Living Room Reboot

Well, I started on my decluttering really early. 

Last night, I didn't have any knitting to do, or cooking for a family function, or Christmas get-together and so, I found myself without anything to do with my hands.

I looked around and found the four bags of junk in front of the entertainment unit calling out to be looked into. So, while I watched 'Supernatural: Season 8' I pulled out my rubbish bags and sorted through all four bags and tossed out 3 big rubbish bags of junk and I found a whole lot of things; like: 

I figured out a pile of recipes

Sorted through some fabrics

Found books I'd been looking for.

Found a pair of socks which had gone missing.

Found an address of a friend I had lost.

Sorted out my bank statements.

Emptied out a plastic box of craft gear.

And after the disk finished, I switched over to free-to-air television and finished watching a movie on there until 11:30pm - and still I hadn't finished sorting through the junk in my living room.

I put away the craft gear into their boxes, worked through the recipes on the floor into their own piles and piled up the bank statements to be filed away. I even found my log book from my old car! Woah! 

This morning, I threw out the three bags of rubbish and did out the fridge before I went out shopping and tossed out a bag of rubbish into the big bin outside. This is a big thing to be done before New Year's Eve.

So, have you started on your house before next year? If so, great to know! Let us know what you got done and how you're doing. 

Zero Wrapping Paper

Okay, you're thinking: 'Well, what the heck am I supposed to wrap the presents for my relatives in?' 

Fabric.

Before you ask me another question, I'm suggesting you go into your scarf collection, and sort through them. There will be square ones you're not big on, you've never worn and some which may well be still in their plastic which were bought for you, and you didn't have the heart to tell that person you really didn't like them.

Okay, get those square, silky and rayon scarves out and Google: Furoshiki. This word is the act of wrapping presents and items in fabric. The Japanese have been doing this for a very long time, and it cuts back on waste, paper and landfill - and it's very beautiful too. 

I've been looking at how to tie the knots and make them just gorgeous so they are lovely to look at and easy to untie. And I'm looking forward to having a collection of scarves or square fabric to use to wrap presents instead of wasteful paper.

When you think of it: paper is ripped off a present and thrown in the bin - which ends up in landfill. Fabric can be reused for other things. And if you already have the fabric there in your home - aka: square scarves - you're halfway there, right? 

Been A While

Hi there.

Well, it's been a couple of weeks for me to be here; and there's a good reason. I've been making Christmas gifts for my family and not decluttering anything much really since my last donation day. 

So, I thought if I'm not doing anything, I shouldn't write in here. 

I have been organising my record/vinyl collection and putting it up on discogs - an online site to organise and find out how much your vinyls are worth. It's a good place to put them in case something happens to your vinyl collection, then it's all there for you to show the insurance company. 

And I've also begun to sort out my art equipment. I've just recently bought myself a tabletop easel to use for when I'm on holidays and I don't have any room for a big easel. It only cost me $17.00 from Eckersley's and that was on sale - down from $30.00. Not a bad deal. 

With Christmas coming up, I'm not going to be getting you all do any weekend challenges. It's because of the holiday season coming up too. It's not fair on you or your family to have you decluttering your home while you've got family with you around this time of year. So, at the end of November, I'll be updating you about what I'm doing around my home, but you don't have jump in an join in.

I'll start up the decluttering journey again in January and we'll get ourselves back on track again, okay? Sounds like a plan. 

Apologies And Donation Day

I haven't been traveling all that well lately; and my need to declutter has pulled me up to a halt. I'm sorry to have turned away from the blog for a while, but you see, earlier in the year, I lost a wonderful friend of mine very suddenly and it's taken me since May to get through the denial stage of my grief.

In the past few weeks, I've just fallen apart mentally, and I don't know how long it's going to take to get back on track. 

But on the bright side, I have donated a box of goodies to Vinnies at Slacks Creek yesterday, and I'm glad to have gotten the things out of my house. 

Then, while I was out with a fellow op-shopper, I found a lovely outfit to wear to a Christmas Party coming up and next year's Halloween Costume. Then, I spotted two canvases, which were both still in their wrappings for $6.00 for both of them... such a great thing! 
We then moved onto the Life Line at Springwood and I found 2 things there - one was a Christmas present for my Sister In Law and the other was lovely stationery I'd use. 

I'm looking forward to decluttering more of my place soon. 

Rain And Organising

It's been raining for the past week, and I've been organising myself to next month's National Novel Writing Month - which really takes up a huge chunk of my time. I mean, 50,000 words in a month? That's a lot of typing every day! 

So, I've been cooking a large amount of food and putting some into smaller containers and freezing them. And then, organising my frozen foods - like fish, frozen breads and other things I can just pull together for dinner. I'm making sure I have enough snacks to eat in the pantry too. It's going to all organised so that when I finish writing for the day, I can get in and just throw together a meal easy-peasy lemon squeezy! 

But when the rain has paused in the past few days, I've been outside mowing the lawn - as it grew 10cm! - and then pulling out weeds and checking on the greenhouse and harvesting my first crop of Black Cherry Tomatoes! And then I'm back inside just as it starts to rain again.
However, I've been outside more and more lately to check on what plants have fallen over and which ones I no longer need. There's still one more I have to yank out of a pot and toss out.

Well, I've also been keeping on top of my laundry and anything else which needs cleaning too. The shelving I installed has been an absolute god-send as I have used it to store so many things; and I've found it's going to nice to decorate over Christmas too. I'll be able to install lights over them at that time of year too.

