New Year Clean Ups!

I seem to be getting a reputation. A couple of weeks ago, I was putting stuff away in the pantry at the home of one of my disabled home care clients, and I got exasperated because there was no more space to put anything. So I asked her if she would mind me cleaning out the pantry, and she was quite happy for me to do it. An hour later, I called her in to the kitchen and when she saw her re-organised pantry she couldn't believe the difference! There was actually space for more stuff, but I warned her not to go impulse buying just because there was now more room!

On Thursday, I was strolling through the shops in Eltham when I met my friend H. who immediately said "come and have a coffee" and as I had nothing better to do, I agreed. We were discussing our budgets and the cost of food, and H. said "I can't understand how you can keep your food purchases under $100 a week. There is only two of us but I seem to spend double that". I explained how I check my pantry before going shopping, write a list of what I need, and stick to it. She said "I have no idea what's in my pantry - I just buy stuff when I see it on special in case I need it".

I said "Would you like me to come and organise it for you?" and she replied "Oh YES! Today?? Come for lunch!" When I arrived at her home an hour later, H. had nearly everything out of her pantry and on the benches. She was already exclaiming over the pile of things to be chucked out, that were past their 'use by' date. I showed her how to allocate shelf space to categories of food, so she had all the baking stuff on one shelf, all the canned food on another, and so on. We found she had bought several packets of a few items without realising she already had some, because it had got pushed to the back behind other things, so we consolidated the duplicate items into one container. It took a couple of hours but it was well worth the effort, as she has learnt her lesson about checking her supplies first before she goes shopping in future. Today (Friday) another H.C. client asked me to clean out her pantry, and again, after an hour, I had it organised so she could see at a glance what was there. She also was pleased as punch to see it done.

I love tidying up cupboards - pantries, linen cupboards, fridges too. When I was an office worker, I would try to get any filing done before other people had a chance to do it, as I seemed to have a better idea than most about alpha/numeric filing systems! Ken used to have all his papers in a concertina folder. At tax time I would say where are your payslips? He would get out his folder and look under P (for Payslips), W (for wages or work), T (for tax) and I couldn't help giggling. He would get so annoyed, firstly because I was laughing and secondly because he couldn't find anything! In the end, I emptied the top drawer of my filing cabinet and made it available to him. But I got it ready first, with suspension files already labelled and in order. Now, every time he goes to look for something, he comes over all business-like! Do you think I could do this for a living? Maybe it is the Aries factor? I seem to have a knack for it. If you don't have the knack, and you are too far away for me to come and do yours, you might find this website useful: Pantry Clean Up - Organizational tips.