Wine Turkey Brine

Over the years, I've tried many methods of cooking a turkey.  Some have resulted in a better bird than others.  The one recipe that seems to have made more appearances at our table is the following.  Hope you have just as good results as we have!  Gobble!  Gobble!

Wine Turkey Brine (This recipe is for a 16lb. bird)

Ingredients:
r 8 – 375mL bottles white cooking wine (or the equivalent)
r 1 c. sugar
r 8 tsp. white peppercorns
r 24 bay leaves
r 1 c. kosher salt
r 4 celery stalks, remove butt and cut into thirds
r 2 onions, quarter
r 40 cloves of garlic, peeled
r 12 parsley stems
r 4 sprigs of thyme
r 1 g. water (this measurement is not exact/can fluctuate depending)


Directions:
1. In a large stock pot, add all ingredients with the exception of the water.  Bring to a boil.  (I suggest a lid as the peppercorns can put off a very strong odor.)
2. Once the celery and onions appear translucent, remove from stove top and allow to cool.
3. On day/night of brine-ing, add the water and submerge your turkey.  Allow to sit overnight in the refrigerator.

Tips:
-I have used a large stockpot to soak our bird.  However, a heavy duty bag can also do the trick.  They key is to get as much of the bird covered in liquid as possible.  We've even gone as far as lining a laundry basket with double trash bags (unscented, of course), you'd just need to be able to fit it into a refrigerator.
-Prepare this recipe in advance, you'll need it to cool before using.  I will often make it on Tuesday night for soaking overnight on Wednesday.
-After the bird has soaked, remove it from the brine and cook.  As a bonus, you can pour off the liquid by lining a colander with a cheese cloth and using it to catch the solids.  If you are not stuffing your bird with dressing, you can tie off the cheese cloth into a ball and pack it into the neck cavity for additional flavor.
-We roast our bird breast down for the first hour and then flip it right side up for the remainder of time.
-We also put wine/broth in the pan (for basting) and elevate the bird.

2014 End of Year Teacher Gift

Since last year's end of the year teacher/care provider gift was such a hit I thought to share again...
I wanted to come up with something imaginative that could also be modified to give you all a few ways to use the same idea at different price points and here it is:

You will need: (for each individual gift)
gallon zipper bag
pencils (5)
gift card to bookstore
(or a paperback/light summer read)
puzzle piece keychain
(I had them stamped with the school year "2013-2014" and "Thanks!"; or a small puzzle, crossword puzzle book or trinket puzzle)
Post-It Notes
(I labeled the countdown days using clear return address labels after I checked the school calendar and counted from the last day to next year's first day; you could also give them a calendar printout of the summer months)
curling ribbon
clear packing tape
scissors
color printer
(if you are using the cards as offered)

In total, I spent $10 for the items, not including the giftcard.


I assembled the gift items and arranged them inside the bag so that as much of each item could show.  Personally, I wasn't happy with the giftcard choices (was really hoping for one that looked like a book, but couldn't find one) so I printed out a book from clipart and taped it to the outside of the cardboard sleeve...
Depending on the contents, you may need to alter the bag.  I myself slit one of the sides to make it more narrow and then used packing tape to close it off.  At the end I tied off the top and added curling ribbon as decoration, using one of the strands to attach the card.

The card's wording is:
No more pencils,
No more books,
No more students' puzzled looks.
Now the countdown down does begin,
82 days 'til Summer's end.

 

As you can see, the items inside the bag are a play off of the bolded words.   I really had fun coming up with this idea and think it'll be a big hit...will keep you updated.

If you like this idea, be sure to like my facebook page at:
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for daily, weekly ideas and insight into my household's life
and check out the other blog entries from:
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A Cure For The "Selfish" Mom

I now have a picture in my phone that at first glance most people would hit delete thinking it was a mis-take.  I’m keeping it there and will probably, forever.  When YOU look at it, there is darkness and shadows – mostly hazy - abstractly, one might say it is a picture that captured a moment of sadness.  No, not even close.

Last night, like many of the nights before, I got the baby ready for bed, fed him and laid him down for the night…althewhile my 9 year old son was downstairs keeping himself busy without complaint.  Having been exhausted from many nights of interrupted sleep and fighting off a sore throat and impending illness, instead of going back downstairs I laid in bed for about 30 minutes to rest.  I felt selfish.  Thoughts of how I wasn’t paying attention to him, just because he wasn’t complaining, went through my mind.  How it wasn’t really ''fair."  10 minutes in, he came up the steps and asked if I was coming back down…I said no, that I REALLY just needed to rest.  I could tell he was disappointed by the look that appeared on his face for a split second, before it disappeared and he said, “Okay.”  He left me to my solace.

