Lemon Meringue Pie

From Better Homes & Gardens (New) Cookbook circa 1980 approximately

Living Life Fearlessly

Just re-reading some old blog posts and thought I’d remind myself of thoughts I shared.

TJ Talks

” I smiled when I saw the photo, thinking about you living life fearlessly (as you have written about) and taking risks, doing things that put you in harms way. Living life with the possibility of being hurt. These ripped jeans are testimony to me of that. I’m glad that you weren’t seriously injured, but I rejoice with you that you are able to do all the things you want to do and not give into a paralyzing fear that would keep you from them.”

This was written in the comment section of a photo I posted on facebook. A photo of my favorite jeans with a large rip in them just above the knee that was scraped when I slipped and fell while walking down a slightly declining wet ramp to board a mock pirate ship in Hakone Japan. Her first comment was “This is so awesome on so many…

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Shameless Plug

This is a shameless plug for my husband’s new blog. He started listening to pod casts as he walks and takes the train to work and his mind is overflowing with ideas and enthusiasm. Blogging is a great outlet in times like these, so check this out if you are intrigued.

Organize Your Closet One Step At A Time: Step 3 Sort Clothes Into Categories

#3. Sort Clothes Into Categories

Note: If your clothes are packed in so tight that you cannot easily move things around, then take several pieces out and lay them on the bed (if you have large items like coats or jackets that is an easy category to start placing on the bed and it will quickly give you room to maneuver in the closet). Also remove any ties or belts you might have hanging in the closet.

Note #2: If you are easily distracted or overwhelmed get a kitchen timer or use your smart phone to set the timer for 10-20 minutes work periods.

A. Start with the spot you see first when you open the closet on one end or the other. Move all pants into that first section, then all skirts, then all shirts/tops, then sweaters/jackets, then robes, then dresses (make sure to place dresses in the longest section of the closet.)  At this point you have not made any decisions about what to keep, what to store or what to give away….just arrange by type so you can see how many of each type you have. You can probably do this in 20-30 minutes, set a timer if that helps.

B. Now go back through each section and arrange by color and type. In each section I go light to dark in the summer and dark to light in the winter (but that’s just me, you can keep it the same year round if you prefer). I also go from less to more; like sleeveless to turtleneck. Since we are going into the winter my first section on the left of my square walk-in closet has solid black spaghetti strap and tank tops (for layering), then t-shirts, button-ups, long sleeved tanks and turtlenecks.  Followed by print tops that are predominately black. Next I placed all the brown shirts, then green, then blue, then violet, pink, red, orange, yellow and white. In the back of the closet I have coats and dresses. On the right side starting in the back,  I have jackets, skirts and pants. I have pants toward the front because I wear them most and they are arranged by color/type (all light colored pants, then jeans, then dark colors ending with black). This step might take a little longer but the key is to move quickly, again not making any major decisions.

C. Go back through one section at a time and remove ‘out of season’ clothing first* (I only do this twice a year, mid-Autumn and early-Spring). I know this is hard in places with milder climates but there are usually some clear cut Winter or Summer extremes (I never keep turtlenecks, corduroy pants or thick flannel in my closet in the summer and I never miss thin skirts and shirts in light colors (white linen, etc) in the winter. I fold the clothes up neatly and place in one or more of the cardboard or plastic boxes or move to the spare bedroom closet if there is room. Never put anything in storage if there is any doubt if it’s clean (you might need to do a few loads of laundry or take items to the Dry Cleaners before completing this step. You don’t want to find moth holes at the beginning of the next season or set in stains. If you have a lot of wool garments you will need to add moth repellent of some kind. (I’ve used whole cloves, moth balls and cedar blocks, there is more info online.)

*Note: As you remove last season’s clothing begin to ask yourself some questions:

1. Does it fit? or has it recently fit? (If it’s been more than 5 years and you are not in the process of already loosing (or gaining) so that they will likely fit by next year, then it’s time to find a new home.)

2. Does it flatter my figure? Is it comfortable? Do I love/hate it? Did I put it on and take it off instead of wearing it out last season? Is it severely outdated? Is there someone that might be thrilled to wear this? (If you have a friend or relative who might enjoy the clothes, tell her what you are doing but ask her to come at the end of the day to go through the plastic bags for charity at HER HOUSE not yours (or better yet, you drop the bags for her to go through)…she can drop off what she doesn’t take at the charity drop off spot. You want to get those bags out of your house before you have a chance to go pull something out to keep.

Anything that you can quickly decide to give to charity, put in the large plastic trash bag (use marker to label – Good Will, Salvation Army, etc. or just Give Away). As each bag is filled, move to the front door and the first time you walk past the bags to the car, put them in the trunk with a sticky note on the dash to drop them at the charity drop off place).

If you are undecided about an item you can put it in your ‘out of season’ box and decide next season or label one box “undecided” and see if you can live without it next year. If you need to be strict with yourself (and you are ready for that), then give it away. You probably won’t miss it if it’s outdated, doesn’t fit, isn’t comfortable or is no longer your style.

If you find garments that you love but they need repairing you can either put them in your ‘to be repaired by me’ basket in your sewing room (does anyone do that anymore?!), place by your purse to be dropped off at the Tailor (or Dry Cleaners that do repairs) or put in the charity bag and “Let it go!”

Anything that is severely damaged (torn or stained) throw in the trash can.

