Our massive amount of plastic containers

I dumped out all of our plastic lids and containers on the kitchen table (see above). Then I matched each one. Every base without a lid or lid without a base was tossed. We got rid of so many containers, it was ridiculous!

Top Drawer - Old Plastic Containers (all matching)!

I put all of the older containers in the top drawer and the newer ones in the lower. I like to keep old containers because then I can send people home with leftovers and not worry about getting the containers back. I feel so much better now that there is some semblance of order to my tupperware drawers.

Lower Drawer - New plastic containers!

Have you organized anything yet this year?

I actually spent this New Year’s Day reorganizing/cleaning my pantry. It took 2.5 hours, but it was well worth it.

Food

• Tame your tupperware
• Organize snacks for portion control
• A well stocked and organized pantry
• Cheap and easy grocery coupon holder

Storage

• Cleaning out the closet
• Bins for a better garage
• Kicking shoe mess to the curb
• Revamp a memo board for mail, key and note storage
• Cleaned up laundry nook

Favorite Organizing Resources

• I Heart Organizing
• I’m an Organizing Junkie
• Declutter Calendars from My Simpler Life
• Pinterest (Follow Emily and Megan)

I hope some of these links might be helpful. Happy organizing!

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When I was little, I would daydream about someday getting married and being the perfect wife. I just assumed that being June Cleaver would come naturally. Even in recent years I thought that saying “I do” would somehow magically turn me into a domestic goddess who loves to cook and clean.

After tying the knot, however, I discovered pretty quickly that I’m the one who’s is in this marriage; I showed up with my same personality, flaws and distaste for mopping the floor. My perfect wifely fantasy is nowhere to be seen; a real human is married to another real human, and sometimes we live in a real dump!

Actually trying to be a good wife (instead of just fantasizing about it) started last spring when I read this article about dwelling well and making a house a home (which I found from this article from Focus on the Family) and felt totally convicted. I am a slob. When I work my house becomes a disaster and we hardly eat a real meal. I think about what we don’t have instead of focusing on all that we do have.

Both articles mention the book Shelter for the Spirit by Victoria Moran, and I’ve since read it twice! My hope is that I will want a home that can “nurture” us (therefore requiring it to be clean to serve that purpose).

Having a reason to keep things clean instead of just a “to-do” list has helped. Yet my success on the home front ebbs and flows. Currently, I’m surrounded by heaps of dirty dishes, junk mail and random piles stacked with the pretense of having order. After almost two years of marriage, I’m certain that striving to be a “good wife” will be a continual pursuit in my life.

I will soldier on. I know I can’t do everything, but I can do something. And I will start with the dishes.

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Rebecca lives in Phoenix Arizona with her handy husband Evan and energetic wiener dog Tebow. Rebecca is currently a freelance makeup artist and wardrobe stylist in the greater Phoenix area. She loves refurbishing old furniture, rooting for UF football (Go Gators!), reading nonfiction and being married to Evan. Find more about Rebecca on her blog or contact her through her website.

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We’ve been doing polls for a while now, but realized we left you hanging on the results. So here’s the response so far from last week’s question: Does it (or did it) bother you when people ask when you are going to have babies?

Of 16 votes, the majority said that it did bother them, but the three different reasons why (too personal, it’s all they ever ask, the difficulty factor) each had three voters. Seven voted to say that it didn’t bother them. Didn’t get a chance to vote? The poll is still open!

Here’s what we’ve tried so far:

Chore Wheel

A chore wheel, if you’ve never heard of one, evenly divides up tasks and rotates to each person. The handy circle that has kept college roommates from playing the blame game had apparently had a smooth transition into newlywed life, as it was the winning advice given at one of my girlfriend’s wedding shower.

Result: Not so much in our house. Despite fun colors and promises to use it, it never worked as a guideline. Heck, it was never even turned once!

The Nag-Free System

No one likes a nag, so each person cleans as they see fit. For example, if there are no clean bath towels left, do a load of laundry right away instead of hunting for a beach towel in the back and leaving the chore for someone else.

Result: While everything may be clean, the house is covered with resentment. The idea is that each person would clean what they couldn’t live with, but some people just don’t notice the mess or weren’t giving up their free time to do clean. We each felt that we were doing more than the other, because, as mentioned above, messy is subjective.

Minute Limit System

For a quick clean, spend just 5 minutes in each room to clear clutter, wipe things down and get it back in order. At the end of the time, move items from the cleaned rooms to their correct places. For us, it would mean a clean house in under an hour.

Result: Mixed. I was convinced that spending 5 minutes in a room would work. It didn’t. I needed at least 10 minutes for the bedrooms and bathrooms, and about 20 minutes for the kitchen and living room. At the end, I was exhausted and surrounded by piles of stuff that still needed to be put away when I felt that I should be done. It also didn’t allow for deeper cleaning, like in the shower.

Mix Cleaning with Pleasure

What if cleaning was an enjoyable time? This idea would bring together things you enjoy and doing it while cleaning. Some ideas would be, playing music, talking to a friend on the phone, cleaning on commercial breaks, etc. Another way to spice up cleaning would be in your tools. For my wedding, I registered for some weird stuff – leopard print broom, with hot pink leopard gloves and sponges, etc. I also really enjoy certain cleaners – more on that later in the week.

Result: Mixed. It makes cleaning better, but I would rather just do the fun stuff and skip the cleaning.

Home Lovin’ Chart

This idea came from Apartment Therapy. It spelled out the chores and evenly divided them as a divide and conquer approach over a month’s time. I also thought calling it a “Home Lovin’ Chart” would help us avoid the negative connotations that come with the word “chore” (makes me think of bore and abhor…). That way, it was like we were positively contributing to our investment and wellbeing.

Result: Mixed. We’re still trying to find our groove, but there’s much less resentment going on since it’s evenly divided. We modified the Apartment Therapy chart to account for more rooms and a busier schedule. (A link to the Excel spreadsheet will be on the site later this week.) Honestly, our schedules are so crazy that it’s hard to commit to a set plan like this. Also, the AT chart is for people with much higher expectations. We typically only use half of our house most days, but that would change when we add kids and animals to the mix.

Perhaps a combination of some of these methods would work. We’re still figuring it out. What about you, do you have a system? I’m interested in hearing about it in case it might work better for us.

My hubby and I have a really hard time with getting the dishes done.  We have a dishwasher, and we have no problems running it. Unloading the thing is the big problem for us.  We run it and then forget to unload it and get busy and the next thing you know, dishes are stacked all over the counter. It’s like a bachelor pad sometimes. I was thinking about that this morning as I unloaded the dishwasher.  I kept avoiding it because it would take forever, but you know what, it only took about 4 minutes!  That’s it!  I put a few dirty dishes in and felt much better about the state of our kitchen.  If only I could remember that when I’m in a rush!

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