I’m happy to report that Berlin has started getting little bits of sunshine this month.  March has snatched the spot for #1 month of the year in my book so far.  Here’s our favorite sugar dish posing outside for all of you.  He’s the only one with eyes wide open these days.  Everyone else in Berlin is squinting in the bright light.  It’s like we’ve emerged from a cave.  Cave Winter.

The spits of snow are starting to turn into splashes of rain in the sky.

Then the mailman thought I was stealing someone’s mail when I walked up to the mailboxes after school and picked up an Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association magazine.  AOPA is an organization for pilots of small aircraft (like us!) in the United States.  It was abandoned on the radiator by itself.  Let me just say that you’ve never seen a mailman look at you like he’s going to rip you to shreds like I saw today.  I tried to explain to the mailman that the magazine was my husband’s.  I wasn’t committing a federal crime (assuming it’s illegal to open someone else’s mail here).  Before I finished explaining, he cut me off and let me go on up the stairs.  I’m pretty sure it was my American accent and poor German grammar that gave it away:

The woman taking the American magazine is an American.

The good news is that I think he’ll remember me from now on, and I kind of miss having mailmen who hand my mail right to me and say, “Hello” like I grew accustomed to in the small communities and Denver suburbs were we’ve lived in the US.  Or in the very least, I hope we can be on good terms.  I’d hate to be on the mailman’s bad side.  That’s worse than finding out half of your strawberries from the market are moldy the next morning.  And the next morning.

All this is to say I’m thinking of sun.  I’m thinking of airplanes.

I’m thinking I would love to know where you would go if you had one (sunny!) weekend in Europe.  You could go anywhere.  (For my European readers, feel free to take this imaginary weekend retreat outside of Europe!)  Where would it be?  Would you be lingering on the steps of the Louvre?  Inhaling the tulips in Holland?  Watching the bulls in Spain?  Sitting on the beaches of Italy or Greece?

I’m afraid the dinner menu at our house won’t be all that exciting over the next two weeks.  Spring is coming, and with it are all of the fresh, seasonal fruits and vegetables. (Wiping off drool.)  But before we can dive into all of the fresh produce, our freezer needs some serious attention.  It’s filled to the brim.  I realize the brim isn’t all that big around here.  Yet full is full, and we’re hardly touching the stuff in there.

How’s your freezer looking?  Is it stuffed with foods that you plan on eating some day?  Are you stashing a little clutter in the freezer?  And really the biggest question of all:  how often are you reaching for the items you put in there?

I think we have so many yummier choices around the kitchen that instead of eating what’s in our freezer, we’re eating other things.  Then we’re buying more things.  We’re never going to tackle the foods in our freezer as long as something tastier is around.

Random leftovers, pumpkin puree from our autumn decor, frozen beans we bought dry and cooked in huge batches…

Are you suffering from freezer clutter, too?  I think most people don’t realize how much frozen food they’re collecting.

(Our freezer is located behind the cabinet door in the lower right of the kitchen.  You can see it between the green dishes and the white heater beside the brown wall in this shot.  The freezer is small.  But it’s stuffed.)

I know that when fresh strawberries and asparagus starts popping up at our grocery stores and farmers markets, that freezer will go untouched more often than not.  There is no better time than now to declutter the freezer.  The food budget will decrease.  We’ll eat what we have.  And we’ll learn about what we’re buying and not eating fast enough while it is fresh.  It’ll be a good sign of what we need to buy less of.

So what do you say?  Care to dig into your freezer along with me?  It won’t be all bad – trust me.  Tonight dinner in Berlin was:  banana bread french toast (from frozen banana bread), yogurt, and fruit smoothies with rice milk (from frozen mixed fruit we cut up).

Spring, we’ll be ready for you!  Our freezer will be, too.

How about you?  Care to join me?  (Maybe don’t tell the family… guaranteed groans.  Trust me.)  Just for fun – what do you think the scariest thing is in your freezer right now?  Or what has it been?  Is it creepy and crawly?  Growing fur?  Do you dare dive in there and get it out?

Needing a little kitchen management help?  These tips on creating a simpler, happier home and decluttering under the sink could be just the ticket.

Do you ever get excited to do laundry?  Hmm.  For some reason, I’m having trouble hearing your kazoos and drum rolls.  Come on, people.  It’s LAUNDRY!  yeah!

