Traditional Pickling Class

From the flyer:

Class description:
Learn to make sauerkraut, sauer-reuben (turnip/rutabaga), & kombucha beverage. Samples of each to taste and recipes to take home.

Where:
Milagro Allegro Community Garden, 115 S. Ave. 56, Los Angeles, 90042 (behind the Highland Theatre)

When:
Sunday, February 13, 2011 at 11:00 a.m.

Fee:
$5-10 suggested donation

“Order and simplification are the first steps toward the mastery of a subject.” Thomas Mann

photo source


Grant it, sometimes I think there is a village developing in the backseat of my car. Ok, maybe it's not thaaat bad, but you get my point. However, with my home I really do make an effort of keeping stuff organized. It may sound odd that you should have respect for your stuff, but when you do, you take care of it. Part of this respect would be having a place for it. The hooded hair dryer I had on my living room room floor for 3 days? Yea, that is no place for it. Organizing and keeping things organized just feels good. For example, when I travel I make sure everything is tidy before I leave; when I return back to my home the energy is right and I don't have those dreaded feelings of having to clean up, it's the continuation of my trip if you will. Over time I think of new things I can do to improve my way of living, and I also get great ideas from others (especially reading other blogs). Here are some tips that have helped me with home organization:


1. Keeping bills together. I have a beautiful wood-carved mail holder that I got at the thriftstore for just a few bucks, but all that would not serve it's purpose if I didn't use it. You need not have a mail holder, it can simply the corner of your desk. The main thing is keeping your bills organized so you can easily look at the days payment must be received, which ones you owe on, etc. It's happened to me in the past, I open mail and stick it in my purse or leave it in my car and find it way later. Paying a $39 late fee is never cute, this is definitely a case where being organized pays!


2. Have a place for important documents. Places like office supplies stores and Target sell safe boxes that are fire and water proof, they range at about $50. Make the investment if you can, this will fully protect important papers in case anything should happen, and that includes tipping over a cup of water.


3. Keep your records for 7 years. That is always the recommended time. I keep them tied up together by year in a bin and can easily access them should I need to. Digging through drawers and boxes is not usually fun. I shred receipts a couple months after they have posted to my account, but I do keep those of large purchases and add to my records.


4. A yearly binder. This one I thought of a few months ago when I got a hold of dividers with the months on the side of them. I thought about how I could utilize them, and then it hit me to but them in a big zip up binder that I have and with pockets between them and keep my bills paid, statements or important papers I get in the mail and organize by month. My method before was keeping everything on a yearly basis in a shoebox sized bin, but even then that could be a pain trying to find a certain paper from a certain month. At the beginning of the year all those papers get transferred to the larger bin (see #3).


5. The kitchen. For me having stuff organized by their purpose makes it easier for me when I am cooking. Spices together, cookbooks together, anything-with-a-plug together and so on.


6. Seasonally cleaning. It makes it easier to think of doing big cleanses during the changing of seasons (and while your at it, change your toothbrush around the same time too.) There is usually some stuff that we just will never wear, or don't care to. Someones trash is definitely somebody else's treasure. If it's in decent condition, donate it. If it's stained, ripped or just plain not worth it, throw it away or find another use to it like cutting up a shirt to make rags to wipe down counters with.


7. Weekly/bi-weekly/monthly cleaning. When you get a chance, vacuum, wipe down counters and so on. Smudge (cleansing the air with burning sage) if that's something you like and which I happen to. Take a good look at your home cleaning products. Lots of them may smell good but that is because it's loaded with chemicals. I keep just a couple products to clean my home completely which is very different from how I grew up. The whole space underneath the sink was filled with cleaning products. Ahh the smell of Pine Sol may be nostalgic but there are other alternatives.


8. Open the windows. If even a bit, it will help circulate the air in your place.


9. Calendars and planners. Having a planner is a wonderful thing to have. You can spend time organizing your week, things like which days to work out, completing things on your to-do list, and sometimes we need to schedule when we will have our Me-Time.


It seems when dishes start piling up, the more clothes on the floor, messy papers and everything seems chaotic the less we want to deal with it. You will notice when there's a place for the stuff around you, you tend to feel more free. When it comes to organizing it isn't about micro-managing your life, it's about simplifying it.