When it was time for him to go to bed, I called down for him to brush his teeth.  He did it without complaint.  He then got changed and laid in bed with a book (like he always does while I take a bath).  I ran the tub, immersed myself in it and took in the warmth.  After about 30 minutes, I pulled the plug and let the water drain.  Dried myself off and looked down the hall, his light had been turned out.  I thought he’d called it a night when I faintly heard, “Mom, wanna come snuggle?”  How could I not?  I held him in my arms knowing this kind of moment doesn’t last forever and probably would be few and far between in years to come.  I snapped a photo with my phone, knowing it wouldn’t come out “perfect,” that didn't matter.  It was a memory, just the same that needed to be captured.

 

I’ll never forget last night, there will always be this treasure.  It was a nice reminder that even when (to me) it felt like I was being a selfish mom, I wasn’t.  It really is about the collective time, not the singular moments and kids remember that…they really do.

End of Year Teacher Gift

With the end of the school year approaching, it's time to start thinking about what you can do for your child's teacher, room mom, and care provider.  This is a cute little idea for someone who you think has been "SWEET" all year and deserves a personalized gift.

 

 

What You'll Need: (for each individual bag)

 

medium cellophane gift bag (can also use a gallon freezer zipper bag)

curly gift ribbon

scissors

computer & color printer (if you are printing out the suggested card)

Good & Plenty (4oz. pkg.)

Skittles (4oz.  pkg.)

Riesen (5.5oz. pkg)

Lifesavers (1.14oz. roll)

Snickers (1.86oz. bar)

Take5 (1.5oz. bar)

Whatchamacallit (1.6oz. bar)

Extra (16 piece pkg.)

 

*The candy sizes are what I used in the picture.  Feel free to vary that depending on what you can get in the stores.  The most difficult to find for me were the Take5 and Whatchamacallit (wound up getting them both at the pharmacy).  The cost of the candy was about $10.*

I placed the candy into the bag with all the names going in the same direction and from smallest to biggest.  While working with it, I tried to get as many names visible as possible and then tied the bag off with the curling ribbon.  Once the bag was closed I attached the card to the ribbon and added a few extra before curling with the scissors.

 

Here is a picture of the card that gives you the wording I used:

 

Everyone who received this from us went on and on about how much they loved it, I'm sure you will hear the same!  :)

 

If you like this idea, be sure to checkout and like my Facebook page at:

www.facebook.com/theclosethousewife

and be sure to peruse my blog for other great ideas at:

www.theclosethousewife.com

 

 

Turkey Caprese Loaf

Gluten/Wheat, Dairy and Egg Free

Feeds 2

Ingredients:
1 lb. ground turkey
1/2 c. dairy-free cream cheese alternative*1/4 c. dairy-free parmesan cheese alternative*
1/4 tsp. garlic powder
1/4 tsp. onion salt
6 large fresh basil leaves

Kitchen tools:

measuring cups & spoons

rolling pin
parchment paper

baking pan

spatula
spoon

knife

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Layout a piece of parchment paper about 12 inches long.
3. Flip ground turkey out of packaging onto parchment paper.
4. Using rolling pin, flatten ground turke until it is about 3/4 in. thick and in the shape of a rectangle (about 6 in. x 12 in.).
5. With a spoon, spread cream cheese alternative over ground turkey (like you are buttering bread).
6. Sprinkle parmesan cheese alternative, garlic powder and onion salt over the cream cheese alternative.
7. Place basil leaves on top of the sprinkling but only on bottom 2/3 of ground turkey.
8. Using the parchment paper as a tool, begin rolling loaf onto itself. [HINT: Touching the ground turkey with your hands gets sticky and may lead to it falling apart.]
9. Once loaf has been rolled, place in a baking dish.
10. Drizzle 1/4 c. tomato sauce onto the loaf.
11. Bake for 1 1/2 hours.
12. When cooked, remove loaf from the oven and cut. [HINT: Using an electric knife casues less breakage.]
13. Before serving drizzle loaf with remaining tomato sauce or serve sauce for dipping.

*I used GO Veggie! but another brand
as well as dairy can be used, depending on allergy
or need for avoidance.

