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.