80 days of Decluttering & Organising

I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one that checks out Pinterest for decluttering and organisation ideas. As I've said in a previous post, decluttering was my main goal for this year, and I actually did really well with the Marie Kondo method, but then the building work started and well, that all went to pot!

It meant that I couldn't let the bears run around freely, they were confined to either their pen or the kitchen, which in turn meant I couldn't move around and get on with things as easily.  All good excuses, I know, but enough is enough.  The builder is gone! and time to kick myself into gear.

Now, all those lists that I've pinned on my boards, are well and good, but so many of them ... in fact pretty much most of them, don't relate to me. I neither have a basement or childrens rooms to sort through.  So the other night I came up with my own list of things to organise and declutter.  We've 88 days left of this year! ... I know, scary huh.  Anyway, with that in mind, I've given myself an 80 day list. Now some of these will take only an hour or so, others .. well, I daren't think about how long, but this way, if I have time, I can check off more than one, or if one it runs into a few days, its no biggie.

I know this doesn't take into account our loft! But trust me, that's a whole other job, and will require a skip and Simon to be on holiday for at least two weeks.

So here you are ... lets get this show on the road.

80 Days of organisation and decluttering 

1. Bathroom cabinet
2. Medicine Draws & cabinet
3. Simon's bedside unit
4. My bedside unit
5. Bathroom cleaning draw
6. Bathroom shelves
7. Back bedroom wardrobe
8. Back bedroom chest of draws
9. Make up
10. Sort through jewelry
11. My underwear draw
12. Simon's underwear/sock draw
13. Small top draws in our chest of draws
14. Bottom big draw of our chest of draws
15. My wardrobe (hanging side)
16. Simon's wardrobe (hanging side)
17. Wardrobe shelves
18. Draw one in wardrobe
19. Draw two in wardrobe
20. Draw three in wardrobe
21. Draw four in wardrobe
22. Kitchen dresser cupboard - drinks
23. Kitchen dresser cupboard - Vase
24. Kitchen dresser cupboard - Seasonal
25. Kitchen dresser (3 of the spice size draws)
26. Kitchen dresser (3 of the spice size draws)
27. White unit in living room
28. Shelf behind sofa
29. CD unit
30. Window seat
31. Utility room
32. Cleaning cupboard in utility room
33. Under sink
34. Tea Towel draw
35. My shoes
36. Simon's shoes
37. Coat cupboard
38. Cupboard with cake decorating bits
39. Baking tin cupboard
40. Baking cupboard
41. Kitchen baking unit
42. Cookery books
43. Garage
44. Q5
45. Mini
46. Fabric chest
47. Household desk
48. Home binder
49. Scrapbook papers
50. Craft room - Embellishment draw one
51. Craft room - Embellishment draw two
52. Craft room - Embellishment draw three
53. Draws under bed
54. Under bed in back bedroom
55. Freezer
56. Dressing table
57. Canned food cupboard
58. Jars/Pickles cupboard
59. Veg cupboard
60. Bears cupboard
61. Pan Draws
62. Cup cupboard
63. Spice draw
64. A-Z manual file
65. Filing cabinet - draw 1
66. Filing cabinet - draw 2
67. Filing cabinet - draw 3
68. Filing cabinet - draw 4
69. Wrapping papers and supplies
70. Books
71. Simon's office
72. Christmas crafting box
73. F&M Hamper in hallway
74. F&M Hamper in dining room
75. Party box in back bedroom
76. Back bedroom bedside tables
77. Dining room sideboard
78. Cutlery draws
79. Living room coffee table and draws
80. Broom cupboard in Utility room

There ... that's it; its a jumbled up list, as I'm not doing it day by day in order. I will pick and choose which one to tackle each day. So now, to get to work on it.  So fingers crossed doing something everyday, will get me back on track and our home organised and decluttered for a fresh start next year.  Maybe I should warn the charity shops I'm on my way.

If you're interested, I have pinned a few good ideas, on my declutter and organisation board; and some lists from others are on here as well. Here's a link to my board.

If anyone else has an either a decluttering or organisation board, please let me know, I'd love to see it. 

               Follow Sandra's board Declutter & Home Organisation on Pinterest.    

Full Steam Ahead

After all my ... "lets get this show on the road" type of post last time. I seem to have forgotten my little blog. But that's not to say things haven't been happening behind the scenes.  Far from it in fact.

Firstly, and this comes with a warning! .... I bought a book by Marie Kondo, called, The Life Changing Magic of Tidying : A simple effective way to banish clutter forever. Well, firstly, I feel I should warn you that if you do buy this book (and it's fabulous). It consumes you. It really does. It's all about pulling everything out and the shock value that, that in turn brings you. You then hold ever item and decided if you really need it.  If not, let it go. Even if its something you've never used, and that's where the guilt we have comes in. You need to thank it (I've not done that lol) and let it go. It served its purpose and made you happy, but now you don't need it.  Clothing is where she suggests you start, but as I'm pretty good at clearing out clothing with the seasons, I didn't start with that.

Before I show you what I did start with, I should explain that we've made a few changes at home.  We have a dining room at the front of our house, which has lovely large bay window. Well the last time we used it was Christmas dinner ... and the time before that, probably Christmas or Easter. So it really wasn't being used properly. Now Simon has a small home office with his computers in, that doesn't actually have a window, and my craft room is upstairs. So as I'm not as keen on being in there when Simon and the bears are downstairs.  So we have decided to put both rooms into the dining room.