Anyway, I'm hoping to work on cleaning up the home office this weekend. I started last weekend, but things got in the way - like a few bills, some house hold chores and vacuuming and other normal things - and this time I'll be able to put away what I need to, to get ready for next month's writing days. I need the home office tidier and better to make it a place I can spend a lot of time in without feeling as though the place is cluttered. 

So, what main room have you been attacking lately? For me, it's just about everything in the house, but the home office really needs a good tidy-up. How about you? How's your journey going?

Birthday Goodies

I've just had a birthday yesterday, and my house is always a mess around this time of year - because of the amount of time it takes to put things away. 

But this year, I'm going to put a stop to that.

I'm hoping to get in and work out the junk in the living room and the good things and organise my place in such a way that I'm not dodging around it all the time.

I have donated a few things in the past week - which is a good thing - and I'm looking at donating more things to make my home better and running a lot smoother; starting with the living room. 

After the shelving went in, I found that a lot of things are still being sorted out in them and I still find that I'm either taking things out of them or storing more things in them; which is a good thing I think. I've got so much more room for the clothes horse to move around and after I cleaned out the storage facility, I have found more space in there for my art gear. 

Both of these things are great for me.

But still, more needs to be done to make the house more tidy and better for me to live here. Also, when the time comes to move, I don't want to the hassle of stuffing around with crap I don't want anymore. So, there's that too. 

How is your journey going? Seeing I'm going over the other bits in my place again, I'm wondering if you're redoing your place - or parts of your place too. 

Art Shelving

This has happened so fast, and I'm glad it has... well, the shelving I was planning on getting next week, I bought this week instead. And well, they're in and I've given away the old skinny bookcase to my neighbours (and they love it!) and I've reorganised my art area completely! 

It looks great!

I have already been to the market at the Logan Artists Association and fixed up my stock box, putting everything away into zip-lock bags and packing them into another box where it all fits completely and the other display boxes are empty and ready for other uses. Then, I've bought another 3 boxes to pack up and ready the stock box for another use around the house. 

Yes, this has happened sooner than I expected, and it's great!

I'll get the art area and living room pulled together before Christmas and the place will look and feel so much better than it has in years. 

I've already given away smaller canvases I don't need anymore and put my esky/cooler onto one of the shelving units. Then, I bought a box for all my laundry detergents and extra things - like extra bottles of vinegar and boxes of bi-carb soda - which don't fit anywhere else. I've got more room in the kitchen and around the washing machine now it's all put away in a place I can get to without much fuss.

It's a great thing to have this all sorted out before my birthday and before Christmas; as the townhouse will be looking so much better soon. Now, just to tidy up and bags of junk sitting around and put away the laundry which is piled up in the bedroom (yep, I'm lazy like that... it's just something I can't get around to doing some days). So, what have you been doing to keep yourself on your journey? 

Art Area Overhaul

Over the next few weeks, I'm doing a huge art area overhaul. I've actually already started in on it; and I'm hoping to get it all cleared out and cleaned up by the end of October. 

This past weekend, I attended the Logan Artists Association Market Day and sold off as much of my Crafty Pegs hand crafted items as I could, at bargain basements prices. A lot of people thought what I was selling was expensive, but when I told them they were a quarter of the price I normally sell them, they really jumped in and bought up big... and I made a good lot of money. 

But I still have some stock left over. So, I'm looking at either giving it all away to nursing homes - where the older ladies will use it, or selling it all on Gumtree, if I can. Either way, I need to get rid of my stock box completely - but there are boxes in it I'll keep for my art area. 

Yesterday afternoon, I moved my art table I got from Oma's house into my storage area under the stairs and the two storage boxes from my markets where it used to live... so I can work through them and downsize them in a big way. The large plastic boxes will be put to use as storage boxes in my wardrobes and I'll put them away upstairs, replacing other boxes filled with things.

On my birthday (early-October), I'll be buying two Stratco shelving units and putting them into the hallway of my kitchen, where all my smaller and heavier items from my art area will be going. The work bench will be moved across toward the door and thus, I'll have more space to move around. I'll be storing my esky/cooler in the shelves along with my food processor, yoghurt maker, along with other boxes of art and craft gear and books on art, painting and needlepoint... it'll all be in those two shelving units.

The two boxes of craft and art gear will be emptied out and sorted. The table clothes and props for a market will be organised and that box will be upstairs and in use for something else. The other one will be organised and the pin cushions, pegs, magna-pegs and other craft items I've made will be sold off or donated to my old craft group to be sold off there and the money donated to the community centre. 

I'll have more space in the living room by this time. This is my plan and I'm hoping to stick to it. I'm also hoping that my smaller canvases will fit into one of the shelving units, while the larger canvases which are floating around the hallway right now, will be able to fit underneath the workbench. I'll have to see how it all works out. 

So, there you have it. My plan for my art area. It's big. It's complex. It's a pipe dream from where everyone stands right now... as nobody can see it happening; except me. But it's what I want to happen in the next month. I have some of the money for the shelving units and now, I'm working on saving the money for the rest of it. 

So, do tell, what's your big plans for your journey through decluttering? Is it so big you almost can't see it happening? Or is it something you're chipping away at slowly? 

Feeling Stuck!

Yep, I'm feeling really stuck right now. There's the mental stuckiness and the physical stuckiness too... I'm just stuck!

I can't move anything around until the markets this weekend have been and gone, where I'm hoping to sell off everything in my stock box, and have a spare empty box to use for storage here in my office. And I'm unable to move anything upstairs into the wardrobe until after this weekend coming because I'll need it for the market.

