Author Archives: Jean

January Cure 2016- The big office project Day 1

11 Monday Jan 2016

Posted by in Home and other Repairs, January Cure 2016, Uncategorized

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covermeimgoininOnce again, going in!

Officebefore1This is how much room I have to get my wheelchair and myself in the office right now.

Officebefore2The full and brutal reality.

 No, I’m really not a hoarder. Really. I have been selling stuff at the local swap meet and I’m always in need of boxes and packing materials. The office is crammed full of stuff to sell and boxes to cart things to and from, plus boxes to pack and mail things I sell on eBay. I’ve made a commitment that if something doesn’t sell on eBay or at the swap meet within 4 weekends, it heads off the property to a donation bin. I’d rather sell fresh organic veggies and my own crafts there.

First order of business is to consolidate empty boxes and packing materials and remove them to the garage. It is time for the swap meet items in the garage to leave for the donation bin this week. The swap/eBay items in the office, and those in my “Out Box” will go in the garage to take their place for the next 4 weeks.

 officeafter1hourHow it looks after just one hour!

So, I took a break to enjoy cooking in my nice neat kitchen and made a pot of Zuppa Toscana to sustain me through the week. I have a large crop of kale going in my garden so I didn’t have to buy anything. I LOVE THAT!

zuppaYUM

I took the afternoon off to enjoy my zuppa and have a nap. Went back into the office this evening for an hour while listening to Galavant 😀

officeafter2ndhourAfter the second 1 hour cleaning stint

So, after a mere two hours today, one hour this morning and one hour this evening, the boxes, packing materials, miscellaneous craft supplies and outbox things are sorted and half the room is purged of junk so that I can decide what shelf unit stays and which ones must go.

Proof that a helluva lot can be accomplished in 120 minutes split up throughout the day in a wheelchair dodging helpful dachshunds.

Tomorrow I will sort the old desk and decide what to do with my husband’s computers and printer. I need to get the files and fun stuff, his writings and photos, off and then see about having them cleaned and refurbished for use. I’m not really sure how to do that so I’ll have to make some calls and ask a lot of people. If any of you have ideas about that, please please let me know.

January Cure 2016 assignment 6- A Realistic Kitchen Refresh

09 Saturday Jan 2016

Posted by in Home and other Repairs, January Cure 2016, Uncategorized

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Did any of you seasoned Cure folk notice how Janel is taking it easy on the Cure newbies this year? I cry foul (last weekend it would have been fowl). Not really, but for you newbies, let me just tell you that you got off LIGHT this year. Last year there was none of this innie or outie stuff. It was THE KITCHEN. All of it. Inside, outside, upside downside. If there’d been barges and bales involved, Janel would have had us lifting and toting them. But we adore her… at the end of each assignment and after a glass of whatever alcoholic beverage floats our pirogue (it’s a boat). Does that make what we all accomplished last year “Unrealistic”? I ponder these things after sniffing Murphy’s Oil Soap all morning.

Thankfully, I did such a grand job of tackling the unrealistic whole-istic kitchen assignment last year, that I actually didn’t need to cure any cabinet insides so I was able to just concentrate on the outsides. The kitchen assignment last year also made my choice of cleaning the outsides easier. I had added a narrow table in my laundry closet last January to hold my small kitchen appliances so my counters only had some recent clutter. I spent the morning cleaning cabinet doors and frames, clearing the clutter, wiping and polishing the appliances and counters and I was done baby. This was not the 3 day, sun up to past 10 at night, marathon purge, clean and polish of last year. Half. A. Day. Done.

Now I have to peek in the office to start my big project. Oh, it’s bad. It’s really really bad. I’ll take pictures. Tomorrow. For now I’m going to enjoy my sparkling kitchen. And a wine cooler.

kitchen3

kitchen1

kitchen2

kitchen4

January Cure 2016- Assignment 5: Clear and Organize any Drawer

07 Thursday Jan 2016

Posted by in Home and other Repairs, January Cure, January Cure 2016, Uncategorized

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Well boy howdy did this simple project snowball out of control quickly. I knew exactly which drawer I wanted to clear out and organize. It’s a kitchen drawer where I have stashed take out condiments for a decade. Yes, I did that. All those little katsups, mustards, honey, soy sauce, red pepper flakes, parmesan, etc., were safely stashed in a drawer for camp outs, picnics, and bag lunches. I haven’t gotten to that drawer yet.

Remember the Pantry Purge? I only thought I was done with that. As I removed, cleaned, pitched and put things back in an orderly fashion, I was drying to figure out how I could best organize the dry goods for baking. One of my hobbies is cake decorating. I bought some supplies and a friend gave me a ton of decorating equipment. I had so much decorating stuff by the end of a year, that it required it’s own cabinet. That cabinet had never been purged and hadn’t been organized in several years. It was a WRECK. That’s when I realized I had a second “pantry” that needed to be purged. Just when I thought I was done…

purgedpantryfullview

Full view of my nice neat main pantry after the purge. The reason it’s so neat is because all my baking stuff is NOT in there.

That project took 3 hours, during which, I realized I had a drawer full of decorating items, right next to the drawer with the condiments. The drawer with the condiments did not win that duel. I pitched 80% of the silly stuff I stuck in the decorating drawer that I thought might be useful in making cake decorations and hadn’t been. What was left, I sorted into tins and put with the newly purged and cleaned baking pantry.

