New And Old

I've been busily decluttering and recycling my items lately - and throwing out big time too!

This week has been a mammoth week. I didn't go to art group, but I did have a meltdown on Monday... which led to me having too much to do; and biting off too much for that day.

Thank goodness for my Mum. We help each other when it comes to decluttering. I phoned her and fell apart on her, saying I had half my office in my bedroom and there was no way I could sleep in my bedroom on Monday night - so she came over and helped me with culling my books.

We filled 3 boxes and 2 bags! Oh my god!

And after we dragged those to her car, I found that the next day or two, I filled another two bags with books I wasn't going to read ever! This was going good.

Thursday rolled around, and I needed to get out of the house. I dropped by a friend's house and gave her some books from my childhood that her grandson would love; and was pleased when she said he'd love them. We had coffee together; and her cat enjoyed a pat.

Then, last night, I rolled over in bed and kicked the little white bookcase and, that was it! I had to get it into the office! This morning, I was up at 8am and before breakfast, I had moved it into the office and the brown daggy, saggy one out! This forced my Dad to get himself here to help me put up a shelf so I could work to put books away and move on to the next part of my home office reno. He even helped me ditch the main bookcase up the back of the complex - as it wouldn't fit in the recycling bin. 

I then went to my folks' place and helped Mum sort through the books we had culled - to make sure there were no Bookcrossing books in the collection; as charity and second-hand book stores don't take those books. We did well and counted up 8 bags of books to take over to Browns Plains! Wow! What a great haul!

What a day! I'm so tired. But I'll give you a Weekend Challenge for this weekend.

This time, it's not for the home office or lounge room. I want you to go out into your garden and pick out any dead plants, empty pots you haven't used and mouldy potting mix sitting around doing nothing. Before you do touch anything, put on the gardening gloves and a mask and get your bin ready. Put all the plastic empty pots into the recycling. Throw out the mouldy potting mix into your general rubbish and anything dead goes into your compost. Clean up your garden area before Winter for you guys in the Northern Hemisphere and before bushfire and storm season really hits for the Southern Hemisphere. 

A New Bookcase - purchased!

Okay, I didn't purchase it.

Mum and Dad are buying me the new bookcase and a new desk for Christmas - which means I'm not expecting anything big for Christmas this year. And Mum said that she's getting people what they need this year - and not what they want.

I needed a new desk and a new bookcase; and that's what they're going to get me. 

But I still need to clean out the office and throw out a shit load of crap.  Most of it is done, and I'm going well at it.

So far, I've gotten two more big bags in the rubbish bin - and there's another few I'm going to fill today and tomorrow. And Dad and I are going to build the new bookcase from IKEA (aka: the place you get into but never leave), and it's been a harder task to find a decent desk I can have here.

Yeah the desk might take longer to find. We did find one at Tender Disposals - the one I wanted - but they wanted $540 for it. What a rip off!

Well, there's a storm coming. It's getting dark and the thunder is getting close. I better go and get into the cleaning up. About time we got some rain - to put out the bush fires around here.

Goals Reached!

Yay! I've been working hard on a few things lately and I'm so proud of myself! But I haven't written in here lately because I've been taking part in the National Novel Writing Month... a big thing for a writer like me. With that, I'm going really well. 

Over the past year, I've wanted to buy new pillows for the bed - European Pillows - and today I finally went out to Big W and did it! They look wonderful and stylish. And the best thing was that they were on sale; so were the covers!

I also got in and sorted out one of the shelves in the hallway to the kitchen and threw out three glass bottles and moved a lot of things off one of the shelves. This was to make room for my recipe books from under my sink for my baking trays and mixing bowls - which are sharing space with my Corningware.

With Christmas coming up, it's really kicked me up the butt to get in and clean my house in a huge way. I'm looking forward to doing this in a major way due to my folks helping me out next year with my house - while I help my brother and his family with their house. You see, I've been asked to house sit my brother's place on the other side of town. Of course I've jumped at the opportunity, and this means I have to finish cleaning out my house. 

The filing cabinet will be remove from my house soon, and I'll be using a good, sturdy table from my storage for the computer until I get a new desk. 

And you know, I really can't wait until this home office really takes shape - even though it began to take shape in September when I moved a bookcase and my Grandpa's Writing Desk around and put his diaries into a box to make it easier for me to get to them. There is still a lot to do in this room. 

I also have to clean out my wardrobe again - seeing I've begun buying dresses which fit me at op-shops and stopped wearing dresses which don't suit me anymore. But that will be done in the new year. 

So, how is your place going? All good I hope. I have reached some major goals, and set new ones to reach as well. I hope you've done the same as well as the year draws to a close over the next month. As December comes around, I'd love to hear from you all to hear of your achievements, and how far you've come in your decluttering story. 

