2015 - HHP - Food Storage Week

[Holiday_Mom]

We are onto Food Storage this week -

http://christmas.organizedhome.com/house-holidays-plan/11-food-storage-week

I will be back later to check in with my goals and catch up on last week.

 

[Holiday_Mom]

I was able to get out and buy some "thinking of you" Christmas gifts for teachers and the service people in our life. Now to wrap them...

I like Cindylouwho's idea of keeping a running list of things to catch up on. I'm going to do the same thing or else it gets forgotten.

Here are my goals for this week:

Household prep -

• Clean out freezer.
• Clean out pantry.
• Clean out refrigerator.

Holiday Prep -

• Inventory freezer.
• Inventory pantry.
• Review holiday recipes and make a list of ingredients.

Still to do -

• Organize recipes.
• Plan Thanksgiving meal and food prep timeline.
• Work on Christmas cards.
• Wrap teachers/others gifts.

Have a great week, everyone!

 

[Cindylouwho]

Yes, I started doing that after too many times of getting to around December 15 and then remembering what I hadn't gotten in Week 3.


So this week the Pantry - I have been contemplating mine for a couple weeks now. DD likes organizing it as one of her household jobs so it stays pretty decent (til there's a Costco run and everything gets dumped in there). However, the top 2 shelves are dedicated to lesser-used pots and pans. I decluttered them a couple years back but f I purged some more I could move up more of the items that live on the floor.

Week 11: Storage Week
Clean out the Pantry
Clean out the baking bin (where I now keep my baking supplies after I re-purposed my baking drawer to a Freezer Cooking Drawer. Wish I had one more big drawer).
Decide on next Freezer Cooking Plan even if don't get to cooking it.
Buy Fall Spices and check garden for status of holiday herbs.
Transfer Christmas app list to Excel so both match up - really liking the Santa's List app.

Catching up:
Gift Closet / Attic -- Top priority in the Catch-Up department.
(And clean out lock-box from last year if I haven't done that yet. I think I did.)
Update calendars & sync iPhones - Finding the instruction notes would be a good start.
Stocking Stuffers - Pick a shopping day for the candy.
Start Christmas Cards -- get one paragraph done.


__________________

 

[happy2bme]

Having a Still To Do list is a great idea, I am going to do that as well.

My tasks for this week:

Household Checklist:
clean fridge
clean freezer - DONE
organize pantry - DONE

Holiday Prep Checklist:
replace spices - DONE
replace baking supplies - DONE
make list of Christmas baking supplies needed - DONE
shop for Christmas baking supplies - DONE

Still To Do:
shop for long sleeve shirts & sweatshirts - DONE
work on Christmas cards - DONE

I got a lot done yesterday. DD and I did all the shopping needed for baking supplies and general items that needed to be restocked. My pantry is really organized and in great shape.

 

[Holiday_Mom]

Mel - You are off to a great start.

Cindylouwho - What's the name of the app you are using? I've got a phone that runs on android so it may not work for me but I thought I'd look into it.


There's no school today so I've got some helpers.

I went through the freezer to see what we have and what we'll be eating in the next week or two. It's organized as good as it will be.

I pulled out the recipe binder and went down memory lane. There were lots of notes from previous Thanksgiving and Christmas meals. I think I need to write up a working list for the Thanksgiving and Christmas for the cleaning/prep work timelines and put it in Google Docs. That would be one less thing each year to rewrite from scratch.

I organized the recipe binder a bit better. Thanksgiving recipes and ingredients are organized. Christmas is not. We tend to alternate the Christmas Eve meal each year. I need to really give that some thought in the next week.

 

[Cindylouwho]

Mel - You are off to a great start.

Cindylouwho - What's the name of the app you are using? .....


I went through the freezer to see what we have and what we'll be eating in the next week or two. It's organized as good as it will be.

I pulled out the recipe binder and went down memory lane. There were lots of notes from previous Thanksgiving and Christmas meals. I think I need to write up a working list for the Thanksgiving and Christmas for the cleaning/prep work timelines and put it in Google Docs. That would be one less thing each year to rewrite from scratch.

I organized the recipe binder a bit better. Thanksgiving recipes and ingredients are organized. Christmas is not. We tend to alternate the Christmas Eve meal each year. I need to really give that some thought in the next week.

The app is called Santa's Bag -- for iPhone. I'm liking it because it is easy and fast to enter and sort by name, store and gift type (gift or stuffer). I'll still copy it all into Excel so I can see how it all lays out to make sure I've remembered everything.

Been working on the freezer this week. Pulling out the remnant meats and cooking those up. Last night was a chicken soup. Tonight is a compilation of various small steaks on the grill.

I have my menus and shopping lists that I entered last year as a template cuz I too thought that would be a good idea. But mine needs work, cuz I can't figure out what the heck I did! I'll need to go in and do it again.

More put on the declutter pile (this time from the attic).

 

[Holiday_Mom]

Thanks, Cindylouwho, I'll look into it. I'm currently using Google Sheets (like Excel) on the computer and I can access it from my phone. This is my first year using it on the phone and it's come in handy already.

