A Little At A Time

I've been suffering from a bit of depression; and so I haven't been cleaning out as much as I thought I would be.

But today, while I waited for my internet to collect itself together and get back online, I pulled out a couple of books I know I will never read and put them by the office door. They're going to be put into the Donation Box to be taken away next week.

I'm also working on using up all my yarn to be made into beanies... I know that sounds strange, but I have a lot of knitting yarn; and why not make them into something cute? 

The air-conditioner died a few weeks back, so I'm getting in and cleaning up the home office to make sure we can get the old one out and put in a good screen to get air through the office again - it's been a long time since this office has had a good gust of wind through here. 

I'm also hoping to get myself a nice desk to replace my corner one - one which will be ordinary, have drawers and I can put my computer tower on it next to my screen. I have to get rid of the filing cabinet too - as it's just full of things I don't need anymore. There's a lot of sorting out that needs to be done there. 

This will take time, and some op-shopping later this year. I do hope it works out though. I'm hoping to put aside some money to save up for the next desk though. 

There is still some smaller things I need to get into to either put away, sort through or throw out. And that's the little things which normally get in the way isn't it? Anyway, how is your place going? 

Weekend Challenge Time!

Wow! Where did the week vanish to?

Okay, first it was Monday and suddenly it was today, right? 

Well, this weekend is going to be a wet weekend, so I can get in and do some serious vacuuming here at home and dusting too. 

This week, I've gotten in and mowed the lawn, pulled weeds, potted up a new plant my Mum and Dad bought me and well, made the garden start to look good again... and after last year's Little Garden Facelift, I don't really have to do anything much. 

But this weekend, the challenge is to get in and do the things you've been putting off. Yes, this is the time to dig into that place, that thing, you hate to do, and get yourself to clean it out, sort it out and make it properly organised, cleaned, washed and dusted. 

For me, I've been putting off the vacuuming, dusting and tidying up the extension cord from the broken down air-conditioner in the home office. I have to also put away books I've got sitting around the place, wash the kitchen floor and wash the bathroom floor too and find my kitchen table.

All of this in a weekend while it's windy and raining outside... yep, it's going to be bad weather outside, and this is why I'm pushing this challenge for this weekend. While it's dreadfully awful outside, it's best to ignore it and get going inside the house. 

So, do tell, what is going to be your task for this weekend? Be it just one thing or many, let us all know!

Bedroom Tidiness

I have two bedrooms in my townhouse; but only use one for a proper bedroom - the other is used as a home office.

My master bedroom is light-filled and beautiful. I have a massive bed - which I've spent a lot of money to buy - I often buy lovely covers for it when I'm on holidays at the coast to make look colourful and pretty. And it doesn't matter if they match the sheets or not, so long they're lovely. 

But I do have a problem with my bedroom being messy and it goes back to when I was a child and not cleaning my room when I was told to. When I did finally move into my own place with somebody, it was paramount to keep the place tidy - however, when that person wasn't nice to me, and I found his demands to keep the house tidy to his specifications caused me to feel awful, I really didn't want to clean a house when I moved into my own place on my own.

I found a clean place made me feel stressed out... I felt as though he was going to come home any minute. I had to have a bit of mess around the house. I know this sounds crazy; but it happens to make me feel okay when I have a pile of magazines sitting in the living room gathering dust for a while before I move them. 

My master bedroom? Well, I'm really working on making it as tidy as possible because when I was with my ex-bf, it wasn't tidy... he didn't care about it, because nobody saw it. I have been trying very hard to keep my bedroom tidy and neat and it's not really working all that well. 
Today, it took me two hours to put away all my laundry, and as the same time, I was going through my wardrobe and sorting through things I didn't want as well - how exhausting!

But I got it done! 

I still have a few things to get done in that room, but I have sorted out a few things which weren't being sorted. I figured out my gym clothes and towels. I have organised my towels for the bathroom, and I got to clean the upstairs toilet while I was taking a break from cleaning my bedroom (yeah, not really a break, right?).

And I found this great link to 7 easy tips to keeping your bedroom clean. How cool is that? I've read it and it really makes sense. I'm already getting in and making my bed as soon as I can in the mornings; so that's something. But I also think that your bedroom should be well-lit too. 

