The Land Down Under

Are you excited? That has to be the number one question that people keep asking me.  I honestly feel like I am reciting a recorded message when I respond to that now. It is really difficult to be excited about it when I’ve trained myself for so many years to not even think about it. The hysterical crying and desperate homesickness I experienced in my first year away from Australia made it so I had to find a coping mechanism or I wouldn’t be able to function. When I got on the plane as a newlywed at a mere nineteen years of age, I had no idea how drastic a change I was really making. Now at twenty-seven I’m heading back to a country I’ve never really lived in as an adult.

That’s right, we’re moving back to Australia! I actually did get a little thrill of excitement writing that!

We are still closer to the beginning of the process than we are to the end, but things are well in the works. We’re getting ready to list our house for sale in the next two months, and we are selling virtually everything we own. There goes my clutter problem! Although selling things is easier than it sounds. It is very difficult to let go of things.

As I was sorting through some of my boxes of keepsakes, I came across a little card from my best friend that contained a quote along the lines of ‘Friendships are more precious than possessions’. That is what I’ve been trying to keep in mind as I struggle to let go of things.

I am fairly sure as we do eventually find ourselves a new home in Australia, we will end up being much more conscious of our belongings and what we hang on to. Matt and I have talked about how despite loving having our own home, there is some appeal to the idea of having so little that you could just up and go on an adventure without having those deep roots, if you wanted to. One thing is for sure, I do not want to go through the paper work of moving to a third country!

Image source: dicktay2000

Why and How I'm Kicking the Clutter

Last week I introduced you to the 30 Day Clutter Bootcamp. The author, Tanja, says that most of us just dive in head first when we decide to cut back on the clutter, then quickly get overwhelmed. Hmm, that sounds rather familiar! It’s important to really get to the root of why you want to do this, what it is you want from the experience, what you want from your life. Once you know what is motivating you, what your intentions are, it makes the journey a little easier. That's why Day 1 of Bootcamp is The Master Plan.

In my words, here are some of the master plan questions, and my answers:

Why do you want to make this change?

• I don’t like mess, it depresses and overwhelms me and wrecks havoc with my anxiety.
• I don’t like not being able to find things when I need them.
• I don’t like spending my free time tidying up only to have to do it all again the next evening or weekend.
• I don’t like holding on to unused items that could be useful to someone else.
• I believe that eliminating the unnecessary opens the way to abundance.

What is your current clutter reality; what’s bothering you the most?

• The front entrance way. It's a very small area that gets used as a dumping ground for things that are on their way out of the house (donations, borrowed items), and things as we come in to the house (coats, shoes, bags, etc.)
• Study desk. Dumping ground for bills, mail, flyers, to-do items, etc.
• Kitchen counters. Another dumping ground for items that don't have homes, and dirty dishes that never seem to go away.
• Laundry/Back Door Area. Major dumping area for toys, laundry, recycling and garbage. Also has Matt’s tools and our pantry. Disaster that keeps on coming back no matter how many times I try to eliminate it!
• Basement. Major dumping ground for everything I’ll get to later (you know, that day that will never come). The biggest area to tackle but also the lowest priority as it is out of sight and not a day-to-day hassle.

Am I the only one seeing a common theme here? Dumping ground, hmm....

Imagine the way you want your house to be.

• Open and airy, inviting. Everything I need is readily at hand, easily found. I love everything that I own. My home is warm and welcoming, relaxing, soothing, it even smells great! Comfortable and comforting.
• Less about how it looks (ie, décor) than how it feels and makes me feel.

I can make it happen by doing the following!:

• Dedicate 30 minutes a day to decluttering; easy to find by cutting back on tv or internet time.
• Keep only what you use or love.
• Reduce belongings by at least 30%, or; keep two, toss one.
• Top priority - work from the front of the house to the back.
• Address the areas that are the most used or most frustrating on a regular basis.

The Bootcamp takes you through your home by categories, not rooms. As in you sort through all of your CDs at once, or all of your shoes. However I'm not going to restrict myself to doing only what she suggests for specific days, if inspiration strikes, I'm going for it.

For instance tonight I went through my jewellery and reduced my necklaces by 50%, and my earrings and misc. jewellery by roughly 30%. It was actually easy because I was in the right mindset to do it. If you're not ready to let go of something, it's not going to happen. When I first sorted through my books I thought I had donated everything that I could. When I went through them again after a significant amount of time had passed, I emptied entire bookshelves!

What area of your house would you most like to get under control? If your home is already the home of your dreams, do you have any helpful tips to share? I could certainly use some!

