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. 

Today's Work

Since last week, I've taken a bit of a break from decluttering - it took me 3 hours to get the home office the way it looks now; and that was without a break. 

There were things which were downstairs which came upstairs and things which badly need to go inside the wardrobe as well, and also I have to clean out the 3 bags of 'junk/stuff' soon to make room here. 

And that's going to be some of the work today: to clean up the tabletops around the office, and make them clean. This may take an hour or so, but I'm making sure they will be tidy and useful by the end of the afternoon; and if I get it done in record time, I'll tackle a bag or two if I get the time. 

This room has taken a long time to get to, and it may seem that I have been lazy about it, but really it's been something which kind of scared me - that if I took it on, it would be too much once I got going on it. But it was a bit of both... it was almost too much and yes I got a little scared of it too; but when I started putting things in their right places, and they fitted perfectly, they sorted out well, I realised it was going to happen the way I imagined it was going to.

Now, the big and hard things are out of the way, it's a matter of throwing out what I no longer need, filing the bills and statements and getting in and doing the nitty-gritty stuff. 

Otherwise, how has your own decluttering journey been going? Are you achieving everything you've aimed for, or have you called in help from family and friends? 

Oh, here's some photos from last week!

Bookcase One - by the door

Bookcases Two and Three

The Home Office - At Long Last!

I've been promising myself for yonks to get in and work on the home office for ages - over a year actually - and today is the day!

Last week, my Dad came over here and complained that the floorboards were creaking too much for his liking and imagined all my books crashing through to the kitchen - and it was because there was too much weight on them. So, I'm going to sort through some of the major stuff, move the tables around and fill up a book bag for one of my Bookcrossing friends interstate. 

First off, before I touch it, I'll photograph my office... then I'll empty it out and photograph it again and move the furniture back into the places I want it to be. This will be after I've sorted through the things I no longer need or want anymore. 

This will take a few hours and I'm happy to take this time; and I've only got a few minutes to go until I take off out of here and do it. Wish me luck in how it'll look in the next four or five hours! 

So, which place are you tackling soon? Is it big or small? Is it something you've been putting off - like me? - or something on-going? Let us all know and keep us posted about your success with it. 

Weekend Challenge

First, I must apologise for not writing as much. There's a good reason for this. One of my best friends I've known for over 30 years has died; but not in the way I thought she would. She took her own life; and before she did, she told me a bunch of lies.

So, I'm kind of struggling right now. 

Anyway, I'm glad I put up those links for you all on Sunday; as I found out about her on the following day.

But this weekend, I'd like to challenge you all in a different way. Instead of cleaning out something, make something in remembrance of somebody you hold dear. 
Find the little things around the house which remind you of them and put them into a nice knick-knack shelf, or a box with their photo next to it, or do something out in the garden like plant a rose bush to remember them. 

This is your challenge. You don't have to do it if you don't want to.  Next week, we'll be back into the decluttering again.

A Few Little Hacks

How To Keep Your Home Organised
10 Signs You're A Hoarder
How To Declutter Your Desk
9 Kitchen Organisation Ideas 

I haven't been active here lately, but I have been watching some of the videos on the real estate websites on how to declutter and organise your home. These are to help people get themselves organised for when they're going to either sell their homes or move from them; and I thought they'd be just great to help us along with our decluttering journeys. 

I hope these videos and sites help you along too.