Since I have been home full time after retiring on February 1, I have had time to sort through some closets, papers, and freezers that had been pretty well neglected over the past couple of years. It has dawned on me that we can either have a clean, organized home or work full time. We can’t do both. Husband is still working essentially full time and has been for the past several years.
Because of our harried work schedules and after work exhaustion, things like papers have been thrown on our work desk or filing cabinets to be gone through “later”. It is hard to see what you have in closets if it is poorly organized and things are just stuffed in. It is also hard when you live in a food desert and you love to cook and you run across hard to come by items that you get excited about and buy a whole bunch because they are scarce, and then you throw them in your poorly organized freezers and you sort of forget you have them as they get covered up with subsequently purchased groceries, and then you inadvertently buy more the next time you run across them.
I decided to start by sorting and organizing the freezer that has all the sausages, ground meat, lamb, and homemade brodo. I was rather dismayed to discover we have seven pounds of ground veal, five pounds of ground lamb, and four legs of lamb and a huge lamb rack. Veal and lamb are virtually impossible to obtain out here, so we bought a bunch when we had the chance, then forgot we had it. There will be meatballs and meatloaf on the menu for the next several months. I have plans for one of the lamb legs for Easter.
I also organized the linen cupboard, and found we have eight sets of queen sheets. We only have three queen beds, and we only sleep in one of them, and I have no idea why I thought we needed so many. The sheets are all in great shape. We will not need to buy new sheets ever again.
I have several closets to go through and a couple of freezers to organize. I am so glad I will only work part time starting in March so that I can finish sorting and organizing.
How do you fold fitted sheets? What are you prone to buy too much of? Any helpful home organizing tips?
Trail Baboon 
Fold fitted sheets? Ha ha ha ha. I don’t actually wad them up but “folding” wouldn’t be the correct word either. Any wrinkles disappear once you put the sheet back on the mattress.
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I tend to sleep with my eyes closed, so wrinkles in the sheets disappear quite handily.
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I only have three sets of sheets for one queen size bed. During the winter the flannels just keep getting washed and put back on the bed so I only have to “fold” the fitted sheet once a year. The summer sheets alternate. The fitted ones get sorta folded. I know there is a trick to folding them but it doesn’t work very well when I try it.
I could probably outdo Marie Kondo when it comes to organizing. That probably comes from my dad. My condo is smallish and there isn’t a ton of storage space so I don’t overby anything anymore.
Am off to Ecuador and the Galapagos today – be back on Ash Wednesday.
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Bon voyage. I hope you have a great adventure.
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I downsized a lot of things when I moved to this small condo in 2016. I still think I have too much stuff. I have zero storage space here. It results in a cluttered look because everything is out where I can see it. I don’t mind. I like the stuff I have.
I have two sets of queen sized sheets for one bed. There’s a very old, thin set for summer, and a nicer set of heavier sheets for winter. I only use flannel sheets as light blankets, so I don’t have any fitted flannel sheets. I just wash the sheets and put them straight back on the bed, so I usually avoid folding. I did learn how to fold a fitted sheet though.
You lay the sheet out on the bed, elastic side up, and find the four corners – not the corners of the elastic but the corners that are at the top of the seams. Grip the two corners that are from the top or the bottom edges and bring the opposite edge corners up to your fingers. Tuck one of the edges inside the other, so the elastic is in the same place and the seams line up. You can take your hands and run them inside the fold and make sure the corners match up. Then lay the half-folded sheet on the bed with the elastic still facing up. I usually arrange the elastic so it’s as flat as possible, level out the new bottom edge of the folded sheet, and bring it up to the corners. Now you have a rectangle. One more fold up, then you can reach for the ends of the rectangle and bring them together, then one more time. Now you have a folded fitted sheet that will fit into a small shelf in a small closet. I don’t have room to just crumple it up and shove it in, so I do fold it. It’s not perfect, but it reduces the need for space.
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I don’t. I let my wife “fold” them. But if I did, I think Krista’s method is the best.
Buy too much? Maybe wine in the eyes of some people. But it eventually gets drunk. We stock up on things at Costco every 2-3 months, but most of that gets used too. My wife buys too much quilting fabric, but she’s finally reducing her stash. We just donated a 25-lb box of fabric to the local thrift store. The owner was thrilled to get it, so I know where we can go to get rid of more fabric in the future. I don’t even want to imagine the dollar value that went out the door that day last week, but it was easily in the hundreds. I hope someone who needs it can use it to make useful quilts for themselves or their family and not have to spend the big bucks that pre-made quilts cost.
No organizing tips because I’m basically an organized slob.
Chris in Owatonna
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I have too many sheets. Mostly because I just never want to get rid of them until they’ve fallen apart, even if I find something new I really like. YA whines about this (although she has her own sheets) so every now and then she buys me a set. That just increases what I have. L O L. I actually have some elastic bands that are made for holding sheets onto beds when they’re on elastic fitted sheets for when the elastic has worn out. That’s how long I keep mine.
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I am busy today with a meeting of my regulatory board, and after that I am making ragu with four pounds of ground goat, and Jamaican goat curry with the rest of the goat we had in the freezer. The goat was a gift from a native friend. It will all go back in the freezer, but at least it is cooked and we won’t have to do anything except thaw and reheat for weeks. Husband made a big batch of cocido, a Spanish stew with chick peas yesterday. We are set so now I can practice folding the fitted sheets!