So, what do you think? What's an important thing you do for your bedroom which works for you? Is the colour, the curtains? Should it be air-conditioned? Leave your opinions in the comments below.

Weekend Challenge!

It's Friday! And you know what that means, right?

Yep, it's the weekend challenge time!

I know you guys love doing these - as much as I do - and I do look forward to challenging you all. 

Now, I'm doing out my home office, and finding things in the place I never thought I would; and I'm kinda thankful to find these things. You know how you find those things you have put in 'a safe place'? Yeah, I did that to some of my things in the home office - it became the 'safe place' and I forgot all about those things!

It's funny how things like this happen like that, isn't it? And this is why I'm so happy to be doing out this room/office right now.

But the Weekend Challenge isn't anything to do with this. Nope... it's going to do with magazines. You see, I subscribed to one magazine - 'Good Reading' - and it's a great one. However, I've stopped the subscription because I'm saving up for something in particular for the next year or two. 

Now, I've found a huge pile of them in various places and have no idea that so many of them had accumulated! So, what I'd like you to do is collect together you magazines that you subscribe to and look at the date. 
If they have been kept for a significant reason - like a collection of them for a famous rock star or your favourite movie star - well, keep them all together. But if they're not and are of no real meaning to you, it's time to toss them out. First, though do have a good look at them, to make sure they're not hanging around you place for some reason or another then, put them into a rubbish bag and put them by the door. 

Now, what I do is I leave them near the Donation Box and wait for about a week, and see if I miss them... if I don't, it's in the bin for them! If I do, get them out and put them back.

I know this sounds weird, but it's a tried and true method for clothes, books, cds, videos and vinyls that I've figured out for myself. If this doesn't work for you, that's okay; it just means you may need to just be more brutal on your way of decluttering. 

Hot Weather

We've had weather which is hot enough for me to get in and wash my bedding. The main reason for this is because I've broken out in hives lately - yeah, not a great thing to wake up to in the morning. But, this has given me the opportunity to get into washing my sheets as well as the mattress protector and pillow protectors.

A lot of people don't have any of this on their beddings to protect their mattress from the sweat and dead skin coming off your body.

I know, I know! This sounds gross! But it's something cleaners and hotels put up with all the time.

And now, you have to put up with in your own house. Mattress protectors - good ones - will cost a bit, but the outlay is a good thing for your bed; especially is you've paid a lot of money for your mattress (like I have) and you want to keep it in top condition for a long time.

Washing the protector isn't a big deal... but cleaning your mattress is. You get a sifter and about 2 big boxes of Bi-carb Soda and sift it all over your mattress. Now you wait for around 3 hours for your Soda to do its work. It will soak up any dead skin and disgusting stuff which is hiding in your mattress - how this works? I'm not sure. But after 3 hours, you get your vacuum cleaner and vacuum that stuff up. Take your time and make sure it's all done. Empty the bag a few times (yep, it will fill it up a few times) and then pat the mattress to make sure you got it all. 

At the end of the day, put the protector back on, and make up the bed. When you go to bed that night, you'll smell it'll be so much cleaner and you'll sleep so much better. It's a great way to clean the bedding and mattress - and also to make sure your mattress lasts a long time. 

I've had my current mattress for 5 years, and it looks and feels brand new still because I clean it this way a few times a year. 

One Busy Week

Well, I haven't really had time to get in and do any decluttering of my house - but I helped my Mum out on Monday; and she got a lot done there.

Today, I jumped in early and mowed the lawn, washed up, cleaned up the living room, did some laundry, threw out some rubbish into the bin and put away some other things into the bathroom. There was a huge list of things I did in the morning, and then I went off to the gym.

Yes, I make time for the gym - always - as it keeps me fit and healthy and my mind sharp. Remember that about keeping yourself fit; this will also help you declutter your place in more ways than one.

Then, once home, I put on 2 loads of laundry, took off the dry stuff from the clothes horse and took it all upstairs, and had something to eat and drink (proteine) and then began looking at what to eat for dinner. 

By around 9:30pm, I washed up everything, wiped down the counters, and cleaned up all the newspapers in the living room and put them into a bag to put by the side door. This will go out tomorrow morning first thing, as I'd already locked up the house for the night. 
I took the clothes I scored from Mum's house upstairs, along with all my shoes, bags and other laundry upstairs too. It's all sitting in my bedroom waiting to be put away; which I'll be doing when I wake up tomorrow morning at 6am. 

