Spring Cleaning - Decluttering

In my last post which you can read here, I mentioned that I wouldn't do any decluttering during my spring cleaning, as I knew I wouldn't finish what I set out to do...

Well I couldn't do it... I ended up decluttering :)

I got rid of (or put things aside for garage sale and returning to rightful owner) 50 items yesterday.

Rubbish and Recycling

• 1 x (empty) box from Missy's room
• 1 x lolly bag from Missy's room
• 1 x lonely Dora domino from Missy's room (the rest were lost long ago)
• 2 x catalogues from kitchen
• 2 x wrapping paper from main bedroom
• 1 x lolly box
• 1 x bear shaped eraser (It's been around since I was a kid)

Donate

• 1 x toy turtle with hammer
• 3 x handheld games
• 1 x jumper
• 1 x jacket
• 3 shirts
• 5 x singlets (day wear)
• 1 x baby jacket
• 1 x toy dog carrier
• 1 x purple toy
• 1 x tiger toy
• 1 x toy guitar
• 1 x kids toy cup (again the rest were lost long ago)
  

Garage Sale

• 1 x 2 pc PJ set
• 3 x sz 0 tops
• 2 x glass serving trays
• 1 x glass bowl
• 2 x glass candle holders
• 2 x small glass jugs
• 1 x glass measuring cup
• 1 x glass thing.. I have no idea what it is
• 3 x nappy covers
• 2 x 2pk newborn nappies
  

Returning

• 2 x reusable nappies to cousin
  

I was going to donate it all, but seeing as though my mum is having a garage sale in a few weeks, and I need to raise funds for our possible move, I thought I may as well try and sell some things.

Sorting out our lives pt 2

In my last post, I mentioned how I wanted to look at different areas in our lives that needed work, and to focus on them. You can read it here.

While catching up on other blogs, I came across Organising Queen's blog. Her most recent post A life service is pretty much what I'm talking about.

This is from her post
Answer these questions honestly
How happy are you with the state of your health, family, home, career, friends, etc?
Are you at the point where you thought you'd be at this time of the year?
If not, be honest with yourself and say why or why not.
Are you making excuses for anything? (Remember You get to choose )
What do you need to let go of?

I'm going to answer these honestly...

How happy are you with the state of your health, family, home, career, friends, etc?

• Health - 6/10 - needs a lot of work.. I'm always tired no matter how much sleep I get. I need to exercise more and not be so hard on myself.
  
• Family - 7.5/10 -I love my family, they are the most important thing to me, but because I'm always tired, I don't feel I give as much as I can (yes I'm being hard on myself). I need to spend more quality time with the kids, I need to listen more, interact more, play more and stress less. I want more time for hubby and I, but it's hard, especially with him working so much, but we sneak cuddles and kisses where we can and talk a lot. My me time consists of falling on the lounge, pulling out the laptop, surfing the net for a little while and having a long hot shower at about 11pm. I want to get back into yoga, and simply have a chance to think and relax.
  
• Home - 7/10 - The decluttering is definitely paying off, and I'm enjoying my house more and more, and I don't feel embarrassed anymore. There's still a lot of unfinished jobs, but when the budget allows, we'll get other people to do it, we'd rather spend our time together as a family.
  
• Career 9/10 - I'm a SAHM (previously a work away from home mum) and even though I miss the money, Í'm so much happier and relaxed, therefore a better mum and wife. I take my job/role seriously and I'm really interested in learning as much as I can about home ec, to improve the lives of myself and my family.
  
• Friends 6.5/10 - I really need to catch up with my friends more. I usually see friends once a week, and a weekend catch up once or twice a month, but playdates/catch ups are often being post poned due to both parties being too busy, too tired, or im my case, time restricted due to hubbys work hrs and school drop off/pick up. I'm using the school holidays to catch up with friends as I won't be so restricted.

I'm adding this one as it is mentioned in my last post and very important to us...

• Finances 7/10 - I hate debt! But having said that, I'm pretty happy with our situation overall, as we're in our 20's, with 4 kids and our total debt including mortgage is less than the total debt of a few couples I know that are only years away from retirement.

Are you at the point where you thought you'd be at this time of the year?Yes I'm content with where we are.

