Invaded

A few weeks ago we started noticing these little tiny bugs in the kitchen and in the pantry. Some of them were flying around in the pantry and we caught a couple on some shelves and the fruit that we had on the kitchen counter had them too. After asking pretty much everyone we know and doing some research - we found out that they were little tiny beetles. We're still not sure were we got them, but we think it was from the Farmer's market. They were able to get in to pretty much everything - even things that hadn't been opened yet. The advice that we found said that we should throw everything away, and vacuum the pantry and counters.

This was our pantry before. I stockpile because I'm one of those people that don't like going to the store so I get a lot while I'm there and then can make pretty much anything at any time because I already have it in the house.

This is our pantry now - after a trip to the grocery store.

I had to throw away all of my baking stuff - which was a LOT. I had all kinds of chocolate, and nuts and such. It just made me sick. All of my new baking stuff is going into airtight glass containers. Eventually - I'll make some pretty labels for them.

We were able to keep quite a bit of spices, but had to throw out even more.

We didn't have to throw away any can goods, so we were thankful for that. But we did have to throw away all of our pasta, rice and cereal so now I only buy what we are going to use that week or in the next few days. I bought containers for our cereal though.

When it was all said and done - it took 11 contractor (74 gallon) trash bags to clean out the pantry. I wiped down all the shelves and then vaccumed them. There weren't any bugs so we went to Wal-Mart to get containers and some bug spray and we came back and there were about 30 bugs in the pantry. I sprayed the whole pantry down that night and when I woke up the next morning - there were dead bugs everywhere! They must have been hiding in there. The shelves of our pantry are removable so I took them all out, sprayed underneath and behind, sprayed the floor and all of the walls and the ceiling every day until I had used the entire bottle of spray. We never saw any more bugs after the first time. Then, I wiped everything down with colorox and mopped the floor. I waited another couple of days before I moved everything back in to the pantry and so far - so good. We haven't seen any bugs. Here's hoping we don't get invaded again!

Detoxing!

Of course, over the years - people accumulate a lot of stuff. In the last couple of years - we have gone through a couple of moves and haven't downsized a whole lot along the way. This is the result:

That is our garage (looking out the laundry room). Lovely huh? See our little trail, to get to the end of the garage, to put the trash out? Darren would love some room to actually get to use some of the tools that he has out there.

Our mission, for the long weekend, was to get all of this cleaned up and to cover the floor with Rust-Oleum. My brother-in-law did his garage a year or so ago, and it looks great, so we figured we would try it out.

This is a couple of hours into our "project".

These are all of the "decorations" we have. Seriously. Fall, boy baby shower, wedding shower, girl baby shower, wedding, Christmas, Easter, Halloween, Fall, Summer, 4 of July. You name it - we had something to decorate for it!

This is what the garage looked like when we got ready to do the floors. We are not done - those shelves will be more organized and the things closest to the hot water heater have been moved. We are putting up pegboard on the right side, so that I can hang up all of my yard art, and all of my cute wooden signs and such, and so we can have an organized way to store water hoses, extension cords, etc. The left side will become Darren's "workshop". He is going to put his work benches back in there, and build a table along that wall, to set up his tools and get all of his stuff organized.

The "old" garage floor.

The "new" garage floor!

Isn't it pretty?

...and close up. Doesn't it look great? It really looks awesome in there, and I really feel like we have gone through some sort of "detox". It's amazing how much better you feel when you get rid of some things you have been hanging on to for too long!

We also started re-finishing our kitchen cabinets (finally), but that is a project in the works. Already, its very exhausting and time consuming and will be a long time coming, before I am able to update with pictures of that. :) Wish us luck though - I'm sure we will need it! :)

We worked our butts off and although we accomplished a lot - we missed two housewarming parties and only took time enough out to grill some fajitas last night, for the first home-cooked meal in 4 days. We are proud of our progress though. I hope you all had a safe and Happy Memorial Day!