So, everything is kinda sitting around the house making me feel... well... stuck!

The garden is looking great though - at least there's that. 

And over the past week I've found out in a really hard way that I'm allergic to bamboo - oh, yay... that's great! An artist, a painter, allergic to the most common thing around! Yes, I'm grumpy and tired, because the medicine the doctors put me on to get rid of the hives kept me awake at night, something I've grown accustomed to not doing anymore.

I've been feeling not very motivated as well. But I've been pushing myself to get in and work in the garden, do all the laundry (while we have the great weather to do it) and put away everything I can while I'm at home to do it. 

Otherwise, I have new neighbours, who are lovely people and are just starting out - which means, they really need to get themselves furniture and make their place their own. I've suggested op-shops and they can come with me to look at some of the Super Stores to see what they have... they're thinking about it. 

Anyway, how is your decluttering going? Seeing I've had a tiring week, it'd be great to hear how everyone is going on their journey to encourage me to keep me going on mine. 

Weekend Challenge Time

Okay, I'm closing up a part of my hobby business - Crafty Pegs - and taking it to another level of its very own in the next month. 

This means I'll be cleaning up and cleaning out a lot of stock and crap out of my house and storage area. This also means I have to pull things out of where they've been sitting for months - sometimes over a year - and go through it in the next few days and start repricing, looking at what they really look like and make sure they will definitely sell!

This will take the weekend - because I'll be that focused on this task.

So, the challenge I'm proposing to you all is to have a good look at what has been sitting dormant in and around your house. This is going to be somewhat of an Elephant in the room kinda deal... what have you been avoiding in your decluttering journey, that one thing which you really need to get done, but hesitate to do so?

Well, now is the time to jump in with both feet and declutter that damned Elephant out of your life once and for all! I'm doing it and now, I want you to do it! Take the whole weekend - from Friday afternoon/evening to Sunday night - to get it all done; and once we have it finished and done with, come back here and let us know how it went in the comments below. I'd love to know how it went.

Was it difficult? Was it easy? Did it help you move onto other parts of your decluttering journey? This will be the biggest thing we both will work on this weekend. 

I'm not saying this will be easy... and it's not going to be hard either. But it will help everyone with their most difficult part of their journey. Good luck with this Elephant you've got to work with - as well as I have to as well. 

New Plans

I'm planning for new things to happen around the house which will help me with my decluttering. My birthday is coming up in early October, and I normally buy myself something great for each year. This year, I'm buying myself two shelving units for my 45th birthday.

Not only do I need them, but they'll be a want as well. 

I'm hoping to get rid of the tall skinny bookcase and a round, yellow set of drawers I've had in my living room too. The shelving will be shorter than what I have so can see on top of them and lighter too. I'm hoping they work out for me in the long run.

This is going to be a good thing for me when I get in and sort out the smaller canvas' and then put the bigger ones underneath my workbench where they won't get kicked - yep, that is exactly what happened recently to me, and why I haven't posted here for decluttering. I cracked a bone in my pinky toe and it's been healing slowly. But I really do need to work on what needs to be stored and how in this place. 

How are you going with your decluttering? Is it chugging along well, or stalling like mine? Or are you planning a big thing like I am as well? Well, keep up the great work and please feel free to comment below on what you've been doing. 

Weekend Challenge Time!

Okay, it's been a while since I posted one of these; and I thought it's time I did.

Since 'The War on Waste' series began, they've been talking about single-use plastic bags and how dreadful they are for the environment.

This post is for those bags and the end of them in our houses. What I want you to do is pull out all of those bags from every nook and cranny of your home, put them into a large reusable bag and take them to your nearest recycling centre or Coles (it's a grocery store here in Australia) and put them into the recycling bin outside them. 

Now, before you think that there's no bags to use, at Coles and other places around, there'll be reusable bags on sale. I've been collecting these styles of bags for years - before the outlawing of them came through in the past year. I took my own bags shopping and people used to laugh at me at the checkouts. Now, the same people are wondering why they didn't think of it sooner. 

I have found that the Coles red and white shopping bags may be made from 80% of recycled material, but they are not good for the environment - so if you're in Australia and you are offered one of these bags, say no! Please try to take your own or buy a hessian one from the place. 

Okay... this is the challenge for the weekend. You'll be surprised how many plastic bags you'll find in your house. 

Also, throughout the week, you'll be getting some out of your fridge too - you know when you finish up with your veggies in the crisper. Now, what you do is, air them out until they're dried out, and put them in with the other single-use plastic bags. You can take them to the recycling bin as well, along with bread bags too. I'm doing my very best to recycle as much as I can these day. And this is one way to do this. 

In the next week, why don't you all let me know approximately how many bags you found and are recycling and where you found them... it'll be a good exercise to keep an eye on how much plastic we're using too.  

Weekend of Decluttering

This weekend just gone was something which was unplanned for me. I turned the computer off on Saturday afternoon, turned around and looked at the office and realised that that afternoon was it: I really had to find the floor of my home office!

So, over 3 1/2 hours, I pulled apart one bag and a milk crate of junk and threw out 3 rubbish bags of crap I really didn't need, sorted out my writing and bank statements and medical stuff into individual piles and found that part of my floor. I even found room for the step ladder I've had stuck in the living room for this room; and finally brought that into the room!

What a great thing for this to happen!

I felt exhausted but great!

Then, I walked out of the room to be confronted with the big bags of shredding I've had stored here... and realised I just had to get them over and done with. So, I phoned my folks and asked if I could use their shredder (as mine had bit the dust a few years ago when it ate a piece of plastic and burned out its engine by accident). They said yes, but not that day. 