Okay.  I confess I have only been excited about laundry once – the day I didn’t have to go to a laundromat because we finally saved up to get our own washer.  I really didn’t think I could get excited about dirty laundry ever again.  Seriously – laundry?  Yawn.  Gag.  Ehh.  And now… well now I might pull out a few kazoos for all of us.

Hilde filled me in on the greatness that is soap nuts.  Have you heard of them?  They’re often mentioned in the comments here on Making This Home, especially when I start talking about eco-savvy cleaning tricks (like chemical-free dusting, cleaning with vinegar, and all-around eco-cleaning tips).  I just didn’t know if I should take the plunge and try soapnuts.  I mean – cleaning my clothes with a pile of nut shells?  That really is nuts.

Or so I thought.

So here’s Hilde from right here in Germany, ready to give us the nitty gritty of all that is great about soap nuts because I imagine many of you are probably wondering about the little things as much as me.  She’s been using them for the last ten years!  So take it away, Hilde.  Tell us what you know:

I am a housewife in my mid-fifties  living in a village near Koblenz [in Germany] with my husband and sometimes one of my two grown-up sons. Since about twenty years, I have tried to live as eco-friendly as possible, which often means simply going back to the way we lived when I was a child (no car, cooking from scratch, having fewer clothes etc.).

Ten years ago, I started volunteering in a Fair Trade shop. Of course I had to be able to tell the customers about the things we sold, which was no problem with things like chocolate. But when we gor the soap nuts, my inner German housewife revolted. No way would I put some sticky brown lumps into my washing machine! But as I was the youngest of the volunteering ladies, I was chosen to try those lumps – and I never bought washing powder again.

Instead of a heavy container with a list of unpronounceable ingredients and some warning hints you get a drawstring bag made of unbleached cotton, containing three or four small cotton bags, a piece of paper and the soap nuts, or more accurately the empty shells. The piece of paper tells you what to do:

1. put between 3 and 5 half shells in one of the small bags
2. tie the bag tightly shut with the strings
3. put it into your washing mashine and wash as usual.
4. when the washing cycle is finished, take the nutshells out of the bag and put in in the compost

I have a front loader and usually chose the short cycle with 30 or 40°C (86 or 104°F), but I also have used the soap nuts at higher temperatures. The laundry was always clean, and very soft without using a fabric softener. If I have a load of whites only, I sometimes add a tablespoon of baking soda, but it isn´t really necessary. And since the laundry is without any fragrance, I sometimes add two drops of lavender oil directly on the bag for just the faintest hint of lavender.

And the costs? The price tag for my 1 kg bag says 12, 50 €.  One nut weighs about 1 g, which gives you about 300 loads from one bag of soap nuts, or one load for 4-5€ cents. And when the nuts are all used up, you get a reusable cotton bag!

Like I said.  Who knew laundry could be fun again?  I’m pretty sure you can find soap nuts at health food and organic grocery stores if you want to give ‘em a try.  Or have you tried them?  Loved ‘em?  Never heard of them?  Either way – I’d love to know your thoughts because as Hilde and I discussed between emails, really – who knew laundry could get so interesting?

Thank you a million times, Hilde.  And if you have any thoughts on laundry, now’s the time.  Please dish the dirt.  Air that dirty laundry.  We’d love to hear.

(Images both courtesy of Flickr)

Are you ready for March?  It’s certainly hit Europe with a big gust.  I was quite certain I was going to be blown right into German class this morning like a little tumbleweed back in the United States.  Winds have been gusting up to 90 miles an hour (145 km) in some areas south of Berlin.

I am excited for where March will take us.  The snow is disappearing.  Men in blue suits are scooping gravel off the sidewalks by the shovel-full.  Sweepers are going up and down the streets, collecting all the crumbs the snow has been hiding all winter.

And we’re spending the night with boardgames – the perfect way to start a new month and prepare for changes and new seasons.

I am thinking less stuff, fewer commitments that lack heart, and more passion.

Where do you hope March takes you?  Where are you marching on to this month?  The thought of spring is so uplifting.  A cleaned out garage?  Fewer piles of paperwork?  A special birthday cake?  Piles of board games on the kitchen table? What are your ambitions this month?  I love how inspiring the comments on this blog often are.  Thank you for sharing your inspirations and in turn, inspiring so many of us.  So really – what is it?  Where are you marching off to?

Images of Settlers of Catan – the German version.  Guys dig this game (even when a girl *me* somehow manages to beat them Every Single Time.)