5 Tips for Deep Cleaning & Organizing Your Kitchen For Spring

Every Spring, I like to give my kitchen a good deep cleaning. It's the most used room in our home...with meals and snacks being created multiple times per day...along with the baking and canning projects I like to do over the Fall & Winter. So come Spring...it is definitely time for a thorough, top to bottom cleaning & organizing. You may remember that I have chatted on this blog before about organizing a kitchen into zones and organizing a fridge for healthy, fast food at home, but I don't think I have ever shared how I go about doing a deep clean. 

Here are a few tips that will help make the job go easier!

5 Tips For Deep Cleaning The Kitchen

1. Gather Up Supplies.

Gather up the cleaning supplies needed including: a bucket, a good de-greasing spray,all-purpose cleaner, a sponge, a a few cleaning cloths, a ladder and a mop. Also gather a few empty cardboard boxes for items that you have decided to let go and donate.

2. Block The Time

Block the time into your calendar so it is a scheduled cleaning job. Make a plan for the kids to be busy or visiting if it makes the job easier for you. Book a few times as opposed to 1 day if 1 day is not enough time. Plan to a slow cooker meal so that you won't have to worry about dinner at the end of the day when you are tired.

3. Work Top to Bottom

Start from the top and work to the bottom. This means starting at the ceiling and working to the floor. This order makes sense because as you clean, dust and dirt will float down and land on the floor, which will be the last thing to be cleaned. Also, after the 'top' jobs are done, then the ladder can be put away.

4. Purge & Organize

Now is a great time to purge and remove all the things that not being used. Place them in cardboard boxes to go to charity. Organized the remaining items into work zones so that they make sense.

5. Clean All Surfaces

Remove fridge & stove and clean the floor underneath. Wipe all cupboards doors and appliances. Lastly, wipe down baseboards and mop floors.

I always start with a good cleaning of the area on top of the cupboards. I take everything down, give the cupboards a good spray with a de-greaser and wipe with clean cloths. I wash all of the dishes, and I also purge things that I want to get rid of. I also like to re-decorate this space and make things fresh again. This year, I decorated with a fresh colour scheme of wood textures, white dishes, baskets and touches of indigo blue.

Then I go through each cupboard, removing everything and wiping down the inside.

Anything that is not being used is placed in the box to donate.

Then I put everything back in an organized way so that things make sense and is easy to access.

I clean all surfaces and wipe down small appliances thoroughly.

Next, we move the stove and fridge to clean the floors underneath, which becomes a catch-all area for crumbs and dried, sticky spills.

One thing that makes my kitchen so much easier to clean & maintain are my Frigidaire Smudge-Proof ™Technology Fridge & Stove. {This technology is available on all Frigidaire Gallery and Frigidaire Professional® products and works like a charm in making kitchen clean-ups super fast by resisting dirty fingerprints. This technology is so much easier to clean than traditional stainless steel surfaces because Frigidaire uses high grade stainless steel that is coated with layers of polymers, resulting in a sleek, beautiful stainless steel finish that is both durable and resistant to fingerprints. 

My fridge and stove clean beautifully with just water and I love that!

And lastly, I clean the other areas in my kitchen, like the beverage center and pantry.

There is nothing I like more in my home than a clean, organized & sparkling kitchen. Although the other rooms in my home might be a disaster at times, I don't mind as long as the kitchen is clean. I love having a beautiful & clean kitchen greet me in the morning. A good deep cleaning once or twice a year gives me the extra piece of mind that the areas that aren't seen on a daily basis are clean as well. And a wonderfully clean kitchen is the best beginning for creating tasty meals and delicious treats for my family.

Disclosure: I am part of the Frigidaire Canada Ambassador program with Mom Central Canada and I receive special perks as part of my affiliation with this group. The opinions on the blog are my own.

This post is linked to:
Tutorial & Tips Link Party, Monday Funday, The Creative Collection,  Our Sunday Best Showcase,  The Scoop, Tatertots & Jello, Link Party Palooza,

Planning & Budgeting for Prom/Graduation 2014 and Win a $50 Prepaid Visa

This year is a BIG milestone for our family as our oldest child is graduating from high school in a just a few weeks. And with this milestone comes the special celebration of a graduation formal dinner and dance for our daughter, who has been looking forward to this special evening for months. She has been looking at formal gowns since Grade 11...all while dreaming about what her dress for this special night might look like, along with ideas for hair and makeup. And as any parent who has a child graduating from high school knows, the costs to make these dreams a reality can quickly add up. For instance, formal dresses for teen girls alone can cost several hundred dollars.