So, on Sunday, I went over there to find Mum wasn't feeling so great. She'd spent the night coughing, coming down with that virus going around, and so Dad and I organised my shredding morning away from their side of the house and I spent about an hour going through one bag. It felt wonderful to do that! 

Now, to get in and work through the rest of my office, sort out what needs to be shredded, what needs to be tossed out and what I really do need in this place. 

How is your organising going? Have you found your mojo again - or are you still working hard and fast through some of the Weekend Challenges I set last year and early this year? 

Late Night Decluttering Sessions

It's wonderful when it's late at night, quiet around the place and I really don't want to head off to bed yet. 

Yep, it was 10pm last night and I had turned the tv over to a science show on the discovery of Earth-like planets and found I really just wanted to clean up the living room - and I got into it and did it. 
The laundry was folded, and the clothes horse was put away, along with other things which needed to be put into the storage facility, and then I grabbed a rubbish bag and filled it with things that had been sitting around the place for weeks! Boxes, old news papers, plastic crap and other junk which has been invading my floor and - before I knew it - the bag was full and I tied a knot in it and set it off to one side to put out in the rubbish the next morning. 

I pulled the big cloth bag from next to my dinner table and went through it. There were reusable bags in it which I had been looking for. So, I pulled them out and put them to one side. The big cloth bag is going into my car (with the reusable bags) and the other bag with the other plastic bags and bubble wrap has been set off to one side for a moment - until I get a shelving unit to put that onto the top of. 

But I didn't stop there! I pulled the rubbish bag from the bin the kitchen and took that outside with the junk bag out to the big bin and ended up locking up the house by 10:45pm. Yep, it was a good clean-up. The science show had finished as well. I set out the rest of the cockroach traps around the house and took the laundry upstairs to put away - seeing I had folded it ready to do that.

When I came downstairs this morning, the living room looked and felt less cluttered and more like I know what's what and that I know which direction the living room is going. It's a good feeling to get back into this again. It's going to take me time to get back into the whole declutter thing after a little while away from it... but bear with me, and we'll be back on track again. 

Second Half of the Year

I've been busy lately - really busy - and have turned my life around in a big way too. So, this is why I haven't posted in here for a while.

I'm sorry.

Anyway, I've joined a gym, have been getting assessed, going to yoga classes and sorting out my depression... yep, it's been going on. But while I've been going to the gym, I've also come home and found that I really need to throw out more and more of my junk (Yay! See, I called my stuff junk - finally!). 

I've thrown a collection of bottles into a bag for the Logan Artists Association - there'll be people there who will use them. And then, I collected together every plastic bag I've got in the house and put them into my 'Plastic Recycling Bag' on the carport door to take to Coles - where there's a recycling bin - to stuff them inside that.

I have brought all the laundry to be folded and sorted into my bedroom (yep, I am lazy at doing that kind of thing) and finally, I'm going to be cleaning out the last 3 boxes in the home office this weekend. You see, I have a folding step-ladder for this office, and it's sitting in the living room because I can't fit it into the office right now. Isn't that sad that I have something for this office that I can't fit in here because of my junk? It sure is!

Now, that's for just this weekend... for the rest of this year, I'm going to get my butt into decluttering the whole house - this includes getting rid of this Super-Amart corner desk and buying myself a nice ordinary desk with drawers to put in across the window (I know, I know, you can't see what I mean, but it's a shitty desk I've had for ages and it just doesn't have the space I want it to. My computer crammed into a corner - and I hate that. 

The art area downstairs is going to undergo a huge overhaul too. I'm saving to get a shelving unit - with an extra shelf - for the hallway to the kitchen and get rid of the tall, skinny bookcase, as it doesn't hold everything I want it to anymore. That bookcase will be donated to Vinnies, along with my old desk (which means I'll need the assistance of my folks and their trailer to donate these things) and I'll also be pulling my office apart to get the desk in as well - once I find it. 

This will all be happening over a few months - but the shelving unit will be installed by my birthday in October! So, that'll be first, and the desk might be in by the New Year... who knows, I might be ditching this desk by the time I get into another place. 

So, what are you plans for your place? Have you been decluttering, cleaning out, or are you planning and saving up for something to make you place more efficient - like me? 

War On Waste - Series Two!

It's back on! The War on Waste is back on for everyone to take part in and you can see it on the ABC on Tuesday nights at 8:30pm.

I caught it by chance and loved every minute of it.

I remember the hype it got during the first series last year and totally went all out talking about it to everyone, so much so, I think all my friends and relatives got a little tired of hearing about it from me.

But I've been working on this blog and on my own personal war on waste around my house and life, making sure I recycle what I can and up-cycle as well. 

It's well worth a look into to see what you can do around your place to see what little things - which can turn out to be big things - to make your life easier and more likely change everything.

This year, I have stopped using plastic straws to see how many I used to use... and believe me I found out that in the past two months, I used to use 2 straws per day, every day! In the two months I'd normally use 2 straws a day there'd be 56 straws going to landfill! This plastic doesn't break down, and more often than not sticks around for decades. So, I have a pantry filled with straws which I have no use for - I might give them to my art school and see who grabs them first to recycle into an art installation. 

Now, the next thing which was boycotted from my home was single-use plastic bags. I collected them all together and put them into the big green recycle bin outside my local Coles Supermarket. 
I now only use the reusable shopping bags and my folding bags... they are now housed in my bag-holder in the kitchen, which is great! The best thing is that just as I boycotted those single-use bags from my Coles, they stopped using those very bags themselves! What a great place, right? 

