Rhubarb & Green Apple Crumble

May 20, 2013 By Leave a Comment

If you’ve just organised your kitchen, then making this gorgeous Rhubarb and Green Apple Crumble should be a breeze!

1 bunch rhubarb (400g) chipped into 3cm lengths
2 large Green Apples, peeled, cored and thickly sliced
1 tsp orange rind finly grated
1/3 (75g) caster sugar
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 cup (60g) Butter
2 x 200g diet vanilla yoghurt

Method

  1. Pre-head oven to 180 degrees.
  2. Lightly grease a 6-cup (1.5L) capacity 24 x 14cm ovenproof dish.
  3. Place rhubarb and apple in prepared dish.
  4. Stir in the rind and half the sugar.
  5.  Cover with foil and bake for 35 minutes or until the fruit is just tender.
  6. Combine the flour, cinnamon and remaining sugar into a large bowl.  Using finger tips, rub in the soft butter until the measure resemble breadcrubms.
  7. Spoon crumble mixture over the fruit.
  8. Bake, uncovered, for 15 minutes or until golden brown
  9. Serve with yoghurt

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Maximise Your Space, Room Layouts

May 13, 2013 By Leave a Comment

Do you find yourself bumping into furniture or unable to get your rooms to “feel” right? The notion of moving furniture is appealing but feels oh-so-time consuming! Try this handy hint.

  1. Measure the pieces of furniture in your room and make a scale cut out of them, for example your dining table is 1800mm x 900mm, cut out a square that measure 18mm x 9mm (this means your furniture is now scaled down to 1:100). Do this with everything in your room (using the same scale of course!)
  2. Then measure your room and do the same; draw a scale outline of the room. Remember to include doorways, windows, entry ways and existing built in furniture.
  3. Then taken you cut-outs of furniture and move them around your room so you can see if you can configure it to work better for you.

Remember furniture doesn’t have to be up against a wall, lounges can be used to divide a room and rugs can be used to define areas too – just play with and have some fun before you start moving things around.

The golden rule is always “less is more”!

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Get Organised Around the Kitchen

May 6, 2013 By Leave a Comment
  • Take a look at all the appliance you have on your bench tops (good old bread makers, blenders, mixers, etc). If you don’t use it, give it away (note that some charities do not receive electrical items, so check first).
  • If you use it less than once a week store it in a cupboard so it’s not taking up valuable bench space.
  • Empty your pantry and check the “Use By” or “Best By” dates and throw out anything that is out of date.
  • Take the opportunity to wipe out the shelves as you go.
  • Lastly, plastic containers, we all have thousands of these things! Take them all out and match the containers to lids, make sure you have a complete container, if you don’t or the lids no longer fit or seal correctly throw them out.
  • When stacking them back in the cupboard, stack all the square inside each other and the same with the rounds – will have you a lot of space!
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Get Rid of Clutter in an Hour or Less

April 29, 2013 By Leave a Comment


Getting rid of clutter doesn’t have to be a long and arduous task. You can complete these simple declutter projects in an hour or less.

1. Toss 10. Grab a garbage bag. Find ten items in your home that you no longer need or want and put them in the bag. Toss the bag in the wheelie bin or put it in your local charity bin (eg. Lifeline) if they are items that can be recycled. Don’t look back.

2. Clear a surface. Find at least one cluttered surface in your home, like a kitchen benchtop or a dressing table, and completely clear it of all clutter. Place all the unwanted items immediately into the bin.

3. Toss out old magazines. Gather any old magazines or newspapers that you have already read and haven’t looked at in the last couple of weeks. Recycle or donate them today.

4. Weed out 5. The thought of thinning out and organising your entire filing system may seem daunting to say the least, but anyone can weed out just 5 file folders at a time.

5. Go through a junk drawer (everyone has one of these in their home). Whatever you can’t identify or is clearly junk (meaning you’ve never used it and never will) gets thrown out.

6. Toss anything that has past it’s used by date. Go through your fridge and medicine cabinet, gathering anything perishable that has expired. Hint – a good day to do this is on your rubbish collection day so your items will be collected straight away by the garbage man.

7. Throw away junk mail. Don’t be tempted – immediately toss out anything that is clearly junk mail.

8. Put things away. While carrying a basket or large bag with handles, go through your home putting at least half a dozen items that are not in their correct place in the basket or bag. Then, deliver those items to their proper homes.

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De-Clutter the “buzz-word”

April 22, 2013 By Leave a Comment

“De-Clutter, the now-buzzword for schmick decorating, means you begin with less or, better still, you pare right down.  You arrange furniture with space around it and it’s that simple space – absolutely free of charge – that give you the look.”  Better Homes and Gardens

Whilst the look, but more importantly the feel, is ultimately what you want, you still have to deal with the “stuff” that you pare down – right?

If you need to work out how to deal with the stuff before you get to enjoy that fabulous feeling – checkout some of our step-by-step books.

Filed Under: Hints and Tips

Top 5 Organising Secrets

April 15, 2013 By Leave a Comment

As you know we live and breathe organisation here at Green Apple. We would like to inspire everyone to get more organised, so we reveal our Top 5 Organising Secrets.

1. Love it or Loose it – Quite simply get rid of all the stuff. Over 60% of our belongings are left unused for over 6 months at a time! This is taking up unnecessary space in our house and our lives. If you love it keep it, if not, loose it.

2. A Place for Everything and Everything In Its Place – You’ve all heard this a 1000 times but it is the only way to go. Most homes are unorganized for the simple reason that they don’t have a place for everything. Creating more space can be achieved in even the smallest of homes.