Why the early hour? Well, we have the termite inspectors coming in to look around the complex after 7am... and I want the place to look okay for it. It may not look perfect, but it'll look okay. 

The weekend challenge for you this weekend, is to go through your bathroom and sort out your 'goo collection'. I know I've asked you to do this before, but please it's good to go and do it again. The 'goo collection' is the unused shampoo and conditioners you've collected, the facial creams you've got hidden at the back of your medicine cabinet and other 'goo'-like things in containers which you just don't use and are gathering dust.  

Believe me, there'll be plenty of them.

Now, if they're almost full, take them to your local community centre and donate them. They will love you for it. But if they're almost empty, throw them out. You'll feel so much better for it.

Let us know how you go in the comments with this one. I did it a few days ago and tossed out some old night cream, old day cream and old hair treatment and shampoo which was a year past its used-by date... eeww! 

Cooling Off

It's Sunday, and I just looked out the window of my home office to find it's raining! Wow! It's been so long since we've had any rain lately here in Brisbane. Sure, we had some rain late last night, but it didn't last.

Well, over the last few days, I've had a good talk with my Mum, who wants to get in and seriously clean out her house. I've told her to look up Peter Walsh's Facebook page and and work on his 31-Day Challenges from a few years back, and do a few of them every day. I hope she does a few of them from a couple of years ago, and jump-starts that feel-good feeling of cleaning out... it really does help to do this.

Then, tomorrow, I'm over there for a few hours to help my Mum clean out the first big thing. No, I'm not going to tell you what it is... it's not right to divulge that information.

Anyway, I've been working on my place, seeing it's cooled off here now to do something in the morning without sweating too much. 
On Friday night, I was watching tv and I kept looking over at my big Donation Box - which wasn't cleaned out - and eventually, I got up during a commercial break and pulled it over and cleaned it out. It was chock full of newspapers I 'might use' for packing. I filled 2 rubbish bags and tied them up to be put out the next day!
After that, I put my donation bags I'm using to take to the car into the box and have begun filling up the box and bags ... the living room looks so much better.

This morning, I got in and washed the floors of the kitchen, the hallway, and the laundry and toilet - all downstairs, after breakfast. It was all so dirty and grubby. And this afternoon, I'm going to get into those two boxes I promised myself on Friday. 

These places are my plague places in the house - the places I avoid - the floors, the emptying of the old stuff from the Donation Box (ie: newspapers) and the boxes which need emptying in the office. And today, those boxes in the office will be looked into next. 

Donation Day!

Yesterday, I filled the boot of the car up and took off on a big day of donating my unwanted goodied to a charity store with a friend of mine. It was great! I make sure I get my cloth bags back from the store and then I take a good look around and see what I might need around the house.

And you know something? 

I'm buying less and less at op-shops now I know what I want in my house and cleaning out more and more.

It's a great feeling that after a few years, you get to know what you need and what you want. But you also know when you need help in which areas too. 

I've been purposely cleaning out my house and giving away things for some time now, and now my Mum has asked me to help her out - I'm so proud to help her. But I have pointed her in the direction of Peter Walsh and his 31-Day Challenges first, so she gets an idea of how to get in and do just 10 minutes first off and then take control back of her home and her things. I am going to help her out with packing everything away and will take some things to the op-shops... but I'm still cleaning out my place and it'll be another year before I'm completely tidied up on my own I still have some archive boxes to fill and other things to work out too.

Now it's the 1st, February, it's time to get stuck into the other different things around the house. You know, the things we tend to forget. 

And this is what the Weekend Challenge is this weekend. Find a place in your home you've been avoiding like the plague and sort through it. I really mean, pull everything out, attack it, and if you're really disappointed with everything in it, and don't want anything of it, donate or sell it. But if you can see potential in some of it, sort through what you want, what you don't want and organise it properly. This is the weekend to get into your first avoided project in the house. I really believe that you can do it! 

As for me? It's a box of books in my home office I'm going to go through - along with some paperwork, which is also boxed up on top of it. Yep, it's all going to be looked into, sorted and worked out. That's been my avoided project in my house.