it the night before. They didn't have shredded low-fat cheese so I had to get a block of low-fat cheese with the intention of shredding it myself. No hummus. At the checkout there was a TV at each register playing a stream of commercials. There was no plastic divider - so I had to wait until the woman in front of me was all rung through before I could begin loading my groceries. The lady at the checkout barely said hello, and I had to identify a lot of my veggies. "That's parsley."

All this being said - I did get my storage bin and made terrific use of it once I got home! Christmas is put away around here. The snowmen stuff are still out - I don't usually put them away until mid-March. As much as I love Christmas, it's nice to have my living room back to normal!

The day is ending with some pizza at my brother and sister-in-law's place. I'm bring homemade apple crisp, and we're watching "Knocked Up".

How is your un-decorating going? Do you have any tips on staying organized for the next year?

The Beginning - Day 1

And so it begins.

So nice to meet you. My name is Kate, and I'm unorganized. I want to be, and every year it's my resolution but I always fail. But... this year is going to be different. It's all about the blog, folks. It will keep me honest, and hopefully you can add some comments and/or ideas along the way.

You should be proud! I've spent a good part of my vacation reorganizing the house. The way I see it, I don't stand a chance being organized for a year if I start off with the house a complete disaster!

Let's go room by room, shall we?

The kitchen.

My favorite room in the house. You will notice clean countertops! The wallpaper has been stripped but needs to be prepped, primed and painted.

Look at those organized kitchen cabinets!

This used to be a wall. Now it's a big gaping hole with a lot of potential. My fantastic Father-in-law is helping us build a breakfast bar. We took the whole wall down and built this half wall. At this point we need the granite before we can move on to the next step.

The dining room.

It used to be impossible to keep warm because it was all by itself. This used to be a solid wall. We (along with Duane, my super Father-in-law) made a doorway. The difference in airflow and heat is HUGE!!!

The hutch. It was filled with scrapbooking crap - now it's organized!! Notice the very attractive bucket of joint compound in the corner...


The truth. The pile of tools and shit in the corner of my dining room. I want these to go away.

The living room.

The Christmas tree. (Awww...) This is my favorite place to read - my book is laid out. You will also notice Tommy and Quimby... the sweetest cats you'll ever meet. (Awww again!)

Slightly littered with Christmas stuff. Don't mind the box fan on the chair pointed at the pellet stove... another adventure in home ownership was our pellet stove blower thing making the most God-awful noise you can imagine. (Think fingernails on a blackboard...) so we were forced at 1:00 am (on a school night I might add) to rip the f**ker out. So to heat the house until the pellet man comes we are simply pointing a box fan at the stove and it's blowing hot air around. Classy, huh?


The sunroom.

This is Dennis' favorite place. We bought the house because of this room. All that needs to be done is to paint.


The downstairs bathroom.

On a particularly ambitious day last July, I stripped the wallpaper and took off the mirror. I thought... "Hey, this will be an improvement over the ugly wallpaper, and also easy! Yay me!" Not so much. Apparently we need to unbolt the toilet and sink in order to get at the wallpaper behind it. Ugh.


Another unexpected snag. Those cabinets don't go all the way to the wall. there's a wallpapered space between the cabinets and the wall. My body only fits in the small space if I twist myself at an unatural angle. If you think you can fit, I am willing to exchange a couple bottles of good wine for that wallpaper to disappear. Any takers? I got the vinyl part off and I'm thinking I will just prime/paint over the paper backing still stuck to the wall - does it really matter? It's behind the washer and dryer!

Look at those organized cabinets! Before this picture was taken they were filled with all kids of crap - from cat toys to Ann Taylor shopping bags... you name it. This is much better.

Upstairs is not done yet, I won't take a picture of the mess. :)

Thanks for taking the tour! If all goes according to plan, it should only get better from here!

Time to relax with a beer and book. Cheers, and Happy New Year!