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I guess I’m only capable of answering one question at a time.
I buy too much yarn. I have boxes of yarn stacked in one corner of a bedroom. I’ve donated some of it to local thrift stores, but then I just go get more. I’m sure I’ll use it all someday. Joann Fabrics is going out of business so I went to a clearance sale and bought a lot of stuff that I will use but I don’t actually need to own. I bought a yarn swift for turning a hank of yarn into a ball, and a small, simple table loom. Like I said before, I have very little room here for all this stuff, and no storage space at all. It’s lucky I live alone and have a bedroom that is empty except for books, more books, CDs, more books, yarn, and more yarn.
I also went crazy and bought a lot of beads and beading tools several years ago. I’ve begun to face the fact that I can hardly see to do the beadwork I once tried to do. I enjoy it but it’s exhausting. My beading projects are stacked in trays on my dining room table. I really need to do something about that. Anyone want any beads?
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I find it so fascinating that one persons home can look like a hoarders, but the next person may have just as much stuff, neatly piled, sorted, stored, and labeled, and it looks nice. maybe ‘full, maybe ‘busy’, but not cluttered at all. Interesting. We’re sort of in the middle. We have too much stuff, and upstairs looks alright, but don’t look downstairs where it all gets stuffed in a spare room. Except right now doesn’t count with the bathroom laundry remodeling. Word today is countertops coming tomorrow! Yay! Then need the plumber and electrician back. And shower glass guy coming Friday, so another week for them to finish. And then the UPSTAIRS will be done and we’ll start working on the basement bathroom. Oh, and of course, EVERYTHING ELSE in the house gets painted… an ongoing project.
What was the question??
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My wife buys too many plastic or wicker bins. She loves those things. I roll my eyes, she laughs at me.
“What are you going to put in this one??”
“Oh, I’ll find something.”
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My home is in need of much of that (renovations, painting, purging, etc.) Around here, we solve some of the problem by just ignoring it.
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No better way, I think.
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What’s the use in folding sheets when there’s only one bed and two sets of sheets?! Mine fit just fine under the bed in a plastic tray-like, no lid container.
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It is raining quite nicely right now. What odd weather. Too bad the ground is frozen and it can’t soak in.
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I have a lot of books, so many books that I am out of shelf space. But is it too many books? I don’t know. What’s the tipping point? Books are, and represent a big part of my everyday consciousness. I like having reference at hand. I like having reading options. It enriches me to be surrounded by books.
I would never presume to judge whether Robin has too much of anything. She has a lot of yarn and a lot of fabric in the same way that a painter has a lot of paint colors. If you are creative, you need spontaneous options. You wouldn’t expect a painter to know which colors they would need in advance. Likewise, when Robin is designing a quilt, she lays out multiple possible choices of color and pattern. That can only happen if she has the choices on hand. I honor that.
Besides, it’s getting more and more difficult to find a place to buy fabric, especially since JoAnns is going into bankruptcy.
We have three or maybe four sets of sheets and duvet covers. We swap them out occasionally and sometimes in reflection of a change of seasons. The spares are in a trunk.
I don’t really think about it.
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Could quilters share their addresses to folks who have too many sheets, thereby absorbing surplus into the economy of fabric users? OR, is there anything ELSE that can be made with surplus sheets, whether fitted or flat?
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I do fold the sheets, so that, as Krista says, they’ll fit in the narrow space they have. I can sympathize with the meme that goes “Life is too short to fold a fitted sheet – it took a while, but now that I have the hang of it. I’m always looking for fitted sheets at thrift shops for our beds (a queen and a double) – there are plenty of flat ones, and I don’t need them to match exactly, but I do get similar colors together.
I buy too many CDs after the concerts at our Arts Center – I hardly ever play them, but when I hear the music live, I want to keep it…
When I helped people organize a couple of decades ago (!), I would advise them the “new in, old out” philosophy, thus :
– no new bookshelves
– no new clothes hangers
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I do an adequate job of folding fitted sheets so they fit in the cedar chest–I can’t really describe the method but it’s similar to Krista’s.
My house is in desperate need of organization, and I can’t wait until retirement to do it. Books are the main culprit, followed by a 45 years’ worth of framed photos, mementos, figurines, etc. The kitchen cupboards are full of bowls, plates and serving pieces I couldn’t resist buying. The pantry is so full I can’t walk into it and have to twist my body into strange, yoga-like positions to retrieve items. There’s an entire storage area filled with bins of Lego, Playmobil, stuffed animals, and other toys I figured I’d save for grandchildren. Grandson is inheriting them bit by bit as he gets old enough for them. I could go on, but you get the idea.
We are making a small amount of progress. Husband went to a storage/organization store and got a rack with sliding drawers for our collection of kitchen appliances (rice cooker, waffle maker, 2 slow cookers, bread machine, ice cream maker, etc.). It’s a big improvement, but we have a long way to go.
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Organization with plastic bins at less than one foot tall. The lids allow for stackablity. Nothing gets to the bottom. Those with little wheelys are a bonus.
The clothes you keep because you’ll fit after your diet…🤣🤣🤣.
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