Side Ways

Ever since I started back at school, the dishwasher always seems full, the cupboard a little bare, and I am just a teensy bit frazzled. It seems the 20+ minutes it takes to prepare those healthy whole grain sides that my family loves to eat everyday is getting to be too much.  We've resorted to buying bags of prepared brown rice to nuke for the kids just to get dinner on the table, even though we have full bags of the stuff in our pantry. It occurred to me that I could probably take a half an hour over the weekend to make double, triple batches and freeze it myself.  That goes for quinoa, and pasta too. Such a time saver, it will only take 2 minutes in the microwave to heat it up when we need it. Stay tuned for a few yummy recipes using pre-made quinoa this Wednesday...

Also for those of you who have asked about some of the new photo apps I'm currently loving, try out phototoaster, VSCO CAM, Shapely, and Over. I used VSCO CAM and Over for this post.  A blogging timesaver, I don't have to get out my D-SLR and fire up photoshop to make a pretty post.   

1-2-3, 1-2-3

I've never had much rhythm.  True story, I really wanted to be a cheerleader in high school, but I knew that the only way I'd make it onto the squad is if I tried out for mascot. I'll have you know that I rocked that bear suit.  

I bring this up, because now that I write Poppy Haus, I find that I tend to post in fits and spurts, sometimes five days a week, sometimes two, and I always wish that I were more organized about it. A couple of weeks ago, I went to Altitude Design Summit, and it gave me a lot to think about. I sat down and made a plan, and I tried it out, and suddenly I felt it. I've got rhythm. Here's how it goes:

Hopefully this will make things more predictable for you, and a little easier for me. Win win! I'll see you Wednesday with my Raspberry Jammer recipe just in time for Valentines day. It's a biscuit with jam baked into it.  Is there any better way to say I love you?

The Laundress

Today I'm doing something that I've never done before here on Poppy Haus (do I sound like Ira Glass?).  I've enlisted my sister-in-law/ best friend to do a guest post. The topic is one that she is, by all measures, an expert on. Now, I know how to use stain remover and what detergents to buy; what I need help with strategy. I envy her ability to prevent pilling and prolong the life of inexpensive knits, keep her kid's clothes stain free, and preserve the original texture and size of her jeans. You never see an overflowing hamper at her house. No, not ever. I just don't know how she does it! So I asked, and she told me. Cue the Amelie soundtrack.

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Carrie's Laundry List

I like to do laundry. I like the feeling of accomplishment when I’ve finished folding and putting away the last load of the weekend. I like how all of the clothes look in their appropriate homes, dressers and closets stuffed full of outfit options for the week. I also like wearing clean clothes that aren’t faded or wrinkled
and I like looking at my husband and little boy wearing clean clothes that aren’t faded or wrinkled.

Those that know me well think I’m a teensy bit crazy about my obsession with clothing and laundry and not looking disheveled and making sure the dirty pile of clothes doesn’t become overwhelming; but it is what it is. And now that I’m a mom that works full time these things are even more important to me and I’m sure there are other people out there that feel the same.

Here are some strategies for staying on top of the laundry and keeping clothes looking fresh.

To avoid the overwhelming dirty clothes pile and inevitable backlog:

Start doing laundry for the weekend Thursday night and do a load  

or two each day until Sunday, folding and putting away after each load. That way you don’t feel as though you are devoting
large chunks of your weekend to this task. 

For the moms out there: 

• Fold at the table while your little guy or girl is eating breakfast, lunch, dinner or a snack.

• Fold on the living room floor while he or she is playing next to you.

• Fold after he or she has gone to bed, while you are watching True Blood, with a glass of wine in hand.

• Get him or her involved with sorting the clothes into their appropriate piles and putting them in the washer or dryer…it’s fun for them to help, can be a teaching opportunity(colors) and you get to be productive while spending time with them. (This one will probably only work with toddlers…unfortunately.)

To keep clothes looking like new:

• Wash everything (except whites) in cold/cold…yep, even the lights and delicates that contain tags that tell you to wash them in warm (cold water keeps color from fading).

• Turn jeans inside out before washing and never, ever dry them. Also, wear them 3-5 times between washes.

• Don’t just hang to dry things you want to keep from shrinking. Also hang anything you want to keep looking like new (dryers wear down the best of fabric pretty quickly and as a result, it becomes misshapen and faded very quickly).

When you hang something to dry:

• Fluff the garment in the dryer for 3-5 minutes before you hang it to remove wrinkles and help it take it’s original shape.

• Fluff the garment in the dryer for another 3-5 minutes once it’s dry, before you wear it, to remove stiffness.

Happy Laundering!

Carrie

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Moving Forward

Moving is really overwhelming.  I've got exactly one month until the truck arrives to take it all away and I'm taking the first steps to getting everything packed up.  Here's my plan:

1. Get the extraneous stuff packed first.  This includes decorative objects (I have a few), fancy glassware, entertaining pieces, china, specialty appliances, books and artwork. I will want to take extra care packaging these up, and as moving goes, you get sloppier as the move draws closer.  I can use the small supply of boxes I've been saving for last few months.

2. Plan a garage sale.  This is a big one. We are getting rid of some clutter which includes furniture, baby items, gadgets and electronics.  I'm organizing a multifamily sale.  This is planned for June 2nd on my sister-in-law's sprawling central Alameda lawn.