Book / Bible Party Favors

We have a party coming up and I needed to figure out a personal but inexpensive idea. I went in search on the ever-popular craft site and came upon something cute but couldn't find directions or an indication regarding price...even so, my back was up against the wall because of time and I just decided to take the plunge and documented along the way - figuring someone else might benefit from the experience.

What you'll need: (For 50 Favors)

3 Classic Sized Bags of Hershey's Nuggets (I used the plain milk chocolate.)
3 Avery 8253 Shipping Labels (They are the 2" x 4" ones.)
Standard Tape
Double Sided Tape
Ruler
Scissors
Pencil
1/8" wide ribbon (7 yards; however, I had 1/4" wide and cut it in half down the middle of each strip.)
Cardstock
Hole Punch (optional)

I found that making the parts first was easiest, rather than doing one favor at a time. More like an assembly line...

Create your "pages" using Word and the label function.
As you can see, I got two sets of "pages" per label.
I suggest that the pages (the middle where a normal book would be bound) be separated by at least a 1/4" to afford room for the "book marker."
You’ll need to cut the labels in half so that the finished "pages" are 1" x 4."

Cut your "book marks" into 5" lengths. I had thicker ribbon on hand so just cut it down the middle to create the correct 1/8" thickness. It was an extra step but saved me from spending more.

You’ll need to cut your “cover” out of the cardstock into 2 ¼” x 1 ½” pieces.  I then added the half hole-punch to the bottom and top so when assembled it appears the book has a binding.

Begin assembling the individual favors by taking two nuggets and wrapping them side by side with a label.  Don’t worry that the label (looking from the back) is not evenly wrapped.  

Your main focus of this step is to get the “pages” centered on each nugget.

Take a “book mark” and hold it to the back of the book.

Wrap the “book mark” around the center of the book and ensure that approximately 1/2” hangs from the bottom of the book like a tail.  Secure the “book mark” with standard tape.  [TIP: I did not perfectly overlap the “book mark” with itself, it was slightly askew so that the tape would contact both surfaces and would be less likely to slip later.]

 

Then take a piece of double-sided tape that is about 1 1/2” long and place it on the back of the book and sandwich the cover to the “book.”

Finished product should look like this:

 

All in all, I estimate the final cost of each favor as less than 50¢.  Not too shabby!
Also, the personalization is endless…I’ve even considered this for use at my next hosting of a book club!!!

Rearin' Kids and Otherwise Important Tips for Their/Your Survival

Not sure if this is really a smart idea or that I'm sleep deprived (was up every 2-3 hours with a sick LO last night after a bumpy few nights last week) and any semi-intelligent thought seems like it should be up for an award, so forgive me if its the latter...

 

But, in leaving the house this morning I realized that doing this:

 

would help the nanny remember when to give the next dose of fever reducer.  Who knew that your window and a dry-erase marker would be a good medium?  ...but most of all, this could come in handy when it's my turn to give his meds.

 

[At the start, I've just got one tid bit.  But I figure, it's a good start and one blog is an easy way to keep all this little helpful hints together in a single spot.  You might check back later and find additional information...]

28 Day Cleaning/Organizing Challenge (Day 20 - Under Bathroom Sinks)

One of the many places that accumulates "stuff" in our house better than a lint-trap is under the bathroom sink.  I'm not sure why, but it does.  Almost inevitably, after every grocery shopping trip, additional rolls of toilet paper, stocks of toothpaste, etc. get stashed in there along with the everyday needed stuff.  I believe my home's difficulty lies in the fact that these cabinets have no built in drawers or shelving...just an empty box.

As you can see, I tried remedying part of that problem with removable plastic baskets.  To a degree this works; however, overall it isn't a perfect fix.  Cleaning/organizing these spots pretty much consisted of going through what was in there and purging items that aren't used or needed and then reallocating items to each of the bathrooms.  For example, there really is no good reason to have deodorant down in our powder room other than sheer laziness in not wanting to walk up the steps because we forgot to put it on while dressing - so things like that, went back into the upstairs bathrooms.  From there it really was just a matter or placing things back into the baskets in a more orderly way.

Here are some pictures of my progress:

One thing, I am very thankful for in having done this Day's Challenge is that in cleaning under our communal bathroom's sink a leak was discovered.  Although, I was not happy to find many wet and ruined items, having it go unnoticed for a longer period of time would have created even bigger problems.  At this point, it appears we need a new sink as the current one has a crack in it...who knew???

