In a quest to declutter and hopefully simplify our home, I wrote a series this past winter called "Tackle That Tough Spot". I decluttered and reorganized our
home office, the
garage/mudroom/pantry, the
foyer closet and the
kids' toys. Aside from our constant struggle with wrangling the toys, these areas have remained organized all of these months later.
I have gotten away from my mission, so I have decided to tackle another area of agitation. Every time I walk into my kitchen, this mess was causing me frustration. And the only person to blame for it was me. I attach everything to the refrigerator with a magnet thinking that I won't forget about it if it is on the fridge. But the fridge eventually looks like this and not much gets noticed. A refrigerator adorned with my kids' artwork can be cute at first, but this had gotten out of hand and much of the artwork was from this past school year.
And the inside was packed with too many condiments, old inedible leftovers, and freezer burned Christmas cookies.
One morning this week, I walked past that refrigerator one too many times. It was time to conquer it and take control.
So with my babe napping and my oldest coloring, I started on a project that took up an afternoon. I eventually enlisted my oldest to help clean.
I removed everything.
And I mean everything.
I scrubbed, sorted, organized and tossed. In the refrigerator, I found lots of old condiments, some from 2008, and leftovers from last week that were not too appealing. In the freezer, I found a few bags of bread ends that nobody will eat, some Christmas cookies, muffins from the winter and bags of half eaten, freezer burned, mixed vegetables that all needed to be tossed.
When my 2 year old woke up from her nap, she let me know in a way that only a 2 year old can (read: tantrum) that Elmo and her letter magnets were staying on the door. My 4 year old also wanted to keep a few of her favorite magnets too.
The side of the fridge will remain our family's command central with a calendar, coupons, invitations and other important information.
I sorted through my kids' art work and moved the pieces that I want to keep to a plastic container where I am storing art work. There is a wall in the play area of our basement where the kids can tape as much artwork as they want to display.
There is so much room on the inside now that leftovers won't get lost, although I can't promise that they won't get ignored. And I'm not buying another condiment until I am positive we don't already have one.
It feels so much better to walk by the fridge now. I feel lighter. My kitchen feels lighter. And now I have to keep it this way. And hopefully, we will waste less food from now on too.
Now that I have taken control of the refrigerator, I am going to find another tough spot to tackle in my quest to declutter, reorganize and simplify our home.
Are you on the road to simplicity? Is there an area in your home that needs tackled? What is it? Let us know in the comments.
Thanks for reading FamilyBalanceSheet.
If you would like to receive FREE updates of FBS through your RSS Feed, please click here to sign up. Or Subscribe by Email.
This post is linked to:
Here is a close up of the flowers.
This fridge came with the house and our house was built in 1969. Who knows how old it is, but I'm thinking that it does not have an energy-star rating, LOL. Not only is the fridge in the basement, but it is in my husband's workshop in the basement, so I honestly forgot about it. We used it in the past as a second fridge for beer, drinks, perishable stock-pile, but we acquired another fridge from my parents that I put in the garage for the same use. That fridge in newer, more efficient and in a more convenient location. We DO use it, otherwise I would not have accepted it. BUT I forgot about this lonely old fridge and it has been running, unused and empty for about a year...OUCH.