I’m going to take a nap now thanks. This evening I will empty the condiment drawer. I will start a fresh condiment baggie next time we get pizza, burgers, chicken or chinese and keep it in the main pantry where we can easily find it now. I will have two completely empty drawers to make my kitchen utensil collection much more manageable!

bakingpantry

Baking pantry. Yes, that’s as organized as it can be until I make a lot of rice krispy treats, a batch of marshmallow fondant and about 10 cakes. Everything is easy to find in there though so that’s what counts!

emptydrawer

I haven’t had an empty drawer in this house in 10 years! I’ll have another one just like it this evening. Won’t last long because these two empty drawers will be the “cure” for my over crowded utensil drawer.

January Cure 2016- Pantry Purge

05 Tuesday Jan 2016

Posted by in Home and other Repairs, January Cure 2016, Uncategorized

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covermeimgoinin

It’s the day of the Great Pantry Purge. Cover me. I’m goin’ in.

In January last year when I did the pantry purge, I tossed all the decades old canned goods so I didn’t have any interesting ancient food finds this year. I did, however, unearth the stockpile of strawberry energy drink mixes that we couldn’t get the water delivery service to stop bringing.  I’m moving them where John can see them because at the end of a box he always asks “Do we have any more of these?” HA! Silly young man. We have, after a year mind you, worked our way down to seven boxes (30 packets in each box).

pantrybefore

Pantry before. No wonder I don’t use canned goods. I can’t SEE them.

The producers at Chopped are hereby invited over to get ideas for how to make their contestants miserable all season long. Visualize a basket with refried beans, taco shells, canned corn and WATER CHESTNUTS. I’m not sure why I have water chestnuts. Hell, I’m not sure why I have 6 cans of refried beans. I haven’t eaten refried beans since before William passed away. There was one lonely can of peaches which I probably kept for sentimental reasons since they were his go-to comfort food when chemo left him without an appetite.

For the love of God please no one allow me to buy any more evaporated milk this summer when the birthdays arrive and I need to cook german chocolate cake icing. I have eight cans! I’m also good on cake mixes (10 boxes) and powdered sugar for frosting (five 2 lb bags). Time to roast some pecans, make some dark chocolate and pecan bark and probably one of those cake mixes with caramel and roasted pecan frosting. Yeah, it’s going to be a while before I permit myself to pick up any more dry or canned foods.

Oh, and I love this. I have cans upon cans of cream of chicken soup. Probably gotten repeatedly for some casserole or another that I thought called for cream of chicken but which actually called for cream of mushroom. I only have 4 cans of cream of mushroom.

Food so special you don’t want to eat it just yet should have it’s own shelf. I have 4 boxes of beignet mix and 12 cans of my favorite New Orleans Style red beans. A friend of mine shipped them to me because we can’t get them out here in the land of salt, pepper, jalopeno and refried beans. I didn’t want to go through them too fast, so I’ve hardly gone through them at all. Guess what lunch is today. On John’s next day off I’m going to have him make beignets. Lots and lots of beignets

I decided to stick my baking mixes, flour, sugars and such in my cake decorating cabinet which means I now have to clear that out too. But it will leave room on the shelf for all that cream of chicken soup.

pantryafter

Pantry after purge. No one is going to want to be my friend for 6 months

with all those beans to eat.

January Cure 2016 Assignment 2- Make a Project List and Chicken

04 Monday Jan 2016

Posted by in General Farm Stuff, Home and other Repairs, January Cure 2016, Uncategorized

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No, I’m not going to make a chicken dinner from Her Royal Fowlness. I am thrilled to report that the chicken has left the building! After 3 days in the guest bathroom getting warm tub soaks, eating oatmeal, enjoying celery leaves, having bowls of chicken food and water all to herself and a warm cozy bed of fresh hay thrice daily, she had still not produced an egg. She was happy, she was perky at both ends and was deemed healthy enough to go back to the rest of the flock. I have no idea what was wrong with her. Maybe she just wanted a spa weekend. I do not know whether to be more disturbed by the fact that my finger had been applying Vasoline and Perparation H to a chicken’s egg plumbing or the fact that my finger had been applying said goo to a chicken’s egg plumbing for apparently no reason.

Today’s assignment was to go room to room and make a list of 3 to 5 items in each room that need cleaning, repair, de-cluttering and/or re-organizing. I’m happy to say that last year’s Cure really worked well in most places. As a result, there are only a few spots that need major work. My bedroom is still working well, as are my linen closet, cabinets, laundry room (yay! that was the biggie last year) and kitchen. A little de-cluttering will do in most spots. Mainly what I’m dealing with this year is stuff I need to take to Goodwill and too much furniture I don’t need, where I least need it, and not the right kind of furniture where I do need it. We have power tools, we can deal with this.

My Project List

Master Bedroom

de-clutter nightstands
sort clothes for donating
fold and put away lump of laundry on bed
declutter master bath counter

Kitchen

declutter buffet
organize baking cabinet
clean window sill
clean pot shelf

Dining area

stow Mom’s china
empty 2nd china cabinet
sell or donate china cabinets

Den area

Clean window sill
dust books
organize shelving for CDs, DvDs and games
dust
Sell or donate piano

Office

THE OFFICE
Yes the whole thing lol. That will be my big project as it just needs to be completely emptied of everything. I will keep one shelving unit and we will try to re-purpose wood and shelves for use building a bed and 10 to 15 feet of wall mounted counter space to serve as craft and computer desk. Last year I griped about THE OFFICE while my son and I fought the laundry room into submission. This year THE OFFICE gets it’s due.

Laundry room

Still working great just needs a quick sweep and wipe down

Guest Bath

Now that the freeloading chicken is no longer in residence there, a quick sweep and tidy will do.

(Note: My finger has received hundreds of deep cleanings and sterilizations since Friday so I have removed that from my list although I am still slightly afraid of it.)