If not, be honest with yourself and say why or why not.

Are you making excuses for anything?
I do need to spend more time with friends. I've gotta stop post poning.

What do you need to let go of?
Physical and Emotional clutter

--------------------------


Going by the answers, I need to work on interacting more with my kids, just ''being there'' isn't enough. I need to be kinder to myself, and I need to spend more time with my friends.

So how does one give more to be kinder to others, yet give less to be kinder to oneself?

Sorting out our lives

With the new financial year fast approaching, I decided to look at not only our finances, but other areas of our lives that need some work. I'm using the new financial year as a clean slate.

Area's in which I want to work on are:

• Debts
• Kids quality time
• Routines
• Housework/organising/decluttering
• Me time
• Mummy, Daddy time
• Family time
• Friends

I'm going to sit down and work out ways in which I can improve on each of these areas. For eg. With Debts, I want to get the car loan under $10000 by the end of July (It's at $12400ish at the moment). Easy to say, but is it doable? I really hope so!

I will do another post once I've made a plan, but for now the best thing I can do for myself is to get some sleep :)

Update on Missy's room

As you may know, we've been fixing up our daughter's room. Even though we did a major declutter last year, and with regular 'sort throughs', it needed a lot of work. You can find last years declutter post's here and here.

Here's a couple of pics of her room before we started on this journey last year.

Ok...yep...that's how her room looked... on a regular basis.

It never gets that bad anymore, we've decluttered to a point that it's controllable even when it's a mess. If that makes sense... :)

This is how it looks now. It's not completely finished. There's still holes in the wall that need filling and painting over, scribbles to clean off... But the main thing is her room is tidy and organised.

It's such a great feeling to look back on the pics from last year. 

We've gotten rid of so much stuff not only from her room but the whole house.

Here's what we do that helps with the toy clutter:

• I often get the kids to pick toys to give to charity. 
• If they double up on a toy, 1 needs to be passed on.
• If an inside toy goes outside and they don't bring it back in/look after it, it goes.
• If the toy box overflows, it's time for a clear out
• If they don't use/play with it, it goes.
• If it's broken/missing parts, it goes.
• If family and friends ask what to get them, we'll suggest money towards something big (this year possibly a cubby house), get something that they're really interested in, or clothes.
• We don't buy many toys for them throughout the year, toys are left for Birthdays/Christmas.
  
  

Before starting this journey, we did pretty much the opposite to the above. It definitely shows.

Priorities.

{Image Credit}

In my last post, which you can read here, I stated that Family is what I want out of life. My family IS my life. In saying that, I want to prioritise me life.

As I'm typing this, my little man Mr 3 gets out of bed and asks for a drink of water. I gave him a little drink, and he gives me a big cuddle tells me he loves me and walks to the lounge..

"I'm sitting on the younge with my jink and I'm going to wait for Daddy."

(mistakes intended, that's how he talks :))

I was thinking of sending him back to bed, but then I thought why not let him stay up with me? He's no trouble. It'll make him happy and I'm sure he'll be asleep before Daddy gets home anyway.

My Priorities:

My children.

My children are my absolute number one priority. They come before anything and anyone in this world (The husband would like to think he comes first but nah lol).

Being a good mum to my children.
This explains itself

{Image source}

My husband and myself.
I do tend to put everything and everyone before myself, I think it's what us mums do, but I'm making myself a priority, and start taking better care of myself. The husband - I want to spend more quality time with him, a date night is near impossible, so even a romantic dinner and a movie at home will suffice.

Friends and other family (mum, dad, siblings, cousins etc).
With four kids, I don't have a lot of time to catch up with everyone all the time, but I try to talk/text/chat with friends and/or (other) family on a daily basis, and catch up with closest friends every week.

Having fun and living life.
Again, this explains itself.

The House.
I would love to have a self cleaning house, but I'm yet to get that button working, so for now, the housework, decluttering, organising and general maintenance is an ongoing thing. I want my house to be a haven where my family can feel relaxed, and guests can feel welcome.

