If we owned our flat

I kind of forgot about these! Last one was in November.

Anyway, I still have things I'd do if this flat was ours. Number one at the moment would be ventilation. We are getting mould again, I wrote this post in March last year when we had a small amount and this year it has come back with a vengeance despite us running the dehumidifier and opening the window whenever we can. Condensation damp mostly, as there isn't any ventilation other than the extractor in the bathroom.

This was what it was like a month or so ago (sometime in January), I cleaned it all off the walls and off our furniture and ottoman from Toms wardrobe.

That is meant to be dark brown. Nice.

It is coming up again already though, and the bedroom gets very damp. We had our inspection last weekend and Landlord has some people coming out to look into ventilation this week. Actually he was very good about it, no blaming us for it or trying to get out of it (I was ready to make my case but he just said he'd sort it) which can be the case with damp and landlords...not all of course but I've had issues in the past and have heard similar form other tenants. Things like them saying it's not a problem and we should just live with it or clean the walls more often, or it's our fault for not opening windows (Although we do I'm obsessed with fresh air) or there's nothing they can do. Most of them are bull really, unless you never open the windows and dry washing inside all the time it is unlikely to be your fault and the ventilation needs to be looked at or some damp proofing needs to be done.

In my opinion we need a new window, as the current set up of old window then secondary glazing isn't keeping out the cold and it's always covered in condensation. A modern double gazed window with ventilation would be better. Also an extractor in the kitchen would help to keep the moisture at bay as when we are cooking it gets very moist in here, even with windows open. Apparently the people coming are looking at some ventilation system that goes in the wall, it lets air out and heats it on the way back in so it will help keep the bedroom warmer too. Whatever it is as long as it gets rid of this I'm happy!

This was really hard to get in a photo but you might be able to see in one of these, most of the bad stuff was on the wall with the window but it went onto the other walls in a fine mist.

Apologies for the rubbish photos I was too busy moving furniture out, scrubbing with bleach and trying not to breath in too many mould spores to really sort out lighting and photo quality. Hopefully this will be sorted before next winter (It's better in the summer as we leave the windows open constantly and we dry all our washing outside and there is less damp in the air generally) and I'll just have to clean it one more time...

Mini Resolutions

Around this time of year I usually start thinking about new year’s resolutions, usually big stuff like lose weight, get fit etc. However this year is a little different, I have a good fitness regime at the moment with climbing 3 nights a week and I hope to start running again this week now my knee is better. I've given up smoking (nearly 2 years now!). I walk more and drive less now I don’t have a car. I eat well and cook fresh healthy (ish) meals. I'm a bit stuck for a resolution.

I also have so many things to do next  year (including a big thing which is not confirmed yet but hopefully will be soon and I can share with you – no I am not pregnant) and we are getting married in early 2015 so it’s going to be a very busy year for us. I thought to avoid my brain just bursting with all the stuff that I have to do I wouldn't put any more pressure on myself with big goals and ambitions and just make some little mini resolutions to try to make life go a bit more smoothly. These are just small things that I know I can work on to make life easier so writing them down just helps to motivate me. It’s mainly about breaking bad habits rather than starting new ones for me this year.

• Put clean clothes away straight away. We take the clean dry washing off the airers and often leave it on the bed, or in baskets for days, then have a mammoth clothes sorting and putting away session at the weekend. It would make life so much easier if it just all went straight into the wardrobes (I don’t iron), and it would keep the bedroom much tidier. It’s one of those habits that we have gotten into where it seems easier to just leave things but in the long run it actually isn't saving us any time.
• Wash dishes every night after dinner. Another habit that seems easier, especially when we are both tired or eating late. Also as we used to have a dishwasher and now we don’t doing dishes seems like a major chore, but if we just took 5-10 minutes after dinner with one washing and the other drying we could have a clean kitchen most of the time rather than the mess it often becomes (when I then have to spend 30 minutes cleaning it and washing the piles of dishes before I can even think about cooking).
• Make more of evenings in the week and don’t leave so much until the weekend/days off, a lot of people who work full time will probably identify with this one. I never seem to get everything done that I want to at the weekend as I just have too much planned, and often don’t have enough time to really unwind. I don’t feel like I have enough time or energy during the week to do this stuff, but I actually do have plenty of time I just don’t want to do it after work. This isn't about forcing myself to spend every minute being productive because although I’d like to think that I’d get in from climbing and full day’s work at 8 or 9pm after leaving at 7am and have enough energy to clean the bathroom, I know that in reality this is not going to happen. However I could try to get more done on days where I am not busy after work, 3 days a week I have no set after work commitments. Obviously I would like to have some leisure time to eat, watch TV etc but I could still spend some time doing something productive like food shopping, cleaning, paying bills etc. This would add up over the week to a cleaner house and not so many errands to run by the weekend…meaning I can have some of the weekend actually to myself, or for things like wedding planning or sorting out stuff for our ‘secret thing’ to avoid feeling like my to do list is just endlessly growing…

