Welcome to 2018!

Welcome to the New Year of 2018!

This is the second year of this blog and I'm hoping to help you - as well as myself - along in the fight against our cluttered homes.

I started this blog last year in the hopes to get my cluttered home under control in some way; and it did a lot more for me in so many ways.

It was a type of therapy, a type of diary to not only show that I could get in and work out what was keeping me in some of my worst ruts around, but it also assisted me in making the biggest choices in my life of how to let go of old things; and replace a number of items with just one.

This year is going to be a good one, though.

I'm going to box up a whole lot of my art and craft gear in the hopes to move house in the next year or so. I've been wanting to move for the past 3 years; but no banking institution will loan me money. I don't have bad credit - I'm on pension and nobody will look at us because we usually don't have anything the bank wants in case we can't make the repayments. So, I'm stuck.

I want to get out of the stuck rut of living in such tight quarters and into a proper, larger place so I can spread out a little more and have a room for my art gear... and my precious items which should be on display, will be and will be used more often. 

My goals for this year are:

* Go through my wardrobe and clean it out.

* Clean up the Home Office completely.

* Clean up the Living Room to the best of my abilities.


These are the biggies... I really want to use the space I have right now until I move into a better place. So, what are your goals for this year? Please do leave a comment below and let's see if we can help each other through our decluttering together? 

Preparing For 2018

After the huge purchase of the hall stand last week, I have stayed away from op-shops - on purpose. They aren't a bad thing for me... it's just that it's a big thing to buy and I need to save a little bit of money right now.

And besides, it was my whale - so to say - to have in my life (yep, a Moby Dick reference there). 

So, I'm in preparation mode this week.

I've been out at Variety1 to pick up a box or two so I can sort out my craft gear in the top of my wardrobe - as it's a mess. It'll be all sorted, placed in certain boxes and those boxes will be labelled and replaced back into the wardrobe so I can see what's inside them and I can pick them out as I need them. 

This means I can also put away the pillows and blankets which are now occupying the floor of my bedroom. 

And next year, I'm also hoping to work on my home office a lot more... yes, this year, I didn't get as far as I hoped in it. I got somewhere with it, but not as far as I wanted to - which was to get it completely organised and tidy. 

Pity. I was hoping it would be better than it is now. 

But there's always next year, right?

15th Donation!

Yay! I've done it!

Today, I chalked up my 15th Donation Run - and before Christmas too! I'm so darned proud of myself, and the house is looking so much better for it too!

Man, so much has left my house; and yet so much had come into it as well... but that's what decluttering and reorganising is all about!

Now, how many donations have you done this year? If it's your first year, don't be put off on how little you've donated... even I didn't donate that much in my first year of decluttering, but as the years passed by swiftly, my donation days became more and more - and I reorganised my house to be something I could live with better.

Now, with that in mind, I'm going to take the next week off so you all can have a very Merry Christmas and enjoy your time with your families - and so can I.

I'll see you in the New Year of 2018!

Christmas Shopping Finished!

Okay! It's days away from the big day - less than a week - and I have finished all of my Christmas shopping!

And you know something? I only bought 3 brand new things... yeah, not bad is it? The rest of the stuff is all preloved, recycled and upcycled - which I think everyone is going to love! 

For the past month, I've been shopping around all the different op-shops I normally go to and looking carefully at things for my family - to see if I can either fix them up or upcycle them - and it's been fun!

Then, I went to the bank to see how much money I've got left one day about 2 weeks ago, and the lady there told me I had a Christmas account I had started at the beginning of the year! So, I cleaned that out, except around $10 and kept the transfer in place for next year! 

Now, I looked at Christmas in a whole different way!

I could afford things - a lot of things! - for my family; and I was going to op-shop the lot!

Well, yesterday, around 5 things pulled together all at once, and I felt wonderful about it all!

The vinyl for my brother found a frame.
The frame I needed for Marnie Linger's artwork was bought at a cheap store.
And all the rest of the presents were painted, glued, taped and wrapped up!

Yep, everything is under the tree...

...well, except my folks' painting.

Yeah, it's not finished yet. So, I'm going to install that in their home while they're on holidays and it'll be there when they arrive home - it'll be their surprise when they open the door and find it hanging on the wall. 

Now, that's something for them to look forward to.

Otherwise, I did spot this hall stand at Vinnies yesterday and begged, borrowed and... well, didn't steal... the money to obtain it. You see, dear readers, I've been searching high and low for a decent hall stand; and to come across one like this in my area is a rarity! It will just fit next to my door, block out the light coming in through the side door windows - while letting in a little with the fogged glass - and replace 3 pieces of furniture; which I will donate to Vinnies in the process!

So, that's a great find in itself, right? 

And seeing it's Christmas this weekend, how about we don't do a challenge? It's just too stressful and I don't want to push you too hard.

