Week One Menu

1. Reuben Sandwiches
Green Beans

2. Pad Thai
Salad
Miso Soup

3. Chicken with Coconut & Lime
Rice
Broccoli & Cauliflower

4. kids - frozen pizza
us - Beer battered shrimp
Salad

5. Sirloin Steak w/ Chimichurri Sauce
Rice
Corn

6. French Dip Sandwiches
Chips
Green Beans

7. Take Out - because let's be honest...

Shopping List to Follow

Destressing Through Meal Planning

I started this blog to detail my efforts to declutter my home, keep things cleaner and more organized, and hopefully by doing so be less stressed out about it. I've determined that keeping the house neater I feel much more calm, and able to hang out with the kids more without feeling the nagging guilt of having so many chores to do. It's been good. Still hard work, but I'm managing.

My newest project is to go from fly by night dinner preparation to menu planning and list making and making weekly grocery trips rather than running out to get "a few things" every day or two.

The thought of making six weeks of menus all at once is daunting, but if I do it weekly for six weeks I can then compile it and have it all put together. Baby steps!

My week one menu will follow in the next post.

Weekend Progress

I got motivated this weekend and did the following...

Friday - shampooed the Family Room carpet. This wasn't in the plans, but we had a little poop issue and I had to clean that up, so I just did the whole room.

Saturday - cleaned and organized the laundry room. My dryer was piled up with junk, there were too big boxes of stuff to go to charity, and the shoe bin had lots of shoes that the kids aren't currently wearing. So, I got it all fixed up.

Before...

After...

I also got some walls wiped down, and Kevin did a little touch up painting. A productive weekend! Now when I walk in through the garage, instead of getting aggravated at the mess, I smile because everything is clean, tidy & shiny.

I'm Back

I know it may be hard to believe, but I have not given up on this endeavor. Really. I did not make my 30 day goal. I got behind on the day to day stuff so organizing, purging and deep cleaning took a back seat. I *think* I am on a good footing with that all again. Being homebound with a kid with pneumonia is good for something I guess. Heh.

So, with no further ado and the news that my parents are coming in April has me ready to get back on this project. The good news is the stuff I've already done is staying nice & organized. That's a victory!

I found a new blog called Totally Together that I am really enjoying. In fact, I am enjoying it so much I bought her book. There is nothing I'd love more than totally together. I loved the post about the daily seven and want to incorporate that into our (note not MY) daily routine. So, hopefully I'll be back to posting here regularly again.

Here's to getting it all under control!


**Just adding a note about theTotally Together book... I was so excited about it that I didn't realize until a few days ago it isn't out yet. But, when it comes out it will appear at my doorstep (thanks Amazon) and by then, I'm certain I'll need a refresher... or motivation, or just new ideas.

Completed Wednesday, January 28

The pantry before:

The junk I removed. Out of date, or otherwise unuseable.

The after... Mark wanted to be in the pictures.

Completed Tuesday January 27

Utensil drawer after... It actually looks like I need to get rid of more. But I'm afraid I'll neeeeed it.

Guess what? No before pic of the silverware drawer, but here are all the baby spoons as well as pieces I don't use (seafood forks... not used once in 12 years of marriage, soup spoons? I just use a regular spoon.) Everything in this pile is gone!

And the after. I think it looks much better. You'll just have to take my word for it.


This reminds me I really need to clean my camera lens. It must have a smudge or something. :)

Day 5 thru...Now

Okay, I haven't abandoned this project. On the contrary, I've gotten into the kitchen cabinets and decluttered, getting rid of a broken vegetable steamer, realizing my need for more glass containers with lids (and used a birthday gift card to get some.)

I'm also working toward getting a good weekly cleaning schedule in force so I'm not stuck cleaning the whole house top to bottom on the weekend. I've attempted this from time to time, but never in conjuction with a deep cleaning and organizing, so to be honest I'm struggling to do BOTH. The cleaning schedule looks a little like this.

Kitchen -daily
Laundry - daily

Monday - Bathrooms (there are 4)
Tuesday - Formal LR & Dining room - top to bottom, dust, vacuum, etc.
Wednesday - Office day - bills, notes, etc.
Thursday - Bedrooms - I want to work toward the boys keeping the toys, clutter, etc picked up themselves so I can just go in and dust & vacuum & be done.
Friday - Straighten up all rooms.
Saturday - playroom, sewing room
Sunday - off (or catchup day... I want to get away from NEEDING to catch up.)

Anyway, while being none too thrilled that I'm stilllll working in the kitchen and making slow progress, at least I am making progress.

I will try to update more often and more before and after pictures.