Image source: Joel Penner

If you want to work through the 30 Day Clutter Bootcamp e-book with me you can purchase it by clicking on the link. I only recommend things that I believe in, plus, it comes with a 100% money back guarantee if you aren't happy with the purchase. No risk there!

Slowly She Goes

I've been thinking about why it feels so important to rid my home and life of clutter. I wish I had a clear answer but as of right now, I don't. I know that without clutter I feel like a weight is lifted off my chest, and my home feels lighter. I know that when my house is cluttered I can't enjoy the things I want to enjoy, because clutter is a distraction, and a detraction, it is 99 items on a 100 item to-do list.

The good news is that I am still moving in the right direction, if only at a snails pace.

We finally sold our corner cabinet that had been sitting idly on kijiji for months. That paid for our groceries this week.

This past weekend we donated two big bags of items we no longer needed. To be honest those bags had been sitting in my front closet for a few months. I kept making the mistake of looking in them and second-guessing decisions that I'd already made. That darn sentimental guilt is a kicker. But everything is gone now and the house feels a little lighter.

I also made the decision to give up on trying to sell the books we no longer want, and instead asked my friends if they were interested in them. That means that one out of the four boxes of books we sorted through has been set aside for various friends. It makes me happy to know that some of the books will be read at least one more time and not consigned to sit on a dusty shelf in a thrift-store indefinitely.

These are all steps in the right direction. It feels like I have had to shift my mindset. I know since I returned to work I've found myself immediately tackling the tasks I am least looking forward to, simply to get them over and done with. I feel similarly about clutter in that it is a huge daunting task that I could easily push to the bottom of my priority list, but instead I'm just working on it one little bit at a time.

I'm quite happy to take my small victories!

Image source: ArtRocksByKaren on Etsy

What's in your closet?

Last night I read about Project 333. Project 333's basic premise is that you live with just 33 items including clothing, accessories, outerwear and shoes for 3 months. It initially sounded extremely minimal to me but after looking through my clothes last night, I've realised it really isn't that extreme!

I read through a lot of other posts about the Project and came across this guide for sorting through your closet:

Start making piles of clothes and be ruthless.

• Pile One: I love these items. They fit me well and I wear them frequently: Keep
• Pile Two: I want to keep this but I don’t know why
• Pile Three: These items don’t fit me or my style: donate.
• Pile Four: These items aren’t in good condition: trash.

Source: bemorewithless.com

I was spurred in to action and ruthlessly attacked my closet. I didn't exactly take a before picture, but take a look at this:

All that was left in the closet were roughly 25 things, half more formal or work wear and half casual wear.

I took out all of the don't-quite-fit items, the sentimental stuff that I don't wear any more, the worn out clothes, pieces I'm sick of, etc, etc, etc, and just take a look at this!

Over at bemorewithless.com there is a suggestion to box up all the sorted stuff, put it in the back of your closet and then if you haven't worn anything from the box in 30 days, donate it.

I think I would have a hard time parting with most of my clothes, but we shall see. I'm definitely pleased with the immediate results of easily being able to see my clothes selection and not having to go through it all several times struggling to find what I'm looking for.

So yes, I'm still very much on the decluttering and simplifying path, I'm just having to modify how I go about it to suit my time limitations.

6 Tips for Selling Your STUFF

Decluttering. Now there is a word we haven't heard around here in awhile. Never fear! My quest to free our lives of excess is ongoing, I just became a little overwhelmed by the many things that are happening in our lives right now.

You've all heard me talk about Kijiji before. Kijiji is like craigslist in that you list things to sell locally. It's really handy when you don't want to go to the trouble of having to ship items, or hold a yard sale. I've made hundreds of dollars by selling things we no longer need on kijiji.

Here is the hard part for me. I've learned to distinguish between what will fetch me a decent amount of money and what is not worth trying to sell. But when something isn't selling, how do you decide that it's time to let it go to donation?

Here are some of the things I am learning (and relearning):

Price items higher than what you want to sell them for. Things are worth as much as people are willing to pay for them. People will almost always try to negotiate on the price, so you have a better chance of getting what you really want for an item if you price it higher. I just sold our highchair for $90, it was listed for $100, and I would have taken $80!

List books in one ad, not individually. Books are difficult to sell because someone has to be looking for that specific title. I just posted one ad with all of the books that I am currently trying to sell. I listed the book and author names, as anyone can use google to find more information about a book and that saves me a lot of time by not having to list all the story descriptions.