I think the key with all of these is not to sit down or put the TV on when I get in from work or straight after dinner, does anyone else get this time warp effect where you think you’ll just sit down with a cuppa and watch little bit of TV then all of a sudden the evening is gone? This post over on ugly duckling house explains it really well.

Do any of you have any new year resolutions? Are they big and exciting or small but do-able like laundry?

Nearly There!

I did the second to last room in the big deluttering challenge last weekend, the kitchen. This is how it looked before.

This room wasn't really too cluttered but since we moved in we've not really been using some of the space in the best way. For example the space on top of the microwave had become a bit of a mess as it was often where we just put larger food items due to not having enough cupboard space.

So I cleared it off, threw away the crisps and crackers as they were out of date, and put my porridge oats up there in their place. This jar stays down from the cabinet top as I use it every day (the others have flour etc in which I don't use daily) and I don't want to have to climb the cabinets every morning to make breakfast! I got a box out for stuff to go to the charity/car boot pile but actually everything ended up in the bin liner for the tip, so Minty claimed the box as her fort for the day.

It was already looking better, but still there was too much out on the counters in here for my liking meaning cooking can get a bit frustrating due to lack of counter space. This is our largest cupboard, and it is just full of random stuff.

 The pots and pans were all in this smaller cupboard next to the oven

So I dragged it all out and swapped them around. Now the 'random kitchen stuff' cupboard is the smaller one, and the cookware, tupperware and tea towels are in the larger one. Much more sensible. The carrier bags are all in the hallway now, as I figure if they are near the front door they are more likely to get reused than if they're hidden under the sink.

The next to do was food, we had a bigger kitchen in our last house but now only have one cupboard for food so we need to get better at buying less and only what we will eat straight away. I got all the food out of here and sorted through it.

After getting rid of all the out of date things and reorganising the cupboard I was able to get more things into the food cupboard, like oils and spices, so there is less on the counter and I could move the toaster round and also fit a chopping board in front of it.

 This is the out of date stuff. We have out of date tinned goods, how embarrassing!

We have gained a usable counter space!

It's amazing what a couple of hours and a bin liner can free up, we now have more cupboard space and another work surface. 

I will get a few more small jars when I'm next at The Range as I want to move some more of the dried stuff like couscous up to the top of the cabinet out of the cupboard, and there is room for another row of smaller jars behind the big ones. Other than that now it's nice and clear I'd like to replace some stuff in there like the bread bin and canisters, and bring in some more colour and interest as it looks pretty boring.

Also observant people might notice that the view out of the window looks different, the garden is being redone so the landlords part of it now looks like this.

I will ask if I can take some snaps when it's done but it is certainly more open and they now have a nice spiral staircase in up to their back door instead of the old wooden stairs they had before. We are hoping this will mean more sun into our little part of the garden in the summer and it certainly feels a lot more spacious out there. Our part looks like a dump though as we had to move all our pots into the centre to let them do the work so I need to spend a few hours out there! Another thing for the to do list...

Back on it!

Back on the decluttering list! I did intend to take a 2 week break while we were away but kind of got sidetracked once we were back and am just getting back to it now. So the last post back here was over a month ago, oops! It also didn't help that the hallway was too full of stuff and we were having to climb over boxes to get in and out, so adding more to that pile was difficult. After a trip to the recycling centre to get rid of a load of cardboard and reorganising the boxes it now looks like this 

I didn't take before photos as there was literally nowhere to stand in the room to take one! The most recent one is this (but picture those boxes piled higher and stuff reaching over to the shoe rack out of shot on the left)

The most recent additions to those boxes have been from this corner

Items from the list are:

• Living room – CD’s - I was not able to get rid of any CDs as Tom wouldn't let me get rid of any of his and all my old embarrassing ones are in my mums loft already, but I was able to just tidy up the shelves and organise the general cables and headphones etc into a more presentable arrangement

• Living room – Corner by CD’s - The main issue here, the stuff piled in front of the CD shelves. The box had all the equipment from our last internet provider in it. We brought it with us when we moved as we thought we'd be staying with the same provider, but we didn't in the end and now have a BT home hub (more on that here). I wasn't sure what to do with it so just kind of kept it but that was a year ago now so it's got to go...I figure if they wanted it back they'd have asked by now! Also the blue bag had some of Tom's birthday presents in it, from February, he is a lazy sod sometimes. So those all got put away and now it looks like this.