Anyway, these are the two big - or little - plastics which are now vetoed from my house. I no longer use them and don't want them in my house. The straws are going to be dealt with next Monday - and I'll have more space in my pantry - and I'll be looking out for paper straws to stock so they break down.

So, do tell, what is your war on waste you're going into battle with? Have you boycotted something in your house and stuck with it? These aren't the only things which have been boycotted from my house - chemical cleaners, like bleach cleaners, is another - is another I'm working on getting rid of from my life and house. 

It's All In the Planning

Decluttering does work well when it's planned... and with my garden and its facelift, I had been planning that for around 2 months. 

So, when I walked inside the back door and realised my home needed another facelift, well, of course, this meant I'd be tossing out things in a big way... and also replacing some items with more sturdy items too. 

Even though my house is full of items which I've hand-picked from op-shops, I still go through it from year to year making sure I use those picked-out items. Sometimes if I find something I no longer use, I give it away; and you know? I don't miss it. 

This seems kinda cold, I know, but really it's a good thing to do around the house - in not particular order - to keep your place in good working order.

I mean, look at what I did with my books earlier this year. I cleaned them out in March and gave away 40 books! Yes, I gave them away without thinking about it... but I also gained just as many. This was something I had to do with the place to make it work out well. But, still I'm struggling to store the books where I need them. 

My art area is in great need of a make-over now. And by October, I'll have enough money set aside to work on it. Just like I planned ahead with the garden facelift, I have to plan ahead with any kind of facelift I do with the house. You see, I don't have a credit card, and don't wish to have one either; as I hate being in debt to anyone or any bank. It hasn't really worked out the way I thought it would... as I can't for the life of me get a home loan. Sad but true.

Anyway, not having a credit card means I don't have to be worrying about debt or paying off things all the time... or money. I plan head better for things that's all. And when you have the luxury of planning a few months in advance, you can sometimes come into your next part of your project with clearer eyes and a better idea of how it's going to work out. This is because you've given yourself the time to plan.

A Couple of Weeks

It's been a couple of weeks since my last post; and I must apologise for this. I have been cleaning out and looking at what needs to be done to fix up my place to make it better over this time.

However, I've also been working hard on my garden - and it's really coming along well. But I don't wish to bore you with the details of that until the time is right.... yeah it does get boring when one thing is talked about.

I have been working on the art area again, as I have been given two sets of plastic drawers from Oma's house and they're really coming in handy to store all the little things which need to be put away. In turn, that frees up the space on the bookcase in the hallway to the kitchen.

But I'm looking at replacing that with a larger one which will store everything which is leaning against the walls and blocking the way in a big way. This bigger one will be my birthday present to myself. Sure it will take up more wall space, but it'll also be a good thing for me too. I'll be able to get rid of that thin bookcase and spread out my books on art, shift any blank canvas' I will be using soon and store anything needed on top easily. Not a bad purchase really. 

I've got a few things to do in the next day or so in the way of donations. I have to get in and donate at my local Vinnies and then drop by to a Life Line Super Store and look around to see if they have any second-hand shelves (big metal ones are what I'm looking for). And if they don't, I'll drop off to Bunnings and see how much they are there... and see how much I have to save to get a set there. 

Yes, this will be a matter of me not spending up big on anything for a while; but it'll be worth it to save up on space. 

So, over the past couple of weeks, I've been cleaning up, cleaning out and planning. I know planning doesn't seem much; but it means I'm looking into working more on the house and how I store things. So, do tell, how is your decluttering journey going? Mine has slowed a little, but planning does that to the journey. 

It's Not Just The House

Over the past month, I've been redesigning the backyard. This means I've had to move all my potted plants, repot some of them, back-fill others and move another few still to new places around the garden to make room for something new to be added to the garden.

I bought myself a brand new greenhouse. Now, it's cheap one but it's going to serve its purpose until I save up for a nice bigger one where it's made from stainless steel and has bolts and is nailed to the ground properly. But until then, this little green walk-in one will have to do; as my delicate plants are being attacked by the possums and, well, I really want my garden to look and feel different after this year.

Also, it really needed a complete clean-out... I have plants in it which weren't doing my garden any favours.

Just like a house, there are things in a garden which need cleaning out once a year or so; and it's very healthy to get in, get your hands dirty and make your garden into something you want it to be - just like your house. 

Years ago, I had a white table in my garden and it really worked its mojo in the place. But it rotted very quickly and I got rid of it after around a year of having it and it was out in the weather. The day I tossed it over the fence, it opened up the shade area in a way I never thought was possible! Then, I bought a steel 2-chair bistro table setting and it looked gorgeous and gave the garden a totally different feel. 

Anyway, I built the shade garden around that freer feeling and made my garden look and feel just lovely after that... and that was 4 years ago. 

I've been sprucing up the garden every few years, in Winter when the garden is sleeping and dormant, and it's really paid off in the Summer months when I can sit back and know it's going to jump up and grow for me! 

So, have you stepped outside your home and looked into your garden area? Are you potted plants rootbound? Do they need bigger pots? Does your little courtyard or postage stamp backyard need a complete make-over? Well, now is the time (if you're in the Southern Hemisphere) to work on it. 

Use Everything

Back in the old days, you had Good China and Company Plates and you only used these sets of dinnerware when you had people come over for special occasions. However now, it's rare for people to have dinner parties and use the good china or company plates anymore... it just doesn't happen. 