Sell kids clothes in 'lots'. I have been selling about 40 pieces at a time for $20, usually a specific age group (for example, 6-9 months). In your ad note the price breakdown, 40 pieces for $20 is about .50 cents a piece. How often will you find clothes for that price in a store? It's a good selling point.

Maintain a presence by posting new ads regularly. Thousands of new posts appear online every day, if you want your items to be seen you need to be listing new things regularly (or alternatively paying to have a top ad that is displayed above all the others on each page). You can do this either by keeping a copy of your item description and pictures, deleting your ad and reposting it, or by posting an ad for new items every day or several times a week. Be sure to include a suggestion that the viewer look at your other ads. Perhaps a little time consuming, but ultimately rewarding.

If selling isn't for you, participate in a stuff swap! I attended one of these a few days ago. Lots of mothers brought clothes that their children had grown out of, along with toys and books. Everything was free, you just went through and took what you wanted. When we were all done the rest was donated to charity. I picked up one outfit for each of the girls and a little toy purse for Desana. We are blessed to not need much right now.

Now here is the part I am struggling with;

Set a deadline to sell items by and firmly commit to that deadline. If something hasn't sold in a month, six weeks, or whatever length of time you deem sufficient, it may be time to let it go to charity. The exception to this would be big ticket items, for those you might need to consider reducing your asking price.

I get stuck and trick myself in to keeping clutter because I think, "But it's worth something!" The reality is that things are only worth what someone is willing to pay for it. If no one wants to buy it, it is worth nothing. In the meantime all the STUFF takes up space in your home, and I personally find it depressing to see giant bags filled with things I no longer want or need, just sitting and gathering dust. Especially when I consider that there are people in the world who don't have the many things we take for granted.

Just let it go. In the end it is all just STUFF!


Image source: Smemon87

Enough is enough

Image Source: Chicago Art Department

Christmas, and the girls birthdays, are rapidly approaching. You all know by now that I have a real issue with clutter. Clutter and I are not friends. I've been doing a lot of reading about minimalism and while I don't think I could embrace it with extremism, so much of the minimalist life appeals to me. When it comes down to it I want my life to be spent with the people I love, not the stuff we're buried under.

For the past couple of weeks I've been trying to think of what I can put on a wish list for the girls for Christmas. I have been feeling a little frustrated that I couldn't really think of anything, and then my perspective changed. I can't think of anything that my girls need, because they don't need anything. My girls don't need anything. Isn't that wonderful? They have everything they need. We have been blessed with abundance, in fact, sometimes an excess of abundance! For that I am grateful.

Faith @ Minimalist Moms has this to say about kids and their clothing in her post How To Minimize Your Child's Wardrobe:

"Are they at the back of the drawer because they aren’t among the favorite choices or simply because they’re overlooked from having too many choices?"

This really struck a cord with me. By holding on to clothes that my kids are never wearing, am I depriving another mother of clothing she could be using for her child? It's gotten to the point where sometimes I have to stuff the clean clothes in to the drawer because it's too full, so it's more than likely that there are some things in there I could pass on to someone else.

There is a line from a hymn that comes to mind in situations like this.

"Because I have been given much, I too must give."

Joshua Becker of Becoming Minimalist has a number of great articles on minimalism with children such as Why Fewer Toys Will Benefit Your Kids. It's almost impossible to limit myself to one applicable quote, but here goes.

True joy and contentment will never be found in the aisles of a toy store. Kids who have been raised to think the answer to their desires can be bought with money have believed the same lie as their parents. Instead, children need encouragement to live counter-cultural lives finding joy in things that truly last.

You might remember the hidden shelving we installed in the girls cupboard. That has been great as it is makes very evident what toys they have, and how little space we have. I believe that if the toys no longer fit in that space, some need to go. We are at that point but it's so difficult to know what to let go of. I'd hate to decide to part with something only to leave Desana wondering where it went, but she's too young to be able to help with the sorting process. Although I did manage to sneak a few toys out of the house during the free weekend giveaway...

I still don't know what I'm going to do about Christmas and Birthdays. I need to think hard about wants vs needs. I don't want family and friends spending their money on things we are not going to keep, but at the same time I don't know if they would accept it if I told them we didn't want any more toys. What's a minimalist Mum to do?

Five minutes goes a long way

This weekend is a long weekend for us here in Canada as Monday is Thanksgiving. Last year we had Thanksgiving at our place and Matt did all of the cooking. This year we are going to my mother-in-laws but Matt is handling the turkey. Yum, turkey! Of course I am holding on to some small shreds of hope that my big plans for changes in our living area will come to fruition this weekend. Wish me luck with that... lots of luck.

