the end of day 6 - my bedroom

beanie storage bag

Okay, I know, ive milked this day 6 - bedroom thing for everything that it had.

That post title should read 'the end of me- my bedroom'!

It all started last wednesday and has spread over the weekend into this week, which was not my original intention at all.  I honestly thought I was going to blitz the bedroom that night.

Instead after I had taxi-ed my boy around, picked up the Mr from the train, come home and did the dinner thing, plus other incredibly boring mum stuff, lets call it 'maintenance' shall we?, I was exhausted. I had made a mess of the place with boxes and light fittings everywhere, it kind of looked like we were moving house. Clothes became the least of my problems.

 I dreamt id go off to my girlfriends thursday with a skip in my step wearing new found old clothes that I would feel wonderfully lightheaded in. This did not happen.

I threw on a barely ironed smock (id made for housework) with jeans and headed off to my girls lunch, can I use the term 'with my tail between my legs'?

Needless to say a wonderful time was had by all and 

I proceeded to stay the night, I think we got to bed at three???,

then friday we went through some of my friend's cupboards including

her wardrobe and ended up coming home with more stuff from

op-shopping and clothes swapping than I had bargained for.
 The plot thickens.

 I had somehow come home with a lamp oozing with funk scored for $2!
Shameful seeing I have nowhere to put it. 
The moral of this story is my week was over and the weekend had HIT!

Why is it when you have a good clear out you seem to not quite intentionally

gather things back to you?

Just so you know I havent been slack and have been busy on the weekend, it was full of this.....

saturday morning - out the door to pick up fabric ordered for the wraps,

 saturday afternoon - back home sewing orders and a dress for the party,

 saturday night - the party,

sunday morning - major clean with the Mr's help cos someone hurt their back dancing,

sunday afternoon - a meeting,

sunday evening - family arriving to stay for a couple of days

 with chaos ensuing.

I will be spending today in the bedroom tweaking a bit more, while cutting out some orders and perhaps starting on the bathroom cabinet. Should be a piece of cake compared to the bedroom, dont you think?

day 5.5 - laundry and bedroom

freshly hung rod and curtain 

Let me tell you how my day started. Ive mentioned before I AM NOT a morning person.

Except for this morning!!! when I bounded out of bed ready to face the day. First stop, much to my own astonishment was the washing pile (my most hated job even worse than ironing) to quickly sort the folding into achievable piles.

I have never faced it this early before, what's the matter with me?

More like what is right with me for a change.

I was matching up socks/throwing the holey out the bedroom door and before I knew it

 I had decided to do the main bedroom as 'day 6' of my sort through.

I took my clothes from my cupboard so I couldnt change my mind while

 I went back to finish the laundry first.

There is now space in here. The bonuses are

 I have made myself a painters box from the unused cleaning one. I didnt carry it around the house cleaning away (like I probably should, but never will). I have a total of three products under the kitchen sink and thats the way I operate. I was able to fit a craft box in here ready for mosaicing complete with broken crockery from over the years. I dont get mad if a plate gets broken at my place.

 Now here I was really brilliant. Ive used the drawers that were empty.

The menfolks' stuff that they always ask for is in the top drawer so im hoping its idiotproof.

Leather stuff for putting holes in belts, shoe polish, knife sharpeners, silvo etc.

Told you... Brilliant.

Theyll never have to ask me to find anything, ever again. Guess where all these things had been hiding? That box I mentioned earlier. I found so many things in there that we'd been searching for.

Me included.

I found ski-gear on the back of the door hanging there since winter. That curtain rod went up after a year. And those stupid bags that advertise where you shop, I dont like them and I have no idea how they came into my possession.

Theyre sneakily made from calico so I couldnt just chuck them, could I?

I did this immediately. I had doileys that were so holey I would never use them for clothes.

Im so out of touch with my easel id forgotten it collapsed down to half.

Next stop the wardrobe. Nice wallpaper hey?

And I stopped.

This is going to be painful. I need to phone a friend.

So far all ive sorted are the coathangers into his and hers.

Im going to drown myself in some scandinavian simplicity from the sidebar.

day 5 - laundry

The good end of the laundry stays like this most of the time. I change the pictures to suit my mood, (very indulgent) but it is my workspace.

I havent said yet, but as I go through each space I take anything leftover to the dining room to rethink it and see if I need it anywhere else before the final ditch out the front door. So the porch is piling up and the dining room has a few piles in it now too, but controlled so far. Ill get boxes today while doing an op-shop drop.

Ive just added the basket for the toilet rolls this week

 I discovered I had a spare perfect sized one. Exciting stuff. I know, I know, im beginning a post discussing toilet roll storage but this is what life has been reduced to! They bugged me and wouldnt fit in the cupboard. Speaking of bugs....

 Im almost at the middle of the house now and I suppose this whole process (for me) is about documenting the details so I can carry any ideas through to the next place.

The thing im finding is im waking up with such a feeling of lightness and I reckon I could give cartwheeling a good crack. I used to be really good and could do them one handed.

Okay, I wont be going that far.