3. Like-with-Like - A favourite catch-cry of ours. The simple method of storing items in groups of similar types, is key. It ensures items are fast and easy to find and you know where to put them back.

4. Think Logically - Use your own sense of logic when storing items. Whilst glossy magazines make storage look fantastic, it may not follow your sense of logic. What I mean is, one sense of logic might say store basic household tools in the kitchen, another may say the laundry.

5. The Right Tool for the Job – as they say in the trades. The same applies to organizing. Use the right storage container for the job.

  • large enough to keep to the like-with-like rule;
  • small enough to make sure precious items are kept safe;
  • flexible enough to be used for more than one purpose;
  • transparent so you can see what is inside them;
  • of a good quality so they don’t become brittle and break/snap;
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Organising tip – Paperwork

April 8, 2013 By Leave a Comment

Instead of having a traditional “in-tray” for your incoming paper or mail (or perhaps you don’t use anything at all/the kitchen bench!), try using a magazine box instead. It is a much neater option and can be purchased to match your decor.

A magazine box also has a defined capacity, therefore you have to deal with paperwork as the box becomes full – whereas with a traditional tray you run this risk of continuing to add the paper create a nasty mountain of paper.

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Green Apple Sorbet (1 Serve)

April 1, 2013 By Leave a Comment

Need some refreshment after all your organising – try this Green Apple Sorbet -delish!

  • 2 Large Green Apples (Granny Smith)
  • 2 Tablespoons Fresh Lemon Juice
  • 1 Tablespoon White Sugar
  • 80ml Apple Juice
  • 1 drop Green Food Colouring
  • 1 Spring of Fresh Mint for Garnish

Peel, cut and core 1 of the apples. Place apple in saucepan with 5 teaspoons lemon juice, sugar and apple juice. Bring to the boil and cook for approximately 3 to 5 minutes. Cool.

Puree in blender until smooth and transfer to a small bowl. Stir in food colouring and freeze. Puree in blender once more and return to freezer.

Cut top off remaining apple and hollow out inside with a melon baller leaving a small wall. Sprinkle remaining 1 teaspoon lemon juice inside of the apple to keep from turning brown.

Fill apple with sorbet.

Garnish with a mint sprig on top.

This recipe is for one serve, obviously increase quantities, if you are cooking for a crew!

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Organising Tip – Bathroom

March 23, 2013 By Leave a Comment

To Kill Mould (not just bleach it white), mix 3 drops of Oil of Cloves (available from Chemists) in 1 Litre of Water and spray on the mould or areas susceptible to mould and wipe down – all gone with no nasty fumes!

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Getting organised, there are no excuses!

March 18, 2013 By Leave a Comment

Do you ever feel overwhelmed and never know where to get started?

I am sure you can give me a million reasons/excuses why you can’t get organised – we have probably heard them all before!

Here are some very good reasons to start getting organised.

I don’t know where to start

Don’t think about this too much, just pick a room/area/space and start there.  There is no real order in getting organised, just start somewhere.  Sure you might choose the easiest place to start, but as long as you are moving forward and making progress it doesn’t matter.  The more you do, the easier it will become.  Try starting with small things like spending 15 minutes on a kitchen drawer and move onto larger projects as you gain confidence.

I’ve got so much stuff, it’s overwhelming

If the stuff “offends thee” get rid of the stuff!  If necessary hire a skip to get rid of the rubbish, call your local charity and ask them to pick things up, have a garage sale, or sell on ebay!

I don’t have time, I’m super busy

Like with anything that is important in your life you always find time for it.  We are all issued with the same 24 hours in each day, it’s up to us to take control of how we spend it.  Even starting with just 15 minutes each day you’ll be surprised how quickly you will get started, put the time in your schedule and do it, your organising time should be non-negotiable. Never say “I’ll do it in my spare time” (who has spare time anyway), and if you do, wouldn’t you rather relax and spend with family and friends.

Isn’t there a fast way I can just get it sorted

Probably not!  Think about how long it took you to accumulate all your things, probably years!  Be realistic about how long a organising or decluttering project will take you.  You won’t be able to declutter your entire house in a day or even a weekend, so start with smaller projects and do it frequently – if you want faster results, perhaps a Professional Organiser can help you.

But I don’t know how to!

There is lots of books and reference material on the internet – including Fact Sheets on our own  website that can offer you some wonderful advice on how to plan and execute your organising project – again you may need to hire a professional if you are really lost!

How do I know what to get rid of?

Once you get started some items will be quite obvious, but there is a rule we use, if you Love it Keep, it you don’t Loose it! (we have a Fact Sheet on Steps to Sorting Clutter which will give you a load of ideas!))

Mrs Neat married to Mr Messy

Can be quite tricky – but start on the things you can throw out or organise.  Often when Mr Messy sees the results of your efforts they see the enormous benefits and get involved with their own things.  Secondly, try explaining (very calmly) that the clutter in your home makes you feel overwhelmed, stressed, embarrassed, anxious they may start to understand.  Your partner should never want you to feel that way about anything and if they believe their stuff contributes to that they may choose to act.  Make your “case” to your spouse about how it makes you feel rather than about the stuff.

And the kids …..

Quite often a case of Monkey See, Monkey Do – children will have learned from you about clutter and organisation.  If you toss your handbag on the kitchen bench at the end of the day, the kids will do the same with their school bags etc, so it will require some retraining on your part to get them on board.

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