I know, I know, I promised to cut back on the decluttering posts, but hey! It's what I'm really interested in right now, or at least feeling motivated to do. I thought I'd just touch on a small topic today, something that will only take you a couple of minutes of time. By you, I also mean me!

Everyday when I sit here on my little corner of the couch with the laptop, I look up and all I can see is a pile of STUFF on top of our fridge across the room. You know what I keep thinking? I should take care of that.Yet it's all still there. So today I'm taking care of it.

You know how long that took? 5 minutes. Why do we procrastinate on things that will only take a couple of minutes? You tell me and we will both know!

I ended up putting my recipe box and one recipe book back on top of the fridge as well, so the final picture isn't completely accurate but close enough. The blue thing is Desana's time-out pad, but she loves it so it's not really a punishment. :)

If you were looking closely you may have seen two changes to our living area that are brand new. Just a taste of things to come.

Hope you all have a great weekend, and a fabulous long weekend for those of you who are in Canada!

Basement Decluttering: Take Stock

Image source: orangeacid

Yesterday I took the day off from decluttering. I spent a couple of hours having delightful girl talk with my best friend Shawna and we checked out the newly opened local thrift shop.

On and off throughout the day I thought about spending some time in the basement, but nothing was calling to me. I think part of the reason for that is that I am concerned that if I'm not careful I will just move the mess from downstairs up in to the upstairs. My biggest reason for concern about that is of course the ever annoying giant and overflowing toolbox that is living next to our bedroom door. There isn't much I can do about that, although the temptation to sort and put away everything is growing, the ensuing argument isn't really worth the hassle. Maybe I will end up boxing or bagging up all the overflowing stuff and stashing it back in the basement for awhile. At least then it will be in one place and not infiltrating my upstairs.

My point is, just make sure you aren't moving the mess from one place to another, because that's no solution at all. Secondly, take a step back to look at what you have accomplished. Frankly, I've only put in probably about an hours worth of work so far and I would say that about 1/4 of the basement is 75% done. That is pretty impressive!

I think it's just a matter of deciding you are going to do it, then doing it.

I have two upcoming plans for the basement. The first is getting all the donate-able pieces out and having Matt take them to a charity. The second is gathering up all the old electronics (monitors, scanner, paper shredder) and taking them to an electronic recycling depot. I think I will be amazed by the amount of space completing those two steps will clear up.

In other news Matt and I are battling over the time line for a massive change in our living space. I operate on a timeline of 'let's get it done - yesterday!' and Matt operates on 'we'll do it tomorrow' (as in, tomorrow never comes). It's incredibly frustrating. I know it's not only frustrating for me either, but I have no idea how to bridge the gap. Any suggestions?

I'll try be back again later for a non-decluttering post! I'm worried I'm boring you all with these. :)

Basement Decluttering: Some work done, is better than none

We had big plans to make some major changes in our upstairs living areas today, then Matt ended up having to work so that went out the window. Instead of sitting around moping about it (too much) I decided to keep working on the basement. The kids were not co-operating at all so I was running up and down the stairs pretty often and decided to be very minimal about what I did. Still, some work done is better than none!

Today I tackled the first pile next to the foot of the stairs. Again, another dumping ground, this was a combination of various wood and drywall type things from the many different house projects we've had over the years. Not exactly what you could call scraps (for the most part), but large enough to keep around for future projects. Ultimately I think Matt would like to build some kind of work bench downstairs to properly store all this wood, but I figured out how to keep it in the meantime.

I broke a few 'rules' during this sort but rules are made to be broken! Check out the pictures below.

Most of the stuff from on top of the dresser was basically put on top of the giant pile in the middle of the basement. I needed to clear off the dresser because that's where I had decided to put all the pieces of wood, etc. Again, if you have to, make a path through the junk to get to the 'home' of the item you are sorting. I also ignored some of the other items on the floor where I moved all the wood from because that wasn't what I was working on today.

I was pretty excited to find some pieces of drywall and wood that I think might work for something we've been talking about doing in the living room. Anything that saves money is great, right?