But if you want to, by all means do this one:

Go to your bookcase and choose 5 books you no longer have an interest in, know you won't ever read and know have no value at all. Put them into your Donation Box and drop them off at your chosen charity store the next time you go. 

Yep, this one is an easy one... but you don't have to do it simply because it's Christmas; and I don't want to push you. 

Christmas Shopping Made Fun

You know, I enjoy this time of year. 

I get in and do my Christmas shopping and make sure I get things for my family which are special and endearing to them - things they'll use for years and remember I bought them or made them for them.

This year, I am op-shopping and hand-making things for them - and this has made things a lot different for me.

I'm not only going to charity stores for my Christmas shopping but also I'm going there to donate more bags and boxes of goodies for other people to buy from those stores at this time of year... which makes me feel better about my house and life as well.

Today, I donated a bag of clothes which have been sitting by the side door to my car port for weeks and found it was a good day to window shop.

Yeah... sure... window shop... me?

Anyway, I found myself a nice ladder for the bathroom, a tea set from the 1960's and a set of rosary beads (why I got the latter things I'm not sure; but they've always fascinated me to no end). Anyway, I'm pretty proud of the things I bought there.

I'm going to fix up the ladder and make it look good. Otherwise, it's going to be another day out for me to look for Christmas presents.

So, how are you doing with your end-of-year cleanout? Seeing I'm working from my local library, and not at home, I'll be doing a lot of cleaning out of my house in the next few days... not a bad trade from my computer monitor dying on me. I'll get the house cleaner for Christmas. 

Christmas Shopping Time

I know, I know it's going to be a tough one for us this year - us people who find it hard to declutter with weeks to Christmas and yet will be accepting presents towards the end of the month.

Now, don't worry, you'll be fine.

You'll be better than fine.

Like in my last post, this is the best time of year to get in and work on your decluttering and make room for yourself and your new things you're going to be getting from your friends and relatives.

This is also the best time of year to get in and look around your local op-shops and thrift stores for presents for your loved ones.

Yep, you heard me. 

Why spent up big at the huge retail shops when you can spend only a quarter of the money at a charity and help the less fortunate at the same time?

I've got a box of goodies to take to my local Vinnies and will be going there in the next week or so to search out the last few presents for my family with a friend from the USA... who is also in love with op-shopping too.

In the meantime, I'm making other presents from scratch... for example, I'm doing a painting for my folks, making Limoncello for my Aunty and knitting a t-towel for my Sister-in-Law... all hand-made stuff and it'll all be ready for Christmas by the time the big day comes around. 

And I can't wait!

Not only will I have not bought so many new things this year, but I'm also trying to clean out as much of my place as possible. 

Weekend Challenge: it's time to put up the tree and decorations - December 1st - and so, what needs to be done is to put away things that you're going to store for the next few weeks. 
What's a good idea is to buy a few plastic boxes for your Christmas decorations. Not only will they be protected throughout the year, but when you move house, nothing will get broken.  Also, you can sort out what decorations you want to keep and which ones you want to give away to charity. 

That Christmas Time Of Year

I enjoy Christmas, truly I do! And it's this time of year when I put away my usual things I've been doing around the house, and pull down the tree and decorations for Christmas.

It's also the time of year I seriously get into closets and declutter on a major scale! I clean up the living room, put bag upon bag of old clothes, shoes and other items I no longer want or need into the boot/trunk of the car and take them off to the op-shop and make sure I have enough space for the incoming lot of new presents from family next month.

This is also the time of year where I send off Christmas cards and shop for presents.

However, this year is going to be so much more different from other years from the past. I'm going to hand-make or op-shop my Christmas presents for my family and see how I go with them. Not only am I not all that stressed out about this endeavour, but I know I'm going to save myself a heap of money in the next month!

For example, I've got Christmas Parties coming up - where I normally spend a lot of money at them. But this year, seeing I'm op-shopping for my family, that won't be the case. I'll be saving myself the cash and only looking and window-shopping at markets and art galleries - there's not going to be the guilt purchases I have made from years ago.

This is going to be a different style of shopping for me; and I think I'm going to enjoy it. 

So, what do you think? How about you give it a try? Instead of jumping online and burning a hole in your credit card or battling the mobs at the huge shopping centres, how about you go into your local big thrift store and find presents for your loved ones? Not only will you be buying something preloved, and lovely, but you'll be giving money to a worthy cause.

And this week's Weekend Challenge is the same as mine:  go through your closets, cupboard and around the house and pull out the things you've been holding onto to use for the past few years. 

Start small and go for just 10 minutes one day and put them into a bag or a box and take it straight to the car. Then the next day, do another lot of 10 minutes to look around again in another room. 

Don't rush and really think about the last time you used that item. Then, when you've got about 3 bags - or boxes - in the boot of your car, take them to your charity store and donate. It'll be the best thing you'll do all season.