I've put in a several hours streamlining my "Food and Household Check List for Thanksgiving and Christmas Eve." The Thanksgiving household cleaning and party prep timeline was copied over to the Christmas Eve Dinner Party. It's very detailed with boxes to check off as family gets it done. The menu and ingredients to buy are unique to the holiday. I really feel good about getting that done. It ought to be so much easier not having to reinvent the wheel each year.

We are eating all the leftovers tonight so that I can wipe the refrigerator down. There is something about having a clean refrigerator right before having a party that makes me happy.

 

[Cindylouwho]

Thanks, Cindylouwho, I'll look into it. I'm currently using Google Sheets (like Excel) on the computer and I can access it from my phone. This is my first year using it on the phone and it's come in handy already.

Are you accessing it through OneDrive? Have been looking at the Onedrive setup while shopping for computers. You'll have to let us know what you think by the end of the season in terms of how easy it is to access your list. When I had my list in Evernote it took me too many steps to access it (and sometimes the stores would block the wifi signal) but in a perfect world I really would like my Excel sheet at a glance.

I worked on my Thanksgiving Timelines yesterday too since the kids were home from school. About got it all laid out and saved it as a working copy for next year too. Sure took me a long while to figure out how I set up that template last year. Fixed it so that wouldn't happen again. Same timeline, and each year got a column in Excel.

I'm messing with the computers so much right now, I think it is time to back up these docs on a USB just in case!

HappytobeMe ~ How are those Christmas cards coming? The sweatshirts and sweatpants are out. Kohls was having some good deals this week. Have had sweatpants on the list forever waiting for them to come into season!

 

[happy2bme]

I started working on the cards last night and got a lot done. I might have them finished this evening!!!

DD and I went shopping yesterday and bought some gifts. I found a sweatshirt and two long sleeve shirts as well. I will keeping looking for more as they go on sale, but I am happy with what I have for now.

I have saved my most dreaded job for last - cleaning the fridge. For some reason, I hate doing tn. I need to just get it done and get it over with.

 

[Holiday_Mom]

Mel - How's that refrigerator looking? My cleaning took longer because of this unexplained sticky stuff that dripped on the shelves and down the sides.

Cindylouwho - Oh, I like the idea of putting the Thanksgiving timeline into Excel. I hadn't thought of that. That would be really neat because you can see the changes through the years in a glance. Hmmm... This is giving my an idea to add another sheet to Excel for just the teacher/service people gifts.

I started using Excel years ago for the shopping list, etc. But when Google came out with Google Docs and Sheets I started to use that instead. I have used OneDrive but Google has their things on my phone so I thought I'd keep to that for now.

It is nice to use the cloud for back up. When I first started using Google Sheets, there were times when I wanted to access things on the one pc but the children were using it for homework so I used the other pc. I just got my own computer last year and now it's not working ever since installing the Windows 10 update. Thankfully, I can access the information since it is on the cloud.

Update

Household prep -

• Clean out freezer. Done
• Clean out pantry. Done
• Clean out refrigerator. Done

Holiday Prep -

• Inventory freezer. Done
• Inventory pantry. Done
• Review holiday recipes and make a list of ingredients.

Still to do -

• Organize recipes. Done
• Plan Thanksgiving meal and food prep timeline. Done
• Work on Christmas cards.
• Wrap teachers/others gifts.

 

[happy2bme]

Mary,

My refrigerator still isn't clean. I swear it will be done by tomorrow!!

I am happy to say that all the cards for the MHH exchange are done and ready to be mailed. I have a few that I send to family, but will get those done closer to the end of the month.

 

[happy2bme]

My fridge is clean!!

Just wanted you all to know.

 

[Cindylouwho]

My fridge is clean!!

Just wanted you all to know.

Good job! It is pouring rain here -- flood levels. Been curled up with the kids watching a Psych marathon. Alright -- now that I've seen your post and gotten all inspired, I'm going to skip the next episode and finish up the attic and pantry. One hour. Will get back here and post my progress.

 

[Cindylouwho]

I'm going to skip the next episode and finish up the attic and pantry. One hour. Will get back here and post my progress.

Didn't get back to post since it was dinnertime but the attic is DONE. And half the pantry.

More to go...

 

[Holiday_Mom]

LOL! Go, team! I didn't make anymore progress on my list. I'll add it to this week's list.

 

[Cindylouwho]

To recap last week:

Week 11: Storage Week
Clean out the Pantry -- 1/2 DONE. (I have multiple pantry spaces so its a job)
Clean out the baking bin -- DONE.
Decide on next Freezer Cooking Plan even if don't get to cooking it.
Buy Fall Spices and check garden for status of holiday herbs.
Transfer Christmas app list to Excel so both match up - DONE.

PLUS:
Turkey ordered - DONE.
Garage cleaned out - DONE. (This ended up being the long way of getting my attic finished! So MY half of the garage is Marie Kondo'ed. DH still has to Kondo his tools -- but this was a huge victory. One truckload GONE.)


Catching up:
Gift Closet / Attic -- Top priority in the Catch-Up department. DONE.
(And clean out lock-box from last year if I haven't done that yet. I think I did.)
Update calendars & sync iPhones - Finding the instruction notes would be a good start.
Stocking Stuffers - Pick a shopping day for the candy.
Start Christmas Cards -- get one paragraph done.