Spring Break update - day one

Spring break is off to a pretty good start. I decided to begin checking off my to-do list with the thing I've been putting off the longest - cleaning out the fridge.

As you can see from the before photo, the doors were the worst problem. I had way too much crammed in there, and it was pretty common to be hit on the toe by a rouge salad dressing bottle every time time I opened the door. My goals were to:

1. Get everything out so I could wipe down all of the surfaces with a natural all purpose cleaner, including the sticky spots I new lurked in the back.

2. Throw out everything past it's expiration date or that I hadn't used since Christmas.

3. Arrange things so that like items were closer together.

Ta-da! My new clean and organized fridge. I would encourage everyone to take the time to at least pitch out everything past the use-by date. I had no idea how much expired food was taking up space in my fridge. I found old mayo, dressing, jam, cream cheese, etc. Taking the time to note what types of food didn't get used up before they expired is a great way to save money in the future. For instance, we really only use some foods and condiments, such as ketchup, seasonally. Today I discovered that our giant ketchup bottle from last summer was only 1/3 empty, but way past the use-by date. Now I know that buying the small bottle this summer will save us money, even though it cost a bit more per ounce.

Last night we started on our other big spring break project - painting the kitchen table and chairs. I nearly had a break down in Lowe's when we discovered that they no longer sell Rust-oleum Americana spray paint. They had other types of Rust-oleum, but none of them looked familiar. I waffled for a minute, but decided to check Home Depot before we bought anything. Over at Home Depot they also didn't have the Americana line, (maybe it's been discontinued, which is a shame because half of our furniture is painted Americana Blossom White) but they did have the Rust-oleum Painter's Touch line in Heirloom White, which we used last summer to paint a dresser. We loaded up on spray primer, paint, and sealer, so we are ready to go when the weather cooperates.

Here is the table we are planning to paint,

I keep it covered because the bare top looks like this.

This morning I sanded it down so everything will stick better and so the scratches are even with the rest of the surface.

Now, we just need a nice sunny day with no wind!

<3

Hattie