Deep Freezer - Before and After Organizing

....Aaand here are the results of my freezer cleaning!

A couple weeks ago, I posted my brim-full refrigerator before picture, and a nice, sparkly after picture, along with a teaser of my deep freezer before picture, which revealed a freezer so full it's about busting at the seams. As promised, I have returned with an after picture and a list of what's really stored inside!

The main reason the freezer was so full is because I had just received a cows worth of beef bones, which I turned into some delicious bone broth. Once I was able to clear those out, I finally had room to rearrange and take inventory of what was inside.

I had a pretty good idea of what I had before I started, since the freezer came with these nice handy, dandy dividers where I can section off categories like ground beef, steaks, roasts, etc. These are super helpful because we buy our beef in bulk and can fill up an entire section with one variety of cut rather than everything being strewn about and it being a treasure hunt whenever I manage to dig below whatever is on the surface. 

Because of this, I did not dig through the steak section to see exactly how many of each cut I had (round, sirloin, etc.). Knowing I had an almost-full section of steak was good enough for me to know we weren't going to run out anytime soon!

Ta-daaa! 

Here it is! The after shot. Still full, but much neater.

And here is the inventory. I included the list of my upstairs refrigerator/freezer inventory, since I am frequently transferring things between the two.

Since making this list, I have used up the whole turkey, a roast, some steak, a bag of zucchini, the beets, a bag of hotdogs, and several pounds of butter. It has been nice having this list handy so I can plan my meals accordingly without having to open my freezer, although I do sometimes get better inspiration when I see the actual food. :) 

Want to know what's cooking? I have a beef roast in the crock pot at this very moment! Mmm.

Product Review: Shark Professional Rotator Lift-Away Vacuum - PART 1

The following article is written based off my personal experience using this machine. It was bought and paid for by me, and I get no compensation from anybody for sharing my review and opinions with you.

I finally did it. I bought me a new vacuum!

I'd never bought one before, so this was a new experience.

I'm no expert in the area of cleaning. Cleaning is not my forte. I'm what you call functional, but having a vacuum that I had to sweep up after was too much.

The vacuum that lived in this house when we got married was one my husband already had. He may have been a bachelor, but he did have a few necessary household items, and he was fully stocked in the cleaning supplies department. Now fast forward to three years later, when I had to try not to vacuum when Aaron was home because he would complain every time I did, and it reminded me how trashy our vacuum "cleaner" really was. About a minute into cleaning, the house would smell like dust. The thing couldn't pick up a piece of dirt the size of a wheat berry, and it would leave a pile behind anytime it was turned off or jostled around the slightest bit. I had to be careful to wheel it over to a room with hardwood flooring before turning it off, so I could easily sweep up after it with a broom. I then carried it to its spot halfway down the basement stairs oh so carefully so as to not shake it too much to avoid any more dirt leaking out. We tried emptying it. We tried blowing it out, cleaning it, checking filters, and finally, after talking about it for months, saved ourselves the headache and hassle and bought us a new-fangled fancy one! 

When shopping for a vacuum, I had a few specifications that I was looking for. 

1. It had to suck dirt.

2. It needed to have a hose so I could clean in tighter spaces, in cracks or crevasses, or on top of furniture.

3. I wanted it to work well on hardwood floors.

I had remembered hearing rave reviews on the Shark brand by other moms, many of whom had cleaning businesses or large families. While we have a rather small house with only one carpeted room, I'm banking on a new vacuum lasting a number of years, which means our kids will be older and tracking more dirt, our family size will probably grow in that time, and we'll be taking it on to our next house (and who knows how much carpet we'll have then). 

Here are some of my first impressions.

Unboxing and Assembly

It came in a much smaller box than I was expecting. I guess after having a huge honking vacuum, I assumed that this one would at least be in a vacuum-sized box. One of the unique features of this particular vacuum is that it is compact and can be easily taken apart for cleaning or depending on whether you're using it as a stand-alone vac or a hand-held sweeper. So there was some simple assembly (no tools necessary).

Another thing that caught my attention right away was how light it was. My first reaction to it's being lightweight was that it must be cheaply made. Heavy = heavy duty, right? Time will tell.

Next, it felt flimsy to me. I knew right away before trying it that I wasn't going to like the rotator.... That is, until I actually tested that function. 

While the base seemed a bit narrow at first, I love how slim it is in height. It is able to slide under the edges of my couch very efficiently! So much different than my old clumsy Eureka that kind of just bumped into the furniture.

Performance

Well, it blew me away with how well it picked up dirt. I was like the difference between a gentle summer breeze and a tornado. The suction was set at max by default, but I didn't see that until after it tried sucking up one of my baby's wooden puzzle pieces. It didn't eat the piece, but I was impressed that it tried. It also sucked up a piece of paper that was slightly larger than an inch square. This could be bad for those of you who try vacuuming around things you value somewhat that you might've forgotten to pick up beforehand, but helpful to those of us who don't want to bend down to pick up something that small that you would've just thrown in the trash yourself. If this is too powerful for you, then simply adjust it lower than max suction. I kept it at max because I wanted to see what it could do, and also to give my carpet a good cleaning after having a lousy vacuum for so many years.