We have lots of plans for our house. We've completely renovated it, and we're planning more projects in the future. We were originally trying to pump any and all extra money onto our car loan to get that paid off asap, so we could get the extra room built and have another baby  our kids can have their own rooms (yes we will be having another bub in a few years :)). We've changed our priorities, and feel so much happier and calmer :)

Finances.
Money is a necessary evil. We're earning less but living more :)

What are you priorties?

A nice weekend.

We had a nice rainy weekend here in Sydney, and I say that without sarcasm... It actually was a nice rainy weekend.

We were supposed to go to a friends house for a BBQ, but due to the weather, we have postponed.

Hubby and I spent some time decluttering our bedroom and managed to get rid of a lot of stuff, which freed up a lot of space in hubbys side of the wardrobe... unfortunately mine's still packed, but I'm hoping to get it done this week.

We came across an old video of my husband as a young teenager on his dirtbike, it was so cute to watch and listen to his young voice, the kids were amazed.. I don't think they believed it was their Daddy :)

We spent time together watching movies and playing games.

All I can say is, MY POOR HUSBAND!! lol

I found a recipe for Cloud Dough from Flights of Whimsy and thought I'd give it a try. I knew the kids would have a ball with it.

The recipe called for 8 cups of flour and 1 cup of baby oil.. I tweaked it a bit as I didn't have that much flour :)

I used 3 cups of flour and approx 1/4 cup of baby oil.

This was great as I've been wanting to use the baby oil up, I've had it since Miss 5 was a baby (I don't use the oil on bubs apart from removing cradle cap).

Mr almost 4

I have more pictures that I wanted to add, but for some reason, it seems to stuff up everytime I try and add them.

They had a blast with the Cloud Dough. They played with it for ages and pretended it was snow, play dough, dirt and rubbish for their trucks and plenty more things.

It was so good seeing them all play happily together and using their imagination.

Linking up with Diary of a SAHM for I Blog on Tuesdays.

Uses for Wipes Containers

Lastnight Mr almost 4 and I were going through old receipts.  Hubby and I kept previous years receipts in old Huggies wipes containers. We had 4 containers, with receipts in there from 2009....

Seriously?? 2009?? I knew there were a lot of receipts but I thought it was 2010 onwards...

Anyways, we had a good sort through and ended up with 2 empty containers. One has 2011/2012 Financial year receipts, and the other has preschool receipts yet to be filed.

I also stored my breast pads in a wipes container, but as I've weaned my son, I no longer need the pads. I'd only just opened a box of breast pads when I started weaning him, so I'm going to give them to my cousin, as she's due to have her second baby in a week :)

So that leaves me with 3 empty wipes containers... I didn't want to throw them away as they are very useful, so I thought about using a box to store my freezer bags in, as they're all over the place in the drawer...unfortunately the drawer isn't deep enough...

Another area which was in need of some organisation is the craft cupboard. I had a lot of bags with mixed up crayons/pencils/textas etc, so I decided to put all the crayons in one container, finger paints in another and the last one housed the small chalk, glitter, glue and other little bits. I also sorted the pencils and textas and put them back where they belong.

Once I file the contents of the other 2 boxes, I can put them to good use. I'm thinking of using one to store plastic bags instead of having them shoved under the sink and the other I'm not to sure yet, but I've got some things in mind.

Here's a few ideas of what they can be used for/store:

• Crafty bits - Pencils/paints/crayons etc
• Grocery shopping bags
• Money box
• Make up
• Lego
• Receipts
• Phone chargers
• Hair accessories
• Ribbons for craft/presents
• Pet food
• Baby keepsake
• First aid kit
• Contain objects in bag/nappy bag
• DIY Wipes for bub or cleaning
• Screws, nails etc
• Batteries
• Breast pads
• Other pads
• Cookie cutters
• Tiny toys
• Doll clothes/bits
• Washing powder
• Spices

There are many more ways in which they can be reused. Mr almost 4 spent most of his time pushing them around as cars and trains :)

Today's chores

I was supposed have a Drs appointment today, but have rescheduled due to my husband working night shift. He has been covering for the night shift superviser on and off for the past month as he has been on leave.

The extra money has been great and we've been putting extra onto the car loan. The downside of the night shift is not having hubby around. I'm used to doing the afternoons on my own and have got a routine in place, but I'm not used to having hubby not here during the day.. Well he is here but he's asleep :) So I've been trying to keep in control.

