The Organizing Olympics, Day 12: Oven Rowing

Day 11 was Stovetop Gymnastics now on Day 12 of the Organizing Olympics, we are going to row our way down to the Oven.  Roll up our sleeves and “pull” open the door.

For this event, you will need:

Oven cleaner

Newspaper

Several Rags or paper towels will do

A bucket with hot water

Rubber Gloves

Check with your appliance manufacturer for proper care and cleaning of your specific appliance.  If you have a self-cleaning oven, many of those even need a little extra help getting them clean if you do a lot of baking and roasting.

Read the label carefully on the specific oven cleaner you are about to use.

1.      Put paper down on the floor in front of your oven.

2.      I remove my racks and spray them  in the garage over green garbage bags, my Mum sprayed them in the bathtub but I worry about the chemicals damaging the coating on the tub

3.      Spray liberally close door and go somewhere to breathe clean air until the time to wash it out arrives.   Oh man, do I ever hate the fumes from these cleaners, even the low fume brands are harsh!

4.      Don your Rubber Gloves.   Thin ones can dissolve so a heaver glove would work best

5.      Start washing out all the chemicals goo from the oven.   You may need to change the water in your bucket several times and do a little scrubbing if you have some stubborn spots.

6.      I like to heat my oven afterwards to burn any chemical residue off prior to cooking in the oven again.

Ta DAAAA!!!   Shiny!   Now go have a shower and get the goo off.

Reminder:  Check online to find the recommendations from your particular appliances manufacture.

You win gold for a clean and shiny oven!

Follow our full six week plan at LVSonline

The Organizing Olympics, Day 11: Stove-top Gymnastics

 

Stove-top Gymnastics requires great agility and finesse.  Your talent and skill will be required to score a perfect 10.  

Set your timer for 15 minutes and begin your artistic gymnastic routine.

1.      Clear any dirty pots and pans off the stove-top.

2.      Begin with the “rings” and while not suspended from the ceiling in this competition, they may require great skill and determination to get clean.   Endurance and patience will be require to have them sparkling 

3.      Wash the top of the stove with hot soapy water, some baking soda may be required if there is some scrubbing required

Use your timer to ensure you take a break and to keep yourself focused and moving.

Check online to find the recommendations from your particular appliances manufacture.

Now that you have scored a “10”, a simple wipe down after each meal will keep your stove top in great shape.

Follow our full six week plan at LVSonline

The Organizing Olympics, Day 10: Fridge Wrestling

Fridge Wrestling is a difficult event.  Your opponent is a mighty one, as soon as you think you have victory, you are tackled by a nasty container found at the back of the fridge.

Wrestling involves, strength and stamina.   You are going to wrestle the lids of some strong smelling containers filled with nasty science experiments.   The shelves will require wrestling, and a plunge onto the mats (also known as the sink and hot soapy water).    

The rules of this event are as follows:

1.       Keep “like” items together (fruits, veggies, leftovers, eggs)
2.       Expired food gets tossed
3.       Food you will not consume gets tossed
4.       Clean the shelves

Set your timer for a 15 minute training session and we begin with one shelf.

Pull everything off the shelf and make some quick decisions.  

·       

• How old is it? Can't remember when you cooked something - Toss

• Will it be eaten?  -  Donate if not

• Is this the best shelf in the fridge for this item?

Go!    

Sort items into categories on the counter and make your decisions.    

Wash your shelf and only put back what will be stored on that shelf.

Training camp is over; it is time to head into the main event. 

You are strong, you are mighty, you can win this match!

Use your timer to ensure you take a break and to keep yourself focused and moving.

You win double gold, if you label the shelves in the fridge so everyone know where to put items back.  Pick one day per week to maintain the fridge...the day before garbage pick up would be an excellent choice.

Some examples could be:   Jams,  Eggs, Milk, Dairy (yogurt, sour cream, Labneh),  Left Overs.

Follow our full six week plan at LVSonline

Organize Your Life comes to LVS Online!

It has been a fun,  busy year for me and a new term of teaching has just begun at at LVSonline.com

Check out the Organize Your Life class coming up in June.   Registration opens on May 7th for this fast paced organization class and you cannot beat the price at only $30.00 for new students and $24.00 for returning students. Below is a clip from the LVS blog about the course.

Organize Your Life Online Course

December 13th, 2010 lvs

Can you find anything in your home or office in 5 minutes or less? If you can, you are definitely on the organized track and likely are taking this course to fine tune your skills and get some new ideas to make your life more streamlined. Many others, however, struggle to find papers, bills, glasses, keys and a myriad of other items. Many of us have things in our homes, in our closets, on our desks that have not been used in the past 12 months. Of all our belongings, we use 20% of them 80% of the time! Can we consider during this course to let go of some of the 80% of the stuff that we seldom if ever use? This 80% adds substantially to the disorganization in our lives. This 20/80 formula can be applied to the papers in our homes, the files in our drawers, the gadgets in our kitchens, and the clothes in our closets. If we follow this line of thinking further, then we can extrapolate from that that approximately 50% of the items we are storing in our homes are merely clutter!

So many of us are like the majority of the people in North America over run with stuff and struggling to find enough time in our days to manage our schedules and get our tasks completed!
Organize Your Life online class is for anyone interested in finding tools to assist in organizing their homes, their paperwork and their lives.

Organize Your Life by being freed from wasted minutes. Enjoy more time with the tasks in life that give you meaning.  More time with your family, your friends, to take courses, to golf, to read, or to do nothing at all! We will work together to find the necessary minutes in the day to have some fun, rest and relaxation, and yes – fun is a necessity!

 Adventures in Organizing has a new website coming soon.   Check back for some great new new tips, tricks and tools to celebrate life.