The rest of the room goes through stages of chaos and sorting.

The table works well and is where I iron, of course it is a luxury. One of those easels will go to our kids we dont need two.

There is often overflow when I craft too much or go away for the weekend.

Or when the teenager enters the room. This is my clean washing fallen and left on the floor while looking for a favourite t-shirt. This is the moment when I discovered.....

 there was a bug infestation from the bottom of my basket that got left outside. Ewwwww! Slaters and a slug. Dry reaching (the slug) I hit rock bottom when I saw this! They scattered really fast which is even worse, plus I must be a bit obsessed with photographing weird things (to show the Mr and maybe you all) cos instead of reaching for the vacuum cleaner like a normal person I reached for the camera.

Back to the real reason for this post. Ummmm, I forget whats in here. 

The drawers to the left, just out of shot, are empty and awkward to get to.

I havent really touched most of this since we moved in a year ago. I mainly use the things from under the kitchen sink to clean with???? Need to figure out a better system. 

This room is where my fabric is stored. I used to have my studio in here

and it will be back again in a couple of months,

when our son, his wife and new baby arrive to stay indefinitely. 

I reckon im almost there in the laundry but theres room for improvement.

Im left wondering if ive inspired anyone yet?

 If toilet roll storage is something you need to address at your place then why not start now?

day 4.5 - kitchen

Ive had to rethink this whole room and break it down to bare basics of how we operate during

breakfast,

 lunch and dinner.

I set up stations because being a long narrow kitchen we bump into each other trying to get past.

I was able to simplify it enough to make it work.

I didnt get everything out of the cupboards. It wasnt the stuff that was in the cupboards that bugged me, it was everything that had snuck out, the things that had never had a proper home.

I found this easy to do although I need the Mr to help me with the big throw out as he cooks ALOT and doesnt like his space being touched although is loving the sorting so far.

It'll only take half hour tonight to do

 the excess cutlery drawer,

choose his favourite plastics containers

 (im not a fan of anything plastic and would chuck the lot if he let me),

take his camping extras to the shed that have snuck in after the holidays,

and tweak the space next to the stove.

With the addition of the basket ive been able to raise the height of the fridge visually.

 It needed to be higher in my eye for a more 'fitted' aesthetic. 

 I said I didnt like anything on the fridge but I had to give in to this one as it now holds my filing system and freed up some drawers, plus it really does make the space look better.

 In the two hours I even had time to clean the high parts,

taking an hour yesterday and an hour this morning in total.

I grabbed rustic containers from around the house and brought them in to see if I liked them. The neighbours can see me doing all this racing around and up and down chairs these last few days. Im starting to wonder what they think. I need to make a curtain.

Theres no way im pretending that I usually put the dishes away just to take a nicer photo. I like seeing clean dishes on the sink, after all its a job done, right?

This is the stove nook (forgot to show you yesterday). He likes those glass containers very much and im not allowed to move them.

Im stumped here.

Im moving into the laundry after I cut out some ladies wrap dresses. Did I tell you I found some fabric?

day 3.5 - dining room

Lets not count the weekends as days/rooms shall we?

 Glad you are all in agreeance.

Ill fill you in on where im up to, as even though the weekend was full of places to go and people to see

 I still achieved. But it was little odd things, and definitely not on the scale of a room full.

Friday night we stuck to the plan and sorted through our bookshelf and it was super fast doing this together with both of us pretty much saying yes or no to same books. Any we hadnt read and never will.

Saturday saw us in the garden chopping back trees (him, while I directed) and sorting through some furniture (me) which we ended up beginning to strip back (together). Both of these jobs were fun for us and I realise its because of our new feeling of weightlessness due to the clearing out.

Its becoming addictive.

I now have a lovely cascading leafy arch to wander through instead of fighting with branches everytime we come home, plus I couldnt help bringing the greenery indoors.

 I prefer bracken displays to flowers anyday (you may have guessed already) apart from hydrangeas.

It was time for a touch of masculinity in the dining room

 so in order to showcase one of his favourite things 'the horse head' got put on a black background.

I have a thing for skulls too.

The pile of stuff at the front door (so far).

Hmmm... that bag doenst look very full.

Sunday was a strange day cos I found myself at my daughters house reorganising her pantry which

a certain little person can help herself to. 

I dreamt about the kitchen last night and seemed to problem solve some things in my sleep. Where to put the mail when it comes inside, etc.

Thats where im going to go next. Now, in fact. Before everyone gets home.

I have some new samples for ladies wraps I found today. 

Ill post them as soon as I take shots.

day 3 - dining room

This afternoon everything came out of the bottom cupboard so I could see what I was holding on to. Now I have to let you know that this is where all my favourite things are kept so dont expect me to cull too hard.

The things in here are to switch around with the seasons,

dark green for autumn,

blue for summer, cream for winter, green and floral for spring.

Proof of the emptiness for you guys to see. This is odd but cleansing.

I didnt know how to give myself some guidelines yet so tidied up the

 corners of the room instead while I had a think.

These baskets went even though I have been doing some crochet once a fortnight or so. Not often enough to warrant junking up a perfect space.