I've also taken the boys out of preschool due to the constant sickness and also to save a bit of money. I'm really gonna miss my Fridays being just bubs and I, but it's not forever and once the debts are paid off it'll be worth it.

My days are spent chasing my tail when Hubby is on night shift, I drop Missy off at school, come back try and do as much as I can of what needs to be done, then it's time to pick Missy up from school again.

So today I want to set myself some To Do's which hopefully will keep me on track.

• a load of washing  done
• run dishwasher done
• fold yesterdays washing done
• put away yesterdays washing - done
• general tidy morning done
• wipe over bathroom done
• check Missy's bed is made and room is clean done
• general tidy after lunch - done
• Get washing off line - done
• fold washing - done
• put away washing - done
• get dinner ready - done
• sweep kitchen floor done
• sweep loungeroom floor
• fill washing machine ready for tomorrows load done
• make Missys lunch for tomorrow
• lay out clothes for tomorrow - done
• read with Missy - done
• pay phone bill - done
• Catch up on Missy's baby record book, 5 y/o page  done
• have 5 glasses of water had - done
• take time out for self
• exercise - walk to pick up Missy - done
• general tidy night - done
• unload dishwasher
• load dishwasher
• fill out Missy's Take home reading journal - done

Update on my journey

My two older kids are at preschool, and both the younger ones are having their naps. As much as I'm enjoying it, I'm a little lost lol.

As I stated in my post yesterday, the past couple of months have been rush rush and have quickly blurred past me.

For the first few weeks after having bub, I didn't continue with anything to do with my journey to regain control of my house and finances, in fact it was quite the opposite. My plan of being strict with money and paying out that car went out the window, the house seemed to return to the state it was when I was working and the clutter seemed to breed like crazy...

I wasn't too concerned with the house and clutter as I know life can be crazy with the arrival of a new bub and would soon be dealt with once things settle down, but I was really concerned about the money side of things, as with the arrival of bubs, we're even more desperate for extra space and another room.

We can in no way afford an extension on the house, or to move to a bigger place at the moment, so we decided to get built ins in the kids rooms to free up some storage space. This has been heaven sent. Miss 4's room is tiny, but since having the built ins has made her room look larger. We've also put some shelves up, and by doing so we were able to get rid of her little table which housed her pretty things. She has so much more floor space now.

We haven't yet removed the old wardrobes from the boys room yet, so I can't comment on how much space it has free'd up. But I do love the built in :)

Over the past few weeks, I've started getting back into decluttering. I've managed to get rid of about 7 bags from home. We also held a garage sale, and with the promise of not bringing the left over stuff back into the house, I filled more bags and actually got my mum, aunties and cousin into the decluttering spirit. Between us, we managed to fill bags and boxes the length and width of a massive 8 seater dining table (It was stored there until dad could take it to the op shop. He's the only one with a car big enough to fit it all lol). That's great considering my mum and aunties hold onto things until they finally sell. Which in one case was 8 years lol.

Even with the house looking like a bomb hit it, it's so much quicker and easier to return it to a state of order. So those months of decluttering and organising has definitely paid off :)

We're still paying extra onto the car, with a minimum of $50 a week. Most weeks we put a lot more on it, but I found when we pumped so much money into the loan, we'd fall off the wagon. We're now under the $20000 mark on our loan :)

Where I'm at...

Well as I'm typing this, I'm looking around my lounge room and it's in a bit of a mess.

Coffee Table
Envelope
Bubs beanie
Leaflet/flyer thing

Lounge
Blanket half hanging off the lounge.
Basket of unfolded washing
Towels 1 folded 3 aren't
A layby
Pile of new bubs clothes

On The Floor
My boots
Kids school bags
Mr 3's robe
Baby wipes
Kids drawings
Un blown up balloon
Lunch box
Cup
Bread bag tag
Hairband
3 toys
Menu plan
and a stool in the wrong spot...

A clothes rack - I think the clothes are dry lol

I've been walking over this stuff pretty much since I came home at about 4.15. It was worse than this earlier and have slowly been putting things away and getting the kids to help aswell.
I could use any excuse under the sun as to why I haven't finished, but to be honest It's sheer lazyness. I am very tired, but the amount that's lying around would probably take all of 15-20 minutes to tidy up... Having said that it's still not enough to convince me to do it lol.

