Thursday, November 12, 2009

Closet Party Girl

Saturday is National Clean Out Your Refrigerator Day and have I got an idea for you!

Cleaning your refrigerator might not normally conjure up feelings of warmth or excitement, especially if you're looking at a container of sour cream dating back to June, zucchini so soft it's hard to pick up, and chocolate syrup caked on the bottom shelf of the refrigerator (left over from one too many sundaes on Ice Cream Sundays).

Put on the rubber gloves, grab a bucket of bleach, hot water, and some durable rags, but don't stop there. Once done with the refrigerator head over to that catch-all junk closet of yours.

You know the one I'm talking about. The closet where you storing left over plates from last month's Halloween gathering, the extra plastic table cloth and cutlery you bought to host a birthday party, the three extra party favor bags you didn't end up using at Valentine's Day, the Easter eggs it seemed wasteful to throw away, and the New Year's horn you saved for this New Year's.

Yeh, that's the closet I talking about.

Head right over there and clean it out too. Free yourself of all the junk you've been accumulating... in the off chance you re-celebrate your son's first birthday or, one year later, you actually remember the three party bags saved before buying a new set. Free yourself of all the junk and revel in that streamlined feeling we love so much.

Observing National Clean Our Your Refrigerator Day and committing to purge yourself of any left over paper plates, cutlery, tablecloths, napkins, pinatas, treat bags, streamers, balloons, and insidious chatchka, will make for a fun, fun, fun...

POT LUCK DINNER!

Invite neighbors. Guests bring a dish, inspired by the safe, but dated, ingredients in their refrigerators and no two people eat off the same type of plate. I enjoy a St. Patrick's Day plate and a Hanukkah cup while you use an Easter plate and a Winnie the Pooh cup. For dessert, serve up some July Fourth fire works and Halloween candy.

Send everyone home with miscellaneous party favor bags chock, full of toys from Happy Meals and other as sundry places handing it out by the fist fulls.
How about? What will you be cooking up Saturday, in honor of National Clean Out Your Refrigerator Day? And, what plates, cups, and cutlery will you be eating with? Fess up.

Signing off until tomorrow...

8 comments:

Robin said...

Oh my - this is such a fun idea!

For World Kindness I bought the person in the Starbucks Line behind me some coffee. It was a guy which is unusual. I wonder what he thought. I sort of feel like a woman would get it... I did tell the barista why and asked her to pass my message on - be kind to someone you don't know this week!

Heather said...

Robin good for you!!!!

I'll be honest and say I've struggled with world kindness week this week. I'm been up to by eyes in work in the office and trying to play catch up hasn't happened as the new work is streaming in faster than the old work is getting done. Add to that a toddler who has been coming down with a cold and last night was running a fever and you have one cynical Momma.
But today I promise to get back on track...maybe Lily and I will swing by Starbucks on the way to the Dr. and I'll try to start a RAK chain...

As far as a Closet Party? At work we could probably do this, a random party to celebrate with our left over plates and such. At home I try not to save anything or if we do we use them for dinner some evenings so I don't have to do dishes.

But your closet looks fun, fun, fun! Love it!

Kat said...

That is a great idea! We have tons of birthday plates and napkins leftover from various birthdays. Zoo animals, Elmo, and Shamrocks would all make an appearance if I had a party like that. I have a "Birthday Box" that I throw all of my decorations and paper goods in. Even if you didn't do a party, it would be fun just to do a family dinner with the random leftovers of past celebrations.

Robin said...

We have Halloween and 1st Birthday for sure, I'll have to look again.

Heather, I'm feeling similarly, so try something else I'm doing:

Be kind to yourself.

Sometimes it starts at the top!

Cheryl Houston said...

Good morning HLA.

I keep a stack of cocktail napkins in the cabinet next to my coffee maker. I just rotated out the Halloween ones to the bottom and was peeking at what was coming up. I love seeing the napkins that I bought last year (or the year before last) that didn't get used up.

I don't have just a closet- I have a room! That kind of stuff is spread from the pantry, to the side board, to the junk room- i mean studio, to the closet in the junk room. That's way too much stuff to gather for this weekend because this Saturday as our calendar is over flowing with activities. Sunday will be dedicated to taking down all of Halloween! Oh my.

But Heather is right- Claudia's closet looks like fun!

Katie said...

Wow- fun pictures!! And what a fun idea.

I need to deep clean my apartment today as it's been a few weeks since I've really been able to clean it really well. I'll go digging out all my old holiday things and maybe host some friends for dinner this weekend.

Thanks for the great idea!

Unknown said...

Here's an idea - not exactly clean out your refrigerator but clean out your dvds. I learned this today - AMVETS wants to send gently used or new DVDs to our troops overseas - task force dvd. With Veterans' Day being yesterday, it's a good reminder for us to appreciate everything our service men and women do -

check out http://www.examiner.com/x-20149-Naperville-Family-Entertainment-Examiner~y2009m11d12-Entertain-our-troops-by-donating-to-AMVETS-task-force-dvd

or http://www.amvets.org/taskforcedvd

Jessie Freeman said...

The fabulous part of having an semi-OCD husband is the frige hardly ever gets out of control! It's been cold here due to the hurricane, so I am defintely going to make a big pot of chili to get myself through :)
Since I don't have kids, I don't have a closet full of fun stuff, perhaps I should start and get a WAY head start on that.