Woohoo! The Living Room!

I wasn't bored yesterday. Nope, I just put on Season 2 of 'Supernatural' and thought, 'I might get in and clean up that crap in front of the entertainment unit.' And well, it kinda took off from there.

The next thing I knew I had a huge bag of rubbish sitting by the door waiting to be taken out and another bag of donations waiting in the Donation Box and the floor was clear in front of the entertainment unit - and the second episode on disk two was playing of my favourite show. 

Well! I kept going... seeing how far I could go before the other two shows were finished! 

This was so much fun to just let my hands do the talking and enjoy my decluttering without thinking too much about it. I even looked at all my knitting yarn and when I came across some that I hadn't used - and knew it wasn't good quality - I just threw it away! Small balls of yarn which wouldn't make a beanie? Yep, in the bin! I did this mainly because I had bought that yarn at a charity store and it was sent there because it junk in the first place.

I shredded up receipts, empty envelopes and other things I didn't need in my house and threw them out! And it felt great! 

And you know something? It wasn't just yesterday this happened - nope, it wasn't just a one-off thing! 

This morning, I pulled everything from behind my living room chair and filled another rubbish bag with crap too! Oh my gods! This feels great! I think it's because it's Spring here; and I'm hoping to get this house cleaner. 

I'm not sure - but it feels great to get this place tidy. My head and mind are just ordering me around to clean up the place before Christmas. And it all began with me polishing the kitchen table - how strange is that? How is your place going? 

Home Office Declutter

Well, It's been a couple of months since I began my home office declutter and clean up - and you know, it's been going really well!

I've moved a huge bookcase from one side of the room to the other side of the room - and in turn it was really swapping sides with a hand-made desk Grandpa made (which isn't much use to anyone but to hold things in it like stationery - which it's going to do for my in the end anyway.

Then, I got out a shredder my Aunty Helen won at a raffle for me and I have filled 3 big rubbish bags full of paper from over 7 years ago... well over 7 years ago! And that's emptied the top drawer of my filing cabinet - which Dad wants. So, that's one big item from my office gone! Yay! I don't have to do anything, just wait until Dad comes to collect it! Isn't that great? Well, for me it is! 

And now, I've just bought myself a foot rest from Office Works to get myself ready for the new desk I'm hoping to get for myself to replace this whopping big desk with a normal-sized student desk so I can have more wall space to hang some book art. Plus, I can get some floor space back. 

Thus far, from this office, I've thrown out about 4 bags of rubbish into the bin outside - and this is good. But it doesn't look like I've even dented this room; and you know, it's mainly because all of this came from the filing cabinet. Once that's finished up, I'll be making some real space from the other things in this room. Once I get the stationery which is sitting around this place into the home-made desk, this office will look and feel so much better! 

So, how is your home decluttering going? All good? Mine is going well, and it's been fun using a shredder! 

Went Looking For Something

The other day, I went looking for something under my stairs - where there's a storage facility. I'm pretty good with mine - it's got what I need in there and I clean it out once a year.

Well, I was looking for an old suitcase - a big one - and found it at the back. Great for me because I didn't have to spend money and time looking for another one. And this one was so old it wasn't much use for overseas trips anymore. 
I thought it would be a good idea to get in and toss out what I didn't need anymore in there too. So, on went the headlamp (yes I own one just in case there's a power outage in my area) and I got to work. 

Things were pulled out from there - a 3-step ladder, 2 tables, a folding chair, a tall art table (I've yet to use because I don't have the space) and a hammock I bought yonks ago but haven't used due to space problems... then I grabbed the suitcase and pulled that out. 

It was heavy - which meant it had other suitcases inside it. So, I had a choice! Great! I took it out into the small space of a living room and unzipped it... pulled out the other two inside it and immediately made my choice of taking the larger outside one due to the space I thought I'd need. 

It was then I decided to not put a few things back. But my hands began to itch. Something here was made from bamboo (something I've found I'm allergic to in the past year). Looking around, I counted off what would and wouldn't have been made from the stuff, and realised straight away it was the hammock. Damn I knew I should have worn cotton gloves! I spent a very uncomfortable night with swelling under my arms (where that damned thing came in contact with my skin) and itchiness all over.

Yesterday, I found my cotton gloves and put the hammock into the car... but I did forget them on the way to Vinnies and had to ask for help getting it out of the car. The people there remembered I was allergic and understood why I asked for help.

It's good to get rid of something I no longer need. It makes room for one of the items I acquired recently. Now... to find space for the vacuum. Oh well, I guess I can't win no matter how much I tidy, right? I can only keep on going with cleaning out. 

So, how is your place going. Keep us updated. 

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.