Beds and Mattresses

Beds are the most important things in our lives; and keeping them clean are just as important. I've been working on the Peter Walsh Facebook page - and through his page - to keep my house tidy and my mind focused on what I need to do around my place.

And you know? Over the past few years, I've learned a lot about beds and mattresses - and none of it pretty.

Beds hold onto our dead skin cells - a lot of it from when we sleep. No matter if we sleep in pajamas, underwear or in the nude, our skin cells still end up on our sheets, mattress protectors and on the mattress itself. This is why it's very important to wash our sheets every week - as well as the mattress protector every month - along with cleaning the mattress once a month. 

To clean a mattress you get Bi-Carb Soda, sift it over your mattress and leave it alone for 2 hours. then, get your vacuum cleaner (one which is bagless is good, so you can see how much dirt has been collected) and go over your mattress with it. You'll be surprised how much dirt comes up with your bi-carb soda. I've been doing this for a few months now and it's been great addition to my housework; and it makes your mattress last longer and it's not a chemical either.

Another good thing I've been doing when I change the sheets is to leave my bed alone for the whole day instead of remaking it immediately. The indirect light from the sun helps kill off germs from what's on the mattress and in the room - especially if I haven't been well with a cold. Also, if I've been sick, I go and Glen-20 the bed itself once I know I'm getting better.

So, what have you found works for you in the way of caring for your most important investment: your bed? Leave a comment below and let us all know.

Three Steps Forwards, Two Steps Back...

As with anything in life - and any new habit you're starting to do - there will always be a few teething problems.

Like with this blog. 

There's not many people jumping in this place, because they're unsure about what this whole thing is about. 

'A Work In Progress'... it could mean artwork, building a house, the inner workings of somebody's mental state... yep, it could mean anything. But it's about how to go about working on the clutter in your home. And let's face it: I'm not the perfect role model for this either. I have a cluttered home and I'm working on my place as much as you are.

So, when I have a drawback - like I have had recently - it's because I've had personal matters interfere with my life. When this happens, my mindset gets screwed up and so does how my house looks, works and how my decluttering goes on; or doesn't. 

When you do have a week or two where you're wondering exactly how you got to have more crap in your house than you initially thought, sit down with a glass of water or a cup of tea and breath. You're going to be okay. This is what is known as a curve ball - it's a small one compared to what's been tossed in your direction in the past (and what you'll get in the future) and it's one. But breathing through your stress will help in some ways as it'll get your mind to settle down and stop you from panicking.

This week, I'm having a three steps forwards, two steps back kinda week. A neighbour and I had a misunderstanding and she took out her frustrations in such a way, I just don't know where I stand with anyone around my area anymore. And, I feel really out of control of my surroundings right now and so my house has become messy. So, the first thing I have done is fix a few small things around the place that have needed fixing for a long time.
They were the tiniest things, but they needed doing to make my life that much more easier in the tiniest ways. I bought a 1 metre extension cord from Bunnings so my other bedside lamp worked and the rock salt lamp worked too. I find it's the small things that help make the bigger things less important. Sounds a little silly, but for me that kind of thing works so well and helps me get back onto working on me and making myself happy. 

What has been happening around you to make you look to something small to help you stop, breath and get your mind back onto what you feel is the right way of thinking? What was your three steps forward, two steps back moment? 

The Great Pantry Clean-Out!

Over the past two years, I've been working on my kitchen pantry. I think pantries are the biggest places in the kitchen - besides the Tupperware Cupboard - which seem to turn into a complete pit of Hell when it comes to cleaning out. 

And none of us really want to take on the pantry. It's always full of things we don't want to confront. But once you take it on, and get a good part of it done, you'll be more likely to get into the next time it needs a clean-up.

The first thing you need is a clean kitchen counter. Make sure you also have enough room for what's going to come out of the pantry. 
Have a bin next to you with plenty of bin liners - you are going to throw out some things you no longer need.
Then, you'll need cleaning products as well. 

What you need to do first is go shelf by shelf, starting with the very top shelf. Take your time and pull everything out of there, put it on the kitchen counter and - once it's empty - clean the whole shelf, sides and ceiling of that part and then, look at everything on the kitchen counter. If it's out of date, throw it into the bin. Then, organise it so you can find things easily on that top shelf.

