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Help! Food has Taken Over My Freezer! Freezer De-Cluttering Tips

Thanks to that cute little ground hog named Phil, we’re supposed to be getting an early spring this year. So, I’ve decided to take this opportunity to start my spring cleaning early and the first items on my list?  The dreaded freezers!!!

I absolutely love having a deep freeze and a top freezer in my fridge as it allows me to stock up on many food items which saves us lots of money throughout the year. The problem is that I have absolutely no idea what is actually in my deep freeze right now as it is literally overflowing with food stacked from floor to lid! It’s like playing Jenga every time I need to pull something out…”you take a frozen chicken from the bottom and you put it on top, you take a roast from the middle and you put it on top.” Not to mention, the three dozen frozen bananas I have stored in there for when I decide to bake those 100 banana muffins I’ve been saying I’d make for the last year.

I’ve also been wanting to make weekly meal plans but it’s hard to do when you have no idea what is actually available to you in the freezer. ”Hmmmm, so we’ll have steak on Monday if there is steak in the freezer, and ham on Tuesday if I manage to find the time to spend 30 minutes digging to the bottom of the freezer to find it.” Doesn’t work. Clearly something had to be done.

So, this weekend I learned about what kind of “freezer person” I am by facing and defeating my mortal enemies (the freezers) with a few simple ideas to help maximize and organize them both.

1. Make an itemized list of everything in your deep freeze.  When I open up my deep freeze, I can see that I have some ribs, a few pizza crusts, and a bag of beans but what the heck is three feet below these things?

View when I open up my deep freeze. Where's the rest of it?

I don’t have the time to lug out 100 pounds of frozen food every time I need to see what I need to add to my grocery list. And I can’t tell you how many times I have gone out to buy a ham or chicken at full price only to discover the following week that I had two of them buried at the bottom of my freezer!  So I pulled out everything made a list of what was in my freezer. That way, if I am making my weekly meal plan or grocery list, I simply look at the list taped to the deep freeze and I know exactly what I have . If I use something in the freezer, I simply white it out and if I buy something, I just add it to the list. I’m still waiting for someone to invent a see-through deep freeze… Hmm, maybe I should just go on Dragon’s Den with this great concept minus a prototype, blue print or sales… Think they’ll invest?  Tee-hee.

2. Turn those bread end pieces into breadcrumbs. Okay, so I know that most people never eat the end pieces of bread and my mother taught me years ago that the best way to use these end pieces is to throw them in the freezer and then use them to make bread crumbs later.  The problem with this is that over time, those end pieces are forgotten and accumulate, ending up taking up precious room in your freezer. So I came up with a solution:  Make the bread crumbs with the end pieces BEFORE you throw them in the freezer.  That way they are ready to use when you need them and they take up a fraction of the space.  As I had found about 12 bags of end pieces this weekend, I pulled out the food processor and made one big bag of bread crumbs that I then put back in the freezer, saving me tons of room and hassle.

Don't let your freezer look like one at the actual grocery store!

3. Don’t overstock your freezer. Only store food items in your top freezer that you plan on using in the next three months.  Turns out those fridge freezers do not keep food frozen as long as deep freezers do. In fact, they only keep food for about three months compared to a deep freeze that can keep food for close to a year. So make sure to store the freezer food you use on a regular basis in the top fridge freezer and keep the larger and less used items in the deep freeze.  For instance, I kept the frozen turkey and big box of chicken in the deep freeze and moved my steaks, sausage and salmon portions as well as frozen vegetables into the top fridge freezer because we create meals out of these on a regular basis. Note:  if you really want to maximize your deep freeze capacity, DO NOT buy two large turkeys just because they are on sale!  I did this last Thanksgiving thinking I would make them in the next couple of months and guess what…they are still in my freezer!  I’ve since realized that there are several opportunities to get cheap turkeys through the year…Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter…so there is no need to stock up on them unless you really plan on using them soon!

Sadly this is what I had to throw away this weekend! Poor freezer burnt leftovers.

4. Don’t freeze food items unless you’re really going to use them!  I don’t know how many times I’ve made dinner and had plenty of leftovers and so, instead of just planning to eat them over the next couple of days, I have packaged them up and thrown them in the freezer thinking to myself, “Great.  I will simply pull these out later and use them for another dinner. How smart am I?” Answer: Not very smart!

There are some smart people out there who have the memory and diligence to make food, freeze it and then pull it out later for dinner … I am not one of these people!  I thought I was until I went through my freezers, only to discover Tupperware containers filled with lasagne, chilli and spaghetti that I think I made about 2 years ago!  So,be honest with yourself and, if you are like me, don’t freeze your leftovers as they will only end up wastefully thrown in the garbage. (Sorry Mr. Landfill…I promise to eat my leftovers from now on!)

