This Week’s Focus: Food Storage Areas
Our homes hold an amazing bounty in the pantry and freezer, and never more so than during the holiday season. This week, we turn to food storage areas in our home to prepare them for the coming weeks.

Whether your home includes a dedicated pantry and stand-alone freezer, or simply stockpiles food in cupboards and corners, it’s time to clean and organize areas used to store food. Include the refrigerator in this week’s activities, to bring order and make space for holiday goodies.

In holiday prep, we’ll check equipment, supplies and ingredients so we’re poised to prepare Thanksgiving dinner with ease. Find ideas to streamline food storage with these resources:

This Week’s Household Checklist

• Clean out the refrigerator. Time for a refrigerator clean-out. Make space for holiday cooking by tossing expired bottles and jars, and bring holiday sparkle to the Great White Whale with a top-to-toe cleaning session.
• Clean out the freezer. In the freezer? We’ll cull the clutter, organize the contents, and make room for holiday baking and the fruits of a freezer cooking session.
• Clean out the pantry. Finally, dry storage areas deserve a shake-down, too. Toss stale or expired food items, clean shelves and organize the survivors for efficient holiday cooking.

This Week’s Holiday Prep Checklist

• Start a freezer inventory. Keep track of your frozen assets with a freezer inventory. Update your list as you add holiday goodies, side dishes and freezer meals in the coming weeks.
• Inventory the pantry. The year’s best sales on staple foods lie just ahead. Know what you need–and make space to store it–with a pantry inventory form. Set aside foods you won’t use to donate to holiday food drives.
• Give spices the sniff test. Soon holiday cooks will be reaching for the sage, cinnamon or nutmeg; how fresh are your spices? Give the spice rack a sniff test, and replace any stale or outdated spices before you cook.
• Review recipes and make a shopping list. This week sees the year’s lowest prices at the supermarket, as grocers battle for your holiday food dollar. Get ready to save: check holiday recipes and make a shopping list. Include all pantry or frozen items that you’ll need for the rest of the season, because these low prices won’t last long!
• Eat from the freezer and pantry this week. To free up funds for holiday food shopping, rely on stored food to feed the family this week. It’s a two-fer: you’ll reserve cash for food bargains and make space in food storage areas!
• Stock up on seasonal staples. It’s loss leader time at the supermarket, as merchants compete for your holiday food dollar. Take advantage of low prices and stock the pantry for holiday cooking ahead.
• Stockpile freezer meals. Whether you do an at-home freezer cooking session, try the new meal assembly franchises or simply cook some extra pots of chili or spaghetti sauce, stow away a few pre-cooked freezer meals. In December, you’ll appreciate the convenience of having dinner ready to go on busy nights.
• Check out cooking equipment. Do you have all the equipment you’ll need to cook a holiday meal or complete holiday baking? Make a quick check of kitchen cupboards. If you need new equipment like a roaster, cookie sheets or a meat thermometer, add it to the shopping list. Kitchen equipment goes on sale soon!
• Plan potluck meals. If you’re part of family, church or social groups that hold Advent potluck dinners, be ready. Our potluck meal planner will help organize and delegate appetizers, entrees and desserts for community dinners. What are you doing this week?

This Week’s Focus: Kitchen

Even for families who don’t do much in the way of cooking, the holiday season brings new emphasis on the kitchen. Will you be preparing holiday meals, baking treats, or making kitchen gifts?

Time to clean up in the kitchen! Tackling holiday cooking is easier when the kitchen is clean, organized and clutter-free, so this week, we’ll focus there.

Yesterday’s “Fall Back” time adjustment is a great reminder/mental hook to take a moment and do a safety check/trust fall in our homes.

To round out this week, we’ll begin preparing for Thanksgiving dinner by organizing recipes, planning menus and making a tabletop check.

This Week’s Household Checklist

• Make a home preparedness check. An extra hour on Time Change Sunday gives a time bonus to check household safety and preparedness, as we prepare to move into colder weather. Make a preparedness check as you change the clocks, test smoke and carbon monoxide detectors, assess the household’s stock of cold and flu supplies, and review the household emergency plan.
  • I actually found an UNPLUGGED SMOKE DETECTOR in one of my kids’ rooms. Apparently it had started chirping during the night months ago and they had just unhooked the thing completely and then forgotten to tell me about it. Thankfully, because I have this “[Trust] Fall Back” thing on my mind each year, I went around and discovered it yesterday! Don’t worry, it now has a fresh battery and is firmly re-installed. Whew! I like to replace every single battery in our smoke detectors each year so I don’t have to deal with the inevitable 2:30am chirping on some random night in February.
• Get down and dirty with a kitchen clean-up! American Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners lie in our future and will put new emphasis on the household’s kitchen. This week, we tackle kitchen clutter, cleaning and organization. Moving shelf by shelf, cupboard by cupboard, take on kitchen clutter this week. Using the STOP clutter method, bring food preparation workspaces to a lean, mean, efficient state. Once clutter is conquered, a kitchen clean-out is in order. Rout out the grime and corral the crumbs for a sparkling holiday kitchen. Don’t worry about the pantry, freezer or refrigerator just yet … we’ll turn to food storage areas next week.