So much better! I knew the living room would be the room with the most noticeable difference from getting rid of clutter. Next up was:

• Living room – Box under coffee table - This is meant to be a kind of 'drop spot' for stuff that usually collects in living rooms like post, lovefilm DVDs as well as usual living room stuff like remotes, controllers and cables. However Tom appears to use it as a dustbin/coffee table cleaning aid. He said to me a while back that when he tidies the living room he just opens the top and sweeps everything off the table into here. Sigh. It has since been explained that this is not how we clean...but this is how it ended up looking like this

I mean there are nails in there for God's sake. Now it looks like this after everything actually got put away or put in the bin

This is everything that came out of that one small box, all sorted into piles of which room it actually belonged in

Next on the list was

• Living room – Ornaments, frames, candles - I didn't actually get rid of any but I'm hoping to move some around soon and get something hung up in the bedroom so I've kind of mentally earmarked what's due a changearound. 

• Living room – Coffee table - Just a general tidy really - NOT sweeping it all into the box underneath...

• Living room – Misc - Last sweep over the room didn't really find anything as I seem to have covered it already.

Next up is the kitchen then the bathroom then it's done! I can't wait to get rid of the stuff, we just don't have time to do it bit by bit which is why it's all getting piled up then we will do a huge trip to a charity shop. 

I'm also mentally earmarking furniture to go, which is always the surprise doing this as you think that you won't be able to get rid of many bigger items but the more little things you get rid of the more larger items become empty and you realise they can go too...

Week 4

Week 4 of the decluttering mission in our household, you can see the previous posts here, here, here, here and here.

Under the bed finally got done this week, and it looks great! Before:

The cardboard box had Avon stuff in and I gave that up last year so that went straight in the 'to go' pile, the rest is bedding, wrapping paper, cosmetics, candle making supplies, and a small Christmas tree. If the tree doesn't get used this year it will go too but I wasn't sure so kept it for now.
After:

I wanted everything under there to be in a storage box, as some of the stuff that came out was so covered in dust and cat hair it had to go in the bin! It also will make it easier to hoover under there every now and then (you can see all the dust I dragged out on the carpet in the before pics!) if I can just pull a few boxes out and hoover under rather than finding stuff like this

Gross.

The rest of the week was:
 Bedroom – Under the bed - Weds
 Bedroom – Under the bed - Thurs
 Bedroom – Drawers - Fri
 Bedroom – Surfaces - Sat
 Bedroom – Misc - Sun
 Living room – DVD’s - Mon
 Living room – Corner by DVD’s - Wed

So pretty much finishing off the bedroom over the weekend, I just went through the drawers in the corner (mostly empty already after this clear out) then went over the surfaces. Then I gave it all a good tidy up as it had been a disaster area for a week!

The clothes on the bed were all for listing on ebay again as it was a free listing weekend (check them out here if you want a bargain!)

Starting on the living room is great as this corner has been doing my head in...

It has just collected clutter! Once it's clear I may actually move the sofa in a little to stop the junk collecting. Although before we moved we had a massive DVD clear out we till brought a lot of DVD's with us, and have watched about 3 of them since! So we decided most of them could go.
Before (bookshelf on the left)

Now:

Empty shelves! Although the DVDs have actually only moved about 3ft away to here as I need to check with Tom before getting rid of them all!

We're making such good progress, the to go pile is getting so big I had to reorganise it so we could get in and out of the front door! Pictures next week once we've done the living room as it will be even bigger!

Have any of you been decluttering? I'm actually having a whale of a time doing this, and I'm dreaming about styling up those empty bookshelves with some ornaments and maybe a few nice hardback books...

