Been A While

Hi there.

Well, it's been a couple of weeks for me to be here; and there's a good reason. I've been making Christmas gifts for my family and not decluttering anything much really since my last donation day. 

So, I thought if I'm not doing anything, I shouldn't write in here. 

I have been organising my record/vinyl collection and putting it up on discogs - an online site to organise and find out how much your vinyls are worth. It's a good place to put them in case something happens to your vinyl collection, then it's all there for you to show the insurance company. 

And I've also begun to sort out my art equipment. I've just recently bought myself a tabletop easel to use for when I'm on holidays and I don't have any room for a big easel. It only cost me $17.00 from Eckersley's and that was on sale - down from $30.00. Not a bad deal. 

With Christmas coming up, I'm not going to be getting you all do any weekend challenges. It's because of the holiday season coming up too. It's not fair on you or your family to have you decluttering your home while you've got family with you around this time of year. So, at the end of November, I'll be updating you about what I'm doing around my home, but you don't have jump in an join in.

I'll start up the decluttering journey again in January and we'll get ourselves back on track again, okay? Sounds like a plan. 

Apologies And Donation Day

I haven't been traveling all that well lately; and my need to declutter has pulled me up to a halt. I'm sorry to have turned away from the blog for a while, but you see, earlier in the year, I lost a wonderful friend of mine very suddenly and it's taken me since May to get through the denial stage of my grief.

In the past few weeks, I've just fallen apart mentally, and I don't know how long it's going to take to get back on track. 

But on the bright side, I have donated a box of goodies to Vinnies at Slacks Creek yesterday, and I'm glad to have gotten the things out of my house. 

Then, while I was out with a fellow op-shopper, I found a lovely outfit to wear to a Christmas Party coming up and next year's Halloween Costume. Then, I spotted two canvases, which were both still in their wrappings for $6.00 for both of them... such a great thing! 
We then moved onto the Life Line at Springwood and I found 2 things there - one was a Christmas present for my Sister In Law and the other was lovely stationery I'd use. 

I'm looking forward to decluttering more of my place soon. 

Rain And Organising

It's been raining for the past week, and I've been organising myself to next month's National Novel Writing Month - which really takes up a huge chunk of my time. I mean, 50,000 words in a month? That's a lot of typing every day! 

So, I've been cooking a large amount of food and putting some into smaller containers and freezing them. And then, organising my frozen foods - like fish, frozen breads and other things I can just pull together for dinner. I'm making sure I have enough snacks to eat in the pantry too. It's going to all organised so that when I finish writing for the day, I can get in and just throw together a meal easy-peasy lemon squeezy! 

But when the rain has paused in the past few days, I've been outside mowing the lawn - as it grew 10cm! - and then pulling out weeds and checking on the greenhouse and harvesting my first crop of Black Cherry Tomatoes! And then I'm back inside just as it starts to rain again.
However, I've been outside more and more lately to check on what plants have fallen over and which ones I no longer need. There's still one more I have to yank out of a pot and toss out.

Well, I've also been keeping on top of my laundry and anything else which needs cleaning too. The shelving I installed has been an absolute god-send as I have used it to store so many things; and I've found it's going to nice to decorate over Christmas too. I'll be able to install lights over them at that time of year too.

Anyway, I'm hoping to work on cleaning up the home office this weekend. I started last weekend, but things got in the way - like a few bills, some house hold chores and vacuuming and other normal things - and this time I'll be able to put away what I need to, to get ready for next month's writing days. I need the home office tidier and better to make it a place I can spend a lot of time in without feeling as though the place is cluttered. 

So, what main room have you been attacking lately? For me, it's just about everything in the house, but the home office really needs a good tidy-up. How about you? How's your journey going?

Birthday Goodies

I've just had a birthday yesterday, and my house is always a mess around this time of year - because of the amount of time it takes to put things away. 

But this year, I'm going to put a stop to that.

I'm hoping to get in and work out the junk in the living room and the good things and organise my place in such a way that I'm not dodging around it all the time.

I have donated a few things in the past week - which is a good thing - and I'm looking at donating more things to make my home better and running a lot smoother; starting with the living room. 

After the shelving went in, I found that a lot of things are still being sorted out in them and I still find that I'm either taking things out of them or storing more things in them; which is a good thing I think. I've got so much more room for the clothes horse to move around and after I cleaned out the storage facility, I have found more space in there for my art gear. 

Both of these things are great for me.

But still, more needs to be done to make the house more tidy and better for me to live here. Also, when the time comes to move, I don't want to the hassle of stuffing around with crap I don't want anymore. So, there's that too. 

How is your journey going? Seeing I'm going over the other bits in my place again, I'm wondering if you're redoing your place - or parts of your place too. 

Art Shelving

This has happened so fast, and I'm glad it has... well, the shelving I was planning on getting next week, I bought this week instead. And well, they're in and I've given away the old skinny bookcase to my neighbours (and they love it!) and I've reorganised my art area completely! 