Deep freezers and fridge freezer are wonderful creations but only if you know how to use them properly based on what kind of person you are. For those of you like me who really haven’t been using them properly, I hope some of these tips will help you de-clutter and make better use of your freezers.  If you have any other freezer tips, I would love to hear them.

Coupon Tip of the Week:  Following the theme of freezers, it can be very economical to stock up on meat items when they’re on sale but make sure to only buy what you will use in the next 2-3 months. Otherwise, you run the risk of buying too much and having that meat get freezer burned and going bad before you get a chance to use it.  Remember, there are always sales going on each month so you don’t have to worry that you didn’t buy enough chicken breasts just when they were on for such a good price because they will be on sale again next month!

A bit about needs and wants. And a DIY container for your cotton swabs.

Every year for the past five or six years our family has participated in an annual Shopping Embargo. The goal of the Embargo to be more mindful of our purchases and drastically reduce impulse buys. And it works.

Our rule is this: From Boxing Day until the end of February, we restrict our purchases to the bare necessities; groceries/consumables, gas, basic hygiene (shampoo, soap, but not cosmetics), medicine and essential clothing.

That means… no spontaneous purchases of lip gloss (my personal weakness), video games (my husband’s) and a wealth of other non-essential items that would otherwise end up in a landfill.

You can read more about our Shopping Embargo here.

The hardest part about it is probably determining the difference between needs and wants. Everyone has different priorities, and frankly, it’s easy to persuade yourself that a want is really a need. It became an annual debate with my blog readers. One year I felt that I needed a housecoat. I didn’t actually own a housecoat. So was this a want or a need? You can argue the finer points until the cows come home.

One of the items we tussled about was decorative containers for the bathroom, you know, the things that hold cotton balls and cotton swabs. Are these a want or a need? I’d argue that it’s a “want” because you can technically keep the extra Q-tips its original box under the sink. The whole issue of having decorative bathroom containers seems like such a first world problem, doesn’t it? Well, you can avoid all that by making your own.

Easy peasy.

• Take two matching jars (these are relish jars), soak off the labels and wash them out thoroughly.
•  Find some pretty paper and trace the lids. Cut the paper out and glue onto the lids.

That’s it! You have your own customized containers for bathroom supplies! And you didn’t need to break the bank (or your Shopping Embargo).

Rustic Appeal

It’s deep winter and I’m craving all things cozy: warm drinks spiced with cinnamon or nutmeg, fuzzy mittens and knit scarves, and glowing candles in the cool dark evenings. And my design aesthetic shifts too. Summer’s bright whites and breezy linens won’t be a reality for a long time, and instead I want to surround myself in rich velvet or heavy wool. It’s like I want to retreat to a rustic cabin in the woods. Can you picture it?  Rough hewn beams, worn hardwood floors, knicked up old wooden furniture …

Weathered wood is definitely in style right now. I think there may be two reasons for this. One, we don’t want our homes to look so straight-out-of-the-box brand new; we want them to have character, patina, and a collected look. And second, more and more people are considering the environment in their design and re-using wood fits right in with the “Three R’s” mindset.

Here are some examples of reused wood in some beautiful interiors:

Design by Claire Archambault, Photograph by Monic Richard for Maison & Demeure

Wooden ceiling by Restoration Timber featured on Remodelista

Another ceiling clad with old barn wood. Design by Sarah Richardson and Thomas Smythe. Photograph by Stacey Brandford.

Design by Kevin and Layla Palmer from The Lettered Cottage

Reader room featured on Design*Sponge

Stairs designed from old wood by Jan Korbes, featured on Apartment Therapy

Painted barn boards. Photograph from Better Homes & Gardens

Design by Kriste Michelini Interiors, photograph by Lisa Duncan for Elle Decor

Design by Christie Hansen, architecture by Pearson Design, photograph by Virginia MacDonald for Canadian House & Home

As you can see, the material is really versatile – used on ceilings, floors, or walls; used for tabletops, staircases, headboards, or doors.  It’s used by high-end designers and every day handy DIY’ers. It fits in a pretty cottage, a funky vintage bungalow, a grand country house, or a clean modern condo.

So why not search your back yard, or UsedEverywhere, for wooden boards from old barns, sheds, floors, doors, palettes, boxes, fences… and add some old charm to your home?  I found this listing on UsedRegina offering old barn wood!

Old barn wood and windows for sale on UsedRegina

And if you do a project like this (or have already done one) please share it with us here at UsedEverywhere!