To prep for that we have to tackle the garage and make some hard choices.  


3. Book a moving company.  Past the era of leaning on family and friends, this is a must.  YELP makes it a lot easier.

3. Get boxes. I'm ordering eco-moving boxes from ZippGo, which rents recycled plastic moving bins.  These will make the move greener and easier for the movers, and will eliminate the need for box foraging and tape!  Toys, dishes, small appliances, bathroom and bedroom;  they drop off the bins and pick them up a few weeks later, forcing you to unpack. 

4. Schedule moving day(s).  We have kids, and kids do not help with moving.  They're being shipped off to family for a few days.  We're moving on a Friday, cleaning our current house on Saturday and doing our walk through on Sunday.  

5. Mail, Bills, Accounts.  This is my least favorite part of moving, but it can be done ahead of time.  Switching utilities, scheduling cable installation, changing addresses on accounts.  Remember magazine subscriptions!  I don't want the new tenants reading my coveted Dwell. 

Art Smart

Instagram can make an IKEA paper roller look pretty fancy.  I wanted to share the newest space in my soon to be vacated home.  Not being able to move furniture around and DIY a new wall piece is kind of driving me crazy, so I decided I should start packing!  First thing to go into a box were the ubiquitous backwards facing books on my credenza. I've come to realize this only makes sense on a West Elm display case. It freed up some space for something I've been trying to do for a while.  All of our art supplies are kept downstairs out of necessity, but there's a lot of art happening here and homework requires coloring shapes and drawing pictures to write about.  I needed an art space with the basics. I finally gave up on the old easel (it was a good idea in theory) and bought this low profile paper roller, which has a push down top to easily brace and tear clean sheets.  I put the crayons, colored pencils and canister of glue sticks, sharpeners and rounded scissors on a lacquered tray that can easily be moved to the kitchen table. Spiffy and sensible.

Enjoy By

I have a LOT of condiments, sauces and compotes that I use for specific recipes, and not that often.  Tonight I'm making a tofu curry from Sunset Magazine inspired by a dish at Hawker Fare, one of Oakland's best new restaurants.  It calls for fish sauce.  When I went to check to see if I even had any, the expiration date on the bottle was worn off from condensation and being banged around.  I had no idea when I bought it, so I had to toss and replace.  While in there I discovered a few more items with unreadable dates, and some that I guess I felt never went bad that had expired a WHILE ago.  Gross. I came up with a solution to this problem.  Using circular labels, the kind you might use tagging items at a garage sale, I went through and marked the expiration date in sharpie and stickered the top of the jar lid (or back of bottle). It only took a few minutes to get it all done, and it'll take no time to keep the system going.  FYI, Real Simple has a loose guide to determine expiration dates of food and other household products.

Panyl Me Happy!

I kind of had to share this find. I scooped it from Apartment Therapy's Marketplace. As the proud owner of a few of these EXPEDIT storage systems from IKEA, I have long wished for a way to make them cool.  Mine are filled with overstuffed "guy" bins that house talking action figures. They scare me in the middle of the night when walk by to get a glass of water. I'd been thinking about ditching the shelves until now...Made from architectural vinyl,the self-adhesive panyls come in every color of the rainbow, including wood grain stains. You attach them to the doors and drawers for EXPEDIT and other IKEA storage systems.  www.panyl.com

Real Real Simple

I don't do clutter.  I have a box in my garage that says "Sentimental Pottery" which is full of handmade bowls an old friend gave me, signed "For Heather". In my life everything has a system, whether I follow it everyday or not, I call it "processing" and my husband makes fun of me about it.  However, it keeps things visually uncluttered and preserves my sanity. I thought I'd share a few of these systems today: 


1. When I buy fruit, I remove all the stickers, wash it and always put the apples on the bottom, because they ripen hard fruit.  I have a snazzy fruit bowl that is open on the bottom and allows the fruit to breath.  

2. Mail.  I go to the mailbox and on my way back to the front door I sort it, recycling all the junk. I put all the bills in a folder in my desk. Magazines are put in an oversized wire basket and I recycle the previous issue.
 

3. I buy everything in one color.  Most of my pottery and decorative knick-knackery is white including a set of dishes and my linens.  All of my appliances are black.  I do this so that when everything is in full use, it all works together.  I LOVE color, but I use it carefully.

4. Menu planning/Shopping/Fridge cleaning.  This happens at the same time. Rotting leftovers take up space and only get pushed further back if they don't leave right away. When making the shopping list I take inventory and pull out the old stuff before the new stuff arrives.

5. I pick a brand and stick with it.  In this house it's usually Method which now offers just about everything.  When everything is the same brand it works together visually and the scent is complimentary (kitchen, bathroom, floors).

My Space

I used to have an office.  I had to give it up in order to house a child, so I guess it went to a good cause. I kept a desk in our living room for the past year and it caused a fair amount of design dithering, shifting art, moving furniture, hand wringing, hemming and hawing. It finally occurred to me what I was missing was having my own room, not a bedroom, I like to share that, but a Don Draper style office to retreat to (minus the creepy locked drawer). 

Bargain Basement

So,I took over our downstairs mudroom. I come down here every night for a little while to write, work, catch up. I have a place for my tear sheets and sharp scissors and most importantly, my prized glass desk lamp that had to be sequestered when that kid who stole my office started walking.  I make do.