My attempts at organization

I've really been working on getting the house more organized so it will be easier for me to find things. That way, I won't buy stuff I already have and it will make menu making and meal planning much easier and quicker. I am finding that I am spending a huge amount of time on those things and I have to find an easier way.

So far, I have started organizing binders for my most-used recipes, grocery receipts, grocery lists, and price lists. I am making price lists of all the things that we buy on a regular basis, so I will know when a sale is a good one and when a coupon on the name brand will save us money over the generic. Today, it took me much less time to get my weekly grocery list together than it normally does. I also had prices for almost everything, so it was easy to see how much money we needed. This is still a work in progress, but I'm going to keep chipping away. My next goal is to make a coupon organizing system that works for me. So far, I haven't had much luck with using envelopes or a coupon organizer. I'm going to see if I can come up with something using a binder and page protectors, since Mike had a bunch left over from classes at work.

I have also decided to take all the cans out of the can cabinet and relocate them to the pantry. The problem with the can cabinet is that it is a lower cabinet. I have a hard time getting down there to see what is in it (especially with my hamstring problems) and cans are always falling to the back and sitting there for years. Alex, Hannah and Shauna got all the cans out for me and I checked all the expiration dates. While most were still current, I found some from as far back as 2004! I also found out that we have plenty of tuna to fall back on, for busy days. I might even try a tuna casserole, which we have never had before.

The pantry is also still a work in progress, but it is looking much better. My old system was just put everything in there, where ever it fit. As you can imagine, that didn't work well. Stuff kept getting behind other stuff and I would buy it over and over. Plus everything would fall off the shelves and end up getting stepped on and crushed. I still have a long way to go, but I am happy with the progress made so far.