What you should have left hanging in your closet is the current season’s clothes arranged by type and color. Place the out of season boxes under the bed, top or bottom of the closet or spare bedroom closet. Worst case you can move them to the garage if there is no room in the house but I don’t recommend that.

You are over your first big hurdle, now take a break and celebrate!

Organize Your Closet One Step At A Time: Step 2 Collect Supplies

#2. Collect Supplies

A. 3-6 medium size cardboard or plastic boxes that will fit on a shelf in your closet or on the floor under shorter pieces of clothing or under a bed for storing your out of season clothes (unless you have an empty closet in another room that you can move them to).

B. Permanent Marker for labeling boxes, stickers or 3×5 cards if using plastic boxes.

C. Large plastic trash bags (clean) for taking clothes to charity.

D. Paper bags that stand on their own or plastic lined trash can for trashed items that cannot be passed on to someone else.

E. Clean laundry basket(s) or box(es) for sorting or moving clothing and other items to other rooms.

Organize Your Closet One Step At A Time: Step 1 Empty Hangers

1. Hangers

A. Remove all empty hangers putting all wire hangers and all broken/bent/weak hangers in a paper bag to be thrown away as you touch them (keep bag nearby and touch each hanger only once).

B. Place good empty hangers on your bed, dresser or empty box. (You should now have a tiny bit of room in your closet to maneuver a bit.

Notes: If you only own wire hangers go out and buy as many plastic hangers as you can afford. Not the flimsiest version but they don’t have to be very expensive. It’s nice to have a variety of styles. The smooth ones with a large opening and some with notches to keep spaghetti straps from slipping off.  I also like to use about 10 of the felt covered non-slip type for things that tend to slip off (they used to sell them at Costco) I do not like to use them for everything though, it’s too hard to remove garments.

If you don’t have any empty hangers you can start with Step 2 but will need a nearby bed to have space for sorting, so don’t start close to bedtime or you will be moving a pile of clothes to get into bed.

2013 in review

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2013 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

A New York City subway train holds 1,200 people. This blog was viewed about 4,600 times in 2013. If it were a NYC subway train, it would take about 4 trips to carry that many people.

Click here to see the complete report.

Closet Organization Tips

1. PREPARE: Have large trash bags ready for charity and trash, boxes or plastic containers for off season or undecided items, label boxes. Also have a spiral notebook for making a list of what is needed to complete the job.
2. BEGIN: Take everything out of the closet (you can sort quickly as you go for obvious discarded items like stained worn out t shirts or maternity clothes, but do not take the time to decide difficult items, move quickly). 
3. DIVIDE: Divide clothes and shoes into seasons (I use 2 categories: warm weather or cool weather)
4. CLEAN: Clean closet well: dust, vacuum, wipe down shelves, But move quickly.
5. CATEGORIZE: Go through the clothes in current season first, hang back in the closet – arranged by type then color (pants from white to black, shirts from sleeveless to turtleneck by color, etc), discarding obvious items for trash or charity into
6. QUESTION: One category at a time, now go through and ask the hard questions: does it fit, do I love it, does it serve a purpose, does it go with other items (shoes, tops, etc), is it age appropriate, do I go places that allow me to wear this outfit? Still work as quickly as you can, placing undecided items on the bed, leaving only what you LOVE or use very often out of necessity in your closet.
7.  CHOOSE: After you have gone through each category, pulling out undecided items, see if there are obvious needs (like ‘I love this skirt but I never wear it because I don’t have a top or shoes that match’. Start making a list of what you need to complete those outfits. If you have room, place those misfit items at the back or side of the closet, out of the main view. At this stage I literally try clothes on to make sure they do in fact fit and enhance my appearance. (If I’m planning to loose weight, I choose a few very favorite pieces that are smaller and place them in a box or spare bedroom closet for one year, if I don’t loose the weight, I get rid of it, if I do, I pull those items out and place some of the larger ones in the spare closet 🙂
8. LIST: Now look at what you have left and go back to the pile of undecided items on the bed, fine tune the selection only keeping what currently fits, is loved and/or is really necessary (for instance, if you don’t love your black blazer but you have to wear it to work tomorrow…keep it until you can replace it, add those items to your notebook list). Also add the list containers or tools needed to keep your closet organized (plastic boxes for folded sweaters, hooks or hangers for belts, etc).
9. STORE: Now start the whole process with your off-season, if you have space place those clothes in a spare bedroom closet, by category, by color. If not, box them up and label them well (winter pants and sweaters, summer sandals, etc).
10. GIVE: Place bags and boxes of clothes for charity in your car and take to Goodwill or Salvation Army the next time you can leave the house during their open hours. I keep them there in the trunk so that it’s harder to go back through them after I’ve decided to let them go.
11. SHOP: Start the process of replacing the items you’ve discarded if they are really necessary. I like to live with less for a while and enjoy how freeing it feels to have fewer choices and less clutter before I start shopping. But for others the reward of getting to shop afterwards might help with motivation.

Mother of the Bride: Shoes

I’m considering these shoes (I did purchase them on sale at Steve Madden) as a Mother of the Bride option for the wedding. That is if I go with a neutral colored dress (silver, gray, champagne, etc). If I go with a brighter dress then I’ll probably go with a neutral shoe. It’s starting to get close enough that I need to do some more serious shopping, ugh, I hate making clothing decisions.