These are my thoughts from my experience today:

• If you are overwhelmed, just stop. The clutter isn't going anywhere. You can come back and deal with it later. If you find yourself holding an item and looking around in desperation with no clue what to do with it, put it down and come back later! If you don't stop you may end up feeling even more overwhelmed and not sort as effectively.
• Know when the time is or isn't right. Even if you have big plans of getting a certain amount of sorting done, if circumstances aren't working out you need to know when to stop. For example, today both my girls were not cooperating, Desana kept trying to go outside and Freya was crying for me. So today was a fairly quick sort.
• As I said previously, if it's not yours, don't throw it out. All this wood stuff is Matt's, and maybe I could see a few pieces that I might toss. But, it's not mine. So it's all in the pile on top of the dresser and Matt can decide what to keep or toss later.
• Set a deadline for selling (for example, if an item hasn't sold in a month, donate it). If it takes up valuable space in your home, holding on to an item in hopes of making a few dollars may not be worth the wait. See if you can think of any family or friends who might be in need. Offer the item to them for free, or for a lesser amount than what you're trying to sell it for. Stress that they should not feel obligated to take it. If they pass, pack it up and drop it off at a charity or call a charity that will pick it up for you.

I think I am about 90% ready to donate some of our bigger pieces rather than trying to sell them. I'm just going to consult with Matt over it and then we'll figure out when to drop them off at the Salvation Army. One advantage of owning a truck, it sure makes it easier to transport large items!

Basement Decluttering: Where to start

The basement is a part basement for storage only, there's not enough head space for it to be used for anything else. It's always been a bit of a disaster down there. Frankly, I can't even remember what it looked like when we moved in. Yikes.

It's gotten to the point where when I need to put something down there, I open the basement door, quickly look for a place on the stairs to put the item, then close the door in a hurry. Double yikes.

The other day in Decluttering: The 'Just Do It' Principle, I told you I had decided to tackle the basement once and for all and to show you as I do it. That was and still is a scary prospect, but it'll help keep me motivated and maybe motivate you too! If I'm completely honest the basement feels unconquerable to me. I'm hoping to prove myself wrong.

I'm aiming to spend at least 15 minutes every day for the rest of the month decluttering the basement. That adds up to over six and a half hours. I think that I can get a lot done in six and a half hours. Obviously I may not get to it every day, but when you really think about it, 15 minutes isn't that hard to find. With that said, consider today day one! Are you ready? Get on your shoes, here goes.

Day 1 - Start at the top and work your way down

I decided to work my way from top to bottom. I do the same thing with my daily tidying routine, I work from the front of my house to the back (which may explain why it's a bit of a disaster the further you go in to the house!) The logic in this is that you see an immediate result, and in this case the stairs are clear which makes it a whole lot safer.

Unlike my sorting the other day, today I did my best to put everything in its 'home'. The quote 'A place for everything, everything in its place' is one that repeats in my head a lot, I'm fairly sure that my mother planted that one there. It can however be very difficult to find homes for everything.

Just for the heck of it, here's the rundown of everything I had stashed on the stairs, and where it all went to.

1. Curtains were put away in the linen closet, which is, before you ask, what is behind those small brown doors in the wall on the landing.
2. Mouse trap went to Matt's tool box, seemed the most logical place.
3. Broken kids stools - also stashed by the tool boxes, they break about once a week at this point, not sure if he's going to want to keep fixing them!
4. Empty plate box - I put it on top of the cupboard the plates are in.
5. Plant stand, will be put in to storage in the garden shed.
6. Paint cans, moved down into basement with all the other painting supplies
7. Bags of outgrown kids clothes, moved down into the basement with the other clothes storage
8. Bags of items for selling on kijiji, moved down into the basement and placed roughly in the area I intend on turning into the kijiji waiting room
9. Bag of misc. bathroom stuff, moved upstairs for me to sort through while watching tv
10. Bed posts for kijiji & giant black door, both remained on the landing because they are awkward for me to move and will be leaving the house soon one way or the other. Anyone need a giant black door or a bed with bed posts? Anyone?

These shelves were left behind by the previous owners. What did they use them for? Their collection of beer cans! As you can see the shelves are bowing, and if we were to properly utilise them they would need to be replaced by something sturdier. It's a great use of space but I don't know what we could keep there. I've heard that basements are the worst place to store books because of the humidity, otherwise I would use it for that. Any ideas?

Over the past six years the shelves have served as a catch-all. It would go something like this. Get to the foot of the stairs. Look into the abyss of the basement. Dump item on shelves and run away.

I decided to leave the floor to my next day of decluttering, partly because there was a spider on the wall that disappeared while I wasn't looking. Ok, mostly because of the spider! The shelves were covered in a bizarre mish-mash of containers of nails and screws, misc. tool stuff and actually, in general, a lot of misc. stuff such as a cookie tin, broken clock, gift bags, a bag of cards, and happily, a little box labled 'crib screws' which contains the screwdriver whatchamacallit that I need to tighten the screws of our highchair. I had no idea where that had gotten to.