Ice Candles for Valentine’s Day

While visiting my niece and nephew the other weekend I mentioned my desire to do a special Valentine’s craft, but couldn’t think of a good enough idea. Before I had even finished listing the somewhat vast list of craft creations I was considering my niece (on the verge of rolling her eyes) said, “Why don’t you do ice candles?” She proceeded to show me several of her creations and they were truly awesome.

Maybe this is a really regular craft but I’ve ever heard of or seen anything like it. The end result is amazing. And, if my seven-year-old niece could do it, well I figured I could handle it.

The instructions are fairly straightforward…

What you need:

• crayons (I chose red for Valentine’s Day) or wax or nubs of old candles with wicks removed
• taper candles (one for each ice candle)
• double boiler  (create a double boiler using a metal can or other heat-resistant jar so you don’t wreck your pots)
• container or mould. I used a milk carton cut to size
• ice cubes

What you do:

1. Melt crayons or candles or wax in a double boiler over low heat (this takes a long time). You want to have enough wax to fill each container half full.
2. In the meantime, prepare container. I was instructed to use a milk carton cut to the size I wanted, but you can use any sort of container you want. Just make sure you can remove the candle from said container once it’s created
3. Put a few drops of melted wax in the bottom of your container and immediately place a taper candle in the centre of your mould. Allow the wax to set to hold the taper in place.
4. Surround candle with different sizes of ice cubes. The amount and sizes of cubes is up to your discretion
5. Pour enough melted wax into the mould to cover the ice. From experience, make sure you have a splash zone and are prepared for some mess. The wax is very hot yet cools incredibly fast, so move quickly and carefully
6. Once the wax has set on the candles pour out the melted ice cubes and remove from mould by tearing it carefully away.

  
While the instructions are straightforward I never seem to be able to make a craft so simply. Through trial and error I learned several things. First, crayons and candles take a long time to melt on the double boiler. An incredibly long time. Second, if you pour your wax over the sink and you spill some into your drain your sink will back up. And if you’re not careful so will your dishwasher and then your kitchen floor will receive the cleaning of its life. Just saying, it’s a real possibility. Third, ice candles burn unpredictably due to the varying shapes and spaces within the candle. Never leave burning ice candles unattended and have something to catch the drips.

So now that I have my learner’s candles out of the way I think I can handle this craft again. But how on earth is my niece so good at it?

Cheap Chevron Wall Art

So I moved into this room back in September… I know, it’s embarrassing how bare it is. The sad thing is I have about 10 posters that I could put up, but all of them are from my university days, and a little part of me wants to believe that I am now more mature than that (ha!). Enter my cheap trendy wall art attempt, which was originally from Jess at Makeundermylife. In magazines, this type of wall art is usually placed on white walls, but I’m using some of my own personal preference for neon colors, that will hopefully jazz up my ‘butterscotch pudding walls’.

my bare walls

And begin. Materials you will need:

- Easel able to withstand acrylic paint (Choose your size)

- Painters tape, any width you desire

- Scissors

- Design (here is the Chevron design)

- Your color choice of spray paint or regular acrylic paint (make sure to get one not meant for rust or the outdoors)

Step 1: Print out your Chevron stencil, or any stencil of your choice

Step 2:  Use pins and poke holes around the points of the Chevron. *Note use the painters tape that you have, and tape it onto the design first, as different widths make things tricky!

taping & pinning the Chevron design

Step 3: Cut and tear the tape so it fits into the design. Continue all the way down the canvas, be patient, it’s harder than you think!

Step 4: Go out side and spray paint over the taped canvas. Hold the spray paint 20 cm from the canvas, and go in slow even strokes. Otherwise you’ll end up with big paint spots.

all spray painted & ready to dry

Step 5: Take off tape and admire!

Modern Day Trivets – DIY Style

I’m going to level with you. I thought they were called hot plates. But it’s all sorted now and I have three creative and affordable trivets you can make in the span of a couple hours. I know this because Miss Congeniality was on while I did this project.

Cork Trivet

If you have any corks lying around, just waiting for a project, consider the trivet. Materials: wooden picture frame, cardboard, corks, a sharp knife, and white glue.

1. Cut cardboard to fit snugly into picture frame. Ensure frame is made of heat-resistant material.
2. Cut corks into same-sized pieces (about half an inch) and glue onto cardboard

Allow glue to dry completely—about two hours.

Tile Trivet

1. Tile trivets are incredibly simple and fun to make. All you need is some scrap tile, felt or marbles, and glue. Optional materials are stencils and paint.
2. If stencilling designs on the tiles, clean tiles before painting. Allow paint to dry completely before assembling the rest.

