Spring Cleaning your Fridge and Freezer and “31 Days to Clean,” by Sarah Mae
When we left town a few weeks back for Spring Vacation, I had several goals in mind.
– One was to empty out as much as I could from our stand-up freezer in the garage, and to SHUT IT OFF.
-The second was to clean out as much as I could from the fridge in the house – and cook with it while we were away.
-And then I always try to clean and tidy up before I leave, so I come home to a clean house.
Mission accomplished!
First of all, my husband’s been asking me for months to thin out the large freezer. Our idea of eating it down, using up what we had (and buying less at the store), PLUS saving electricity – were good goals to have. Our plan by the end of summer is to harvest our garden, and then turn the freezer back on, because we’ll have berries, jam, green beans, tomatoes, tomato sauce, etc. to freeze.
The fridge was emptied and freezer turned off to defrost. IT FEELS GOOD TO SAVE MONEY.
Then when we got home 5 days later, my lovely daughter scrubbed them both out. (Garage freezer before and after.)
There’s something about spring being in the air that makes me want to spring clean everything – including the larger appliances.
Next on my list are cleaning my back patio and my pantry, and certain areas of the garage.
I want to share with you my friend Sarah Mae’s new eBook that’s available for purchase: 31 Days to Clean, Having a Martha House the Mary Way! She did a fabulous job … I know, because I read it over the weekend.
Here are some of the chapters: Why Clean? Overcoming the Curse, Confronting Laziness, The Secret to Having Energy, Your Cleaning Style, Finding Joy, Dealing with Distractions.
The heart of our homes is not in the ability to keep it perfect at all costs; the heart of a home is love. We live in a thing, a non-eternal structure that needs to be maintained. The thing is worthless without the life we bring to it and through it. This book is about bringing life to the mundane in order to love well. – Sarah Mae
Head to Sarah Mae’s Facebook page if you want to check it out! And thank you, Sarah Mae, for allowing me to have a teeny part of your brilliance.
I want to share with you my friend Sarah Mae’s new eBook that’s available for purchase: What are 3 things that are on your “spring cleaning” list?
Hello and welcome to my home and table!
I’m Sandy—lover of food, family, cooking, THE BIG BOARD, travel, and bringing people together. Through great recipes and connection around the table, we become better, stronger, and more courageous people. Feasting on Life is real, and every time we do it, we grow a little more. Read more...
At the top of my list was organizing our pantry, and I got that done with help from Simple Mom’s Project: Simplify challenge. Now I just have one other closet to do and under the bathroom sink. There’s a good chance we will be moving in the coming months, so spring cleaning is the perfect time to get ready for it!
Does it count if it’s on my husband’s list?? :) The number one thing on my list was to refinish our patio and deck chairs. They are wrought iron, and rusty in spots. I had to sand that down, wash and dry them, and then repaint with two coats of paint. 7 chairs and two tables–done!
#2 is to power wash the deck. Yucky greenish mildewy algeish stuff growing. (This is on the man’s list. Not done yet.)
#3 clean all bedding. Done!
#4 Steam clean carpets. Can’t wait to do this one…seriously!
I love spring cleaning…just wish I had the time to get it all done!
closets – done.
behind, underneath and inside the appliances (fridge, stove, micro) – mostly done – except inside of stove.
garage. who am i kidding. that will never be done. sigh.
Well, traditional spring cleaning was accomplished by moving! :-)
Before we moved into our new home we had the carpets washed, and the needed furnace, A/C and hot water put in new. So that took care of a lot of work for me.
My top priorities now for spring cleaning are to:
1. Get rid of all the boxes in the living areas (I can live with the ones in the garage). THis is a bigger task thank you might think considering we just moved Friday!
2. Organize our books
3. Scrub all the hard wood and linoleum floors.
4. turn the liquor cabinet I was given into table linens storage cabint (thx for the idea!)
Cleaning out the refrigerator and freezers has been top on my list of priorities. With all the running in and out the leftovers and hidden lunchmeat have overtaken my shelves! As we are leaving for our spring break trip this week I want to have these cleaned before we go to prevent an even bigger mess when we come home! My other goal is the laundry room. It becomes the “storage” room during winter where the gloves, hats, numerous jackets and boots wind up. Time to clean it up, pack it away and make everything fresh and new like this gorgeous spring!
Great post! Usually my fridge and freezer are emptied between paydays…not much in them. We have an upright freezer at my in-laws and I should probably empty it and thaw it before I fill it with berries and jam!
I want to go through and clean my kitchen cupboards and pantry shelves, also go through things and find items for Garage Sale! AND spruce up the porch!
I would love some ideas on how to organize my freezer. I have a refrigerator with a freezer on the bottom. It has one wire shelf and a wire drawer that pulls out. It’s a MESS in there! I’m an organizational freak but I can’t figure for the life of me how to arrange this thing :o( Any help?
Well, NOW it’s to clean out my garage freezer!
Seriously though that’s a good idea and something that we definitely ought to work towards, especially because we’re hoping for a much better yield from the garden this year and I WILL be preserving if it kills me.
Cleaning my office and organizing all of our paperwork and shredding the junk has been a big project for me the last several weeks, and I also just organized and purged the pantry/place where we keep all the small appliances and food that won’t fit in the cabinets, which has made a huge difference. Next up is the rest of the kitchen and my craft caddy.
I’m shuddering with fear just thinking about it.
Yes, love to use up the food before we go away on vacation. I’m in the same mode right now before we head off for spring break. We also unplugged our extra refrigerator to save energy and money, and we’re doing fine with one even though I cook daily. We just need to stay on top of what’s in there and be sure to incorporate it into meals and snacks. Thanks for this great post!
Great job on emptying out the freezer! That is a lot easier said than done! We’ve had three freezers (I use one for gluten-free baking flours, grains, nuts, and seeds). Since the boys have left home I’ve been working on reducing the number and we are now down to two — one for fruits and veggies — and the other for flours, grains, nuts and seeds. The next challenge is to get down to one…
Love your idea of cleaning your fridge and eating the food on your trip. Brilliant!
Spring cleaning is finally done and it feels so great. At the top o’ the list: spice organization and labeling and paint can organization….I know it sounds over, bit it was easy and my hubby loves it most. I think I will be doing a project with him in mind from here on out.
I guess I did a little Spring Cleaning already. I pared down the stuffed animals (with the help of my daughter) in my daughter’s room and had a garage sale. What did not sale was donated to a local charity. Need to tackle the painting project and the light in the bathroom.
I’ve been meaning to tackle our floors, our drawers, and our closets!