 

Here is one helpful thing that I did add to our already existing way of trying to keep things tidy.  I installed two Command Strip Hooks to the side wall of the cabinet and hung my blow dryer and flat iron by their cords.  It really does free up some much needed space, I'm thinking of doing the same thing with a few other items (like the heating pad and hand mirror) - just need to make a trip to the store for more first.

28 Day Cleaning/Organizing Challenge (Day 19 - Desk/Paperwork)

I'll have to admit, it took me 5 days (off and on) to accomplish Day 19's task.  The fact that almost 17 years of "important paper" had accumulated before I actually had the nerve to do this one is probably what led my heart to skip a few beats.  What I discovered is this - foremost, it's all about your comfort level.  There are some who shred everything and keep nothing, then there was me... 

This is my "stockpile" of paper.  Before accomplishing
this task it was really difficult for me to find things
that were supposed to be important enough to keep.
In doing this, a lot of irrelevant things were discovered as
well as a box full of office supplies that I'd no idea we had.

Before I began there were lots of web searches and reading (a/k/a research) about how long you really  should keep this kind of stuff.  I found a few government web articles to be really helpful, specifically Managing Household Records" at http://www.usa.gov/Topics/Money/Personal-Finance/Managing-Household-Records.shtml and "Organize a Home Filing System" at http://aces.nmsu.edu/pubs/_g/G229.pdf.  After reading them, I started to get comfortable with letting some of the paper go.  I also realized that there are somethings that you really don't need to keep forever, that there are suggested timelines.  For example:
Personal Income Tax Returns should be kept for 7 years.
Paperwork for Real Estate or Loan Items (Cars, etc.) should be kept as long as you own them.
Household bills should be kept until you get the following month's that shows a proper balance.
Receipts should be kept until you balance your register.

Starting this undertaking, I got two baskets - one for shredding and the other recycling. Shortly after I began a trash bag was added to the mix for items that didn't fall into either of those categories and were tossable.






This is where I drew the line:
Tax stuff I'm keeping for 7 years.
Real estate and loan items will be kept until we no longer own them with the exception of payoff paperwork, which I'll keep "forever."
Household bills, will be stored for 3 years.
And I'm keeping daily receipts for the current and past year with the exception of big ticket items, which will be kept as long as they are.

 

There were a few miscellaneous items like military and school paperwork that I used my judgment on...like if it was orders or transcripts they were kept but if they weren't they went.

All in all I tried to go through and organize as best it could.  Here are the subcategories that I wound up with for filing's sake:

Manuals/Receipts (Baby Gear)
School (Eldest Child)/(Youngest)
CV/Transcripts (Wife)
Reviews/Promissory
Social Security
Birth/Marriage/Sacrament Certificates
Military
Stock
Medical Reimbursement
Medical (Husband)/(Wife)/(Eldest)/(Youngest)
Medical/Dental Insurance
Life Insurance
Disability Reimbursement
Housekeeping

Homeowners Insurance
Manuals/Receipts (Garage)
Manuals/Receipts (Furniture)
Manuals/Receipts (Equipment)
Purchase/Sale of “First House”
Purchase/Sale of “Second House”
Purchase of “Third House”
Mortgage PayOffs
Loan/Credit Card PayOffs
Loan/Credit Miscellaneous
Car Insurance

It may seem like overkill or not broad enough for some but the list should work for my purposes.  I made filefolders for the banker's boxes that all the paperwork went into.

THIS.WAS.WHAT.THE.TO.BE.SHRED.PILE.WOUND.UP.BEING.

And this is what the final product looks like all boxed up:

Needless to say, I wiped my brow a few times on this one...it really was a wild ride!

I wanted to also add that there are a few additional items that are being stored in the "Lifestyle" box.  The spirit must have moved me because I also went through all my magazines that I'd been keeping because they contained great ideas...sort of like an old-fashoned Pinterest.  I went through and ripped out all the pertinent information and put them into their own subfolders (Beauty, Home, Cooking, Kids, Vacations and Miscellaneous).  This way, I don't have to sort through to find what is needed and a lot more paper (the remainder of the magazine) was put out for recycling.