All the tool stuff went in to a plastic bag for Matt to sort through. If it's his, it's not mine to make the decision about. The gift bags were put with the other gift bags somewhere else in the basement. I bought the screwdriver thingy upstairs and put it on the highchair so that can get taken care of right away. I think I will then tape it securely to the bottom of the highchair seat so it will be right there if we ever need it. Remember, 'A place for everything, everything in its place.'

Throughout this process I also had to venture in to other parts of the basement. The few shots below show a few of the other things I had to do in order to get the stairs cleared.

1. Make a path -  By clearing off the stairs I made it easier and safer for me to go up and down the stairs as I remove things from the basement. By clearing a path through the unsorted stuff in the basement, I opened up a path to areas past the mess, allowing me to put items in their HOMES. For example, I have shelving with rubbermaids for clothes storage, and shelving with p

aint supplies so I was able to put those items from the stairs away. It might seem like a scary scene from hoarders, but if I didn't do it this way I would be forever moving items from one pile to the next, never to their final home.

2. Put like with like. I'm not sorting through the girls clothes right now and putting them in the appropriately marked container for the age-group. I put the plastic bags by the containers, and later I will do a further DEEP sort.

3. Not yours? Don't toss. Sometimes it seems like it would be so simple to toss away the sports memorabilia your partner never looks at, or the tools they never uses. The reality is, it isn't yours! Imagine if the situation was reversed and something you love but haven't used in awhile was taken away without your consent. Not a good feeling, hey?

4. Leave their sorting to them. Along with the last point, said partner may not like the way you sort things. If they do and you want to sort their stuff, then by all means go ahead. If they don't like it just save yourself the argument. Put it someplace for them to go through, then hassle them (ask nicely!) until they do.

Ok! So day one and I got the stairs cleared off, and the shelving at the bottom of the stairs cleared too. Downside is that now that special area back by my bedroom door has yet more junk by it again, but I'll be talking with Matt about his tools and getting him to sort through them ASAP.

Just so you know what I'm getting myself in to, check out these pictures of the abyss, also know as... my basement.

Woah.

Decluttering: The Just Do It Principle

I have shared with you my favorite place in the house, our master bedroom, many times.

It's my little sanctuary, the one place I try my darndest to keep tidy and retreat worthy.

What you haven't seen is what is right outside the bedroom door. It is reminiscent of that scene in the movie Labyrinth where Sarah opens a door from her bedroom only to realise she is still in the Labyrinth as all the memorabilia and JUNK of her life comes tumbling through the door. Metaphor anyone?

This is what lurks outside of my retreat.

I have LOADS of excuses as for why this little area of the house is such a mess. For example, I'm a mother, my time is limited. I have small children so I toss things over the baby gate and in to this area to keep them out of reach of the kids. Most of these things need to go down to the basement for storage. My basement is a larger version of this little area of the house, so sometimes getting things down there can be difficult. An item needs to be disposed of. An item needs to be returned to its owner. An item needs to be fixed. An item is in stand-by waiting to be sold on kijiji. An item doesn't have a home.

Yes, I am full of excuses!

Now here is what I think. I know that if I was to do this the 'right' way, I would touch every item once, make a firm decision about it and it would be dealt with once and for all. But, I'd rather deal with this little area in the quickest way possible because I want results and I want them now. So I am going to cheat and leave the hard stuff for later by putting everything out of sight (and somewhat out of mind) in the scary basement!!! This will have an immediate positive effect on both the look and feel of my house, and thus my contentment level in it. In this case I think that the 'just do it' principle applies. I'll worry about the big decisions later.

Remind me of this when I complain about the difficulty of sorting through everything in the basement.

Now that I've taken 'Just Do It' to heart, check out the results!

My work is done. Everything that can be moved has been moved down to the basement. I vacuumed the floor thoroughly and febreezed the carpet. What remains is Matt's domain - the toolbox.

I'd like to see it closed up and tidy with no excess tools sitting on top for the kids to get in to. My previous attempt to do that was met with Matt's annoyance that I had put things in the wrong drawers, so I won't be attempting that again! That accompanied with something else that I did in one of my decluttering episodes has made me more cautious. If it's not yours, don't throw it away. However, feel free to complain about it until the other person does deal with it!

It only took me about 30 minutes (including snapping all the pictures), and the result is that there is no longer a labyrinth of stuff falling in to my bedroom when I open the door, there's nothing there for me to trip over and fall on. I won't have tantrums of sheer frustration over not being able to open the washing machine door all the way, and hey, the carpet is clean. That's always a plus!