Pretty much my whole house is like this, clutter lying around. It's doing my head in, and as much and as fast as I clean it seems to reappear again. I'll blame the kids, every flat surface, lack of time, how I'm feeling etc, but when it comes down to it, it just proves that we have WAY TOO MUCH STUFF.

We have a council clean up this week (was actually Monday but haven't done our street yet), So we carted some junk out the front, and was amazed to see how quick the broken walker disappeared lol. Its broken so I hope to god they aren't actually going to use that for a baby.

My husband had some old parts for a VH/VK Commodore. He's been meaning to get rid of them, but as the flyer stated no car parts he didn't put them out. I told him to, cause guaranteed some scrapper will come around and snap them up before the council come around. And that's exactly what happened. Within 10 minutes lol.

There's still sooo much we need to get rid of, but most of it is building rubble (bricks etc), so will contact a brick recycler for a quote.

But as far as insides concerned, I'm still finding it hard to get rid of things, as I keep thinking of the "value" of it. I hate storing things for garage sales unless its something worth putting on, but as far as toys, I just want them gone. I've gotta be ruthless! I really don't think my daughter needs 3 tea sets.

So I had a very quick look in her room today while she was at pre school, and I saw 4 things that went out for the collection. I've got my eye on a few more things that I'll box up and take to her pre school or the op shop.

I want to go through their books and take a heap to the pre school/op shop. I don't even want to begin to think how many touch and feel/shapes/numbers etc books they have. Mum just came back from Cairns so now they have more lol.

I've held onto almost ALL their clothes, except for a box and bag I sold to mum a few months ago, a few rotten ones that were binned and a couple of bags to the op shop. All of which have only happened this year. The boys clothes I will keep as we have 3 boys, but as far as the girls clothes I'll go through and sell/scrap/donate etc. Except the baby clothes (On the phone to hubby today, he called to see how my check up went, he said next bub we're going private. I smiled from ear to ear and said yeh well I don't want to go through this again, and he said yeh well we'll wait a few yrs, save up and we'll go private) Woohooooo!!! lol!!! As much as I'd love to go again, if he didn't I'd have to accept it. But he wants another in about 4-5 yrs :D So I'll hold onto all the baby clothes esp. the pink :)

So that's where we're at with the clutter, we're weeding through it slowly and have seen progress.

Financially, we're doing ok. We scrapped that car and lost out $400 but we're not dwelling on it, we're simply rebuilding our emergency fund. We've got about $250 left on the credit card, which will be paid out next Monday. We are now putting an extra $50 a week on the car loan, and have finally gotten to the point where we can afford Sanity Money for each other. We don't take it out regularly, actually most the time not at all, we've been used to not having it for so long, but it's great to know it's there when we want it. Groceries aren't strict necessities anymore and naughty naughty we're spending a bit on chocolate and other yummy stuff. Again we aren't concerned about extra money being "wasted" on luxuries, we're enjoying the fact that we can buy them without worrying how to pay the mortgage.

The pregnancy has been up and down, but looks like things are improving. I've been admitted a few times for certain issues, the most recent being last week for a reaction to the steroids. I was only in over night, and thankfully all was well. Bubs has caught up in his weight and is now looking like he's gonna be a big boy (not sure if I mentioned, but he was 2 weeks behind in growth), he's now 87th percentile in weight lol. I've got slight placenta previa, but so far they aren't too concerned and hopefully I can still have a vaginal delivery. I had low fluid, but this boy is making me soo thirsty and I'm downing drinks like they're going out of style, and at the last scan the level was normal :). The baby is at brim, and I have a scan next week or so to recheck the above issues, and to check the cervix length. Even though the Dr's concerned about pre term labour, I'm not too concerned now, I've had the steroids to boost his lungs, his weight is great, and he's a fighter, so I know he'll be fine :) But having said that, I'm hoping he stays put til 36 weeks at least. Unfotunately I'm still getting the constant Contractions, but I'm getting through them.

And no I still haven't tidied up lol.

