Waste Not, Want Not

I hate food waste.

I find it so upsetting to throw away food that’s been forgotten about or left a little too long at the back of the fridge. I always think about how it was produced, veggies I compost and I think about the waste of money but at least the nutrient go back into my garden. But throwing out animal products just seems so disrespectful, it makes me feel irresponsible.

We’re not too bad at this thankfully but occasionally life gets a little too busy and then there’s chaos. I also needed an excuse to use my label maker to be honest! So a fridge clean out was in order this week.

Basically I went through all the food and there wasn’t much to throw out, mostly just reorganise. I added another basket to the top row and labelled them, dairy in the left basket and coffee in the right (that’s right, the basket bursting with packets is all full of coffee – I may be verging on the edge of addition).

I also labelled the drawers at the bottom, veg this week and veg last week, we get a weekly veggie delivery and this way I can use up anything remaining from last week first. The veg are picked from an organic farm really close to our house, the day before they are delivered so they stay fresh for a long time.

There are some smaller labels on the other shelves spreads, leftovers and meat,hopefully now there’s a system in place, even when life gets a bit chaotic, we’ll be able to keep in control of it.

{Linking up to Organising Junkie}

A Little Bit Here, A Little Bit There

A little bit here, a little bit there, well it’s better than neither here not there – right?

I’ve been sorting and clearing and cleaning but I’ve also been travelling to the USA and working and installing a dishwasher and well, sleeping. That’s my main excuse for being missing in action for a couple of weeks but I’ve got some proof that I’m still making progress…

1. My Under the Sink cupboard, I emptied the whole thing and cleared through, this was an urgent task because very soon the right hand cupboard will contain a dishwasher ( I can….not…wait). Don’t ask what’s going to happen to the stuff that’s in the right hand cupboard at the moment, that’s another stage! But I’m thinking maybe one of those adjustable under sink shelves for the left and moving the cat food to another location.

2. My crockery and glass cupboard – we have very little storage space, so this is where all our plates, bowls and glass go as well as the slow cooker, I love the little white extra shelf things from Ikea, they have really helped me sort this area

    

3. My corner cupboards – when was this ever a good design? These two cupboard take up a huge amount of storage space in our house and I can’t work out a way to use them efficiently.

We have two of them, they go along to the side about 4 times the width of the door, I’ve currently got baskets so I can lift stuff out easily but please let me know if you have any ideas for a better solution. Still this is an improvement in itself.

    

Can you help me with my corner cupboards?

{For more organisation head over to Organizing Junkie}

Time to Organise

I have a confession to make, I’m obsessed with organisation, I trawl through organisation blogs, images of jewellery all neatly laid out, open kitchen cupboards organised with labels, a laundry room. I keep inspiration files, I make lists, I plan.

In reality my house is a complete and utter disaster, I’ve done that last minute panic before people arrive, shove everything is the cupboard and shut the door (hope it doesn’t burst open), under the bed, behind the sofa. I’m there telling people of course you can come over, saying to my family the house doesn’t have to be perfect the people are what matters but there’s always that panic 30minutes before people arrive.

It’s time to put some of that research into practice though, I’ve been following along with Laura’s Organising Junkie 52 Weeks Challenge feeling inspired, thinking I could do that, but they’re almost half way through and I’m only just getting myself in gear! So from now on I’m going to actively participate, I need to be accountable.

Step one was a simple one, one of my drawers which contained a whole load of junk, soon to be my jewellery drawer. There are pictures on line, cute vintage, bowls and dishes with earrings, necklaces, bangles. These inspire me, they make me think, I could do that – although not quite so cute.

So here is my attempt, after much clearing out and using some dishes or tubs that I had, it’s much better than it was before and I can find what I’m looking for. There’s probably more clearing out that could be done but it’s already a significant improvement.

It’s amazing how making one small change can make you feel like you’re actually making progress, even though there’s chaos surrounding this drawer, when I open it I know getting my act together is possible!

{For more organisation head over to Organizing Junkie}