6 month rule?

So have you ever heard people say that if you haven't used something in 6 months or longer, you should get rid of it? I have. Many times. I think that maybe it is referring to clothing, but it might be a good rule of thumb.

I am a fairly organized person...but I have several "junk drawer" type areas in my house.

Today I went through several piles of STUFF and ended up throwing half of it out and filing the rest. I found some really great stuff that my kids had done at school that I want to keep, but I also had a bunch of random papers that I knew I didn't need.

Sometimes it takes me a week or more to realize that I don't need to save my kids' art (at least not EVERY piece) and so I think that TIME is an important factor in saving or chucking things.

That's what made me think of the 6 month thing.

BUT there are many things that the 6 month rule does not work on...at least not for me.

Favorite books, old journals and letters are things we may not look at every 6 months but it doesn't mean we should get rid of them. Also, I save a majority of my kids' clothing to hand down to the next kiddo. I try to keep it organized, but I personally would rather store a few boxes than buy new clothes every year.

Speaking of clothes, I keep a lot of clothes that are not my *current* size. Being the the middle of my "child-baring years" my body changes from year to year. Some day I hope I can get back to where I want to be and will stay there, but until then I will store a variety of sizes for myself so that, again, I don't have to go shopping for new jeans every time I'm working on losing my baby fat.

Old craft and sewing projects can take up a lot of space. Right now, I have a guest room where these things are stored, but I keep thinking that I need to clean that stuff out. I honestly do not have the time or energy for them and I haven't for a while.

Well, now I'm just ranting.

The point is, whether you need a time table on how long to keep something or not, try to declutter something soon. Heck, you may find more room for your FOOD STORAGE!

Miracles

I have so much to be thankful for this year! My family has been so blessed, especially in the last few months. I'd like to share with you our recent little miracle.

For a while now, my husband has looked around for a new job. There were several reason for this including higher pay and more opportunity for advancement.

In September, he applied for a job with the State of Utah as an IT Technical Support Specialist. The problem was that the job was in Moab, UT. Moab is in southeast Utah, about 4 hours from where we live (Cedar City, in southwest Utah). I did NOT want to move, but thought he should apply and that maybe it would help him to get a raise at his job.

A week after sending in the application, we were on our way to Draper, UT (near Salt Lake) for his interview. He felt good about it and they seemed to like him, so on the way home we started to talk a little bit more seriously about what we would do if he got the job.

The interview was on a Friday afternoon. He was one of the last to be interviewed. We also found out later that about 100 people applied for this job. Monday morning at 10am, he got a call. He got the job! He came home soon after to tell me and I was shocked, but that wasn't the best part.

The lady that offered him the job asked him how he really felt about moving. He told her that he would move wherever they needed him (which was true for him). She then explained that they didn't have someone in that particular position in Cedar City and that she was wanting to open that position up here. She asked him if he'd like to work in Cedar if she could get approval to create the new position.

When he told me this, I bawled! Thinking of moving was making me literally feel sick and I didn't really know if I could have handled it. I feel that prayer is very powerful, but I honestly hadn't even really prayed for him to get the job or anything. I just tried to ignore it.

Well, I have prayed about it a lot since then. Even without literally expressing my wants and needs, I was being given exactly what I wanted, and so was my husband.  And he is very happy to be staying in Cedar too.

He's been on the job for two weeks now and he is overwhelmed! He has a large workload and hardly has time to eat lunch, let alone answer my calls or texts. At his previous work I could basically talk to him any time, but now I have to wait for him to call me when he's not busy. I know, I was spoiled before. But thinking of how busy he is and how tired he is when he gets home makes me even more thankful that we aren't in a strange town trying to unpack a thousand boxes.

This is one of the biggest miracles that has happened to us. We know we need to be in Cedar. My husband will get more opportunities to move up and is making a bit more money. We have good benefits. Even though it's hard work, it will definitely pay off and we will be able to meet our goals of being debt free and having a good emergency savings as well as planning for retirement.

We've had two other miracles this fall. One is a direct result of the new job. We finally got my husband a working vehicle! Out of the last 9 years of married, he has only had his own car for ONE! Now he has his car and I have mine and I have NO idea how I hauled 4 kids around along with shuttling him to and from work.

The other miracle is that we are expecting baby #5. We have known for a while that we had another one waiting to come and will be blessed with a new little crazy in the middle of May.

With the holiday season right in front of us, I cannot help but feel humbled for the blessings we have received. I don't want anyone to think I am bragging. I debated even writing this post, but I wanted to express my gratitude for a hard working husband, and for my Heavenly Father who knows who I am and what I need. Everything I have in my life is because of His love.

I hope you all have a Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Water

Water is ESSENTIAL no matter what your level of preparedness.

It is recommended to have one gallon of water, per person, per day, for drinking and sanitation purposes.

Don't stress. Start small.

It is recommended to store a 2 weeks supply of water. That's 14 gallons per person.

I have two weeks worth in food-grade, 5 gallon jugs like the one below. This is our drinking supply. For my washing water, I refill soft drink and juice bottles with water. I also refill old laundry soap and hand soap containers. Making a habit of refilling these bottles will make it easy to increase your water supply without a lot of extra thought and expense.

With my water storage, I separate what is stored for home use and what I would need if we had to leave home. I have a pack of water bottles in the car. I also have a small, rolling suitcase filled with water bottles in my hall closet. It's heavy but I could fit it in the car or roll it behind me, depending on which mode of transportation I would be using in an emergency.

A light addition for your 72-hour kits could be a water purifier bottle. It may not be realistic to have 3 gallons of water in each person's kit if you have to leave your car and go somewhere on foot.


Important: Keep water containers away from heat sources and direct sunlight. Do not store plastic on cement.

Here's a great link to FEMA for more information: Water

Recent post from PreparedLDSFamily: How to Store Emergency Drinking Water

And LDS.org: Drinking Water Guidelines


This is step 1 on the PLAN 9 pamphlet put together by the Southwest Utah Public Health Department.

3-month supply: Condiments

Let's talk about CONDIMENTS!!!

 

I know, it sort of sounds silly, but bear with me. Most of us use condiments every day, making them as important to store as wheat and sugar. (OK, maybe not AS important...)

 

So, first of all, what is a condiment anyway?

 

A condiment is a food (usually a sauce) that you use to enhance or compliment a food or meal.

 

Next, you decide what condiments you use in your home. Here are some examples:

 

Ketchup

Mustard

Hot sauce

Mayonnaise

Salad Dressing

Steak sauce

BBQ sauce

Worcestshire sauce

Soy sauce

Chocolate syrup

Salsa

 

 

Once you've decided what you use, you can start tracking what you use, by writing the date you opened something and making a note of the day you used it up.

 

At this point, you will have a personalized amount for storage. OR, you can just grab one or two extra ketchup bottles the next time you are shopping or if they're on sale. I try to have one bottle of the above in my storage if I can. Many condiments have long enough shelf lives that they will not spoil if used regularly.

 

 

Here are some stock-up prices for condiments:

 

 

Ketchup: $.04/oz

BBQ sauce: $.05/oz

Mustard: $.05/oz

Chocolate syrup: $.07/oz

Mayo/Salad dressing: $.09/oz

Worcestershire: $.09/oz

Soy sauce: $.10/oz

Salsa: $.10/oz

Ranch dressing: $.10/oz

Steak sauce: $.21/oz