Last week I worked so hard on Project Simplify, I was swamped by sorting my way through myriads of itty bitty bits of boy stuff. I said I would deal with the girls goodies this week. I didn’t. When I saw this weeks task I nearly quit!!! So I gave myself a break from sorting through endless stuff and dedicated myself to the fridge, which in our house is known as the cupboard.
Well I have three words to say: I did it… where “it” is defrosting the freezer. It is possibly one of my worst tasks… my most loathsome tasks and I anticipate how awful it will be for weeks… weeks I say…
I watch the ice pack build and build… I study it… I gather anything that gets in it’s way, lest said item gets swallowed up and consumed by the ice pack… And I wish the fridge away. Let’s just say my fridge is not my favorite appliance… it is big, it is cumbersome and it freezes up constantly. Not to mention it is unnaturally full of condiments.
The father person loves condiments, and he has two small boys with the same passion to slather their food in condiments… Anyway while I loathe and detest defrosting, my kids love it!!! They know it is the day their mother will be totally distracted they will be able to ice-skate on the kitchen floor… and make dripping forts with wet towels. And heaps of ice play… ice bergs in the bath, ice mountains on the grass… ice chunks in the pool… ice just everywhere!!!
So meet my friend that got me through… a packet of salt!!! Salt makes ice melt faster so my kids take turns in tossing salt at the ice and listening to the snap, crackle and pop.
And then I have other water babies that toss water at the ice. And between the salt and the water the ice pretty quickly looked like this…
And then cleaned the beast out…
Packed up and done. And if it wasn’t for Project Simplify I would never have done it… not before next summer anyway!!!
And here’s our pantry… the sweet side:e
And the savory side.
We keep our flour in bins too… one for bread flour and one for “other” flour. Let’s just say we had a bad experience with a mouse a couple of years back and one mouse is too many mice for me and we have kept our food in bins ever since. Anything else is stored in our tin collection… rice in the rice tin, sugar in the sugar tin,… tea in the tea tin and so on…
That’s it. One more week of Project Simplify to go… I can say it has me going and doing things I would never normally do!!! Let’s see what Monday brings and hopefully it isn’t cleaning the oven – because that is another “little” project that I really don’t have on my immediate agenda!!!
Would you look at that beautiful clean tidy fridge! Well done!! I would be opening the doors every few minutes to admire my work. But then that would make the ice grow again! And your pantry – I have always LOVED your tins. Brings back many memories of good times in that kitchen.
I have enjoyed these posts and have decided to join the 52 week fun soon. Means that at least once this year I’ll be cleaning my oven, I guess!! Lots of love from all of us.
Hay Jacki… Oh your admiration is so appreciated… and I so loathe the defrosting… but it is done and I don’t have to think about it again for a couple of months at least, which is so good!!! Hope you have a fun weekend!!!
Wow! I love your tin collection too — that looks fabulous! I am very inspired by your commitment to getting all these things organized — way to go!
I remember my mother defrosting our frig/freezer. I have frostless now so don’t have to do it, but I know what an accomplishment that is for you. I really like the layout of your frig/freezer too. Great job!
Hi Kristen, I love my tin collection too… after years of finding them on special at the Supermarket!!! Here is a post on the whole tin can collection… And thanks for stopping by, every comment is another great vote of confidence!!! Hope you all have a great week!!!
I had NO idea about the salt – I’m going to try this weekend. Because my freezer is also driving me nuts.
How do you survive with 10 people and such a small fridge? Ours is the same size and I swear it’s too small but I refuse to buy a bigger one when this one is perfectly useful. Ours is permanently packed.
Or do you have a deep freeze too? I don’t.
Hay Marcia, Salt makes ice melt slightly faster and heaps of cheap table salt and it literally turns to sludge and falls off like the front of a glacier… I alternate tossing water at it and ice and it does go quite a bit quicker and is a far better idea than trying to use an “implement” and stabbing the side of your freezer… say no more!!! We don’t have a freezer we did but it always had only a tray of ice-cubes in it… I sold it!!! I have a pretty good idea of what we are going to eat for a certain week so I never have “extra stuff” in the fridge… we eat what we buy and we NEVER EVER have leftovers!!!! I used to cook double meals, even treble meals but with ten of us it isn’t worth the effort. I find it easier to cook fresh every day and dinner is a bit of a “Lets all chip in” kind of event at the end of the day… Good luck with defrosting your freezer it is a grotty job!!!