These little things add up to making a big difference. I have also decided to share with you my adventures in to the abyss - the basement. I will try tackle it for fifteen minutes at a time and with the strict rules in mind that I disregarded today. Or I'll make it up as I go, whatever works! Hopefully you will be inspired to tackle your personal labyrinth or abyss.

Storage solutions: Hidden shelving

Back at the start of the month Matt had a couple of weeks of holidays. It rained and rained and rained so that pretty much canceled the idea of getting anything done outside. Happily for me that meant that some inside projects got done! That included adding shelving to an underutilized corner of the closet in the girls room.

Since we only have the two bedrooms, and now the two kids, storage is at a premium. I have a fairly low tolerance for having toys everywhere, so I wanted to be able to designate a set area for the toys, which would also help us set a limit on just how many toys they can have. If they outgrow the space, some toys need to be passed along to other children. This can also help us work on the one-in one-out rule.

I felt this was the perfect place to put in some shelving. They are at just the right height for Desana to be able to reach everything, and the exact depth to be able to fit the photoboxes that I use as toy boxes! Plus at the end of the day I can just pull the curtains shut and everything is out of sight.

It's kind of cute, sometimes Desana sits in there and plays with everything! When she wants to play with something from one of the boxes she can bring them out to the living room.

Were you wondering what is kept in the boxes?

• O.R.E. Originals Bath Learning Shapes, we don't use them as bath toys but they are great for Desana as she learns her letters and numbers. She loves lining them up and building towers with them, so they are quite versatile
• A variety of HABA and Plan wooden blocks - stacking blocks, mixed shapes and colors, sensory blocks - literally hours of entertainment building things, learning shapes and colors
• Mr. Potato head. I wasn't a big fan of this toy initially because of all the pieces, but being able to keep it all in one box sure helps. Desana loves making crazy monsters!
• Green Toys - Tea Set - I can't tell you how excited I was to get Desana her first tea set! We have lots of fun imaginary play with these toys.

I have another basket on the dresser in the girls room, and two baskets in the living room that hold the toys that are being played with out here the most often. I'm setting that as the limit, and with birthdays and Christmas rapidly approaching we'll have to figure out if they really need anything, and what those things might be.

Now I just need to find a few more out of sight places to add some shelving to!

Another use for jars

We had a pretty busy day today that I might blog about tomorrow, but in the meantime here's a tiny little post for you.

Desana can both climb over babygates now and pull them down, so when she wants to get to the back of the house there is no stopping her! So I've had to come up with a more creative way of storing my rings and other jewelry. She loves getting in to all my stuff!

This little jar was in the bag of baby food jars that my mother-in-law gave me. I thought it was cute so I kept it and pretty quickly figured out a great use for it.

Safe and sound...

I screw the lid on really tight and Desana has no chance of getting it open.

...pretty too

Neat huh?

One of my biggest personal goals is to get my house organised. I get closer every day and am at the point now where our main level is probably about 90% there. The basement is only a part basement for storage and is a scary messy place, that's the final frontier of sorting and I won't broach that subject right now!

Awhile back I was searching our online library system for all the newest books and came across House Works by Cynthia Ewer. When I started reading the book it mentioned Cynthia's website http://organizedhome.com/, which I'd never come across before. There is an amazing resource that is on the website. Downloadable forms! I am a huge addict and advocate of LISTS. I always feel a lot better when I can write down a list of tasks to accomplish, or a to-do list. It gets me out of my head. There is an entire section on the website devoted to these pages - Printable Pages for Your Household Notebook

Yesterday I decided to tackle the pantry. We had a large unused space just past our laundry area by the back door. I asked Matt to build a shelving system back there and it ended up being very deep, which on the one hand means it can store a lot, but on the other hand it's a bit problematic in terms of being able to access everything in it. My plan is to either get some baskets or have him install some kind of pull out shelf or drawer, but for now I'll just have to live with it as is.

I printed out the Pantry Inventory form from OrganizedHome.com and sorted through the entire pantry and wrote down every single thing we have in it. Because of my lack of organisation before there were a few items that had expired or I found too questionable to risk, but thankfully since we have compost bin now most of those things won't go to waste.

Here is my pantry as it is now:

Once we had the pantry to use we decided to get a costco membership. It can make for some expensive shopping trips but ultimately we save money by buying things in bulk. This meant we had to find room for a deep freezer, so we picked up a stacking kit and put the dryer up on top of the washing machine. The deep freezer fits perfectly inbetween the pantry and the washing machine and dryer (and you can see I store the vacuum cleaner beneath the pantry and the ladder behind the freezer).