To protect surfaces from tile scratches affix four marbles or four squares of felt to bottom four corners of tile. If using marbles, affix with glue gun. If using felt affix with spray glue.

Allow glue to dry completely before using trivet.

Fabric Trivet

This looks fancy but is so easy. You will need a circular trivet (nothing pretty, just a piece of wood or something), remnant fabric, batting, lace, scissors, a glue gun, and glue.

1. Cut batting in a circle, slightly bigger than your trivet
2. Cut fabric in a circle, one inch bigger than batting
3. Place batting and fabric on trivet, flip to underside and (using a glue gun) glue overlapping edges to underside. Allow glue to dry completely
4. Glue lace to underside of trivet. Allow glue to dry completely

I don’t know about you, but I’ve just found housewarming gifts for the next decade.

Shelving DIY, cheap and fast–and super cute!

As we work on building our nest–in our new apartment, nestled in an ancient house in an ancient neighbourhood, two houses down from the highway with slanty floors and a crooked bathroom door–we’ve had a lot of tiny DIY projects that are helping to make this place really feel like home. Turns out, they’re quick and easy, and consequently, I want to show them off to everyone. These projects have one thing in common with each other: they take approximately an hour (maybe less, maybe slightly more), but make a huge impact on your living space. So on our home blog, we’ve started titling these projects ‘Better in an Hour’ projects. Today I’ll review with you how to make some cheap, fast shelves that are to-die-for cute. (Or, if you’re into handsome, dashing, or manly shelves…just substitute some cut-up bicycle tire for the ribbon.)

We took the boards home, and I painted them with the same paint we were using that day on the bedroom. I like to use house paint (versus art or craft paint) on household things because it holds up better; if you don’t have any lying around, look at the mistinted paints at your local hardware store. You can get a gallon for around six bucks, and there’s often tons of cool colours because people buy it, take it home, and realize no one should paint a whole room that colour. But since you’re going to use it on accents and furniture, it’s a win-win for you. Painting the boards took 10 minutes—doing two coats.

After Brian finished cursing, swearing, and fighting with the mounting job, I warmed up my glue gun, pulled out some ribbon I had, and began gluing the ribbon around the ugly plywood edge of the shelves. I aligned the edge of the ribbon with the edge of the shelf; because my ribbon is slightly wider than the wood, there’s a bit of a ribbon ‘lip’ on the bottom edge. But this doesn’t matter, because the ribbon is still flush with the top edge of the shelf, so things won’t snag on the ribbon as they’re added or removed from display. Gluing the ribbon took 10 minutes.

Mirror, mirror on the wall = Awesome DIY

turquoise AND a DIY? love.

Brooke over at All Things Thrifty came up with this super gorgeous DIY. Now, I just need to find a new best friend with a jigsaw and I’m set! If you try this, please brag about it in the comment section. Photos too, please!

7 things I learned this year about DIY reupholstery

It’s that time of year when, formally or informally, many of us begin to assess life and think about our goals for the year ahead.  Last year I had only one goal on my New Year’s resolution list: have a baby.  And if you’ve had a baby before you know that’s about all you can really expect of yourself.  Anything achieved beyond that is a bonus!  So I’m pretty happy to look back and see some of the stuff I achieved this past year, even while taking care of my little ones – including beginning the adventure of DIY reupholstery.  Through this process I’ve learned a lot and gained some awesome new furniture for my home at a reasonable price.  Here are a few tips for you, if you think you might give it a whirl…

Designer Kimberley Renner. Photograph from Martha Stewart Living. Here's an example of how great a wingback chair can look. Unfortunately mine is far from finished...

 1. Start small.  My first project was (still is) a wingback chair.  I affectionately call it “the beast” – it’s large, curvy, and no simple task.  It’s taken a lot of creative problem solving, redoing things, letting go of my dreams of perfection, and it’s still not done.  Boo.  However over the past year of working on this chair I’ve completed three other chairs and a couch.  I just picked the wrong project to start with.  If you’re really timid, try a small bench or a dining chair with an upholstered seat.  Get used to thinking through an upholstery project and build up to the bigger pieces.

A dining chair makeover by designer Eddie Ross

2. Start cheap.  This is where UsedEverywhere comes in.  Buy a cheeeeap chair.  My wingback chair was $10, so it would probably be OK if I abandoned it.  Or destroyed it.  Or decided to pay an upholsterer to do it right.  (I considered all of these things, but I’m too stubborn to give in.)

Designer Ashley Wick, photograph from Lonny Magazine. When starting out on a bigger project, use solid colours instead of printed fabrics so that you don't need to worry about lining patterns up or keeping them straight.