Organising Journey Recap

When I first started this Blog back in March, I was overwhelmed. Overwhelmed by the state of our finances, overwhelmed by the state of the house and overwhelmed by my kids.

I had recently quit my job, which for so long I used as an 'escape' from my crazy household. It was an escape from the mess, an escape from the kids and an escape from any responsibility I was to be faced with at home.

When we made the decision for me to stay home, it was like I was thrown in the deep end. I could no longer 'escape'. I had to learn to deal with it. But I was more then happy to learn.

I signed up to countless organising sites, newsletters and blogs. All of which inspired me to start my own blog to keep an online 'journal' of my organising journey.

Looking back to before I started this Blog, the area in which I've noticed the best improvement is with our finances. Thanks to a payout, selling the second car and being smarter with our money, we've paid off over $10000 in debt this year, and I'm hoping to double that amount by the end of the year. We've tried budgeting, but have always blown them. For the past couple of weeks, we're finally starting to stick to one.
I can't wait to get a set budget in place after we refinance our mortgage next month. The money we save from that will be paid into the car loan, which we're aiming to pay off next year.

The next area would be the house. I've been following a few organising challenges, plus also doing a few of my own along the way. I've taken countless bags of stuff to the Op Shop, with many more in the garage, and two more I filled today to be donated. I can't believe where we stored it all before. I remember my husband and I discussing getting built in wardrobes for the kids rooms because the cupboards were overflowing. Well thanks to the decluttering, we've saved ourselves at least $1500 simply by decluttering.

I've definitely noticed an improvement with the family. I've got time to spend with the kids, not only to play, make, do etc but also to do 'home work'. I stocked up on sticker work books when they were half price at Big W. Adding, subtracting and some others. My daughter loves to do these. She'd do them all day if she could. I don't know where she got her love of maths from, certainly not me lol. My kids are so much more happier and healthier, as now I have the time to make nutritious meals, and make sure they eat them.

I didn't do much at all in terms of housework today, apart from the 'must do's'. I spent it with the kids. Miss 4, Mr almost 3 (In July :)) and myself did some baking. We made Choc banana loaf (was supposed to be muffins but they wanted it in the loaf pan :)), Chocolate cup cakes and Chocolate muffins. They were so happy especially Mr 3. I could spend all day with my kids. I love seeing them bring their imaginations to life. They fascinate me.

My husband and I have always had a great relationship, but things weren't the best while we were both working. We'd only see each other in passing. I'd get up at 5am. He'd head off to work at 3pm. I'd finish at 4pm. We'd see each other on days off or if we woke up during the night. That was pretty much it. We have so much more time for each other now. We make time once the kids have gone to bed, to have a couple of movie nights throughout the week. It feels so good to know we can now set aside time to spend with each other.

I'm happy with how far we've come since starting this journey and can't wait to see if/how things improve in the future.

21 Day Challenge - Day 8, Coat Closet

Another one I couldn't wait to get started on :)

It was jam packed with clothes, shoes and other junk. I didn't touch hubbys section, even though I could go crazy purging his clothes (he's worse then a girl when it comes to his clothes lol) He would not be impressed, so I'm leaving that up to him.

I pulled out all my jackets and was met with this...

I pulled everything out, gave it a vac and placed my shoes back in... Ummm I have a lot of my thongs missing... I'm slowly finding them as I'm cleaning my room lol (Hubbys shoes are in another section and that'll be posted in the main closet challenge)

Much better :)

An update on the declutter

I'm Trying to declutter as much stuff as I can before bubs arrives. I'm going through the rooms bit by bit so the kiddo's don't catch on to what I'm doing (esp. when I'm purging forgotten toys lol).

Miss 4 asked why I was bagging up some toys and I explained they are going to charity to help people who may not be so lucky to get such wonderful toys as she has and would she like to donate a toy. She happily and proudly said yes, so we head off to her room she starts looking at all her toys, and I could tell she really wanted to help, but she couldn't bare to part with any and she says 'How about a book mummy, can I donate a book?' I was so proud of her, so I picked one a knew she had a double up of, and off she went to pop it into the bag :)

This is what we've taken to the Op Shop so far:



•  8 Bags, mostly toys and clothes
• 1 box filled with clothes
• and a DVD player

I cannot wait to get stuck in and find some more stuff to purge :)

Hope you're all doing well with your journeys/challenges :)

Ohh yeah and I sold a Nappy box full of baby clothes to mum for $30 :)



Quick Tidy of the Nappy drawer.