I'm not sure why this doesn't happen, it just doesn't; and it's a shame.

I've been donating to op-shops lately and taking a walk around to their shelves and finding more and more large sets of the dinnerware given to the places by families because they think they won't use them. 

However, I love having people at my place to have a meal, making pots of tea and just sitting and talking. It's and old-fashioned way of communicating without computers, without the smart phone, without the television blaring in the background. It's how I was brought up: turn off the television, sit down with us at the kitchen table and let's talk. 

In today's world it's so hard to get people to put down their phones.

Yesterday, I had my parents over to help me put together a new greenhouse I bought from Bunnings (a gardening warehouse here in Australia) and it was fun! Earlier that morning, I put on the slow cooker and started on making a vegetarian stew/soup for lunch. They were looking forward to having lunch at my place as they hadn't eaten here for a long time. So, I opened up my Chiswell Table and set it and made sure the house was as tidy as I could get it... as I don't have a lot of space. 

We spent a good hour putting the greenhouse together, putting the plants back where I wanted them, putting the plants which the greenhouse was for inside it and then we had lunch. I brought out the bowls for the soup. I bought a whole dinner set from Life Line at Slacks Creek for $10 it's a pinkish red one and looks gorgeous. I used a lazy susan in the middle of the table so everyone can get to everything... and the soup went down well; seeing the day wasn't as hot as they told us it would be on the radio.

Then it was time for a pot of tea. Everything from the teapot to the cups and the tea canisters were second-hand; even the sugar spoons were second-hand and were proper sugar spoons from all over the country (and all over the world as well) all polished up and ready to use. I brought out some chocolate biscuits and we had a good chat about things as we drank our tea... Dad looked around and Mum said that it's the tidiest I can get my house because there's just no room for my art stuff. 

And that's the thing. If you don't have room to expand your passions, it's something that needs work. I've worked on my house so much and I use all my things I've collected - I make sure of it - and still I have a room problem. It's always good to use everything you own and everything you collect from anywhere... don't be shy about it. 

And that's this weekend's challenge: have a look at what you use and what you don't. If you haven't used something in your house in over 2 years, donate it - you won't miss it. I am donating a set of mugs, with matching spoons, as I haven't used them in over 2 years. I got them for free and used them at first - because I didn't have any other mugs - but now, I have a good collection of nice mugs; and I no longer need these old free ones. So, what are you going to let go of? 

Morning Work

I've been busy in the past few weeks working on my garden and working through grief... which seems to pop its head up at the worst times. So, today, I woke up after sleeping in and thought it was high time I got in and did some of the smaller stuff around the house.

Two loads of laundry were done and hung out on the clothes horse - as we had the prediction of rain later today, and I don't want to be running out in the yard pulling it all in half wet. And then, I washed up everything, threw out food I no longer need in the fridge, in preparation for shopping tomorrow, and then put out the rubbish into the bin outside.

After that, I wrapped up some spoons, which match a set of mugs I'm giving away and put them in to the Donation Box. I then sorted out the rubbish in front of the entertainment unit. I pulled out all the shoes which need bringing upstairs into my room, found all the books which need bringing back into the library and then put away anything which was going to be put away into the entertainment unit while I had the space free there. 

Seeing I've gotten rid of all the plastic bags in my house, I searched out any last ones hanging around and put them into a blue recycled bag and hung that on the back of the side door to take shopping with me tomorrow. This will be taken to Coles to their recycling box outside the store where any plastic bags will be taken to a recycling center. 

I folded up my shopping bags and put them into their own little bag, put that away into the drawer by the side door, took the bag of books upstairs into my library, have all my shoes I'm not currently wearing in a pile to bring upstairs and put away and I've also got laundry to sort and fold and to put away as well... this will be done this afternoon, along with the making of my bed, vacuuming and dusting. 

The house has been overlooked lately because I'm either painting, gardening or just been lazy. But the kitchen has been looked into over the last week or two; and I'm happy to say that it's looking better. On Saturday, I washed the car and it's so much cleaner than it was last week. 

So, what have you been up to lately? Are you decluttering a little and cleaning up a little - like me? Or have you attacked a big section of your house? Keep us updated with how your decluttering is going. Until next time. 

Weekend Challenge

Hey I know I'm late in coming into the challenge this week, but I've been busy over the last few days organising myself around getting things done with my decluttering.

My garden is being eaten by the local possums at night, so I've had to cover one of my plants with a big bag; thus making it look like a teepee... it's looks funny, but it works a treat!

Anyway, this weekend, it's time to clean out that car! I washed mine after around a month of it not being washed; and it's come up a real treat! However, I went into the boot/trunk and tidied up the blankets and sorted out everything in there. I've got a box which holds all kinds of things to keep it neat, but there are things in there which do go out of date, so I've gone and cleaned out that box to keep everything tidy in there.

It doesn't seem much to clean out the vehicle you drive every day, not until you really do have a good look at what is hiding in the back seat floors, and find that you've been tossing all kinds of things in there... so it's a good idea to clean out that motor vehicle and vacuum it out too. And seeing I've washed it today, I'll be vacuuming it tomorrow because the car port is still wet. 

Sunday Garden Work

It's Tuesday and I didn't get a chance to tell you all what happened on Sunday; as I'd had been out to art class where something big happened there - and because it involved a young child, I don't think it's right to mention it here. But having a First Aid Certificate really paid off - but really, nobody else had one but me.