28 Day Cleaning/Organizing Challenge (Day 18 - Mail/Bills)

I used to be one of those who would pull things out of the mailbox and then put the envelopes on our kitchen table.  Inevitably, they'd then migrate to another location (ether a shelf, counter or possibly my purse)...from there, all bets were off.  Over the years, I've had several methods of keeping track of what came in and their due dates...with trial and error my current system seems to work best.

www.anishu.com has a great app called Home Budget. Don't have stock in this company, so aside from having used the product for close to 4 years I can only provide my personal experience in using it as a tool.  It's wonderful!  Since starting to use this product, I've not "forgotten" to make payments.  It has a great feature where you put bill dates on a calendar and will remind you days in advance.  It's kind of like a financial personal assistant in one.  Not only does it have that fabulous feature but it'll also keep track of your account balances and can provide reports of where/how you are spending.  Best $5 spent...however, if that cost is steep for you or you'd like a more simplified app there are a ton out there.  My only suggestion is finding one that'll remind you when things are due...it makes the rest of my system work swimmingly.

The other thing I do, and as some might have seen on my Facebook Page at www.facebook.com/theclosethousewife, each January we get a new redwell dedicated to the year:

Inside I put 12 manila folders and envelopes each labeled with the months.  All bills go into the folders along with their "paid" confirmations and receipts go into the envelopes.  When bills come in, they automatically get put into the app as far as what amount is due and then when I need the actual bill, it's easy to find in the respective monthly folder.  I cannot tell you how many times we've been saved by keeping all the receipts in one place!!!  It's been a lifesaver.

There are some additional files that I also keep in the redwell.  Ones for both my husband and my paystubs, savings/checking account info and tax paperwork get their own subfolders.  NOW I have one just for future shredding...all in all, this method keeps me straight.  The best part is that it's portable so it can be taken with me to work (for paying bills at lunch) or left at home in a desk - it really is convenient!

28 Day Cleaning/Organizing Challenge (Day 17 - Plasticware)

If you are anything like me, there's a drawer/cabinet in your kitchen that looks like this:
 

If you had seen this drawer over the years, there would have been every make and model of plasticware known to man in here.  Didn't matter, if we'd used the product (like margarine) or received it as a to-go (fast food), our house kept that plasticware for future reuse.  Thankfully, those days are long gone.  No more trying to match-up the pieces here - na uh!  Over.  A few years back I nipped that in the bud, only store purchase containers of the same brand.  Made that decision and have stuck to it, thankfully.

Having only one brand, however, doesn't keep the plasticware wrangled.  It winds up all over the place, half the time it's falling out of the drawer onto the floor.  Drives.me.crazy.  Thankfully, another housewife brought this issue to my attention which validated my thought that it happens to most everybody.  So here we are...looking at each other's plasticware.  How to fix the dilemma?
Well, as always I started out by removing all the items from the drawer so an assessment could be made of what there was to work with.  I took this opportunity to go through the items looking for anything that needed to be purged.

If you have plasticware that has white bubbling or is discolored, it's time to recycle it.  The item is starting to break down and will begin to leach into whatever is being stored in it - no matter what, toss!  Not worth the health hazard.

Then, I made sure there weren't any orphans.  If we had too many bottoms or tops they got recycled too.  In the long run, I feel its better to only have in here what can be used, not what could possibly be used in the future (maybe).

It was time to start loading the items back in and before today I would have thought to do this...

Which, is what picture #1 from the blog started out as.  No dice.

Yesterday, while at the coffee machine I had a moment of serendipity.  At last, an idea that is worth repeating and sharing with my fellow housewives.  Best part the fix, is quite possibly something you already have in your house!  I took a K-cup box and deconstructed it, then folded it back inside out and cut off the lid.  Wallah!

 

It's just the right size to keep all the lids together!!! 
(Now, I did think about all of you who may not use K-cups and I believe
the same can be done by cutting a large box of cereal down.)

 

...but when I put it all back together and loaded up the drawer it looked like this:

 

May even try wrapping the boxes in some pretty designed duct tape to make them last longer.  I think it's the perfect remedy! 

28 Day Cleaning/Organizing Challenge (Day 16 - Master Drawers)

Another area in our house where the method of folding is purposeful (so that the items fit better) is the bureau in our master bedroom. As seen in and earlier blog (Day 11 from 2/13/14), all of my clothes are on shelves and in bins in the master closet. So, the full contents of these drawers are my husbands. It could be that his clothing is bigger in nature or that he has a collection of TShirts that can't be parted with...but that's a whole other blog.