This Week’s Holiday Prep Checklist

• Status Check! Review the progress of the House and Holidays Plan on the first day of the month. If you’re falling behind, adjust goals to a more realistic level.
• Recycle trick-or-treat candy for holiday baking or decor items.
• Decorate for Thanksgiving. Remove Halloween decorations and replace them with Thanksgiving-themed items.
• Organize holiday recipes. It’s November … Do you know where your seasonal recipes are? Dig out the recipes you use during the holiday season, and add them to the holiday recipes planner. Thanksgiving Day is too busy to waste time hunting for the Green Bean Casserole recipe.
• Plan Thanksgiving menus. If you’re hosting the Thanksgiving feast, it’s time to make a menu plan. Use a menu planner, and delegate, delegate, delegate!
• Order the Thanksgiving turkey. Your meat market will thank you for not waiting until the last minute!
• Plan holiday baking. With recipes out, make a list of baked goodies you’ll make for the holidays. The holiday baking planner form is a good place to start.
• Buy containers for freezer meals, baked goods or kitchen gifts. If you haven’t already stocked up at the back-to-school sales, take stock of food storage bags and containers. Holiday-themed disposable containers and freezer bags are available now.
• Make a tabletop check. Inventory serving pieces, stemware, china and flatware. Check store flyers for sales. Will you be ready to set a pretty holiday table?
• Bake any fruitcakes or Christmas cakes which require mellowing. Now’s the time to bake the Christmas cakes! You’ll have eight weeks to mellow them before the season.

This Week’s Focus: Living Room or Public Space

The pace of the season is picking up, with Halloween’s trick-or-treaters at the door. Are you ready to welcome drop-in visitors?

This week, we’re moving to the living room to declutter, deep-clean and organize the place where we entertain guests. Having this area clean and ready means your focus will be on your friends, not on your furniture.

In holiday prep, we’ll prepare for Halloween and make more progress on holiday gifts. Completing our Christmas cards or letters gives a great feeling of readiness as the holiday approaches.

This Week’s Household Checklist

• Declutter, clean and organize the living room or public space. With the holidays hard upon us, your household’s living room or public space will be on display. Prepare for family events and drop-in visitors! Remove all clutter from the living room using the STOP clutter method, then deep-clean the room. Move furniture pieces and vacuum beneath them, polish fine woods, and clean or vacuum draperies, window coverings or blinds.
• Pare down living room decor. Once the living room is clean and free from clutter, take a minimalist’s eye to the room ‘s decorations. Will your holiday decor shine, or will it compete with current decor items? Clear tabletops, shelves and corners for the holiday decorations to come.

This Week’s Holiday Prep Checklist

• Buy holiday stamps. Seasonal stamp designs will be available soon, so buy holiday stamps early for best selection. Ordering online from USPS.Com is easy and convenient, with delivery right to your mailbox!
• Begin saving packaging materials. Recycling makes sense … and cents. As online orders arrive, begin to stockpile mailing boxes and packaging material for re-use in December. Store them close to your wrap and mail center to speed holiday mailing chores.
• Prepare to mail Christmas cards or letters. Christmas cards should be nearly finished and ready for mailing. Stamp envelopes and set them aside until it’s time to mail them next month. Tip: leaving envelopes unsealed makes it easy to add a newsy post-script if the spirit moves.

This Week’s Focus: Family Space

Find where the family gathers, and you’ve reached the center of any home. Where does your household come together to enjoy each day?

Whether it’s a great room, a living room, family room or den, this week we’ll tackle this central family space. We’ll toss the clutter, deep-clean the room, and organize media, books and music to prepare for the holiday events ahead.

Holiday prep this week revolves around Halloween, which will arrive soon. The season is coming … so try these ideas to move toward an organized Christmas this week:

This Week’s Household Checklist

• Declutter, clean and organize the family room or family area. Family room, playroom, living room or den, this week’s assignment is to dig in and declutter, deep-clean and organize the space where your family gathers on a daily basis.
• Organize media and entertainment. While you’re there, take aim on media and entertainment areas. Reunite video games and DVDs with their missing cases, and create an organized space for them to live when not in use. You’ll make it easier to find holiday music, books and movies as the season progresses

This Week’s Holiday Prep Checklist

• Decorate for Halloween. Add a few Halloween-specific items to your autumn decorating to bring a spooky shiver to life. After the 31st, they’re easy to remove and replace with a Thanksgiving theme.
• Costume check! Will the household’s trick-or-treaters be ready? Complete Halloween costumes in time for the week’s parties and events.
• Start a new Halloween tradition. Ready to join the neighborhood fun? Use our free printables to start a Halloween BOO tradition in your neighborhood. Spread the BOO joy!
• Will you greet Trick-or-Treaters at the door next week? Stock up on Halloween candy now, before it’s sold out. (Note: if you’re planning to make Thanksgiving Blessings Mix next month, add a bag of chocolate kisses in seasonal colors, and some candy corn to your list. In recent years, many stores have removed these treats after Halloween due to Christmas creep, so stock up now!)
• Tune time: make a music check. How’s your stash of holiday music? If the sounds of the season move you, review the family’s collection of Christmas music. Note favorites on a holiday favorites planner page.
• Movie review: check the family’s holiday movie library. Whether it’s A Christmas Storyor It’s a Wonderful Life, review the family’s holiday movies. Is it the year to add new titles to the gift list? Get ready for December popcorn nights!
• Start amaryllis bulbs. Fresh flowers at the holidays are a fragrant–and frugal–gift. If you’ll be giving holiday plants, start amaryllis bulbs now; they’ll need eight weeks to be ready.
• Mail overseas gift packages. International mailing can take weeks … or more. If your gift list includes packages to be sent overseas, mailing deadlines loom. Be sure to mail all overseas parcels early, so they’ll arrive by the holiday.
• Create a holiday housework plan. Many hands make light work and never more than at the holidays. Negotiate a holiday housework plan, assign jobs and work together to keep family spaces clean. Print a chore checklist to remind family members of assigned jobs. Post it publicly to encourage accountability for designated chores.
• Finish working on Christmas cards. How are Christmas cards and letters coming along? Finish addressing, signing and assembling Christmas cards in the next two weeks.