Anyway, on Sunday, I got out bed early and into a nice hot breakfast! After reading a bit of the paper, I went outside and mowed the lawn, pulled some weeds and got the wheelie bin into the backyard. The pruning shears came out and I clipped back the Sun-loving Broms... once all the leaves were done, I tipped them on their sides and pulled them out and tossed them in the bin. However, only one fitted - as the Mum Brom didn't fit - she was too big! 

Well, another third plant was pulled out of a pot and tossed away and now I have three pots to use. One of them it empty of soil, while the others have soil still in them - useful for me to plant something else. I'll probably plant some garlic this year; which I've done before. 

Well, the bin is almost full and I'm looking forward to cleaning up the garden more next week, once the bin has been emptied tomorrow - yeah it's too full to put anything else in it now. All I can do now is plan for the next lot of gardening next week. 

That was my weekend of cleaning up, cleaning out and decluttering - in more ways than one! I moved my hot pink Geranium into a sunnier spot; and it's doing better. But the garden still needs a better clean-up than what I've done so far. 

Today - Friday Afternoon

Okay, I started my Weekend Challenge a tad early; and thought to post in my progress to you all.

It started out as a 'clean out the mug cupboard to make room' thing; but turned into something totally different! I opened the cupboards under the main counter and pulled out everything to do with some glass dishes instead (yeah, like I said 'totally different')... well, after I did that, I ended up climbing halfway to Narnia through my cupboards!

Only kidding! 

I have very deep cupboards and I pulled out everything from them and realised 'Holy crap, that's a lot of shit! And some of it I really don't need!' So, I put the bowls off to one side, found a metal serving platter I'd been looking for and three cake tins and put my food processor where it all of that was after cleaning up the shelves.

Everything looked pretty good and organised after around half an hour. My Corningware and bowls and mixing bowls were right where I needed them and right where I could lay my hands on them. 

Then, I turned around and found the metal serving platter didn't have a home... so there I was looking through the cupboards wondering where to put it! I pulled out my 3-step ladder and climbed to the top of my fridge and became side-tracked with scraping the greasy crap off that! OMG! It was disgusting! But the platter couldn't fit on there; not unless I wanted to forget its existence altogether! So, it ended up in the pantry with my cutting boards. 

At around 3:30pm, I had just had some afternoon tea and finally opened the mugs cupboard and thought to put sorting out the mugs for another day - and said 'Nope, not doing that again!' I pulled down some of the mugs off the top shelf, wrapped them up and put them into storage. And then, wrapped another 4 I hadn't used in over a year and put them in my Donation Box! I moved all the mugs from the bottom shelf and put as many as I could to the top shelf - putting my favourites towards the front - and pulled out my cups and saucer sets from around the house and setting them up in the cupboard to use. 

Yes! I got this part of the decluttering done and dusted! A broken pasta maker (it's missing 2 bolts to hold it to my counter-top so it won't work really) and a set of mugs with matching spoons is in the Donation Box... I'm very pleased with myself! There's more to do. And I'm hoping to get into the backyard a bit tomorrow. How's your challenge going?

Busy Week of No Time

I've been so very busy this week, and haven't had any time to get myself in here to chat and post about anything.

Well, this weekend I'm going through the kitchen cupboards and finding what I no longer use and donating it! Yes! I'm being brutal about things that aren't any use to me or my kitchen anymore.

The amount of things which have fallen out of the cupboards and nearly broken on my feet in the kitchen. So, this weekend and today is the time to get myself together with the cupboards and sort out what I really don't need anymore. There are certain things in my cupboards I use and things I don't.

Have you ever come across anything like this happen in your home? Well, it's time to go through your cupboards again (yep, we did this sometime last year) and redo them.

I find that going over the same area a year later in my decluttering refines the house a little better. It helps me figure out exactly what I need, what I don't need and work out what I'd like in the future too. But cleaning out the kitchen cupboards is a good way to figure out what I need and what I don't neet... and seeing I'm only using particular things around the kitchen; and have only used those things for the past year. It's interesting to find those unused items are just sitting around getting in the way.

I'm hoping to get into the yard this weekend as well, and make sure I get the unwanted plants out of there as well. The good thing is that I know which plants are due for the rubbish tip and which ones are going to be repotted. This is a good thing.

So, here's the Weekend Challenge: look through your cupboards in your kitchen and figure out what you don't use. Would it be those set of coffee mugs, or the chipped dinner set you've been meaning to replace? If you're sick of looking at it and really need it out of your house, this is the weekend to get in and do it! Make sure you have something else to replace it or have been using another set of plates instead (and you're not using paper plates for the next six weeks while you're searching for that perfect dinner set). As for the garden? Well, that's up to you? Do you want to that garden facelift like I am? 

Vinnies Drop Off

After so long, I did a Vinnies drop off. It's been around five years since I started decluttering the house of things I no longer need, and I'm so pleased to say that I'm now at the point where I'm not taking big bags of things to charities anymore.

I'm at the point of throwing out bags of things into the rubbish bin.

And you know something? I have 3 bags of rubbish downstairs and 3 bags up in the home office to go through and that's it! That's the lot of it! 

So, how did you go on last weekend's challenge? I went out to Office Works (my local office supply store) and bought myself a little bag of rubber bands (which only cost me $3.65) and pulled together my dvds into their prospective lots - the franchises and the stand-alones - and worked them out. It took me a little over an hour and a lot of working out between both cabinets, but it looks great! 

Does yours look good too? All organised and easy to get to, isn't it? Well, for me it's much easier to find what I'm looking for now.