Thankfully, most of his clothing was in fair order as I keep it pretty tidy along the way (when clean stuff is put away). But, it does get a little disheveled here and there and could use a bit of straightening. 

I started by removing the items and taking a look at what he has.  There were a few pieces of clothing that had holes in them so they were thrown away.  I however, used great restraint in not donating any of the shirts, which occupy 2 of the six drawers...but I digress.  You may want to go through and determine if anything should be put in the second-hand pile.  I've been setting aside all those items and am going to schedule a pick-up in the near future.

TShirts are folded the same way as our school-agers (shown in Day12 from 2/14/14), shorts in half with the rear-end out and then half again (with the crotch tucked in), while his undershirts get folded like a bath towel (Day 3 from 2/3/14) and his drawer-drawers in thirds while holding the waistband and then down in half from top to bottom while tucking in the crotch (they are boxers).

Needless to say, I also took it upon myself to clear the top of the furniture because there were items from our weekend project or installing an new vanity top and removing wallpaper from the master bathroom.  Yes, we are busy people!  Who'd have it any other way???

28 Day Cleaning/Organizing Challenge (Day 15 - Coat Closet)

Well, you've been a guest (virtually) in my house a few times now.  So, I guess it's time to share the skeletons (or mess) in our closet with you.  For such a small area, it really can get jammed full of all kinds of stuff.  Whether it be because we are too lazy to take things upstairs (like sweatshirts, dress jackets and shoes) or we haven't found a better place to put things (bags, etc.) this is another location where I wouldn't want a guest to necessarily look...which is ironic because theoretically, if you come here with a jacket...it'd be the FIRST place you'd see.  With that said...it was time!

To begin, I removed all the closet's contents.  I like starting with a clean palette and moving on from there.  This gave me a good opportunity to really see what all was in here.  Any items that took hiatus from the actual home, went back...there really is no good excuse for not putting things away in their rightful place.  



I then took a look at what was left and determined what other items would be better served in another location.  The diaper bag went into the living room next to the stroller and the other bags got hung on a hook in the basement stairwell - they really don't get used often enough warrant prime real estate.  Finally, I went through all the coats, gloves and hats and set aside orphans and items that could be donated. 

Our coats got loaded back into the closet first, then I stood back and took a good look at what other space there was to work with.  We have two large plastic bins -one houses our baseball hat collection (which gets its own - we have that many) and the other our winter apparel of hats, gloves and scarves that needed to go in.  However, I had flashback memories of them crashing down on my head and then spilling all over the floor - so I thought it best this time that they be put down on the floor.  I was left with a whole empty upper shelf!  You might have been wondering earlier in the challenge where we put all the DVDs...well, until now they really were transient.  When I saw the big gaping whole, immediately the DVDs came to mind.  The spot really does suit them, I don't like having them accessible by little hands who like to dump them out "for fun."

Once everything was loaded back up this is how the closet looks:

It really is amazing how moving some things around can be so transforming. There are a few future projects I'd love to do in here, like install the wire racking that is in our bedroom closets but sometimes you can only do so much and I've come to realize that that, is better than nothing!

 

28 Day Cleaning/Organizing Challenge (Day 14 - Childrens' Outgrown Clothing)

Well, it seems only natural after having cleaned out/organized the kid's drawers and closets that the progression of things moves us into to long-term storage solutions of items that have been outgrown by the school-ager that our infant will use later.  Luckily, I have two boys (born on the same day 8 years apart) who are following the same height/weight pattern so my "craziness" of  keeping everything has actually paid off. 

Going back in time...when our first was outgrowing things I realized quickly that throwing everything into plastic garbage bags wasn't going to work.  I wanted to keep the clothes as nice as possible for hand-me-downs (we wanted to have other children).  Not sure if it was foresight or madness but - back then, I came up with a "filing method" for just this reason.

Making it as organized as possible, so that we could just pull the appropriate size and use them, the first thing that came into my mind was the card-filing system at the library.  (Yes, I am dating myself.)  Before the ease of a search cue and computers, you knew where to find a book by alphabetically going through that cabinet.  We have a storage area in the basement that suits the need perfectly so...this is what I came up with.  My own Closet Housewife Decimal System, here is what we have amassed over almost 9 years time:

I made a contentious decision to use the same sized boxes so that when stacked, they look uniform. My 9-5 uses a lot of copy paper so I just take home the empties, which would otherwise be thrown away. However, if you don't have the same opportunity, the local office supply store sells banker's boxes that are the same size. I just didn't want to invest in plastic containers as it could become expensive very quickly and chances of them keeping the same style/shape/size over the years is unlikely.