It looks great!

I have already been to the market at the Logan Artists Association and fixed up my stock box, putting everything away into zip-lock bags and packing them into another box where it all fits completely and the other display boxes are empty and ready for other uses. Then, I've bought another 3 boxes to pack up and ready the stock box for another use around the house. 

Yes, this has happened sooner than I expected, and it's great!

I'll get the art area and living room pulled together before Christmas and the place will look and feel so much better than it has in years. 

I've already given away smaller canvases I don't need anymore and put my esky/cooler onto one of the shelving units. Then, I bought a box for all my laundry detergents and extra things - like extra bottles of vinegar and boxes of bi-carb soda - which don't fit anywhere else. I've got more room in the kitchen and around the washing machine now it's all put away in a place I can get to without much fuss.

It's a great thing to have this all sorted out before my birthday and before Christmas; as the townhouse will be looking so much better soon. Now, just to tidy up and bags of junk sitting around and put away the laundry which is piled up in the bedroom (yep, I'm lazy like that... it's just something I can't get around to doing some days). So, what have you been doing to keep yourself on your journey? 

Art Area Overhaul

Over the next few weeks, I'm doing a huge art area overhaul. I've actually already started in on it; and I'm hoping to get it all cleared out and cleaned up by the end of October. 

This past weekend, I attended the Logan Artists Association Market Day and sold off as much of my Crafty Pegs hand crafted items as I could, at bargain basements prices. A lot of people thought what I was selling was expensive, but when I told them they were a quarter of the price I normally sell them, they really jumped in and bought up big... and I made a good lot of money. 

But I still have some stock left over. So, I'm looking at either giving it all away to nursing homes - where the older ladies will use it, or selling it all on Gumtree, if I can. Either way, I need to get rid of my stock box completely - but there are boxes in it I'll keep for my art area. 

Yesterday afternoon, I moved my art table I got from Oma's house into my storage area under the stairs and the two storage boxes from my markets where it used to live... so I can work through them and downsize them in a big way. The large plastic boxes will be put to use as storage boxes in my wardrobes and I'll put them away upstairs, replacing other boxes filled with things.

On my birthday (early-October), I'll be buying two Stratco shelving units and putting them into the hallway of my kitchen, where all my smaller and heavier items from my art area will be going. The work bench will be moved across toward the door and thus, I'll have more space to move around. I'll be storing my esky/cooler in the shelves along with my food processor, yoghurt maker, along with other boxes of art and craft gear and books on art, painting and needlepoint... it'll all be in those two shelving units.

The two boxes of craft and art gear will be emptied out and sorted. The table clothes and props for a market will be organised and that box will be upstairs and in use for something else. The other one will be organised and the pin cushions, pegs, magna-pegs and other craft items I've made will be sold off or donated to my old craft group to be sold off there and the money donated to the community centre. 

I'll have more space in the living room by this time. This is my plan and I'm hoping to stick to it. I'm also hoping that my smaller canvases will fit into one of the shelving units, while the larger canvases which are floating around the hallway right now, will be able to fit underneath the workbench. I'll have to see how it all works out. 

So, there you have it. My plan for my art area. It's big. It's complex. It's a pipe dream from where everyone stands right now... as nobody can see it happening; except me. But it's what I want to happen in the next month. I have some of the money for the shelving units and now, I'm working on saving the money for the rest of it. 

So, do tell, what's your big plans for your journey through decluttering? Is it so big you almost can't see it happening? Or is it something you're chipping away at slowly? 

Feeling Stuck!

Yep, I'm feeling really stuck right now. There's the mental stuckiness and the physical stuckiness too... I'm just stuck!

I can't move anything around until the markets this weekend have been and gone, where I'm hoping to sell off everything in my stock box, and have a spare empty box to use for storage here in my office. And I'm unable to move anything upstairs into the wardrobe until after this weekend coming because I'll need it for the market.

So, everything is kinda sitting around the house making me feel... well... stuck!

The garden is looking great though - at least there's that. 

And over the past week I've found out in a really hard way that I'm allergic to bamboo - oh, yay... that's great! An artist, a painter, allergic to the most common thing around! Yes, I'm grumpy and tired, because the medicine the doctors put me on to get rid of the hives kept me awake at night, something I've grown accustomed to not doing anymore.

I've been feeling not very motivated as well. But I've been pushing myself to get in and work in the garden, do all the laundry (while we have the great weather to do it) and put away everything I can while I'm at home to do it. 

Otherwise, I have new neighbours, who are lovely people and are just starting out - which means, they really need to get themselves furniture and make their place their own. I've suggested op-shops and they can come with me to look at some of the Super Stores to see what they have... they're thinking about it. 

Anyway, how is your decluttering going? Seeing I've had a tiring week, it'd be great to hear how everyone is going on their journey to encourage me to keep me going on mine.