This weekend is another challenge - yes, I know it's late, I'm sorry about that. What you need is to sort out your personal life... again if you haven't done so already. I've scored some archive boxes from Office Works in a particular colour and put all my personal and medical records inside them. Anything to do with my schooling, young life and personal things - like my Last Will and Testament - I've put into these boxes. So far, I'm up to my third box on this; and think it's a good idea. There's colourful file folders I'm using to make my Life Archive boxes as fun as possible.
I'm using other colours for other parts of my life - like my banking and my car. It's a good way to keep things on track - especially if you don't have a filing cabinet. If you've got a filing cabinet, well, you're more organised than me... but if not, this may be the way to go. Also, with cars, you're going to have a few car bits and pieces which will need a box to go into - so an archive box will be the way to go. 

So, that's the challenge this weekend - let's see how far you and I can get with it. 

Weekend Challenge

This week has been busier than usual. 

I've had to pay for my license and look through the house for clothes to wash... yeah wash day is an ongoing thing when you live on your own. 

Otherwise, I'm getting into op-shopping again, and decluttering my home office in a big way as well. The books are looking great and I've picked up my new pair of glasses - they had their lenses replaced - and am now reading more and faster than I did before. 

In the coming two months, the back yard is going to have a complete and total facelift as the broms will be pulled out and replaced with a lovely rose. I'll be planting a couple of Avocado seeds and I'm looking at repotting a few other plants into bigger pots as well and buying myself a proper green house. This means saving up money in a big way in my sludge account; and saving money on groceries as well.

Anyway, this weekend, the challenge is a simple one: if you have a movie collection, on dvd, collect them together and buy a large index book. Write them all into the book in alphabetical order (yep, this one will take a bit of time). Then, get in find the movies which are trilogies or two-parters... and put them together with a rubber band. Keep the television shows with the big franchise movies and the stand-alone movies separate and put the index book in a place where you can find it easily. So, when movie night comes by - and there's nothing on Netflix you want to watch - you can flick through your Movie Book and find your pick of movie, and really can find your pick of movie within minutes for the night; especially if you're out to do a movie marathon. 

Sunday!

I'm free! 

Yep, the two days stuck at home have freed me up to get in and do some of the nitty-gritty things around the townhouse I normally ignore and put off.

Over the past two days, I have gotten in and done some serious work and sorting out around the place: 

Friday:

Woke to a dreadful earache, so headed off to the doctors, and found it was beginnings of a cold; so the doctor told me how to 'nip it in the bud' as it wasn't developed enough for antibiotics. The earache is gone and I'm feeling better! 

Once home, I got out into the back yard and looked at which plants needed to be pulled out and tossed out. This left me with 3 extra pots which I could recycle - not a bad thing really.
Then, I pulled the solar lights out of the garden, turned them off and pulled one of them apart to find out if I could replace the batteries in them - and I can! So, I'm going to buy new batteries and install them, and then put the lights back outside with them switched off so they can recharge.
I got into the home office and tidied up some one area of it - the hand-written notebooks mainly - and found where all of my pagan spell books were hiding. 
The kitchen towels were all put away and then I put out the rubbish and I sat down and pulled out all of the oil-based bags from the bag-holder in the kitchen, put them into a bag to take to Coles for recycling. Then, I put my fold-up bags in the bag-holder so I can grab them when I need them. This freed up one drawer in my living room!

Saturday:

I polished up the phone seat between my living room chairs. This meant I had to clean it off and organise the crap on it too! Then, I polished the piano too... both things look just gorgeous!

I put away bath towels, hanging clothes, sleep wear and warm clothes from the wash basket.

Ripped and burned music from cds - tried to do the same with some music on my computer, but it didn't work out... will have to look into why that's not happening.

I wrote a chapter of a new book I'm working on, edited 2 chapters and then made a pizza from scratch.

Today? Well, I still have some sorting out in the home office to do, and then other things to get ready for this week. But getting in and doing little things when I was forced to stay home was something I didn't think would work out; but it did. 

What did you get up to this weekend? If you had to stay home for two whole days, what would you get done? 

The Next Day Or So...

I've been in hospital for some big tests; and now I'm not allowed to be outside the house for the next day or so.

This is the perfect time for me to pull myself in the direction of those jobs I've been putting off and get in and do some serious decluttering, putting away and tidying up.

So far, I've been out in the back yard and sorted out which plants have to be pulled out and thrown away, leaving which pots behind to be reused and up-cycled. While I was out there, I cleaned out the rain gauge and counted up which plants needed bigger and better pots and will need to bring in the solar lights to see if I can get new batteries for them to make them charge for longer - if I can't get them batteries, well, I'll go and buy new lights to set up around the garden. 

This morning, I started sorting through Bookcase #2 - the Tallboy Bookcase - and sorted out my Stephen King shelf so all my SK books are standing up, not laying down. I'll be doing this for the next shelf down too; to make sure it all looks uniform and clean; leaving a space for my drink on the shelf and for my cordless phone just like where they are now. There are still books to sort through, to find homes for, and I'm hoping to get this office figured out before too long.

The bedroom is a mess as I've let the clean laundry pile up. So, there's putting away to do, sorting out what to vacuum in the bedroom as well as cleaning the bathroom too. In a funny kind of way, I can't wait to get in and do these odd jobs around here... after the death of my friend, I kind of let everything pile up and stop - my world just came to a crashing halt. It's time to get it going again, time to get it back on track.

This weekend is the perfect time to get it working again properly - to pull my focus back onto the decluttering and cleaning of this place.