Week 2

For the back story on my decluttering project see the first, second and third posts. Another hit and miss week for me, I finished off the hallway (Tom is yet to go through his music stuff) and started on the dining room which is pretty straightforward as there actually isn't a lot in there. I did miss a few days but to be honest could do the whole dining area in under 20 minutes so I wasn't too worried about catching up and doing a few areas together. 

The list so far is:

1. Hallway – Books
2.  Hallway – Cupboard
3. Hallway – Small ottomans
4. Hallway – Music equipment
5. Hallway – Shoes
6. Hallway – Surfaces
7. Hallway – Misc
8. Dining – Table
9. Dining – Boxes on tank
10. Dining – Pet supplies
11. Dining – Misc
12. Bedroom – Chest of drawer
13. Bedroom – Kate’s wardrobe (today)

The hallway needed a bit of a tidy and I did get rid of some things but it was mainly just stuff for the bin, like junk mail on the table and a load of post for the previous tenants that I needed to return to sender that I finally got round to doing (If you recognise this flat and used to live here, hey here's an idea, CHANGE YOUR ADDRESS!). 

We had the computer set up there to get all the photos and files off it, it's now in the to go pile! We had that old desktop (storing our photos and used to be our main computer but so outdated), an old laptop (nearly dead only keeping it as the desktop doesn't do itunes) and my netbook (solely for internet browsing). So 3 computers that all do and don't do different things! Now we've amalgamated them into one laptop and one netbook, so much easier! 

I also chucked out a few litter tray liner packets that had accumulated in the cupboard. 2 of the blue boxes on the shelves don't even have anything in them so not much I can declutter there, although it's still great to look over it and get rid of a few bits. The bonus of going through these means that I did look through our envelopes of vouchers and we discovered we have over £100 of Debenhams vouchers as well as smaller amounts for other places like WHSmith, so we went into town on Sunday and bought a folder and some stationery for making a wedding folder as there were also little piles of brochures, business cards etc around  :) 

I also started the bedroom yesterday with my chest of drawers. I did a quite large clothes cull back here, but did find a few bits I could get rid of like some underwear that has gotten a bit tatty (not going to share photos!) and I'm going to do the wardrobe this evening, I think I do have a few dresses I could get rid of as even though I've gotten rid of some the wardrobe is still overflowing. 

I think it's going well, any clutter out is a good thing, there will be some areas with more than others so this week being a bit slower than last week isn't a bad thing. 

Have you been taking part or has this inspired you to declutter any of your stuff? How are you getting on?

First week, how you doin'?

Starting is the hardest thing sometimes, so we've passed that obstacle! First week of the big declutter (see posts last week for the how to), how are you getting on?

This week went like this for me:
Day 1 - Books - Did really well, got rid of loads, actually down to one bookshelf now! I seem to keep loads of books that have been read and neither of us will ever read again, also there were some not read (gifts/mistake buys and ones Tom has bought for holidays but never read) that we just needed to get real about never reading and get rid of. I actually rediscovered the library recently so I'm working on not having so many books around and borrowing them more than buying them.

Day 2 - Went to a wedding fair at our venue (great day, lovely weather, took loads of cards and brochures from vendors) then out for dinner. Got nothing done, already off the plan!

Day 3 - Got 2 things done as they were both small jobs - The cupboard (I went through it recently so only 2 old wicker baskets to get rid of) and the shoe racks. Got them both done in under 20 minutes so made up for the day before.

 The pile to get rid of looked like this

Day 4 - Tom finally went through that box of stuff that has been in here since we moved in (you can still see it in the corner of the picture above!), and we did the small ottomans - not much from there a few cats bowls and some kitchen stuff.

Day 5 - Surfaces (I will get Tom to do his music stuff on his next day off), mostly just stuff for the bin like junk mail and leaflets.

So the first week looks like:

1. Hallway - Books - Done
2. Hallway – Cupboard - Done
3. Hallway – Small ottomans - Done
4. Hallway – Music equipment
5. Hallway – Shoes - Done
6. Hallway – Surfaces - Done
7. Hallway – Misc

And the stuff to go looks like this

 Loads for just under a week!

I'll have the miscellaneous day tomorrow for any areas I've missed and just a general second look, and Tom has agreed he will at least look through his music stuff as there are maybe some things that don't work properly he could get rid of...Sunday might be the day for that!

I also need to get more boxes as I've just been putting everything into one box rather than splitting it into the 3 separate categories, so will sort that out this weekend. Being the weirdo that I am I'm actually enjoying this...