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I have shared this week my new book Declutter your life…when less is more, and I am going to follow up by doing a post each week to keep motivating you to declutter your home.

Click here to purchase

Grab the book to get started and to help you as you declutter your home. If you can’t, then enjoy the video series that I will be posting on each week.

Week 1  Kitchen cabinents

If you  have read through my large family organization series you will see how we had organized our home.  This is more about living with less and how you can do it.

Even though you THINK you need things in your life, chances are you don’t. After moving 700 miles from our home, I had to get rid of many of our household items so that it would fit into a moving truck.  I thought I was more of a minimalist then, but I realize how much more I can live without.

 

Here are our kitchen cupboards.  I have fairly large room in this cabinets.  I am able to put everything in one area and that makes putting away dishes fast. 

We keep ONE set of dishes for everyone.  No more, if we have guests then we buy paper products.  It makes clean up easier anyways.  Plus it means that I have to do dishes instead of letting them sit in the sink after each meal.

I have found these restaurant style cups, they are almost unbreakable and they work well for our home.  Each person has a water bottle that we keep filled and in the refrigerator but this is good for milk, juice, or kombucha. 

I got rid of most all of our serving dishes.  I bought 2 matching bowls to use with our dishes and we use these for serving.  I keep one round glass bowl with lid for heating up leftovers in the oven.  I have kept 1-9×13 glass baking dish for reheating as well. It also works well for cakes and other smaller desserts.

In the top of our cupboards we have lots of space that was too high to reach without climbing so we use it for storage of our cleaning supplies. 

Everything stays out of the way and with one quick look I can see if I am out of an item.

For my plastic cupboard I have a small shelf on top that holds my mixing bowls.  I keep these nested together.  I keep a few cheap plastic ones for popcorn and snacks.  Plus when my husband runs out of an oil pan, guess who he comes too???  I got rid of all my other mixing bowls that I used to have.  These 2 stainless steel ones work just fine and contain the mess by being taller.

For my plastic stash, I went with large plastic containers.  I am trying to accumulate enough so that I do not have to use plastic bags when I bake items.  I picked up some medium sized ones and they were good for leftovers.  I try and keep all similar sizes–square/rectangles for the ease of stacking.

In the back I keep my round 16 oz containers that I use to freeze foods in.  I do not have a source to buy them here, so I am making sure to keep these.  As I use up my foods in the freezer this cupboard can get messy quick, I take the extra containers and store them in a cooler in our storage area.

Under my sink, I store a container in back with trash bags–to make sure they don’t get wet in case the sink leaks:)  Up front I have my cleaning rags, and in the ice cream bucket I have sponges, magic erasers, and metal scrubbers.  I hang up my bottle brush–for cleaning out water bottles and jars.

The other side I keep my bottles of natural cleaners that we use each week.  I also keep my cutting board, griddle, and waffle maker down here.  Out of the way as we don’t use it much.  I keep extra grocery bags for lining the trash cans with in here too.

My kombucha cupboard.  Did I ever think I would have a kombucha cupboard??  What’s kombucha you ask? click here to find out.

Here are my jars on top fermenting in the second phase with fruit. 

Here are my large crocks with kombucha brewing.  Kombucha has a smell that is not very pleasant, I am very thankful that I am able to keep this inside of a closed cupboard. 

My baking cupboard.  I keep items that we use for baking in here.  Everything in one place.  Works well.

On the middle shelf of this cupboard I keep my strainer and small stainless steel mixing bowl.  My bread pans fit nicely in the center and on the right is the rest of my food processor.  The bottom is on the shelf below it.

Up top I keep items that I barely use like parchment paper, rolling pin, applesauce maker, and extra blades for food processor.  These are out of the way and if I need them, I do a cupboard climb.

My other cupboards are food.  I don’t have a basement to store food in anymore but I am provided with much cupboard space.  I have a tall pantry and then 3 other cupboards I keep food in.  It works for us now.  I keep my toaster, popcorn maker, and crockpot in with the food.

Week 2 of decluttering your life kitchen drawers.

This post is part of the Choosing Him Blog Tour which I am delighted to be a part of along with nearly one hundred other inspiring Christian bloggers. To learn more and join us, CLICK HERE! 

When I was asked to do a book review for Juana Mikels new book:  Choosing Him All Over Again I was a little apprehensive, just not knowing the content of it or what it was going to be encouraged towards.  Little did I realize that God would use this book to minister to me in my own marriage and life.

Here is the excerpt from the book:

As I read her book from start to finish hearing her testimony of how she left her husband in search for “Mr. Right” but then finding her way into the arms of Jesus, I was moved.  Several times throughout the book, I stopped and wrote down a line that she had written and I placed it on my windowsill in the kitchen for encouragement.

I love hearing testimonies from woman that have stepped out of the plan that God has ordained in marriage and then to hear how God wove their lives back together with their husbands to become one.  It is a true delight seeing the Lord work in both Juana and her husband Terry’s heart.  They were both non believers and it is proof that God hears our desires for us to have more.  Once we line up with Him in our life, He can perform miracles.  God can take a broken, unfruitful person and transform them by the power of prayer into a life that they could never imagine.

While I enjoyed reading Juana’s story and how God was working in her life, on a practical side I enjoyed the blessing that she received from going through this trial—the ability to share and help other woman who may be going through this same trials that she did.

She gives tangible areas with testimony of her journey to focus on during separation and reconciliation.

I had to squirm a little as I was reading the checkpoints to refresh your marriage.  Things that I know myself, I forget to do as a wife.  It is ALWAYS good to be refreshed on our roles in life.  If we just read the bible one time in our life and lived it, there wouldn’t be much growth.  Being reminded of the kind of wife we should be is a good thing.  It is definitely— convicting in a good way.

One part really stuck out to me about seeking unity of interests.  The Lord brought to my attention how many things that we do now a days that draws couples away from each other.  Smart phones, tv, the internet, sports, personal interests, and our need for personal alone time.  So many things pull couples away from each other more and more in our society, no wonder there is a breakdown of marriages.  Most woman are in a mentality of wanting “their needs” met without ever considering what it is God wants in their life.  They go into marriage with the “me” mentality and that usually will fail real quick.  Marriages are about two people becoming one and enjoying the benefits of growth through that time.

She quotes JR Miller in her book and it says:

Every plan and hope should embrace the other.  The moment a man begins to leave his wife out of any part of his life, or (if) she has plans, hopes, pleasures, friendships, or experiences from which she excludes him, there is peril in the home.  They should have no secrets which they keep from each other.  They should have no companions and friends save those which they have in common.  Thus their lives should blend in one life, with no thought, no desire, no feeling, no joy or sorrow, no pleasure or pain unshared.

I enjoyed that summary because it sums up what a TRUE marriage is–TWO people coming together to become ONE.

I am not big on promoting items that I don’t feel are going to be of worth to you as a consumer.  If you have noticed, I don’t have any affiliate advertisements or links on my blog—its not me. But when I find a book or product that I feel is going to actually truly HELP someone, then I have no problem sharing it with the world.  If you know anyone who may be going through a separation or even someone who is married to an unbelieving spouse, I would recommend this book highly.  I pray Juana is blessed through her efforts of sharing what God has done.  In Luke 8:39 Jesus said, to go and declare all that God has done for you.  I believe that Juana is doing this through her book.