Do this with every other shelf in the pantry and make sure to check all the dates and wipe down all your items before putting them back on the shelf. 

If you've bought some new little containers or storage items to make life easier for yourself in your pantry, put them into action now so you can use them over time and see if they work for you. And if over the next month or so, they don't work for you, don't hesitate to find something that does work for you... always try to figure out what works for you in your pantry space.

I do find that if I can't see almost everything in my pantry, it doesn't get used. So, make sure you can see everything you're hoping to use - even if it means installing a small, battery-run light inside each shelf, so you can see what you've got in there.

Have you got any great ideas for cleaning out pantries? If so, drop them in the comments below and let us all in on them. I hope this has helped you out.

A Joint Effort!

Today, Mum and I made a joint effort and went out to The Really Good Bookstore at Browns Plains to hand in the books we didn't want anymore and put up our exchange rates!

It felt good to have over $150 worth I could use at the store; and yet, I left empty-handed until the next time I wanted to buy a good book there for that much (or use a little of it).

We both filled the boot of my car with books! Now that says something about how many books we were parting with. I had two bags and Mum had three. But we came home with only two (Mum had them on order) and I left with none. I'm so darned proud of myself that I didn't have a book in my hands when I left a bookstore! 

Anyway, I returned home with my recyclable bags all ready to use them again for more books to fill them. I can't wait! What a joint effort it was to give away books to a great place and still we got something in return. Do you have a place such as this? What is it like? Tell us all about it? 

Books

I love books - as I've said before - and I find parting with them is just plain awful! But when I really get in and look at my collection of 2,000+ books in my tiny home office, I do find that I might have doubled-up on some and collected others that I will never, ever read.

This is when it's time to do out the collection. 

I started off with Mt To Be Read next to the door. I found that pile so high it was looking like it was about to take a tumble if I put anymore books onto those piles!

So, I pulled down all the ornaments on the shelves first and then organised the books into categories and figured out what I'd like to read, what I'd donate and what I'll put away for another time.
You see, I have some great books to read, but I can't read them all in one year - or even two! - and so putting some to one side for a little while causes me to read the ones I've put up on the Mt TBR and make myself read those first. Then, I'll move onto the other ones that have been put away.

I know, it makes sense doesn't it?

Anyway, I ended up going through another pile of other books which contained a whole lot of books I thought I was going to read, but haven't gotten around to them. So, I bagged them up as well! 

I ended up getting around 50 books into two bags and finding that I really didn't need so many books to start with. Okay, I've got under 2,000 books now, but really, it's good to declutter the books I just won't read.... like all those vampire romance novels I've had for 3 years. If I'm not going to read them within the first 2 years, I'm simply not going to read them now, right? I also sorted through another 20 or so Bookcrossing books that I have to Wild Release around Brisbane and Logan City (Wild Releasing is where you leave a book for somebody to pick up and read. Then, they journal it and do the same; and the book begins to travel around the world. It's a great way to share a book). 

So, if you've got a big book collection, how have you stablised it? Or has it gotten bigger - as mine tends to do? And speaking of book collections getting bigger: Mum did give me about 20 books to add to my collection. I mean, how could I say no? Yes, silly me, I'm trying to get my clutter down; and I end up adding to it. 

A Day Off...

I'd love to say I jumped right in and have been decluttering my home office since 9am this morning.

I wish I could say that.

But I haven't. 

It's just too bloody hot!

Today, around Queensland - and Australia - it's supposed to be record-breaking temperatures up to and over 40C (that's 104F for you guys overseas). And so, we've been advised to not to anything strenuous, to stay inside, drink plenty of water and pretty much hibernate. 

And you know? That's exactly what I'm going to be doing.

But I have an art piece I have on the go on my work bench - and that work bench is right next to the back door - so in the next hour or so, I'll be there working on that for a bit. Then, I'll see if I can stomach lunch... I might be just drinking some water instead.

So, this is the day off for me, because of the heat. If you're sweltering in the heat anywhere in Australia - or somewhere else in the world right now - don't push yourself. Take the day off and relax. Watch a bit of television and stay cool and drink plenty of water. 

