Happy Mother's Day - Now Get to Work!

For Mother's Day I received this:

My children were so proud of their cards, and I LOVE them!

I also received this:

Aaaand something like this:


Oooooo!  Aaaahhh!  :)

Now, before there is any outrage, I really wanted these things.  My husband is a sweet flowers kind of guy.  I love that, but right now I just can't spend money on something that will be gone in a few days.  Instead, we spend our gift money on practical things that we need (or sometimes want).  That precedent was started on our first Christmas together and I asked no BEGGED for a paper shredder.  It was not a romantic gift, not even close, but it was AWESOME!  I was tired of shredding everything by hand.  Every time I used that shredder and now its replacement, I think of that first Christmas.  Just like I think of Valentine's Day when I use my stick vacuum to suck up crumbs or our anniversary when I use the garage door.  Call me crazy, but it makes the everyday things a little more special for me.

Alright, after all of that pontificating...I needed a new iron because my old one had a trick cord.  I was constantly jiggling it to make sure that it was actually heating.  I needed the freezer because of this:

*Insert horror movie scream here*

This is the inside of my freezer.  I am amazed that I could get this picture without anything falling out and skidding across the floor.  What is in there?  Is that chicken, frozen vegetables, definitely orange juice, maybe some butter, um-pork chops, what about an ice pack?  Is there an ice pack anywhere in there?  Sheesh!  What a mess!

A few years ago my freezer organization worked like a well-oiled machine.  I was in a frozen dinner group with several of my friends (that is a post for another day, but it is in the plans).  I kept things neat and tidy so that I would always know what I had and where it was.  Since the frozen dinner group ended, nature has reclaimed the interior of the freezer for its own.  Everything has been getting progressively worse and worse.  I have been putting off cleaning it out for what seems like FOREVER!  So believe me when I tell you I was super excited to get the chest freezer as a gift for Mother's Day!  That meant I could ORGANIZE (picture me saying that it an ultra-happy sing-song voice)!  :)  Click here or on the "Organize" page at the top of the page to check out some of my organizational projects. 

We picked up the freezer, this beautiful freezer, on Saturday!

Hello, lovely!  Thank you for coming to my house!

We added bike reflectors to help us not hit it in the dark.  :)  They were a BEAR to find at the store!

I threw in some things in a haphazard fashion on Sunday afternoon after I searched through the freezer on the hunt for some frozen vegetables.  The freezer came with one hanging basket, but that was simply not enough organizational storage space for my liking.

I went to Walmart on Tuesday morning and carefully perused the shelf aisle.  I got a few of these and one or two of those and came home with a pile of various shelves and bins for use in the freezer.  (I got A TON of stuff.  I have no idea how I thought I could use them all inside this freezer, but I did.)

I first tackled the inside freezer.  Surprisingly there was not that much spoiled food that needed to be thrown out.  I got rid of one pound of ground beef that was freezer burned, two pork chops dated from 2007, and a Frosty Bear ice pack that had a hole in it.  Considering the above jumble I was pretty amazed!  I used two small shelves out of my pile from the store on the inside freezer.  I originally thought that I would have to go back and buy some more (shaking head).  That was pretty silly.

Here is how the inside freezer looks now (minus some chicken breasts that we had for dinner tonight).

The top shelf is for large bags like chicken breasts.

The second shelf is for potatoes, smaller packaged meats,and that awesome bowl of chicken broth.

Fruit bars, frozen fruit, and bread can be found here.

The bottom drawer is ALL frozen vegetables.  (I knew I had some stowed away somewhere in here.)

I found the ice packs too!

After lunch I went out and tackled the chest freezer.  Here is the result:

Here is a good shot of the shelves and bins I added to the inside.

Here is the inside with the basket. 

Here is everything all neatly arranged.  The upper basket is full of lemon juice so that I can make a lot of this.

I am absolutely delighted with my gifts!  And now it will be Mother's Day every time I go reach into this freezer to pull out a Popsicle!

I had an extra shelf left over from all of this I put it on top of my laundry cabinet and got even more love out of this project!

This is a huge improvement!

Happy Mother's Day!

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I will be linking to some great link parties! Click here or on the Linky Party page at the top of my blog for a complete list.