by Katherine DiGiovanni | Apr 8, 2020 | Kitchen Organization, Project of the Day
Food storage containers can be a real pain point for many of us. We seem to lose lids and many of us have a random assortment of pieces that are hard to store together. This is a pretty quick and simple project once you set your mind to it!
Step 1: Take Everything Out
Start by taking everything out of your cabinet or drawer. Sort all of the various items by set – containers with lids.
Step 2: Purge the Misfits
Get rid of anything that is broken, stained, or without a match. These items are taking up space, they’re not useful, and you don’t need that kind of negativity in your life right now.
Step 3: Organize
Put back what you’ve kept by creating a functional system. One way is to store containers with the lids on and stack them. That can be easy, but not space effective. Another way is to stack or sort like with like using a few simple products such as expandable drawer dividers, bins, or sectioned dividers. Here are a few products that we like:
Now you just have to commit to maintaining your blissful food storage container order. No more throwing or shoving things into that cabinet or drawer. Now snap and pic of your great work and show us what you’ve done!
by Katherine DiGiovanni | Apr 1, 2020 | Kitchen Organization, Project of the Day
If you’re anything like me, you have recipes in many different formats stored in several different places. I have years worth of recipes – as technology has changed and formats have changed – that need to be put into order. Today, we’re going to gather all of those together, cull them down, and then put them into a usable system. It sounds like a lot, but it’s pretty simple and it won’t take very long.
Step 1: Gather All of Your Recipes
Gather all of your recipes together in one place. Recipes you store online we’ll deal with separately – we’re just talking about paper recipes.
Step 2: Sort by Category
Sort all of your recipes into piles by categories – appetizers, main courses, desserts, etc. Whatever categories you want to create based on the recipes you’ve collected is totally fine.
Step 3: Recycle Unwanted Recipes
Go through each pile and recycle those recipes that you don’t want or need. We’ve all looked at a recipe in a magazine and clipped it only to have never made it. Get rid of the ones that are just taking up space – think of it as making room for new recipes that you’ll make and love!
Step 4: Set up Binder
I recommend you store all of your paper recipes in a binder. If you prefer to put them on index cards and keep them in a box, that’s fine. The binder works for me because I have more recipes that are in larger and inconsistent formats and the binder can accommodate those. There are so many recipe organizers out there so find what works for you. The basic, all purpose binder is my choice.
For binders, I like these Samsill ones.- they’re part of Samsill’s Earth’s Choice line of products. These binders are USDA certified and made with at least 59% biobased material and come with a cover made with up to 25% plant based renewable plastic So, they’re really nice and durable, but you can also feel good about buying them!
I like to put dividers in my binder for the different categories of recipes. Here are some nice ones:
If you have recipes on index cards or in other formats, you can put them into plastic sleeves that fit right into your binder:
You can put your index cards right into these plastic sleeves:
If you don’t want to use the sleeve protectors, I just staple the recipes to an 8.5 X 11 piece of paper and three hole punch it. (I’m old school like that, I guess.)
Once you’ve put all of your recipes back, you’re ready to go! Your newly streamlined recipe binder will have you cooking up a storm. Try a recipe you rediscovered from this process! Please snap a picture and show us your work!
by Katherine DiGiovanni | Mar 31, 2020 | Bedroom Organization, Project of the Day
For the proprietors at Neatnik, keeping your bedside table clear is an ongoing project. They seem to always collect books, magazines, and bottles of hand cream. And we’ve written before about our many book worm clients with “the stacks” next to their beds. (Younger readers, “the stacks” refers to the rows of bookshelves in a library.) This is an issue for our favorite kind of people – the endlessly curious, the always learning, and the overly ambitious readers. Today, we’re going to get a handle on the night stands and the dressers in our rooms. Making these surfaces clutter and dust free will help promote a more calm feeling in the room and work against the anxiety many of us are feeling these days.
Step 1: Clear Surfaces
Take everything off of your bedside table and dresser. If your bedside table has drawers or a cabinet, empty those, too.
Step 2: Clean
Take a microfiber cloth or a paper towel and clean. If you have a glass surface, use some spray cleaner. Use the cloth to clean off all of the items you had on your surfaces – books, bottles, jewelry boxes, framed photos, etc.
Step 3: Cull Down Items Stored on Surfaces
Look through your items and consider the ones that you don’t really need to have stored so visibly and close to your bed. For example, instead of half a dozen books, you could just have the one you’re currently reading. If you store numerous perfume bottles on your dresser, consider keeping out the one you actually wear. It’s a good idea during Covid-19 shelter in place to keep your surfaces more clear and therefore easier to keep clean. So if you enjoy having lots of knick knacks on your dresser, think about temporarily storing some of those items elsewhere in the interest of cleanliness. Here is a great video from Theodore Leaf, which was filmed before the pandemic really broke out in the U.S., about steps to take to prepare your house. I found it to be very helpful.
Step 4: Consider Using Trays
One way to keep items on surfaces contained and easier to keep clean is to keep them on trays. This is also a good idea to carry glasses and (God forbid!) snacks in and out of your room on trays. This helps contain spills and crumbs. You may already have some trays in your home you can use, but here are a few that we like:
Step 5: Put Everything Back
Now that you’ve reduced the number of items you’re storing on your dresser and your night stand, you can put everything back. Sort like with like, contain items on trays, and limit the number of items.
Your newly cleaned off surfaces are free and clear and much easier to keep clean! Snap a pic of your amazing work and share it on social media with a #NeatnikDC tag!
