Friday was like a day of Spring Cleaning for me except it’s the fall. After I dropped Skylar off at school, I went for a 5 mile run and while running I mentally strategized the rest of my day and dreamt about pumpkin recipes.
It was about 78F and perfect. Perfect, meaning the pumpkin recipes I was dreaming up in my brain that I can’t wait to cook because I’m craving pumpkin.
I came inside organized what I call my Appliance Closet, which is the place that appliances go when they’re not being used.
I have a couple mixers, cake pop makers, coffee makers, juicers, espresso makers, three blenders, toasters, waffle makers, and more. And all those appliances were taking over.
This cupboard is where I keep my smaller items and things I use almost every day like baking pans, mixing bowls, and cookie sheets but the bulkier appliances don’t fit there.
And then there’s an entire subset of appliances that I’ve used precisely once that go into the Appliance Graveyard as I sometimes call it.
Now the closet is organized.
And yes, I keep mixers in the closet.
I keep food in the kitchen, dishes in the living room, and appliances in the hall closet.
Urban condo living at it’s finest where every square inch must be utilized, including closets.
My usable countertop space is limited and covering that up with big appliance isn’t a workable option so they have their own little place in the closet.
Good thing it’s a warm climate and we don’t actually need to store many coats in the closet.
In the process of organizing, I de-cluttered and thinned out my stash.
I packed up a couple boxes of things from the Appliance Graveyard that I’ll never use and donated them to the thrift store.
After the thrift store, I went to: the grocery store, Trader Joe’s, Kinko’s, and Rite-Aid. It was Friday afternoon and everyone else apparently had the same idea as I did because the stores were packed and parking was scarce.
I came home and comforted myself with a fresh batch of Homemade Peanut Butter
I had just made a batch from 16 ounces of peanuts when I returned home from Aruba last week but within 5 days, I ate it all.
I was in major homemade peanut butter withdrawals and was just making up for lost time.
For the new batch, I processed a bag of honey roasted peanuts from Trader Joe’s for about 4 minutes and then added almost 3 tablespoons of vanilla extract. Because peanut butter is so robust and intense, it can take handle an intense amount of vanilla. The resulting peanut butter is a Very Vanilla-Honey Roasted Peanut Butter and it’s fabulous.
Use this recipe and method and add 2 to 3 tablespoons of vanilla at the end of processing, after it has liquified, and blend for another minute or so to incorporate the vanilla.
You could also just add a shot of bourbon.
I predict the new batch will last more than two days but less than five.
It’s so good with the honey and vanilla, but then again, I’m a Vanilla Monster.
I also made a loaf of Banana Bread with Vanilla Browned Butter Glaze. The bread has vanilla incorporated in it in four ways.
Clearly, I’m on a vanilla kick.
I cleaned three bathrooms from top to bottom and took out tons of trash and before I knew it, it was time to pick Skylar up at school. Her first day went wonderfully and the second day went just as well. She’s an old pro at first grade now after two days.
Just when I thought I was done and could start dinner and make more dishes for myself to do, her teacher handed out the Back To School Supplies list (yes, they do it after the first week) and we hit up Target and went back to school shopping. Needless to say, I slept very well last night after my day.
Have you checked any chores off your list lately?
I didn’t plan to have a chores day but realized it just had to happen because things were getting out of control and yesterday was as good as any to just handle it.
Where do you store your appliances or bulkier items if you live in a smallish space?
I grew up in the midwest where we had basements and garages. In California, we have earthquakes and no basements. And we have a parking stall, but not a private garage.
Just stuffing things into a closet and praying the door will shut only lasts so long before I had to take care of business.
There are people who live in far smaller quarters than we do, but between a child and her kid stuff, my cooking supplies and photography paraphernalia, and all of Scott’s things, I have to be careful not to let things get out of hand and keep everything organized and in it’s place. And make charitable donations monthly.
Clutter makes me crazy and if my house doesn’t look like this, I can’t function in it. It has to be neat, orderly, and clean.
Have a great weekend!