 

For each clothing size, I "opened a new file"
and labeled it per it's content's size.  To
further differentiate the contents, clothing
is divided in separate boxes per season.  So,
for example, 0-3 month sized items are kept
together and the boxes labeled for
Summer (full tree), Winter (bare tree) and
Miscellaneous (onesies/socks/underwear) (half-n-half tree).

If you are interested in using the same labeling method as shown, I used 2" x 4" mailing labels.  For the trees, I looked for clipart - you could also do something cute like a snowflake for winter and a sun for summer...the possibilities are endless.  Another suggestion - should you have boy and girl clothes - is to put an additional marking (whether it be a seperate label or not) indicating whether they are M/F attire.  What you are going for is a consistent labeling method but the personalization is limitless!

This method works, as I've had turn over in the school-ager's clothes for use with our infant.  The only tweaking along the way was to go back and reinforce the boxes with some packing tape as the years haven't been kind to the glue (seperated on a few).
If you are doing it along the way, as I have, it really is easy to keep up with - all you have to do is get a new box at the change of seasons.  I will say, that if you are having to rework an already in progress method - this is totally worth the time investment in the long run.  It also makes your storage look REALLY impressive!!!

Conquering the Dreaded Fitted Sheet (How to Fold Sheets so That Look Like They Could be on Display)

Those of you who know me, you are aware of the hate-hate relationship that I've had over the years with the vile fitted sheet.  All kinds of stall tactics to never, ever have to fold them were implored.  From washing, drying and remaking the bed all in the same day (with the same set of sheets) to just wadding the thing up in a ball...I realized when the thought of reorganizing our linen closed made me break out in a cold sweat (because THAT sheet was in there), I had a problem.  I don't know what gave me the courage to finally face my issue head on (it could have been the 4 cups of coffee), but after ehrhumm5hourserhhhcough, cough...I finally put the sheet "to bed." [Pun intended.]  Here is a step by step on how:

  

Take your flat sheet and fold it in half, then
going the opposite way, half again so that
it is in quarters.  Lay it out on a flat surface
(either a table or bed will do).

Some fitted sheets do not have the elastic
that goes all the way around.  If so in your
case, find the four corners of the sheet
(where they've sewn in the side seams
to allow for the mattress's thickness).
take two of the seams and pinch them
together.  With your other hand take the
other two seams, pinch them together.
The sheet should sag like a "u" between your
two hands.

Take the two sets of pinched seams and
bring them together, folding the sheet
in half loosely.

You see here that I have the four pinched
seams in my left hand and I am straightening
out the un-elasticized edge with my right.
I stuck to fingers into the loops and pulled
them taught. 

Then I found the sewn in mattress thickness
seam allowance and flipped all four into one
another and using my left hand made the
sheet fold into itself while holding the looped
portion of the edge in my right hand.

Gently lay the sheet down on top of the
flat sheet so that it looked like this.  I
never realized that there could actually be
two flat folds (on the right and bottom of
the picture). 

Taking the left third of the flat sheet, fold
it onto itself with the fitted sheet inside.

Fold right third into the middle.

Next fold the pillow cases (all but one for
the set).

Fold down in half.

Fold up into quarter.

Fold from left to right.

Fold again from left to right.  Repeat for
each case (except for one).

Go back to sheets.  Fold in half from
top to bottom.

Fold in a third from top.

Fold remaining third up and then flip over
so that the seams are on the bottom.

Lay out the remaining pillow case so that
it is longer from left to right.  (I put the
open end on the right.  Place sheets on
top of pillowcase towards the left (un-open
end of the the case); then, lay the folded
pillowcases on top of the sheets. 

While holding the pillowcases tight to the
sheets, put your left hand under the bottom
pillowcase (like a spatula) and fold the items
over towards the right.

Fold over again from left to right.

Your sheets/cases should look a burrito.

Add the finishing touches by stuffing the
extra pillowcase into the sheets' crevices.

Wallah!  Isn't it beautiful??!!??

I hope that this tutorial helps you.  It is possible that in the near future (when I get the guts up to go on camera) that there'll be a video which may be even more helpful.

Myself, I've done this three times since figuring it out and it just keeps getting easier...no more dreaded fitted sheet.  We're friends.