House Sitting Next Year

Yes! I'm going to do a spot of house-sitting early next year; and so I really must get into cleaning my place out in a big way. 

I have been cleaning it out - don't get me wrong. Things have been donated, I've been using the cute little shredder in the home office (and it's been going gang-busters!). But really, I have to get in and do some really serious cleaning out in a huge way and be brutal about my house. 

It's something I've been lacking lately - mainly because I'm busily working away on my arts. This isn't an excuse. This is the busiest time of the year for me with my artistic pursuits; and I do let the house go to hell a little.

So, this week is going to be the week where I get in and do some serious cleaning out of a fair bit of the place and put into place some big habits I've been meaning to do.

Washing Up Before I Go To Bed 

This is a big one. I'm getting to a point where I don't like leaving things until the next day. And it's nice to wake up to a clean kitchen where everything is in its place.

Tidy Up The Living Room Before Bed

Another one for the next morning. I am hoping to get into a habit of working on having a tidy living room; which is something I haven't had in a while. Sure I have a tidy bathroom and a tidy kitchen (not counting the washing up lately) but this room isn't my best one.

To Throw Out or Donate 

Now, this isn't something I've been doing lately. But I do have my Donation Box almost filled to the brim. And all I have to do is sort through it now and bag it all up and take it to the local charity store - and do it more often. 

Laundry 

Oh man... I have to make this a habit. I do my laundry, but putting it away is something I don't do the habit of. It just sits around and gets in my way. So, I must get into the habit of putting away my laundry on the day it's pulled off the line. 

So, what habits are you lazy about? You know mine - and that I must work on them. 

I've Been Away!

I know, I've been away... but it doesn't mean I haven't been thinking about what you've all been up to - or been working away on my house.

My internet was cut off to make way for the National Broadband Network; and getting onto this new network took a bit of time to get done. There was two separate days of me being at home for two different tradesmen to get in the work on my place. And now, my Netflix doesn't work... but not to worry, I'll get onto that too.

Since the last time you all heard from me, I won a little shredder and have been shredding to my heart's content! So far, I've tossed out two big rubbish bags of shredded bags into the bin! Both these bags are from my 2-drawer filing cabinet - which I'm getting rid of in a few months! 

This is so exciting!

Well, I'm looking forward to this!

Otherwise, I've moved the big bookcase in the home office and got it to swap positions with Grandpa's handmade desk. It took some doing, but it all looks great! More light comes into the room now and I'm looking forward to saving up some money and buying a smaller desk which is just a simple student desk with drawers. I do need to replace an old bookcase and move another bookcase. But this will all take time... and this is something I have.

Otherwise, I've been cleaning out downstairs too. There's coffee mugs I've put into the donation bin and I've replaced my pen boxes with pretty little planter pots which were too pretty to put plants into - and were very cheap. Things are getting sorted and tossed out in my place at a swift rate; and I'm so pleased with my progress.

So, how is your house going? Do leave a comment and let us all know. It'd be good to swap notes on how you're all doing.

So Many Old Things

Wow! Just wow! I jumped into the home office wardrobe yesterday and really did a great thing! I pulled down everything I could get my hands on and filled 4 rubbish bags with junk, unusable things, pay receipts from 1996/7 and other things which I just simply didn't need anymore and tossed them away.

There were two collapsed concertina folders which were thrown into the bin and one which was still usable and one I'm still looking at to go through.

Then, I pulled down both boxes which were being stored for my Doc Marten shoes. Yes, I have two pairs of those. One I wear all the time, and the other pair which the company gave me for taking too long to repair the original UK-made pair. Well, I polished up the new pair and made them look lovely - now I just have to break them in for next year. 

I sorted through so much yesterday that after 3 hours, I had a full wheelie bin outside, and an empty wardrobe inside my house! How cool is that? I had the space to put my archive boxes which are now storing my current records for my car, banking files and other things as well. I also put away a few other things and cleared off the Reading Chair and found another bag of crap I need to go through - which takes it to 5 bags I need to go through now; but then, really I shouldn't be counting.

I'm on week 3 of cleaning out this room for the very first time, and I'm really happy that I've filled the wheelie bin (the one the local council collects) to the brim. It really is a great feeling to get rid of all of that is not need any longer and keep only what's going to relevant in my life. 

The hunt has been going on to find a good, old-fashioned desk and a nice solid bookcase to replace the corner desk and the saggy bookcase in my office... then? Well, once the home office is all tidied up and the art gear is off the walls, I'll get in and work on getting the books out of here and see how far I can really take this whole thing before I have to ask family for help moving things. 

So, how is your projects going? All great I hope. Do leave a comment on your project. We'd love to hear how your decluttering is going.

Searching and Donating

Well, the office renovation is under way! 

I have tossed out 2 bags of rubbish from the office - which totals up to a big bag of rubbish into the wheelie bin outside. And I have also donated my old kettle to the local charity as my new kettle arrived from Fly Buys - how cool is that?

There's 2 more bags I've taken downstairs to clean out this afternoon, and that'll clear more space from the home office.

Meanwhile, in the past few days, I've been going out and looking around for a desk and bookcase at op-shops and discount furniture stores. It's slow-going - as it always is at the beginning - but I'm positive I'll find what I'm looking for over the next three months. 

You see, I've given myself three months to clean out the home office completely and fix it up with the two newish pieces so I'm not rushing through it all. You have to be realistic about this kind of thing with cleaning out your place fully. 

