down to earth

Hanno had an operation yesterday to clear up some bleeding in his eye. I'm happy to tell you that he's woken up this morning with normal vision and his eye is looking good. I'm grateful for the eye doctor we both go to. He's very skilled, efficient and does most of these smaller ops in his private surgery.

I've transitioned from plastic bins and jars to glass in recent years and only have this plastic bin, those blue bins and two larger bins left. This one on the right contains sugar and I'll probably change it over fairly soon. The bin is beginning to show signs of cracking at the base and when it finally goes, I'll buy another one of those large glass jars.

I've spent the past few weeks methodically cleaning and organising my food cupboards. There's been no clear plan and I'm not rushing it, I've just done a cupboard or drawer here and there when I felt like doing it. It's part of a bigger plan to reduce food waste so it's not just about clean spaces, it's more about how food is stored so it doesn't spoil and get thrown out. I have to tell you, there is nothing like the satisfaction of cleaning and organising a space that you use a lot. It makes an immediate difference and the satisfaction grows every time I use each cupboard.

Here are the two larger plastic bins. I hope these last a few more years because I like the size of them for bread flour and rolled oats.

Maintaining inspiration can often be a problem with this kind of cleaning and organisation so I was really happy to find a You Tube site that became my motivating force. Harugreen at Freezer Organization, Refrigeration Organization was exactly what I needed to keep me focused. There were foods there I didn't recognise, but I was fine with that, I was there to learn and improve what I do. I hope you watch it. I think you'll be surprised. Watch for the wonderful makeshift utensil she uses to pour black beans into a container and don't forget to choose "English" subtitles in the settings at the bottom of the screen. There are a lot of other videos there on various forms of housework so I subscribed and I'm slowly working my way through the rest of harugreen's videos. I'm so glad I found her. If you're looking for help to start organising or to keep going, join me over there.

I'm presenting an online workshop this weekend on Food Storage and Stockpiling, so this all slotted in well for me. This is the second last of the six-week series; next week will be Backyard - Gardening and Chickens. I've had a wonderful group of women join in, some for all six workshops, some for one and some with a selection of the subjects they have particular interest in. We've had a great time and I'm pretty sure they've found simple life homemaking interesting and hopefully more helpful than they might have expected.

I've also read and watched these links during the week. I hope you have time to go through them over the weekend.