Tackling My Home Office

Yesterday, I jumped off the computer, went to the kitchen and grabbed another bottle of cold water (after refilling the empty bottle from the water urn and replacing it) and came back upstairs into the cool air-conditioning.

I looked around this home office and realised I really needed to tackle this place ... and do it now! So, I did. 

I emptied out 4 bags of rubbish, receipts and things, sorted them into their respective piles and threw out what needed to be thrown out, what I needed to keep and what was to be looked at later; then I moved onto the next bag.

Then, I put away what I had to put away before I moved on. But seeing I had mess everywhere I found this hard to do. I still have a few Christmas decorations around and stuff I haven't put away from other times - like birthday cards. I also found some letters from friends and get well cards from 2015 and last year (when I was really sick).

So, I changed the jobs in the room. I looked at my Mt TBR and pulled down all the decorations from the shelves first, and put them somewhere so they didn't get broken. 
Then, I pulled all the books off the Mt TBR pile next to the door and put them into categories and figured out what I wanted to read and what needed to be put back on the big shelves, and what I really wouldn't be reading at all - aka: what I'll be giving away.

This turned out to be easier than I thought.

You see, books are my passion. I love the written word, and I find that I get really possessive and obsessive with it. Sometimes, I'll become so clingy with books, that my emotions will take over; and like I said in a previous post, I have to be in the right state of mind to get rid of books. 

Yesterday was that right state of mind. I pulled out my folding ladder/chair and pulled down almost all the books off my saggy brown bookcase (from Officeworks - it sagged when I put the first book on it - not my fault, it was how it was made) and sorted through about 50 books and then there were an additional 20 Bookcrossing books I'll have to Wild Release. 

This all took about 4 hours to get done. 

I still have a lot to do here; as this is just the very tip of the iceberg in here. There are still books to look through, papers to sort through, things to put away. But, I've started and that's the main thing. I'm so pleased with myself. So, have you started on a big clean-out and gotten further than you thought? Let us in on it in the comments below.

My Cluttering Story

Okay, I've written about a few things I've done around my house in the way of decluttering and how's I've come to be able to come so far.

However, I haven't spoken to you about how I came to have a cluttering problem. 

I was a messy child. I collected books. I couldn't keep my room tidy. I was the most unorganised person on the planet. But I was also not a well child. I was born with Epilepsy and this made my life complicated. When other kids were off having fun, I found I was being force fed medications and getting blood tests every three months. From the age of 2 this kind of thing effects a person.

However, I grew out of my Epilepsy late (aged 9) and lived through most of high school without a problem. 

I said 'most'... 

My life became complicated again when I turned 19 and I burnt out after a Contiki Tour of New Zealand. I had fun (I think) and got sick when I returned home. But it wasn't until I was 27 when I met a man who I thought was nice, but turned out to be Jekyl and Hyde... yeah I had one of those horrible people in my life. It was the longest 9 months of my life.

It took me so long to ask for help, I almost didn't. I felt so ashamed. He had beaten me. He had treated me like crap in public - and worse behind closed doors - and I yet, I still didn't have the courage to go to the police. He used emotional blackmail against me time and again just to get his way. And when he didn't? Well, he threw the most disgusting tantrums as though he was a child.

When I got away from him (thankfully he didn't stalk me), I lived with my parents for 2 years. I moved out and into a place of my own and have lived on my own since. It's been 14 years since I've had a solid relationship with anyone - the trust just isn't there. But I became a person who started hoarding things; and I could see it happening. So, I thought it would be a good idea to see a therapist about it. 

I'm glad I did. Then, I heard about Peter Walsh and his 31-Day Challenges a few years ago, and once I got into them, I started really decluttering in a major way. After 2 years, I became really brutal about what I wanted in life and what I didn't. 
Now, I have 3/4 of my house where it's not cluttered at all. There's a two bags in the living room which need looking at, but the main room I'm going to work on is my home office. It's just not how I want it to be. 

I'm just happy that I've really begun to get my stuff and my junk sorted out. The best thing I've also started is an exercise routine; this does help to keep me healthy too. My horrible relationship made me stop and everything piled into my house and life. What made me get going again was the fact that I really had to get in and live again. It started with loving myself first... and to do that, I had to clear my home out. So, what is your story? Have you figured out what may be holding you back?

The Junk Room

We all have one. 