First it started in my kitchen. I cleaned that out completely and it took me almost a year to get that area of my house working properly. Then, it was my bedroom and bathroom - together - and between those two rooms, I got them working well over another year. 

The living room is a work in progress; seeing I use it all the time and it's a high-traffic area. 

My garden has been completely gutted and cleared up to the point that it only needs to be maintained every Winter; something I'm really happy with. 

Now, the Home Office is the one room which is always in danger of turning into a Junk Room - and this is something I really don't want. So, cleaning it out over the next three months is going to do me good.
The air-conditioner was one of the big things which just had to be cleared out - an then after that, well, it's begun to snowball in the cleaning out process in a slow way, but still, it's been working out for me. 

Plus, the Home Office is the last room I've decided to tackle because it's the hardest room on the list. 

So, which room is your hardest room you've been putting off? Are you dealing with it right now? Or have you been putting it off like I have? 

Computer Junk

Now, it's amazing how much junk with computers we accumulate, isn't it? I mean, the amount of keyboards we go through, the amount of modems which we use and burn through, and the phones - don't get me started on mobile phones! 

There's things which we just can't send off to the landfill because it becomes toxic and isn't good for our environment, right? 

Well, I found out about a place here in Brisbane called Substation 33 - and it's where you can take your computer junk and they pull it apart and recycle it. What a place. And you don't have to pay for it either! It's in Logan City and my Dad took his old computer junk there (a whole lot of broken computers and keyboards and other computer items which weren't going to work) and he just handed it all over. 

I'm so glad there's a place like this around.

There's also a service for our mobile phones here in Australia where you can go to your post office and ask for a bag to send off your really old mobile to be recycled... isn't that great?

Also, there's a Fix-it style group which gathers at my local community centre up the road from my folks' house. They gather once a month and they fix everything from toasters to televisions... all for free and to show kids today that not everything is fated for landfill.

So, what recycling centres are around your cities for electronics? Or aren't there in any in place? If not, why not start asking around to see if they are beginning in your area?

One Bag Down!

Well, as I promised, I have begun cleaning out the Home Office. And I've done out one bag of crap...yep, it was all crap/junk in this bag. I looked at dates on the bank statements and medical items and made sure they were from 2014 and before and ripped them up into tiny pieces and then? Well, they went into a rubbish bag. 

The bag all of this came from began to fall apart and so that went into the rubbish bag too!

I came across bank statements and medical statements (which had been paid) and old Christmas cards (which I cut up and turned into Christmas tags for this Christmas by cutting off the front of them and cutting the main picture of the into little designs and then punching a hole into the top of them for the ribbon). I found a lot of things I had been looking for and have put them to one side - and the whole pile I sorted through came to about a fifth of the whole bag! A fifth! Woah! That's huge! 

The rubbish bag ended up in the bin outside and I now have another bag in the living room to go through tomorrow before I bring down two more bags to go through before the end of next week. This will be a great thing for me - to get this all done before the end of next week, mainly because then I can start planning out what will be going on in the home office. 

I have been looking on the Facebook Marketplace for desks and bookcases, but it's all too expensive - and it's too far to drive to pick them up too. But then, I have a few months to find the right ones, right?

How's your place going? 

Big Office Project

I've been looking at my Home Office and thinking that it's about time I did something about making it a place I enjoy working in.

Like I did with my kitchen and my bedroom, I have to make my home office a place I want to spend time in. 

So, over the next 3 months, I'll be cleaning out this entire office from top to bottom and throwing out everything I do not need any longer. I've already collected together a few boxes which I can put things into and know of a place - it's called Station 33 - to take my electronic do-dads I no longer need. 

And I'll be carting unwanted things to either the dump or the charity store, or better still into the wheelie bin outside my side door each week. The Home Office will be tidier than it's ever been by November. 

While I'm doing this, I'll be putting away money to save up for an op-shopped desk. This will be a desk which is solid and has drawers and, if I find the one I want, I'll get it paid and delivered to my folks' house so it's ready to use. I'll also be looking for another bookcase - a tall one - to replace the saggy brown one I have in my home office.

The whole office will be turned about and switched around. The corner desk will be tossed out (as it's falling apart) and the saggy bookcase will be tossed out too. The artworks I have up on the wall currently will be moved from the bathroom wall to the far car port wall. The books in all the cases will be boxed up and shifted into my bedroom (this will take a few hours to do as I'll need to label the boxes). Then, all the furnishings will be removed from the room, it will be cleaned, vacuumed and dusted completely before I get in and put in the new desk and attach the book cases to the wall (if needs be). 

I'm hoping to have more space in the room, less crap and it'll give me more light as well, seeing I'll be able to pull the curtains all the way back - and not just halfway - during the day. 

I've been planning this for around 6 months, and my folks and friends know I want to get in and really do this. I told my Dad that if I do find a good desk I'll get it delivered to their place just to store it while I'm cleaning out my place - and he said it was okay. I may have to fix it up a little too before it comes home to me; and their place is the perfect place to do that seeing they have the space and I can make a lot noise there. 

So... do you have any big cleaning-up projects you're planning around the house? Mine is the Home Office. It's going to take a few month, and will cost a little bit of money and time, but it's going to be well worth it. Do leave your ideas in the comments. I'm going to hopefully have a lovely home office by the time Christmas comes around.