Product Review - Method

Last year, a dear friend of mine introduced me to Method products. And I use the term “introduce” loosely. She could single handedly, run their marketing campaign and I really think they should be paying her something for all of her word-of-mouth reviews. Partly just to tell her that I tried them, I gave in thinking I will wince when I go to check out and the products are more expensive and I will go back to my works-just-as-well-and-it’s-a-lot-cheaper products. I was wrong! I’m in love. Don’t get me wrong, I would still love for the products to be cheaper, but these are really great products that are made with naturally derived surfactants, so they are safe for your family. There are no chemicals and dangerous toxins so that means – they are 100% safe for your children and your pets. (Moms, this means that your kids can help you clean and you don’t have to worry about them inhaling or ingesting anything that will hurt them)! Method’s cleaning formulas contain biodegradable ingredients derived from natural materials like soy, coconut and palm oils and their product packaging is made from the most readily recyclable materials. The CO2 emissions from their employee’s commute and travel to work, are offset with carbon credits and the energy used in their manufacturing sites and offices are from renewable energy credits. They never test products on animals, which is big in my book! They have the neatest packaging designs – they design art, not just cleaners and best of all – they have some really great scents. They mimic scents of flowers, fruits and herbs so your house smells fresh and natural, and not like chemicals. I thought that Darren would flip out that I was paying more for something that I was already getting, cheaper but he listened to all the great things about them, and decided that we would give a few things a try. I loaded him up in the car and we ran over to our local Target (they only place I have found Method products, besides the internet). We walked into the cleaning aisle and he said “we should try this one” and “ooh, we should try that one” and before you know it – I had half a basket full of Method products! Some things I have noticed while using them? They smell great! Seriously! They don’t bother Darren’s allergies, like other products I was using. I am not a psycho about locking the dog outside to make sure everything dries before she gets inside. My laundry is really clean and fresh! I have big issues with laundry detergent (and soap) irritating my skin. I get all red and itchy when I use fragranced soaps and detergents so I was REALLY leery about trying a new detergent, but guess what? It’s fabulous! Honestly! I pay $14.99 for a container of detergent that will wash 64 loads (not much of a price difference from Tide) and I won’t buy any other kind of detergent – I am hooked! Here are some of the products that I am using: hand soap (I like the Go Naked and Darren likes the Cucumber); hand sanitizer (I'm using Sweet Water); dishwasher tabs; daily shower spray; toilet bowl cleaner; wood cleaner; air freshener; scented plug ins; dryer sheets; and my absolute favorite... their laundry detergent. They even have baby laundry detergent if you want the "green" version of Dreft. The same dear friend that introduced me to these products, recently had a new baby. As a small gift, I headed over to Babys R Us and bought their Method Baby Gift Set. She reviewed the gift set on her blog, last month. Give them a try! You'll love them, as much as I do, I'm sure!!

The Essentials??

Months back, a friend of mine and some friends of hers cleaned out their cars and listed on their blogs all the stuff they found while cleaning. They were getting a lot of mouth from their husbands about how much stuff they had in there, etc. Anyhow, I cleaned out my car a couple of weeks ago, and didn't make a list, but...I cleaned out my purse today! Ha! It makes me laugh just thinking about it. Darren always gives me so much grief about all the crap I have in there. I'm always complaining about how heavy it is and how there is so much stuff in there. I always assure him that I am just carrying "the essentials", but the more I carry it, the less sure of that I am. So, I decided to clean it out today and this is what I found: 1 wallet 2 checkbooks 1 check book register 1 book of used checks 4 necklaces 7 batteries 1 digital camera 1 bottle of Aleve 1 bottle of Midol 1 kitchen cabinet knob 1 paint sample 1 iPod cord 1 PSP cord (I don’t even have a PSP – this must be Darren’s) 2 bottles of nail polish 1 pair of sunglasses 1 pair of tanning (salon) goggles 1 book 1 bottle of perfume 1 bottle of hand sanitizer 1 prescription bottle 2 tubes of chapstick 2 tubes of lip gloss 4 pens 1 pair of earrings 1 lose earring 5 peppermints 1 butterscotch candy 1 fun size Butterfinger 1 package of crackers 1 Tootsie Roll 2 melted Hershey Kisses 1 packet of single serving Kool Aid 4 hair clips 2 bottles of contact re-wetting solution 6 pennies 3 dimes 1 quarter 1 safety pin 1 party invitation 2 sets of directions 1 car insurance card 1 bottle of water, ½ full 3 shopping lists 4 coupons 1 voter registration card 2 recipes 1 package of pony tail holders 9 bills, 2 un-opened 1 paycheck stub 1 payment book 1 pampered chef order form 1 envelope full of Darren’s allergy info. 1 cell phone, and 47 receipts Ok, so apparently - I carry ESSENTIALly everything!! Needless to say, my purse is MUCH lighter now. Hopefully, it will stay that way!! :)