It's inevitable and unavoidable. 

It's .... the junk room!

I have a junk room and it's usually the toughest room around to clear. No matter how many times I've tried, how often I've jumped into it and cleaned it up, it all returns to being the junk room.

It's my home office.

I love being in here and enjoy being around my books and my Reading Chair (it's the chair you see on my blog profile pic). But the junk just seems to pile up around it in this room. 

The rest of the house is clean and tidy. I can manage it just nice. The bathroom has been kept clean. The living room is being managed nicely. The kitchen is perfect. But the one room I have always struggled with - and I think always will - is my junk room. 

I guess we will all have that part of the house which will come back and bite us for some years, right up until we get our butt into gear and work on it properly. So, what part of your house just doesn't pull together properly? Do you know what the problem is? If not, have you tried a number of times to get it fixed up? Let us know.

Op Shop Heaven

A huge part of decluttering is passing your unwanted goodies onto a place you feel comfortable taking your unwanted gear off to. Most times, this is a charity like Life Line, The Salvation Army or St Vincent De Paul (aka: Vinnies here in Australia). Other places can take your unwanted things as well, such as your local community centre, RSPCA or animal shelter or vets and the local retirement home as well.

I know some of them won't take certain items. I draw the line at donating underwear. I just don't think it's nice for a place I have chosen to want to deal with my knickers when I don't want to deal with them either. So, I just toss them in the rubbish. That goes the same for socks and lingerie... if you wouldn't buy it at a charity store, don't expect people to take that kind of thing off your hands. 

But I have found the best things to furnish my home at charity stores. 

I know this is a blog to help declutter a home. However, if you're in the market to replace certain items of clothing, furniture or kitchenware, a charity is your best bet. This is especially if you're aiming to make your home have a certain feel to it. 

Personally, I have aimed to have a very 1970's feel to my home, so it feels cosy as well as retro. I have all the mod-cons, without it feeling too high-tech, and yet there's a lovely Chiswell dinner table I sit at, a credenza and a very 1970's style upright piano against the wall. Now, I scored the dinner table on Gumtree for almost $400 (untouched; and well worth the bother), the credenza was given to me by some family friends and piano was inherited from my late-Grandmother and really suits the feel of home. I do love that the credenza fits all my cassette tapes and vinyls in it as well as books and other great little items. And yet I have all the comforts of my high-tech television set and dvd player not three feet away, which funnily enough fit right in as it's sitting in a very old-fashioned, early 1990's television entertainment unit from Super A-Mart (when they actually made furniture to last). I was given this piece by my Uncle a year before he passed away; and I adore it! I don't ever wish to let it go because the longer I have it, the more it looks as though it belongs in my house.  The best thing is that it's on wheels and I can move it on my own if I need to.

That's the thing with second-hand stuff and furnishings, though. It's been preloved and is gorgeous to look at. It's got all the scuffs and dents in it from the previous owner... it's got history and has had a life before getting to you. And that's the absolute pleasure of owning something preloved. 

So, when you drop off some of the bags to your charity store, stop and window shop (no, don't buy anything yet... just look) and see what's available to you for when you are ready to replace your worn out things in your home. Once you have your house all cleaned out and sorted, only then do you start looking through the op-shops at furniture.

Developing Good Habits

I have found that people with clutter tend to have bad habits around the house. This doesn't mean they're lazy; it just means that their clutter got in the way of them trying to do things.

I've watched those 'Hoarder' shows and noticed that the people on them fall into a few categories. They'll have something really awful happen in their lives and they mentally just stop, while their lives continue on. This means that their house also stops. It stops being pretty. It stops being something of pride. It stops being a lovely place to come home to. They stop bringing friends home. They stop cleaning anything. They stop doing anything around the place because they forget how to in the end. And this is where they're friends or family (or both) end up getting involved; because their lifestyle is starting to kill them.

Then, you have the hoarder who has lived with another hoarder and doesn't know any different. They don't know how to develop good habits because they've lived in an environment where they haven't been able to develop them (there's a video on Facebook about a woman who's at the extreme end of this, all because her mother hoarded the worse possible thing... I won't go into detail here. It was gross). People like this, are almost beyond help because they have to be taught how to clean, taught how to put things away, taught how to throw things they don't need out. It's starting with a clean slate pretty much.

