Right now, my mind is cluttered, and therefore, it pours into other aspects of my life, including the kitchen.

Can anyone relate? Please let me know I am not the only one wildly raising their hand here.

All of my life, I’ve desired to be a “To – Do” List kind of person. I’ve always wanted to be one of those perky, organized girls that wakes up, grabs her paper and pen, and goes to town with the Top Ten Things she wants to get done for the day. I dream about joyfully writing them down first thing in the morning, and then enjoying the sense of peace that comes as a result of crossing off those tasks as they’re completed systematically throughout the day.

And then I wake up, to my reality.

My reality begins with that cute Clutter Countdown logo that my designer did at my request FOUR months ago. Yes, back in January when life was full of fresh, new beginnings and the desire to organize kitchen cabinets, I started thinking through this series. And four months later, it’s still not a reality. I share this to make you all realize that we are in this together.

My goal over the next few months is to just pick one area a week that I need to focus on in my home life.

This week, it’s the kitchen.

I want to make it manageable so that I don’t get side tracked and discouraged. I”m starting basic and easy, with tasks that will give me immediate satisfaction for time well spent.

1. Organize my canned goods pantry so that I can actually walk in the space again. Our kids are wonderful helpers, but when they unload, they just stack things on the floor if there’s not instant space on the shelves. Ok, I admit, I’ve done it too.

2. Revisit my Fail to Plan post and Print off my weekly/monthly meal plan sheet, but NOT schedule anything. I want to just brainstorm my Top Ten   – Ten Minute Dinner Ideas. Then I want to ask my kids for their top ten requests. My goal is to once again have a working list of meal ideas that I rotate.

3. Browse my stock pile and see what ingredients I already have on hand from my Top Ten List. I will make those meals first from items that are fully stock piled. Then, I will grab the kids and spend some quality time in the kitchen with them working together and sharing some life.

4. Make a list of ingredients that I need to purchase for my Top Ten  – Ten Minute Dinner meals. Determine if those are part of the natural couponing sales cycle. If they are, then I’ll wait, if not, I will be shopping for them this week.

5. De-clutter my corner kitchen cabinet and vacuum it. I keep all my small appliances in there and I just noticed tons of crumbs that have fallen from my toaster, plus there are attachments and little items everywhere. Basically, it’s a mess and should only take 15 minutes to make it beautiful.

6. Stop typing right now, walk to the kitchen and grab my Crock Pot and Frozen Chicken Breasts for my old and easy fall back recipe – Crock Pot BBQ Chicken.  If I don’t do it now, it will be 3:00pm and I will just realize that I didn’t start the crock pot.

7. Print some great coupons that I’ve been neglecting. 

8. Add Coupons to Phone. Since I only recently moved to the new age of smart phone use, I need to set up my texting for store alerts and add coupon apps to my phone. I have been missing out on a lot of free money for these great deals. These are especially wonderful when you don’t have any paper coupons or don’t feel like cutting them.

Sign up for Savings Star – Good at over 100 stores. With SavingStar, you can save eCoupons to your grocery store loyalty cards from their website or their mobile application which automatically get credited when you swipe your card at checkout. Though the savings don’t show at the register, your savings get credited directly to your SavingStar account, which you can request payment via Paypal, bank deposit, or gift card.  (I can already check this off. First task completed this morning.)

Join Cell Fire – Add store loyalty cards to my phone. Valid at Kroger and Kroger subsidiaries, Carrs, Genuardi’s, Randall’s, Tom Thumb, Shop ‘n Save, Lowe’s, Foodtown and Harps. (Just did this. Two tasks completed.)

9. Put in my April grocery order from Vitacost.com. I’ve been procrastinating, but now it’s 8% cash back through Ebates, so it’s an amazing time to use my “free money.” (And you can get $10 to spend too. If you’re not familiar with this store, it’s worth your time to check out my Vitacost post explaining it.


www.FlirtyAprons.com

10. Flirty Aprons order – and yes, because I really do think that adding a fun apron while you work improves the attitude, I will be checking out the Flirty Apron Site for their annual Mother’s Day Sale. It’s their best sale of the year because EVERYTHING is on sale at 40% off, not just selected items, but they sell out fast. Receive 40% off everything on site with code Mother40

 Let’s make this a week of being intentional in the kitchen.

For those of you who aren’t List Makers, join me with just jotting down a few tasks that you’d like to get done this week. Remember, it’s just baby steps.

What are some of the things you’d like to put on your “To – Do” List in the kitchen?

Take a minute and share them in the comments and we can get motivated and inspired together. Maybe we might even see a few things that we should get done, but would never have thought of if it wasn’t for your comment.

Now I look forward to seeing what some of you are making this week.

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