I know ... BIG shock, isn't it! and although its still in progress, Its a 1000 times better.

I even cleared the bookshelves

Our charity shop must dread me pulling up and parking outside.

So there you are, this is what I've been up to so far.  I will try and get some of the finished shots soon, but like I say, its still in a work in progress.

Almost forgot, I did move along slightly, and did our kitchen utensil draws too. Tell me, why did I have so many graters!!!

I'll leave this post as that for now, but I will be back soon, as I've realised that I've not shared the past two months project 365 goings on, and its been a busy few months.

For the love of Organisation

I love organisation ... my label maker and I are the best of friends. 

At the beginning of the year, like most of us, I sat down and wrote out my goals for the future.  One of the main ones was to get my act together with the de-clutter that seems to be growing by the minute. 

We have a shed full, and trust me I mean full, of boxes of things from Mum & Dads.  Most things I gave to the scouts and to charity shops – but some things, I thought might come in useful.  And … yup I was right.  Mum & Dad had hundreds of cd’s; records & cassette tapes – music was always on when I was little.  Anyway, I thought that these boxes would be good for holding inks in my craft room – and they’re perfect.

 
I also have one with all my Promarkers in – I just coloured little dots in with the colours and put them at the end, and now I can see what I have at a glance.

I’m also a huge Filofax fan – yes I know I can keep my diary on my phone, but I think it’s just a stationery thing, but I love my Filofax.  So with that thought in mind, and the fact that if I ever see a craft shop while I’m out and about, my bag would be with me. I decided to make a not of the colours of inks I have, so as not to buy duplicates.

I know I’m late to the party and I don’t have many mists, but I thought I could start keeping a record of these too.

So, it looks like I’m doing well with my goals; decluttering and getting organised .... fingers crossed it continues.

Recipe Horder

One of the major projects I've set myself this year is to de-clutter. Our home not only houses our clutter, but I also have boxes and boxes of Mum & Dad's things. Well, I'm at that stage when I need to sort myself out.

Now one of the areas that needed looking at was my recipe collection, no not my cookery books, but yes they need a bit of a cull too. But I'm talking about the recipes you pull out of magazines. Trust me; there are only so many fish pies and fish cake recipes a girl needs. So, armed with my, “do I really need it” head on - I pulled out all the bits of paper and pamphlets I'd collected over the years and began to sort. Now, I'm bad enough, but at least I do cook, and love to do so. My mother on the other hand, hated cooking - even when I was a little girl, we went out to eat a lot or had take-aways. Then my mother got a microwave, and frozen dinners are what we lived on lol. All I can say is thank goodness that my Granny lived with us when I was little, so I also got home cooked foods. Anyway, I tell you this, because for some reason, although she hated cooking, she LOVED and I mean loved cookery books and collecting recipes! So again, I have hers now added to my collection.

This was my before shot ... and here's my after.

I know, I've been ruthless, but I've only kept those I really think I'll cook.  I've put them into 3 files; one for everyday, one for baking and one for seasonal/party food. Now, the everyday and baking, I'll go through after a couple of months, and if I've not used them or still haven't any plans to use them, they'll go too. The files sit happily, not taking up much room on my baking station - and I'm feeling much happier with the new arrangement.

I did really enjoy going through mum's old books though ... so much fun seeing old recipes; although, not much different really to the ones in Nigella’s and Jamie’s’ books, if I'm honest ... and I even found my first cookery book :) ... yup, I've kept that.

So, I'm happy with how my de-cluttering is going so far. My February project, which is making good waves, is sorting through mum & dads millions of photos ... although, I have a feeling that may just need to go into being March's project as well, but ... I'm getting there :)

Long Time ... No Chat!

Hello ... do you remember me? I'm hoping someone is still reading my blog, and I know, I'm so sorry I've been missing for so very long.  I decided to take some time out and away from the computer when I shut the shop down, but I'm glad to say .. batteries are recharged, and I'm back.

Last year was certainly busy for us - we pretty much have had workmen and builders in our home since September. Although I'm glad to say they've all gone now, and its wonderful to have my life back.  That does mean I've an awful lot of cleaning and clearing to do ... but hey, I'm happy with that. 

I have big plans this year, but rather than say too much and tempt fate, I'm just going to go with the flow and let the year play out as it will.  Last year I did my own little version of project life - and although, I've just got a few pages to finish up, I really enjoyed doing it. So much so, that I decided this year, I'd do the full and proper 12 x 12 version ... so with that in mind, let me show you my title page.  I am so far, up to date ... shocking, I know.  We also decided on having words to live by this year ... a bit like "one little word" ... but we couldn't decide on just one, so we came up with a few ; Renew, Laugh, Dream and Love.

I've also been scrapping a lot more recently, and almost found again, why I fell in love with scrapbooking in the first place. I'm much more relaxed about it these days and I think that's why I enjoy the process so much more.

Also, with all the work we've been doing, I've had to make the choice to declutter - I still have a lot of Mum & Dads things in our home, and they've been moved around through the work - but I've made the decision to start sorting it out.  I think that's even made me feel happier and lighter.

Ok, that's it from me for now, it's just a dip my toe back in the water post, so to speak.  And fingers crossed I'll be more regular with my blogging.