But then you have people who have inherited their family's things. They don't know what to do with them; and feel guilty as hell if they let them go or sell them. They feel the need to hang onto old things from their Mother and Father's place just in case they're worth something - and don't get me wrong, some things are worthwhile. But some of the things aren't. The best thing to do is to get things valued, then go from there.

I fall into the last category and the first one. I've had a rotten relationship where I was beaten up and it made me stop mentally. I started hoarding and I almost turned into one of those poor souls on 'Hoarders'... and just watching that show for one season made me realise I needed to get off my butt and do something about my junk (yep, see, I have junk too! I have stuff too, but we'll cover that on another post). 
The one thing I had to do was make myself start on developing good habits. This meant putting out the rubbish every night, washing up every night before I went to bed, cleaning up the living room before I went upstairs, putting the remote controls for the tv and stereo system where I could find them every time, doing my laundry on a weekly basis and putting it away every time. 
I've gotten into doing my laundry, putting out the rubbish, washing up, putting the remotes where I can find them and ... well, I've started developing other new habits I'm hoping will stick. Just last night, I spent 45 minutes cleaning up the living room and washing up before I turned off the lights downstairs and going upstairs. And this morning, when I went down to have breakfast, I didn't feel as though I was going to be ashamed of my house today... I felt as though I could breath for the first time in a long time.

This is what forming good habits can do for you by decluttering and cleaning up. I know it sounds simple, but for some of us, it's an ongoing battle. It is for me - and it may be for you. So, how is your battle with the clutter and cleaning going? 

Cleaning Tables

Tables shouldn't be difficult surfaces to tidy; but they tend to be. It's because they're flat and are the biggest amount of space you have in the home besides the kitchen counter.

You put all kinds of things on them, from the morning paper to your dinner plate, to your handbag (and if you do, please don't! You wouldn't believe how many flu and stomach bugs are attached to the bottom of your bag!) You also dump your phone, your house keys, toys, jackets and gloves on them as well. However, you have to realise they are also the greatest place to leave things on a more permanent basis.

I am very guilty of putting envelopes down on them and not throwing away what isn't needed in the bin. So, today, I did a big clean-up of what I didn't need need around the tables in my living area - this meant my dinner table and the coffee table in the living room. 
The dinner table needed to be completely cleaned off, polished up (as it's a proper polished wooden table) and then everything I want on that table put back on... anything that doesn't belong on it, I went through, and tossed out or put away.

The same thing went for the coffee table. But with this, I had to clean it first; as I often do the disgusting thing and put my feet up on it (yeah, I know we're all guilty of that at some point in our homes). The amount of dirt that came off that table was amazing! I then polished up the stones I use as coasters and the silverware I use for the teapot and put back only 4 or 5 things. I threw away a bag of rubbish and sorted through other things I wanted to keep and put away a lot of other things into a tool box I have.

This morning, I got in an vacuumed the living room and had to stop because it got too hot. But this afternoon, I vacuumed the stairs and my bedroom (again) and even more dirt was pulled out of the carpet than ever before! Now, the only room that hasn't been tidied is my home office... it's not that I can't do this, it's just that I haven't gotten around to it. I'll get to it soon. I still have bags of stuff downstairs to work through as well. 

Helping Mum

Today, I'm helping my Mum clean out a bit. 

She's been struggling with her decluttering for years; and this year she has promised herself to get into it and clean out plenty of stuff to give away or throw out.

Yesterday, she started on a bookcase in her house (it's a big one) and I was proud of her when she was really brutal and put them all in piles of what will stay, what won't and what will go to the craft group next week I attend. 

So, today, I'm going there to pick up more books to take to my group. Those books won't leave the car until Monday - simply because I don't have the space in the house to keep them. But I'm going over there to ask Dad to look at something for me. 

I bought a glass water container with a tap on it yesterday and found that the seal around the glass leaks. So, I'm hoping he can put some waterproofing on the outside to it will stop the water from coming out. Let's hope it works out... if not? Well, it was only $5.00; and not $50.  I can use it for something else decorative around the house... maybe turn it into a terrarium.

So, have you helped somebody declutter? What have you found out about them that you didn't know? How long did it take?