When the school year started, we had a discussion with our daughter about what her prom/grad costs might be and what she would be able to pay for with her part-time job, and what costs that her Dad and I would agree to pay. We wanted to be clear about who would cover what so that there would be no surprises. Did you know that 56% of Canadian parents pay nearly the full price of prom for their children?{As revealed by the Visa Canada Prom Spending Survey 2014}

In our case, we expected our teen daughter to share in some of the costs for her special night. We think it's important for her to understand the financial costs of grad celebrations. She agreed to pay for the limo ride, hair and makeup and a few smaller items. My husband and I agreed to pay for her formal dress and shoes, a dress for the cap and gown ceremony, and tickets for the formal grad dinner and dance for our family. We also placed realistic budget limits on each item and encouraged our daughter to stay within budget. Then we wrote down the budget on paper so we could stay the course with our plan.We also talked about ways to say money...such as wearing the same shoes for both the cap and gown ceremony and the formal dinner/dance. However, these decisions take careful thought as you try to teach your child about staying within a budget while also balancing their dreams for a special night. Hopefully, both parents and child can meet somewhere in the middle where every one is happy and dreams are met! But more importantly, it is crucial to teach your teen about responsible budgeting and spending....no matter what the event.

Visa Canada recently released this amazing FREE app called Plan'It Prom to help kids and parents with the budgeting process for Prom. I so wish that we had this app available to us when we began the process of budgeting and planning for Prom/Grad back in September 2013 as it would have made things so much easier for us!

This app is available to download FREE from the iTunes Store, the Google Play Store and from www.practicalmoneyskills.ca/prom. It's a wonderful planning tool for parents and teens to use to make a budgeting plan.

The app contains great information and tools for planning all aspects of the prom journey including a place to enter amounts budgeted for each item, helpful tips for saving money and a timeline to help in putting the whole plan together.

And if you have a teen daughter like I do, just have a  look at this amazing list that lays out many of the expenses that need to be discussed for budgeting.

I think prom and grad activities are an important teachable moment for parents to talk with their kids about budgeting and finances, and the opportunity to come up with a mutually agreed plan, with teens sharing and taking more responsibility for costs.  I love this app because it provides both parents and teens with a tool where plans can be agreed to and recorded in a very organized way that is literally at your fingertips. Teaching financial literacy to teens is such an important job and this app helps parents and teens to record a realistic, detailed budget, track spending and provides a place for teens to create a visual gallery for inspiration for things like dresses, shoes and hair. And as with anything in life, planning is the key to making sure that things run smoothly, which results in happy teens and happy parents. And if you have a teen graduating this year, I wish you and your family a happy & memorable day!

For more than 20 years, Visa has been a leader in developing innovative, free programs that help people effectively learn the fundamentals of personal finance, including budgeting, saving, responsible spending and the wise use of credit.  Visa is offering one lucky reader a $50 prepaid Visa card to help with prom expenses or some other expense that your family is budgeting for this summer.

To Enter to Win A Prepaid $50 Visa Card:

1. You must be 18 years old and live in Canada to enter. {Except where prohibited.}
2. Please leave a comment below sharing something that your family is saving/budgeting for this summer.
3. One entry per person and please make sure that a valid email address is attached to your comment.
4. Contest closes Thursday, May 22, 2013 at midnight MST.

Disclosure: This post was generously made possible by Visa Canada. As always, I only partner with brands/products that I use in my own home. All opinions are my own.

Create An Outdoor Camping Kitchen

Hello there! I am so thrilled to join together with a group of bloggers to bring you collection of fantastic tips, ideas and recipes for Camping Season 2014! Camping each summer is a right of passage for my family. It can't be summer unless we have a few weekends of camping...that is just the rule 'round here! I am so excited to share how we create and organize an outdoor camping kitchen or  our 'glamping' kitchen...which is a super cool name that makes a rustic experience sound all the more fun! I love cooking and preparing meals outside when the weather is warm and sunny!

You could say that we were 'movin' on up' {cue George Jefferson signing here} from camping to 'glamping' when we purchased an inexpensive 'camp kitchen'.  I know that many of you seasoned campers could probably show me a thing or two,  but I just wanted to share with you some tips on how I organize a camping kitchen for our family in hopes of making things as easy as possible for us while we are out in the wilderness.