I've been meaning to use Cloth Nappies on the boys a lot more then I actually have, but with the state my nappy drawer was in, it seemed so much easier to grab a disposable out and that's that. I admit I wasn't bothered searching for the liners, the covers etc (my so called waterproof nappies are the complete opposite, so my cousin has sent over a couple for the boys to try out and I love them).

 

Now I'm a SAHM, we're having to cut costs as much as possible and also, I want to do my part to help the environment. So Cloth nappies it is. This is where I decided it was about time I tackled that drawer lol...

 

Those pilchers are only there because I had just found them in my daughter's drawer lol, otherwise they'd be outa sight....

This lovely layout is thanks to my little darling Mr 1....he loves redesigning :)

• So out comes everything.
• I put aside all rubbish and things that did not belong in the drawer
• I rounded up all the nappy sacks that Mr 1 had pulled out, and for now I've put them in another nappy sack (will put in box or something at later date, this was a very quick tidy)
• Everything was put back in and organised.

Here's the rubbish pile...

And the collection of stuff Mr 1 squirreled away into the drawer :)

I love him, he's so funny lol

and the end result....

 I like it much better this way,

let's see if Mr 1 does too.... (I highly doubt it lol)



  

21 Day Challenge - Day 7 Pantry

Day 7 of A Bowl full of lemon's 21 Day Challenge is the Pantry.

I have gone through and organised all but the bottom shelf which is where we dump store our filing. This will be done on Day 17 which is the Mail.

Here's my before pic:

Very umm...unorganised lol

again so sorry for the blurry pics

• Everything was removed from the pantry and I wiped the inside.

• I then went through and chucked out any rubbish and put aside anything that did not belong in there.

• I had so many packs of things for baking that I placed in a little plastic tray I found. All little baking things like vanilla essence or food colouring etc was placed in a little box. I emptied opened packets into containers and then organised them all.

• I did the same with the other shelves and here's the end result:

Yaaayyy I free'd up a shelf :)

Top shelf is for the electric mixer, slender mixer, yoghurt maker and fondue set

Second shelf down is all baking goods

Next is savoury stuff

Then it's brekky/drinks and the lolly jar in the back lol

Here is what I thought was all the junk...

...Until I realised I missed a shelf...

I have no idea what any of that was doing in there but I'm happy it's gone lol

And here's my umm... filing ...*ahem*

 I'm not looking forward to this one lol

21 Day Challenge - Day 6 Dresser Drawers

Day 6 of A Bowl full of Lemon's 21 Day Challenge, is the Dresser Drawers.

Now with this challenge, I've only gone through and organised 3 out of the 4 main drawers, and here is why;

• The small top right drawer was my first draw I decluttered in Day 1 of the challenge - the junk drawer. As this was the most junkiest drawer, I chose this one.
• The small top left drawer I'll do at a later date, as it is supposed to be a stationary draw, but as I'm decluttering other areas, I'm finding many pens, pencils and other stationary in which I want to go through and will eventually be stored in this drawer. So I might make this drawer my challenge for Day 21 - Pick your own.
• The bottom drawer is where we store all our photos/albums, so this drawer will be gone through on Day 20, which is photo day.
• The top of the dresser drawers at the moment is my storage for DVDs, CD's and computer games which'll be going on the garage sale Saturday Week.

So what I could actually complete out of this challenge I'm very pleased with. I even free'd up a whole draw :) (which was quickly filled up with Mr 1's winter PJ's, that poor kid's clothes are spread over 2 rooms and through 3 different Chest of drawers)

Anyways here's the before pics :

Please excuse all the blurry pics, my battery charger for my digital camera is broken, so I've been having to use my phone and it's not very good lol

I pulled everything out of the drawers.

Purged a whole drawers worth.

And put everything back in nice and neat :)

21 Day Challenge - Day 5 Under Kitchen Sink

Day 5 of A Bowl full of lemon's 21 Day Challenge, is Under the Kitchen Sink.

