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?