Here's a closer shot of the pantry contents. Most of the things you see here have a working twin already in the kitchen.

Here's the pantry inventory all filled in. I can admit that I was surprised by some of the things I found hidden in the unsorted pantry. Now I can mark off items as I use them and when it comes to grocery day I can check the list and make sure we're not wasting money by buying another dozen cans of soup!

I've also printed out the freezer inventory for the little freezer over our fridge. It's a big help now that Freya is eating solids, it helps me keep track of how many purees I have and when I'm going to need to make some more. The next step is working on cooking from the pantry and freezer with food we already have to cut back on the grocery bill.

What kind of state is your pantry in?

The Girls Bedroom (Before)

After being a mother for two and a half years I'm finally getting around to working on the 'nursery'. We live in a small two bedroom bungalow with a very small second bedroom. We co-slept with our first until 15 months, and have been co-sleeping with our second for 6 months but we're now working on transitioning her to the crib. Right now our girls are 2 and a half and 6 months old. Desana is in a toddler bed and Freya is in a crib. Since the room is so small it's really hard to get good pictures of the four walls, but here's a vague idea of what I've got to work with and you can see what everything looks like right now.

This is basically the first thing you see coming into the room. I'd like to paint the room a nice bright purple, currently it's the same color it was when we moved in. The dresser was a freebie from Matt's Aunt & Uncle. I want to paint it a white or cream and replace the handles. I have three boxes on top that I bought at a yard sale a few years ago, I use them to store socks and hair things. I'm contemplating painting them as well!

The window is very tiny so there's not great natural lighting in the room except in the late afternoon. I'd like to get a new shorter blackout curtain, probably white or cream in color. I've considered painting the crib as well to match the toddler bed but I'm not sure how safe that is as far as a teething baby potentially munching on it - something to look into!

I'm generally not a fan of commercialised stuff but Desana loves the Disney princesses right now and I found this table with two stools and the rug for $35 on kijiji. Desana loves taking the stools from room to room which is why you don't see them in this picture! Although it's a tiny space I'm planning on purchasing a reclining chair in the next couple of days so I have somewhere in the room to nurse Freya when she wakes up for night time feedings. I'm hoping that will help with the transition from co-sleeping so I won't have to bring her into bed to nurse anymore. I know this will seriously restrict the amount of space in the room, but I think it's worth it for now.

Desana's toddler bed and mattress were both kijiji purchases as well, I think I paid about $80 for them.

Just inside the bedroom door I have a little bookcase with all of Desana's books and her coloring things, also the makeshift toybox (rubbermaid) for most of her stuffed toys. I have serious issues with toys and clutter so this is one solution. I would like to cut back on how much she has but she goes through stages of playing with all of her toys. The solution might be to get a couple of different containers to divide the toys up in and bring them out on different days.

Right now I have a 'chalkdot' up on the wall which is a reuseable sticky chalkboard that I got from one of the bargains at greenbabybargains.com. I also have a matching one on the front of the fridge to track leftovers or the meal of the day. I have a couple of http://uppercaseliving.com/ quotes that I plan to put in this room, one will replace the chalkdot.

A few days ago I spent a couple of hours sorting through the girls closet to make it more functional, putting aside the items I can sell and store. It has a very interesting design that has potential but is also quite awkward. It is very deep and tall. I'd like to put some kind of shelving system in it that can be pulled out to access the items at the back. But for now I have two rubbermaids with Freya's next two stages of clothes stored in the very back, the four drawer storage for socks and bibs and other baby things, and all the linen and blankets folded up on the side.

The closet is over the staircase for our part basement, so it has this odd little rise in it. My friend suggested installing small strips of wood across it that can be used to hold the kids shoes... so that's the plan!

On the otherside there's a little amount of space just inside the closet. I'd like to add a couple of low shelves in there to take advantage of having a little bit more storage space for kid stuff, books or toys.

The only change I've really made in the room so far has been to hang these lovely curtains up in the closet. I was exploring in our basement (long story that deserves another post!) and found some curtain rods the previous owners had left behind, also with some brackets to hang them. My Mum who lives back in Australia had sent me these lovely curtains, so basically I got the curtain rod, brackets and curtains for free.

Right now that's the only real finished element of the room, but it's nice to be able to walk in there and see that. The rest is all still just being visualised. :)

What are your storage solutions for small spaces?