Get Organized Pittsburgh

Leslie was featured on Pittsburgh Today Live on Monday January 2nd where she discussed getting organized in the new year. She shared tips for what to do with unused decorations and how to keep the ones you use organized for next year. Find tips on what to do with older electronics that have been replaced over the holidays.

Did you miss Leslie’s feature on Monday, December 5th on Pittsburgh Today Live? Well you can now watch it here.

Leslie discusses over-shopping and suggests ways to identify why you over-shop and how to control it.

Congratulations you have made it to our last segment of our holiday prep plan! The last step is to take a look at your dinning room and all of the special things that make a beautifully set table.

We can begin with the china closet. First, if you have several sets what do you really love and use? Are there legacy pieces that have been passed down to you that you DON’T love but you keep because you feel it is a way to respect the person that gave them to you? Are there items that you are not using you are holding on to them for your children? If you can let go, do it! But if you don’t like them, it is likely your kids wont like them either. Think about the items you use often and put the items you are saving for your kids in a less active place!

China is usually best sold on eBay. It is fairly easy to ship and more importantly it has great identifying marks that make it easy to buy. Many people have guilt about selling something that was given to them by a loved one. I try to get them over that hurdle by suggesting they would be giving it to someone who can use and love it. Listing it on eBay is a great way to feel like you are respecting the item. The proceeds from the sale can then be donated in the name of loved ones to their favorite charity. If you need help with eBay, contact Joan Sakai, eBay Trading Assistant at joansakai@hotmail.com or call her at 412-771-9593 http://myworld.ebay.com/2000joni/

How about those linens? Which ones are your favorites? What about that one with the stains from Uncle Moe knocking over the wine glass that one Thanksgiving? Keep the ones that you really love. Make sure they are not stained and if they have napkins make sure there are enough. I mark the edge of mine with little dots that tell me the size. Zero dots means zero table leaves, one dot is one leaf, two dots is two leaves and three dots is three leaves. If your dining room storage is limited you can also hang up the larger linens and keep the smaller more frequently used linens in the drawer.

Remember that keeping an item does not show love to a person and when it comes right down to it you will never set a table with your second or third best linens!

It is one thing to organize the pantry, and cabinets and to keep the sink and counters clean, it is another to be organized about shopping and meal prep. These things go hand in hand because knowing what you have will help you get on track to making something with it! I read that most home makers have about 21 recipes that they draw on for the majority of what they prepare in the kitchen. A great first step is to write down your 21. I wrote mine on index cards and I actually asked my family members what meals they liked the most. This was actually really surprising and nice to hear. On Sunday nights I try to pull those out and shuffle through to get inspired and produce a shopping list from there. I have found that if I at least know the protein we will be having for 5 evenings out of 7 I actually seem to be able to put the rest together more easily. I also try to look at the week ahead and match the easy meals to the busy days.

As for cookbooks. I personally have one small shelf for them in my kitchen. I keep this lean and mean because too many choices creates stress. There are tons of ways to get recipes so why use valuable space with cookbook when magazines can generate new ideas to keep things fresh. Magazines have a 6 month expiration date in my house and i scan or clip what i want from there. The internet is my biggest friend in the kitchen now. I just google the ingredients I have on hand and I instantly have a recipe to try. If I like it I save it in my recipe file on my computer. Searching through there is easier than paging through books for me.

I also get help. One day while we were having a discussion about family chores I mentioned that shopping and cooking were a few of the many things that occupy my time. My kids commented that they could cook one day a week if I took over a dish night for them. That became a Wednesday night routine for years. It gave them a new respect for cooking, they learned a few simple dishes and when I helped or took their cooking night I got a great big “thank you” for my effort. (TIP: I tried to never complain about what is served and it was fun to have them self critique because ultimately they had to eat what they prepared and after lots of taco nights they tried some new things.)

Need help storing those loose recipes you’ve collected from your favorite magazines?

We suggest, if you are looking for a way to contain your loose recipes we have found the Recipe Relish to be a fantastic product that offers way more function than a office store binder. Head to their site to learn more about the Recipe Relish and how it might help you to keep your recipes in order.

Here’s to knowing what is for dinner!

Leslie

We have organized the cabinets in the kitchen and under the sink so in keeping with our holiday preparation posts let’s tackle the kitchen pantry next.

TASKS: KITCHEN PANTRY

-Go on a scavenger hunt and remove all expired food and items you just don’t use. If you are uncertain, ask yourself if you will eat it in the next two weeks. If the answer is yes, write it down and make a plan to use it. If the answer is no, consider getting rid of it.

-How far did you have to search to find your food? Unless your kitchen is very small, food outside of the kitchen is usually neglected and takes up valuable space. Try to keep your food where it will be used – inside of the kitchen.

-Get real about what you are actually using. Give up on he liver pâté or death defying hot sauce that came in a gift basket years ago. It is okay to let those items go and use what you love and know.

NEW WAY TO THINK

Now that you have gotten rid of the food that expired before the invention of Google, you can enjoy a sigh of relief knowing that you have just made health a priority for you and your family. Further commit by jotting down ways to use the odd ingredients you said you would use in the next two weeks. Still have a lot of good food? It might be time to have an eat down! Often we wait for special occasions to use things. See how much space you can create by making today special! Try to make your next few shopping trips consist of only perishables. Get creative and have fun. Let the family know what you are trying to do and get their ideas! Are there categories that you tend to over-buy, like packaged snacks that come in handy on crazy mornings? Take a minute to really decide what is enough in those categories. Perhaps re-purpose those as snacks that you can bring to soccer practice for the whole team to enjoy.

