Let us begin

How to begin is always the tricky part.
Simply I want to get my house in order.  I mean really in order.
There are a lot of blogs on organization out there and it is a bit overwhelming, but there are some great ideas that I can build on and tweak to fit my needs.  Now the trick is to apply them into my own life.  I believe that I can use blogging to help me stay on task and really succeed at my goal.
I told my husband about my idea and he thinks it is great.  In fact he decided to help me out by taking everything out of the freezer and putting it on the counter.  There is nothing like the "sink or swim" philosophy to get one going.  I decided to take on the challenge and begin to organize the freezer.
There are a couple of rules that I have decided I need to incorporate in my organizing psyche.

1. Nothing is forever.  I can change what I have done if I find something better or my needs change. (this is an important philosophy if you are a perfectionist and get paralyzed if everything isn't perfect.) 
2. Organizing isn't meant to break the bank.  If I can use what I have or get supplies for cheap I will.

With these two rules in mind I started to organize the freezer.  But I started backwards.  I went to the dollar store and found some cool containers in a lot of different styles and sizes.  I didn't know how many I needed and what size I should get so I just bought a few and went home.  I quickly realized that what I needed to do is figure out what I want to have in my freezer and the amount I want to keep there.  
In my freezer I need supplies for:

• Fruit Smoothies. Frozen bananas (a must have), strawberries, blueberries, grapes, nectarines,  peaches, oranges, the list goes on (I don't have everything at one time just what is on sale or in season.) 
• Toppings for Salads. I also like to have a good supply of nuts and seeds as well as fete or blue cheese that I can quickly throw into salads for my husbands lunches.
• Baking.  Various grains

Of course I will want other things in the freezer as well but these are the most important things that I use everyday and need on hand constantly. For the nuts I want to have a place for almonds, cashews, walnuts and pecans.  For seeds I mostly just want sesame seeds, flax seeds, sunflower seeds and pumpkin seeds.  For baking I use wheat flour, bulgar, cornmeal, wheat germ, oat bran, oats and popcorn as well as coconut and chocolate chips. After looking at my list it is no wonder my freezer gets into a disorganized mess very easily especially when ziplock bags are the basic method of storage.

My next post will have pictures to document this momentous occasion.