3. Start clean and solid.  I didn’t want to delve into rebuilding a frame, or re-webbing a seat, or shaping new foam, so I look for chairs that are already sturdy and relatively clean (just ugly, outdated or worn).

4. Start together.  I live in a 2 bedroom apartment with 4 people, so I don’t have a ton of space to spare.  So I was delighted when my friend Lindsey asked if I wanted to bring a chair over to her house and dedicate a room in her basement to our upholstery projects and work on them together.  Not only has the space been so valuable, the friendship has been priceless.  To pass the endless hours of staple removal over good conversation and chocolate is a great thing.  And to have someone to bounce ideas off of, to help brainstorm solutions with, and to hold that fabric in place is so helpful.

Lindsey's first completed chair - a cute vintage rocker.

5. Start inspired.  The trick to seeing an old ugly furniture piece through to its glorious finish is to have vision.  Know what you want to achieve.  You can do this by collecting inspiration pictures.  (I keep an inspiration file on Pinterest)  Surf online design magazines or blogs, saving pictures of furniture you like.  Take a camera into stores and snap pictures of furniture that you love (but wouldn’t pay that much money for!).  Sort through them and figure out what shapes and colours, and patterns you are drawn to.  For example I love classic or antique chair shapes done in modern colours and patterns.

Design by Samantha Pynn, photograph by Virginia MacDonald. Here's an example of a classic french style chair with modern colours and prints.

6. Start informed.  There are tons of bloggers out there who’ve tried their hands at reupholstery projects of all kinds.  Read up on their experiences to gauge if you’re up for a similar project, and how you might go about it.  You don’t have to follow their methods exactly, but it’s a good place to start.  Some of my favourites are Little Green Notebook and Centsational Girl - but you could do a Google search for whatever project type you’re doing (I like to include “blog” in the search title) and find many industrious, creative people’s handiwork.

I discovered when working on this chair that I find furniture that is only partially upholstered much easier to do

7. Start equipped.  As you get started it pays to have good tools.  But you don’t necessarily want to pay for good tools.  I’m super cheap, so I didn’t go out and buy anything, I just tried to use what was already in the toolbox.  As far as possible try to borrow tools for your first upholstery project.  Then if you think it’s something you’ll continue to do it’s worth investing in a couple good tools.  For example I prefer to just use a flathead screw driver and a pair of pliers to remove staples, but found upgrading to an air compressor staple gun completely worth it.  And some of the special upholstery needles out there for sewing corners or adding button tufting will make your life much easier.  So look around at what’s out there and buy things as you discover you need them.

Hopefully my experience will help you delve into a reupholstery project of your own this new year!

DIY Borax Snowflake Ornaments

Here’s a great project you can do on your own, with kids, or whomever! It’s no-fuss, little mess, and in 24 hours you can create amazing crystal ornaments for less than $1 each!

Recently I learned how to create crystal ornaments, which are much sturdier, quicker to make, and turn out more consistently than the standard sugar-water-string projects I used to fill the kitchen with growing up. The secret is sodium borate—Borax.

Used mostly as a laundry booster (softens hard water and leaves your clothes cleaner and brighter), it’s actually one of those old school “do it all” products. You can use it as a cleaner, a deodoriser, an insect repellent, and for crafts!

In concocting the perfect recipe for Borax ornaments I realized it really could be tailored to suit any level of crystallization you desire. However, the general rule to follow is this: three tablespoons of Borax to one cup of boiling water.

To make this snowflake ornament, follow these steps.

You will need:

• Pipe cleaners
• Borax
• Glass jars
• String or yarn (remnant pieces)
• Sticks or pencils (to suspend the ornaments from the jar into water)
• Boiling water
• Measuring cup and stir stick
• Food colouring (if desired)

Instructions:
Bend and shape pipe cleaners into desired shape (follow chart for snowflake, using two pipe cleaners)

Tie string or yarn to pipe cleaner at top—this also acts as the ornament hanger

Affix string to stick or pencil, hang ornament in jar (or other heat resistant container) being careful to avoid the shape touching the sides or bottom of jar

In a separate container, mix three tablespoons of Borax to one cup of boiling water. Mix until Borax is dissolved (if you want coloured crystals also add a few drops of food colouring, keeping in mind the colour of the pipe cleaner will show a bit)

Pour mixture into jar, covering pipe cleaner completely

Wait 24 hours.

Remove from jar. Leave on towel until dry (only a few minutes), wipe off excess crystals and display your beautiful handmade ornaments for all to see!

The best part about this craft is watching the crystals form before your eyes!