More than a mini purge-FREEZER!

Ah, that felt good. I forgot to defrost our freestanding freezer this summer. You know how the time gets away from you. I was waiting for an above-freezing day to tackle it before the 50 lbs of grass-fed beef that we ordered is ready in January. New Year's Day is supposed to be warm but I'm not sure what we'll be doing so I went ahead and did it today. I did have to whip out the hair dryer to speed things along but it didn't really take too much time. I ended up pitching some things (mostly leftovers and frozen grated zuchini) that I haven't used and probably never will.

I'm not sure how this qualifies as simplifying except the purging part. Let me add that I'm considering purging the freezer altogether. I'll decide about this after we use the beef. It's an old freezer that a friend gave us and I'm thinking it has increased our electric bill significantly.

Tackling the Garage

Because of the weather and preparing for Mark's communion, I had to put off decluttering the garage. I rolled up my sleeves and got to it today. The good news is that we have always managed to be able to park in there. The bad news is, there is a lot of clutter in there and not much organized storage space. Talk about a hodge-podge. I have 2 free-standing closets (white particle board things). 1 steel shelf, 1 closet that looks like an old canning cupboard and then random shelves and hooks. I really should pull those white closets out. They're huge and don't really hold that much. (I just thought of that). What I really need is a place to hang the usual stuff you find in a garage, long-handled yard tools, heavy duty extension cords, ladders, and some sports equipment (basketballs, rollerblades, bikes, hopefully baseball stuff). The lawnmower is in there, extra terra cotta pots, yard maintenance things. I know there's a better way to store all of it. I just need to do it.

So, today my goal was to purge. (2 big green garbage bags and a huge haul to the junk store). Tomorrow I'm hoping Mark and I can shop for some storage solutions. Any ideas?