Rotator feature

You're probably wondering what exactly do I mean by rotator? It means that the canister part can move from side-to-side while the sweeper base is stationary. This is why it felt floppy to me at first, but here's what it does! It is designed that way to get underneath things easier! In the above picture, I demonstrated how far it could get under my futon if it wouldn't have the rotating capability. In the photos below, you can see that simply by bending it to the side, I am able to reach an extra 12 inches! With my Eureka, it always seemed like I was pulling the hose out to get the under edges of my furniture, but the Shark can easily be maneuvered into tighter spaces. For reference, the space between the futon and the table leg is about 4 inches. 

I don't know if I should be more excited or embarrassed at how much dirt I picked up from sweeping my house one time. I think this is a clear sign that our other vacuum did. not. work. The dirt canister can easily be lifted off to empty, and the filters are all washable by using plain old water. The fact that it can come apart at multiple points for easy cleaning and maintenance was a huge selling point for my husband. He loves that he can access any part of the vacuum easily! Being a mechanic and fabricator, his words were "this product was very well designed". 

Mr. Asks-to-Vacuum-Several-Time-a-Week-and-Wants-to-Do-it-All-Himself stood on a chair while I assembled the vacuum and ran it across the living room for the first time. It wasn't until I shut it off and was ready to move on that he asked to give it a shot. This one is a little easier for him to use because it's not as heavy, but due to him being a kid, he still has to work to lift the thing in order for it to lay flat on the floor. I think he'll do better using it with the lift-away feature (to be reviewed in part 2).

I love that the cord is 30-feet long! We have an old house with verrry minimal outlets, and half of them are hidden by furniture, so having an extra long cord is super handy! I literally vacuumed my entire house without having to unplug it. It didn't even pull the cord tight! Yeah, our house is only about 880 sq. ft., but this still is absolutely impressive. Also, check out the cord hook, which helps keep the cord off the floor and out of your way while you're vacuuming. Okay, so I just discovered my old vacuum has this too, but I never noticed after all these years.

~

So far, I'm pretty happy with this product. My biggest disappointment is the fact that I had to learn on a rare big purchase that Kohl's doesn't offer Kohl's Cash all the time. Thankfully, I was able to get this on sale, plus stack two coupon codes for an additional $52 off, making the purchase price just shy of $180. It's a rare moment when I can bring myself to shell out this much money on anything, but I was sure hoping to get $30 Kohl's Cash back, because I already had plans on how I was going to spend it. :)

....To be continued....

My Workspace

Take a peek into my workspace this afternoon! Meal planning for the month, making a grocery list, feeding the baby (and me) some lunch, and copying down a bunch of our favorite recipes from Pinterest.

*This week's declutter/organization challenge is taking care of the recipe and coupon department! I don't clip many coupons and don't really have recipe books to weed through and purge, so my task is copying down the recipes I use from the internet and putting them on paper! It's another thing I've been meaning to do for quite some time.

Refrigerator and Freezer Cleaning and Organizing

Now that I've shown you my kitchen makeover (when I actually washed the hideous pile of dishes), I may as well keep going and update you on the rest of my house projects. I'm involving myself in a weekly "declutter challenge" that attacks a different area of the house per week. I'm loving that I get a whole week to take care of an area, because some of these weeks require more time for me to get the nominated task accomplished.   

*Moment of truth*: when I finally achieved my goal of clearing those kitchen counters a couple weeks ago, it wasn't just because I woke up one morning and told myself I was finally going to suck it up and get it done (after having it on my to-do list for a month), but rather because it just so happened to be the task for the first week of the declutter challenge. It was an extra help to know that other housewives around the world were working on the same problem area that I was. 

Fast forward to week three. This is the week to clean out the refrigerator and freezer. When I learned what area this week was, my first though was "well, at least my deep freezer is already organized", followed by a "don't they know I have more than just a little refrigerator-freezer?". My deep freeze is organized to a degree, but I've also acquired 50lbs of pork, 9lbs of ground beef, and a cow's worth of bones in the last week and a half, so it really isn't all that organized looking anymore. 

As far as the refrigerator, it was in desperate need of cleaning out. I had been making the excuse of there being snow on the ground, so I can't get out to the compost pile to dump out any bad stuff, plus I don't want to mess up the yard, to justify my putting it off for like... all winter. But since this was the task for the week, and the fact that the snow melted over the weekend, that was no longer a valid excuse. I was going to get it done! In order to keep myself from putting it off any further (you know, my habit towards last-minute stuff), I got right on it Monday morning!

Why is it so satisfying to see a clean, shiny refrigerator? Is it because I know there is no longer a puddle of crystalized maple syrup under the crisper drawer? (Honestly, I had no idea it was even there until I pulled the drawer out to clean.) It's nice to know that every crevasse has been wiped down. 

Next area: the deep freezer. I just took the first batch of bone broth out of the cooker, and will start another this afternoon so I can clear that much space before I tackle the actual cleaning and organizing of the freezer. It will be easier if I don't have to wonder where to put a few large items!

Teaser:

Stay tuned - an after picture is coming! Plus, I'll be taking inventory of the freezer, so check back later if you're wondering what's hiding underneath the top layer of frozen goods. :)