 We are campers who settle into a campsite with a tent, sleeping bags, coolers and good food. For many years, I organized our 'camp kitchen' around a picnic table...which honestly works just as well as anything. However, 3 years ago we took the plunge and invested in this little camp kitchen and we love it for many reasons. It is also important to note that we live in an area where campsites are in real danger of being visited by bears, so ALL food must be kept in a vehicle or camper at night and when not at the campsite. Leaving food out in the open for storage is not an option. {In fact, on our last camping trip just a few weeks ago, a bear was shot on our campsite while we were away. He had been roaming the campground for days and the park rangers had decided that this bear had turned into a real danger to campers.}

One of the reasons that I love this camping kitchen is that it comes with some really awesome, usable space that allows the picnic table to be used for other things...like, say, some crazy pre-dinner games of Crazy 8s.  The middle of the camp kitchen are 2 sinks that can be connected to a water bag for water that will pump up to the sink! For a lot of camping seasons, we used a simple dish pan filled with water for washing dishes, so this is a step up for us!  The design for the sinks is genius,  because when not in use, they are covered with cutting boards and provides a generous space for food prep.

And when the sinks are needed, the cutting boards can easily be removed for dish-washing duties.

And here are how some other things are organized above the sink, which makes for a simple and functional kitchen.

We have the hand soap, dish soap and hand sanitizer ready for washing up all the dirties when needed. A few other camping items are hung here including a small portable radio for listening to tunes while cooking, easy-to-find scissors, and a solar light that charges during the day and gives a soft glow at night.

Here is a little food prep area, along with a container organized with cooking accouterments.

Pictured here are a number of the handy tools that I use to keep us organized.
Let me tell you how everything works together.

On the left side of the kitchen is a gas burner which is great for making tea in the morning, or cooking bacon and eggs in a cast iron frying pan. And the shelf under the burner provides perfect storage for the cast iron cooking pans, and other pots.{I usually leave the pots and pans turned upside down so they don't get tree bits or dirt in them.}

On the far right of the camp kitchen is a zippered storage compartment where lots of other non-food camping equipment is stored. {Before we had a camp kitchen, I stored all of these things in a rubber tote.} In here you will find:

• plastic bowls, plates and cups
• dish cloths and dish towels
• saran wrap, aluminum foil, plastic bags, garbage bags
• a box of baking soda in case of a grease fire
• kitchen utensils, hamburger press and a grill basket
• stainless steel travel cups
• stainless steel bowl for salads, etc.
• toaster for campfire, grill or gas burner
• paper towel, extra napkins, matches, BBQ lighter.

As mentioned, I used to pack everything into large rubber totes, but I found them to be so cumbersome to get in and out of the car, so I organized everything into smaller boxes, totes and bags....so much easier!
For instance, this little plastic box nicely holds cooking oil and spices.

I am also smitten with this cute dish & cultery caddy which is easy to carry to the picnic table at mealtime and easy to put back into a vehicle.

And this condiment carousel is also a nifty thing to have. At mealtime, we just gather the condiments out of the cooler and place them in here for easy access by everyone.

And here is an organizing system that I love! Previously, I packed all of our food into big totes and we would get the totes out and search around for things.

The totes usually turned into a mess of squashed bread and other things, and after the first day it was frustrating. And also no one wants to make toast out of bread that is mushed like a dogs breakfast t to begin with.

Now I use a system where I pack things into small re-usable bags organized by meals or snacks.

And these bags are also easier to pack into the vehicle too because they fit into small spaces easily.

And the bags work perfectly for the kids to find things too....they love the bag system!

For example, here is the BREAKFAST BAG with cold cereal, hot cereal, bread, English muffins and peanut butter....everything required for breakfast...with the exception of the things stored in the cooler like eggs, bacon, butter, juice and milk.

Here is another bag we call the `CAMPFIRE SNACK BAG` where we store snacks and munchies for night time campfires....along with everything needed to make s`mores! This system works for us brilliantly! If you would like to learn more about how we organize food & snacks in our cooler, please read the post HERE.

When mealtime arrives, we pull out the dish & cutlery caddy and the condiment carousel and the table is set! Love that!

I love having small bags, boxes and simple caddies to help keep us organized! It also makes clean up fast too!

