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.

Little Things

At this time of year, I find that life slackens off. There's no big celebrations - like Christmas or Easter - to worry about yet. And New Years Eve is a little way off. 

So, what I do is organise myself to look through the little things I've been putting off for a while. 

Quite often it's the little things that make the bigger things easier to deal with, don't you think? I've been looking at my craft gear, and wondering what to do with it. So, over the past month, I've gathered together all the yarn I've collected over the years and decided to make a throw for the bed. It's useful, and I'm not throwing out anything. 

The art gallery has asked me to take part in an art demonstration over November and so I pulled together a few photos and proposal to display some of my works around Christmas time and to show off some of my works there too. Not only will I be able to sell off some of my stock during that time, I will also be making room for new stock as well.  This is another way of decluttering through another means - and the only thing it'll cost me is the usual 20% commission... but I've made pricing easy for them by putting everything into small, medium and large price ranges and rounding the prices up or down. 

I'm also looking at books. Yesterday, I visited a family member who is in a retirement home and she receives ARC books (these are books which are sent out to people to read before publication to see what needs removing, adding to or if it needs more proofreading). I love reading these books; as it show a sneak peek behind the scenes of book before it's really shown to anyone... well, I also collect them. And so our family member gave me a pile of them from her collection; as once she reads them, the doesn't want them anymore. But with me, I'd reread them for pleasure. 

The little things for me right now, is to do out my wardrobe, figure out what needs to go in my office (yep, still haven't worked out that place yet) and keep on working on tweaking the rest of the place. But things will still arise no matter how long I work at this. So, how is your place going? 

Under The Tub

The little cupboard under the wash tub is always something people miss. I find it's a place I throw everything and try to ignore it as it's out of sight, out of mind.

But over the past few weeks, I've bought some work caddies and really, I can't ignore that space anymore - I have to really work on it to make it work better. 

So, last week, I sat down on one of my dropcloths for painting and pulled everything out and sorted through what I needed, what I didn't, and what could be worked on - found it wasn't as daunting as I first thought it was going to be. 

The main things which made it so daunting were all the bottles in there - the empty, half-empty and glass bottles - all sitting around in there looking intimidating. So, I pulled them out and looked what was inside them, which was shoe polish, polishing rags and brushes, and put them into ziplock bags. This keeps the cockroaches out of the polish, out of the brushes and rags and keeps the whole place neat and tidy. I added those two bags to the work caddy, freeing up plenty of space under the tub. 

Then, I found about 3 or 4 spray bottles. They all had either water or vinegar and water in them... they were all half full and too big of the work caddy - all but one, which was nice and small enough for it. So, I emptied out the water inside that, and put the vinegar and water solution from one large one into the smaller one and added that one to caddy.

Yay! Even more space... and three empty spray bottles. Well, okay, two, one of them is for terrariums; so I keep that filled with water, in case I need it for my terrarium in the living room or my bedroom. 

Well! How was that! I cleaned out all those empty bottles and spray bottles and found so much more space! Now, to put back the things which are needed for the laundry. I put back the bleach, the vinegar, detergent and bi-carb soda and stain remover and now, there's more than enough room in that little cupboard to have everything in there, instead of it all sitting around the washing machine. And the best thing is that I can get in and wash the floor so much better too without having to go around things that should be living inside that cupboard. 

I'm so glad I can go back and clean out a cupboard like that and not be worried about what to find in there. Seeing I've done this one before, all there was in it was too much of one thing and not enough of another. Now, it's got just enough room for everything it needs to be a small laundry. But in all seriousness, I can't wait until I move from this townhouse and into a place with a big enough laundry where I can put my clothes horse, ironing board and fit everything into their own cupboards without downsizing everything all the time and encroaching on my living room. 

So, how are you going with your clean out? Let us all know in the comments section below.

Craft Gear Toss-Out

Being a crafter and painter, I find it difficult to throw out things to do with my creative side. Seriously, you should see how much paperwork I have to do with books and my writing still sitting around my office! 

It's atrocious! 

Anyway, seeing I'm down with a head cold this week, I've forced myself to open the house up and pull out my craft gear from my bedroom to sort through.

As Peter Walsh always says in step 1 of everything: pull it all out onto the floor! And that's what I've done. And wouldn't you believe it? I've got a vintage suitcase of yarn - yes I have that much knitting yarn that it requires a suitcase to store it! I've also got about 5 other reusable bags filled with yarn too!

Man, have I got some yarn! But that's what happens when I buy it on the cheap at craft group, have nowhere to put it and toss it into the wardrobe without thinking. Then, months later, look up there and think: 'Wow, that's a lot of yarn!' 

Anyway, I pulled down a few bags and the suitcase and began going through them in my living room - it's just that I find it easier to work in a larger space than my bedroom there; plus with the front window open, it was nice to get some fresh air into the living room. 
I tossed out a full bin of crap I didn't need, found some yarn I wanted to use, found some needlepoint yarn I had been looking for and then found some ties I had stitched up to sew onto some old cushion covers from the lounge. I reorganised the suitcase to take everything better - put the ties into colours in ziplock bags and then found I had a lot more space in it... which will mean when I want to put it all away this arvo, the space will be there! 

Wonderful!

Well, that was only half the craft gear I've stored away in bedroom wardrobe. Now, to see what other crap I've shoved up into the top of my wardrobe over the past 6 months. I seriously need a craft room - that means a 3rd bedroom. Yes, that means I have to move out of here... but where to? So, how is your cleaning out going? 

Quick Clean-Outs Are Great Too!

Today, my car was leaking coolant all over the car port floor. So, seeing I definitely going absolutely nowhere, and my Dad had an appointment for a few hours (once we let out all the coolant and cleaned it up), I thought to get in and do some serious tidying up.

Yep, this is the quick clean-up!

This is where you get in and tidy the areas of the house you've been meaning to clean out. 

For me, it's the box of shoes next to the front door. It's a red box I won years ago, filled with art equipment and now I put my shoes in it. However, the box has now begun to fall apart and look dreadful; so I emptied out the shoes, threw out whatever I didn't need in it and tossed the box. 

It's a box, I don't need it any longer and it's gone brittle, so out it was tossed! I also went through all the crap on my lounge and found it was mostly just magazines, books and cards from last Christmas I have to put away... I'm so relieved it wasn't crap.

So, with all of that out of the way, last week's newspaper items in the rubbish bag and anything else I don't need in there too, I tied a knot and tossed that in the bin along with the broken-down box. I had also checked the glass of water in the piano and dusted it down (it really needs a good polish, but I don't have enough left over). And then, I sorted through some stuff on the kitchen table, but by that time, I really needed a bottle of water and had begun to neaten up the house more - but Dad was back from his appointment and he was ready to do some serious work on my car.

And... two hours had passed by so quickly. So, do tell! How much can you get done in two hours?