Take some time to connect to what kind of cook you want to be. Does that picture include farmers’ markets, fresh produce, less processed, less packaged, healthy dinners shared with your family? Interestingly, the pantry in that picture will keep itself organized as you simply replace old and bad items with more fresh items.

The only thing in your way is making this transition a priority. Having a pantry that reflects what you value is a great start.

Since our last task was in the kitchen let’s take a closer look at the rest of the kitchen storage areas. The good news is these cabinets make sense. The cabinets by the stove are usually the right size for pots and pans, the glasses usually fit above in a cabinet near the sink, and silverware easily fits in the drawer. It is like a blue print for how to organize the space. Your job is so much easier if you just follow that blueprint and try to only keep what fits.

TASKS: KITCHEN CABINET

1. Create zones for glassware, regular dishes, pots and pans, bake ware and finally serving pieces by deciding what cabinets are best suited for each zone. This will depend on their location in the kitchen. Decide what each cabinet is going to be and what you would like to fit into it. Remember the heavier things work best in lower or corner cabinets if they are big enough and glasses should be near the sink. Also consider how you like to load and unload the dishwasher when making these decisions too.
2. Choose a zone and within it look for sets and try to downsize the “orphans and strays”, taking it all out, wiping it down and replacing only what you love the most and what fits.
3. Move methodically through the rest of the cabinets and drawers.
4. Make the dishes fit in one cabinet, keep only the pots and pans that fit in their cabinet. If you find you have a full set of pots but only use 3 or 4? Listen to that. That one tricky platter or corn pot that gets in the way? Set it aside and come back to it in the end when you can fit it in where there is space.
5. Serving ware can be hard because they are usually odd shapes and cabinets are often not deep enough for them. Special occasion silverware can also be bulky and has the tendency to take over the silverware drawer. Keep storage in mind when purchasing too, do you have a place to put it? Are these items more trouble than they are worth or do they bring down the functionality of the kitchen?
6. The platter that your grandmother used might have to be stored out of the kitchen. Minimize in the kitchen by storing stuff elsewhere but don’t do too much of this and try to keep it to one area outside of the kitchen. Like a space in the pantry or on a specific shelf in the basement.
7. Are your cabinets overflowing? Rethink it, do I need a dozen? Probably not. back ups like extra settings end up overwhelming spaces that are designed to work within a reasonable range.
8. Be hard on the “just in case” and single vs multiple use items. What is your hardest working piece? Keep it! What haven’t you used in over a year? Donate it!
9. Really consider how some items are more trouble than they’re worth. They might be bringing down the functionality of the kitchen. Make a sensible decision about them.
10. A good rule of thumb is to keep ¾ of your counter tops exposed. Simply remove anything that does not have to do with cooking and dining. Start at one end and work your way around the kitchen, making decisions as you go.

A NEW WAY TO THINK

Get in the zone. Typically, kitchens are designed with zones in mind. The only thing in your way from optimally utilizing the design is either too much stuff or too many over sized items. Try to keep over sized serving pieces and specialty cooking equipment in other storage areas. Visualize or sketch out some zones where similar items can go (baking, cooking, serving).

Resist purchasing single function and single use items. Kitchen gadgets will not increase the amount of time you spend cooking. They create clutter and chaos in a kitchen. Instead of buying a gigantic platter, buy a few interesting matching ones that look nice together, give you versatility, and store easily.

When you know what you need and keep what you use fairly consistently, the kitchen becomes an easy space to keep cleaned and organized.

Here’s to creating a kitchen that works!

Does your space under the sink look like this or maybe even worse? Well you are in luck because today we are starting our kitchen organization under the sink. It’s a small space that needs to be functional and chances are, you might need a few things in there while organizing and cleaning the kitchen cabinets which is our next step.

TASKS: Under the Sink

-Take out anything that does not belong there.
-Keep only what you use on a daily or, at most, weekly basis.
-Minimize duplicates and store them another less active area that can be a location for all cleaning supplies. The Laundry room is often a good place.

***BONUS***

Once you have everything neatly placed into the newly reorganized space let’s take a quick look at the actual sink above because it IS the cornerstone of the kitchen. Take time to really clean your kitchen sink. Make it shine and sparkle like new. If you make a point of doing this daily you will automatically keep up with dishes and start building some important habits.  No matter what shape your kitchen is in, the beacon of that shining sink will spread to other areas in your kitchen.

A New Way to Think

Where is your central storage space for cleaners? Is it under the kitchen sink? If it is, take this time to evaluate which cleaners you use and which are collecting dust and taking up space. If you narrow down your options of cleaners, they will be easy to find, use, and replace. If the area beneath the kitchen sink is not your central place, ask yourself which things are necessary to clean the kitchen – sponges, disinfecting wipes, dish soap, etc. Does the toilet cleaner really belong there? Instead of avoiding the avalanche of cleaning supplies, keep what you use. If you’re not overwhelmed by a mess of cleaning tools, you will be more likely to efficiently tidy up the kitchen.

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