And in addition to our camp kitchen, we also do cooking on a grill-covered campfire, or a small gas BBQ that we always bring with us too!

And everything works together wonderfully for our own little `glamping kitchen`.

How about you?

Do you have any camping kitchen organizing ideas that you would like to share?

I would love for you to share them in the comments so we can all be super organized!

If you are looking for camping recipe ideas, please visit these meal ideas and more:

11 Best Camping Tips & Recipes

 Easy Camping Lumberjack Breakfast

Easy Campfire Mexican Dip

And here is a collection of ideas, tips and tricks from an amazing groups of bloggers.

Please visit  these fabulous bloggers for ideas to make your camping trips all the more awesome!

Campfire Spinach Dip from Twin Dragon Fly Designs

Printable Camping Checklist from 733 Blog

 What To Pack For  A Camping Trip from Nest of Posies

Camping Activity Bags from Creative Capital B

Homemade Fire Starters from Dukes and Duchesses Blog

Camping Survival Kit from The Benson Street

Camping Charades from The Joys of Boys

Beaded Mason Jar Lantern from One Artsy Mama

Blackberry Cobbler from Gingersnap Crafts

Tin Foil Packet Recipes from Growing Up Gabel

Best Pie Iron Recipes from Naptime Creations

Camping With Kids from The Joi Project

This post is linked up with:
Tatertots and Jello, Link Party Palooza, Inspire Me Please, Kitchen Fun With My 3 Sons, I'm Lovin' It, Inspiration Gallery, The Party Bunch, Weekend Re-Treat Link Party, The Scoop, Tutorial & Tips Link Party, Monday Funday, The Creative Collection,  Our Sunday Best Showcase,  The Scoop, The Party Bunch, 

How I Clean Less with My Smudge-Proof Kitchen

Some of you may remember that last year I had the amazing opportunity to work with Frigidaire Canada and test drive a brand new Frigidaire Gallery Fridge & Stove. As a busy mom in the kitchen, I cannot tell you how excited I was to be able to have these new appliances in helping me stay organized in the kitchen and in getting meals on the table in record time! But now I want to share with you another awesome benefit to having these appliances in my kitchen....I clean less! Yes! I said LESS.

 The reason that I clean less?  The Frigidaire Smudge-Proof ™Technology. It works like a charm in making kitchen clean-ups super fast and easy by using a new anti-smudge technology that resists fingerprints and is easier to clean than traditional stainless steel surfaces. Frigidaire uses high grade stainless steel that is coated with layers of polymers, resulting in a sleek, beautiful stainless steel finish that is both durable and resistant to fingerprints. And now that I have older teenagers in the house, kitchen appliances that resist fingerprints are more important that ever. You see...when your kids get older, the fingerprints don't disappear...they just move higher! And older kids don't need permission to cook or bake things....they just go ahead and do it! And it happens at all hours of the night and day...cookies made at 9 pm. Pizza baked at 11 am. The kitchen never closes! Often, when I enter the kitchen in the morning, I can guess what snacks were made the night before by the colour of the fingerprints left on the fridge or stove.

Frigidaire recently asked me to share the Living Proof of  Smudge-Proof™ Challenge with you by doing the Mustard Test! And trust me, this is not a stretch for me because you might remember that my family loves mustard so much that we even have a full fridge bin dedicated to our mustard collection. And mustard is probably the number one fingerprint I find most often in my kitchen.

So as part of the Mustard Test, I am going to show you just how easy it is to clean mustard from these appliances.

I had my teenage son smear mustard on the fridge door. {He's had lots of practice from making his own sandwiches...trust me!}

Then I got out the paper towels to clean while he took pictures. I simply used paper towels moistened with water to remove the mustard.

And after a few swipes, the mustard was gone! Poof! It really was that easy!

And look...our fridge is back to sparkling again...with just water and paper towel!

I love this because I am not a fan of chemical-laden cleaners in our home. I like to all natural ingredients as much as possible...like water.

I really encourage you to try the test too so you can see for yourself just how easy it is!

As a busy mom with olders kids, I am so glad that Frigidaire has made it so easy for me to clean the many fingerprints I find on my appliances everyday. Cleaning is not my thing, and the less time I spend doing it...the happier this mom is!

Disclosure: I am part of the Frigidaire Canada Ambassador program with Mom Central Canada and I receive special perks as part of my affiliation with this group. The opinions on the blog are my own.