As with the majority of places in my house, this was again a huge mess. This was one area though, that we did tidy up quite often. Why won't it stay clean? Because we're hopeless lol...

Here's the before...

Everything was removed.
I chucked all rubbish,
Recycled all recyclables,

Gathered up all the Aldi Bags which are meant to be in the car,
Wiped everything down

and

put everything that was left over, back.

Here's what we're left with...

What's with all those sponges you ask?

My husband has sponge issues lol...
He only likes those yellow things with the rough green back which are on top on the pile of green sponges... And as for the left overs? Well I hate waste so I'm hoping they get used lol..

21 Day Challenge - Day 4 Linen Closet

Day 4 of A bowl full of lemon's 21 Day Challenge is the Linen closet.

I've been meaning to tackle this one for a while now - it was an absolute mess! Every time we opened the door something would come toppling out. It got to the point where we just washed and reused the towels/sheets that were already out just so we wouldn't have to open those doors lol.

Ok... *takes deep breath* ...
Here it is...or was...

I removed everything and started with the towels.

I took all baby towels out ready to be soaked and put in the drawer for bubs.

Next I went through all the main towels, I only left out one which was pretty daggy and I'll use for doggy baths or cut up for nappy boosters.

Then I went through the beach towels and allowed 2 towels per child - I think that's more then reasonable...

I kept all the kids bath towels as there was only 2 each, except for 3 girlie ones, but with another girl on the way I kept them :)

Sheets - I Left out unmatching sets which I'll use for a range of things, such as drop sheets for painting, rags, nappy liners etc

Blankets - I'm keeping ALL blankets, as I'm hoping not to use the heater at all anymore, unless absolutely necessary, so from now on it's blankets and jumpers :)

Oh yeah, and all kids stuff was returned to their rooms...

Here's the final result...

Hmm if only it'll stay like that :)

The day after I tidied it up, Hubby put away some washing and just plonked all the towels in there without separating into correct piles... It bothered me a little bit because I don't want it to return to how it was but I was happy and appreciative that he was helping out :)

21 Day Challenge - Day 2 Computer Desk and Day 3 Tupperware Cabinet

Day 2 of A bowl full of lemon's 21 Day Challenge is the Computer Desk.

The challenge only requires you to clear off and give your desk a good clean, but seeing as though I don't have a computer desk at the moment (I'm currently using my 1 year old son's chest of drawers to house my computer :) ), I thought I'd take a step further and go through the contents which would be stored in/on my computer desk if I actually had 1 :)

Here's the before pic's of my desk:

oops I didn't realise how gross my screen looked...I forgot to wipe that over...lol

And here's the after pic of the desk:

I must remember to wipe that screen :)

Here's the pile of "stuff" that I decided to go through that would be housed in/on the desk if I had one:

That big folder is the start of my House Hold Binder.

The Pooh Bear folder is all things babies, medical things, parenting things, breastfeeding things etc.

The other folders at that point in time weren't really much at all

All that paper was sorted through.

Rubbish in the bin, Recycling in Recycle bin, and the rest was put into correct folders.

The Pooh bear one is still all things babies/kids

The tiger one (I love tigers :) ) I decided to make it a recipe folder

and the blue one at the moment stores all good reading material about saving money, cleaning, organising etc.

And the sleeve is of scrap paper which I would've otherwise thrown out but I'm trying to recycle as much as I can, so now that's usually where I scribble down recipes.

I've put them all in the bigger folder for now to keep them neat.

This is my House Hold Binder, I find I usually call it my Home Management Guide. Probably because I first got the idea from Heather over at Want What You Have (such a great Blog I cannot recommend it enough), and her binder is called her Home Management Guide or HMG. I think that sounds cool :)

It's still in the making and I can't wait to get it all pretty and functioning :)

And this is what I'm left with out of that scary pile :)

Day 3 is the Tupperware Cabinet.

This was fun :)

A LOT of things went. :)

Here's how it looks:

Here's the stuff I'm very happily waving goodbye to :)

I'm very happy with the results with this challenge. I've tried to clean out this many times but end up getting fed up and putting EVERYTHING back...

Not this time:)