I have soooo many fall chores on my list and haven’t gotten around to any of them … oh well!
I store most of my appliances in cupboards. However, my Vitamix NEVER leaves the counter. I use it way too often to be dragging it out multiple times throughout the day.
Always nice to check of a chore list, I got a lot done this weekend too, but not as much as I wanted to with a cold. We have a fairly large corner pantry that I store a lot of stuff in – including our juicer, slow cooker, and bulk kitchen supplies.
WOW, You’re able to keep your house like that?! That’s awesome….jealous-jealous-jealous ;p I really struggle keeping up with day-to-day clutter. Our house was built in the 40s. We’ve got 2 small sections of countertop on either side of the sink. There are pipes and a big disposal under the sink nottomention liquor bottles:D, that I can’t store the drain rack under there. Alas, it’s always on the counter. We do have a basement, we spend a little time here and there decluttering–that is very satisfying! I want to try your peanut butter recipe with sunflower seeds. TJ’s sells sunflower seed butter and they can’t keep it on the shelves. It’s pretty darn tasty.
It drives me nuts if it’s not neat! It’s too small to be messy – otherwise all I see is The Mess! ha! And yes, TJs SFSButter is so good. Been eating it for about 5 years and you can make it at home but make sure to sweeten it with agave because sunflower seeds on their own can be kind of bitter when ground up!
Oddly enough, since I’ve been pregnant, I cannot stand nut butter…isn’t that terrible? Nuts ok – nut butter not ok. I used to carry around a jar of pb in my purse and eat pb&j sandwiches at least twice a week for lunch. I hope my taste is reacquired once my baby is born! I don’t want to live in a world where pb grosses me out… :)
When I was pregnant, PB was NOT appealing to me (one of the only times in my life that’s ever happened!) but my taste for it came back, quite nicely :)
I MUST try that peanut butter. Honey roasted and vanilla, my mouth is watering. When we moved to this house, the garage had been converted to two large rooms. One is a never-used-playroom where toys go to die, and one whole wall of the other room became the appliance/overflow cake stand/platter area. And now, because I’ve developed a Goodwill/Ross addiction, I have shelving in my dining room for my props. :)
You’d love the PB and I would love to have…a garage. Omg I can’t even imagine! Actually, I can. I’ve had them before and they’re pretty much the raddest things – you can just…store stuff in them! Novel concept! And I love your Goodwill addiction!
So glad she’s settling in so well! I need to do a major cleaning spree. That’s all I can say about that one LOL
I can’t stand clutter. I get rid of stuff every few months. It’s a good feeling!
Oh my, I so hear ya on limited living space. In our tiny apartment in Canada my KitchenAid had to live in the cupboard at times as well. Now that we are traveling Asia, the places we rented for longer usually always had bigger kitchen then we had in Canada. But my cooking and baking opportunities are so limited here. Oh, well…
Interesting that your Asia place is bigger than your Canadian one….I always hear that space is at an absolute!! premium in Asia!
I have plans to visit the thrift store this week! I am in search of beautiful vintagey plate ware after gawking over all your treasures lately. :) I need to organize my kitchen. Averie, it’s a disaster! But I am moving next March soooo I will probably just be lazy all winter and wait until I get a new place to clean out all my junk and make room for more! Chores I have checked off lately? Ummm…. yeah… does vacuuming my room count?! I have to clean out my closet as well. The more room I have, the more excuses to go clothes shoppinggggggg. :)
Given your weekend and all you accomplished, I don’t blame you for having a little bit of a mess going on AND that’s a HUGE thing to check off your list. So yeah, you’ve done plenty! And congrats in advance on the new place. Regarding thrifting, it’s a very long-term process. There are times I go to the thrift store 4x a month, and then times I go once every 3 mos. Sometimes you get lucky, sometimes you don’t. Go with the plan to buy anything you see that you like. Sometimes I really want plates but I see a great glass and I buy it b/c I will eventually use it. And just be persistent and try different places, too. Some places get great stuff, some places get…junk. lol