There is nowhere safe for the art in progress to go so it stays behind the chair for now.

This paint can has been here for a few months now I think. Okay, its now obvious how to do this.

While asking myself whether I 'loved' each piece or could part with it, I put everything back in seasons even the summer (blue) ornaments fit too so I shoved them in.

Two or so here will become gifts to friends when I see them next.

I was able to give a use to a large jar that now holds the tea-lights instead of the ice-cream container,

plus I know the perfect person for that vase.

These need to be painted to match and are now on the list.

More light fittings that dont belong so ill be boxing them up with the lamp from yesterday.

I sneakily updated the stationery again because I realised I could do better

 at matching the containers and now im rapt.

I actually stood there and opened and closed it a couple of times to admire my handiwork.

Tell me you wouldnt do the same....

I dont know how much Ill get done over the weekend but I am hopeful. My head space feels a bit less cluttered already.

day 2.5 - entry and dining room

Its halfway through the day and this is where im at. Im in the dining room and its obvious that this needs to be the next room I tackle.

Since I left the blue vases, etc on the table yesterday that is where they stayed as they are still without a home until I make some room in the cupboard. Which is obvious to me only now.

I didnt put them back on top of the cupboard because ive changed things while im at it.

After going through the back room on day 1 there were some large shells floating around. I thought I would like something natural in each room but they go so well with the ornaments I had on the dining room windowsill that ive decided to group them all together to simplify things.

Im not really a shell person but they are the Mr's pride and joy. I dove for a couple of these on our honeymoon in the Solomon Islands. These were on the deck of a sunken war ship, and I could only just reach them too, my eardrums were at the point of bursting. Thats why he loves them so.

Annoyingly the things from one room are carrying over into others and jobs from one day are blending into the next. Oh yeah. We didnt end up doing the book sorting last night. He just wanted to relax after work but has promised we will tonight.

This morning ive tweaked the drawers into clarity and for the sole purpose of being able to wrap things for etsy customers quickly and readily. You should've seen how disorganised I was being, flitting from one room to the other, it was taking me 15-20 minutes to get one parcel done.

 Now this sounds really silly but I had to concentrate and process in my mind what I needed while packaging something. Lets just say it is the humidity shall we?

Ive been naughty and kept one stapler, staples in a tin, and three notebooks but they now have specific reasons for existing in this drawer. I tossed out half of the contents.

Then I tackled the pens and pencils.

(recently I had gone through our junk drawer and found around fifty???)

I worked out we needed 3 different containers for different purposes, one for coloured and lead pencils, one for pens, and one for highlighters etc. The pens went into a favourite jug as it will be out of the cupboard alot.

Youre going to think im overboard here but I sharpened the pencils.

 The inner child in me just couldnt hold back. It was surprisingly therapeutic. I tested the pens, found half of them were dead. I consider it a basic human right to be able to put your hands

 on a working pen at any time. Dont you?

The entry is darkly overcast today so this is an awful shot of inside the cupboard.

What you cant see is all the behind the scenes movements that occured while doing this little space.

Ive had to alter how the paperwork process was running from three other rooms. 

I have been 'almost there' on a number of occasions in the past only to hold on to too much.

So far so good.

Dining room here I come!

day 2 - entry

I chose to do the entry today being an easy room as I woke up tired.

But if I stop this process ill land in heap, I just know it. So im trying to keep the momentum going.

Navarh and Adelin are not that far off from arriving with their boxes. Just a couple of weeks or so.

Ill apologise now if I document stuff a bit too 'over the toply'. I need to write this in here for my head space and reflection for a later date.

 

I started by taking everything off the cupboard and taking it to another room

 to 'see' it properly for what it is. This surface is the prime spot I put everything that comes into the house that is fragile and it waits for a home in a cupboard somewhere.

Normally light fixtures are perched on top.

Ive been gathering some for one day when we build.

In this process I worked out that Mali's favourite books dont have a home yet, I have no place to put that lamp as where id like it to go in the lounge will see it broken, and I definitely dont want the Mr's grandmother's fur stole (complete with body parts attached) hanging off one end.

Perhaps its time for the keepsakes box?

There are books and a bit of stationery to go through plus some out of date home magazines. I need to wait for the Mr to get home from work to help me with the books. Half of them being his. Meanwhile Ill tear out the magazine pages I dont want to say goodbye to and they go in a design folder to keep, and can go through the stationery drawer contents.

  

To the untrained eye it doesnt look too bad. Thats because ive sorted this recently.

I failed! as there are five notebooks, four staplers (we never staple anything. ever),

staples DUH, and five rolls of sticky tape which I do use but five is crazy. There were a few business cards that went straight into my purse cos I go through it weekly and if I need them, I need them and if I dont theyll get chucked from there. Or maybe typed into my phone.

My other problem is near the front door.

That is the op-shop bag ready but those ornaments are annoying to vacuum around.

They need a better home.

Im only really half way for now but thought id show you what ill be up to tonight

over a nice cold beer. Its hot and where my tiredness is coming from I suspect.