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...

Before the big declutter

I'll post our list for the big declutter on Wednesday, so if you're playing along at home get ready to get rid! See last weeks post here on the method.

I thought I'd share some before photos today because A.the whole flat is clean after a bank holiday housework blitz and B. I'm hoping it will look a bit different in a few weeks!

The Kitchen - Problem areas:
Top of the microwave
Countertops
Food cupboard

The thing on top of the hob is the oven shelves soaking in the overnight oven cleaner

The Living Room - Problem Areas:
Box under coffee table
Corners by the bookshelves

The dining room/hallway (not really sure what to call his room now it's no longer the 'office') - Problem Areas:
Shelves under the turtle tank

The Bathroom - Problem Areas:
Cosmetics
Built in cupboard

The Hallway - Problem Areas
Bookshelves
Cupboard
Music Equipment
Shoes
Computer Equipment
Chairs (we have 4 dining chairs and an armchair in here and never sit on any of them!)

This box is also still here, Tom needs to sort it out or it will just be labelled 'Sell' and become the start of the car boot pile...

The Bedroom - Problem Areas:
Under the bed
Ottomans

The bag on the bed is full of clothes that were on ebay and ended yesterday and I'm either sending off or if they didn't sell getting rid of elsewhere

So that's our flat as of yesterday, pretty clean and tidy but cluttered in some areas. I can't wait to get rid of some things and make some room!

If we owned our flat

If we bought our flat tomorrow I'd rip this out asap

It's a pretty good idea having a built in doormat but it gets dirty pretty fast and is really hard to clean. Other doormats I've had I've just been able to put in the washing machine when they get really gross, I tend to have a bristly one outside then just a mat inside. The bristles catch on the hoover or any cloth I try to clean it with and all come out so every time I clean it I just end up with a hoover or cloth full of bristles and the mat looks no better. I tried to shampoo it once and it soaked up all the shampoo and went all lumpy so I had to dry it out with a dehumidifier! Anyone have any tips?

Also the cats pee on it, they rarely ever wee anywhere outside the litter tray (usually if they do it's our fault like if we accidentally shut them in a room away from the tray) but I think the texture and deep pile is inviting to them. This means we have to keep the hallway door closed all the time when it would be nice to have it open more often to open the space up a bit. I've doused it in the cat repellent spray to try keeping them away but that wears off after a while and then I'm back cleaning up cat wee!

New Feature - If we owned our flat...

Well the payday wishlist fizzled out pretty quickly (one month!), mainly because I didn't find them very interesting to write or read so figured you probably didn't either...if anyone has a burning desire to see them again let me know?? I also have been trying out a new posting schedule, Monday, Wednesday and Friday. I found posting over the weekend a bit of a struggle as I need time to actually do the projects to write about them so trying out not doing the Sunday post.

So new regular post, 'If we owned our flat', often as a tenant you discover something about your place that makes you think 'If I could I'd change that'. Often you can't change it but it's fun to theorize about what you'd do if you could...

This month I've picked the hallway, we have our entrance hallway then our small dining room/other hallway. If we could I would knock down the wall between them and make it into one large room. It would mean getting a new front door that is a bit better insulated so it wouldn't get so cold in there but it would be soo much more flexible!

Currently the rooms are like this

And like this

But look when the door between the 2 rooms is open how long the space is

If you could open that space up it would make the place seem so much brighter and bigger, I'd maybe put in a front door with full length glass to let in more light as our entryway is pretty secluded, you can't see into it from the road. It would be more flexible as well, as we rarely use the entrance hall for much more than storage, drying washing and walking through so it would be nice to actually use the space rather than have it so separated from the main living area. In a basement flat it would also be good to open up the small rooms a bit to make it feel a bit more spacious.

Of course it might be a load bearing wall or something and this might all be impossible but I think every tenant dreams about the things they'd change...what are yours?

Free Cycling

The weekend was not as productive as I had planned. I actually got nothing done! I had hoped to rearrange the hallway to put the wardrobe on a different wall but turns out it doesn't actually fit on the wall I wanted to put it on and looked stupid on the others. I also have about 30p in my bank account right now because last week I booked the flights for our holiday later this year, so no purchases or shopping trips either. All in all a quiet-ish weekend, housework Saturday then a night out for my sisters birthday, leading to a hungover Sunday with a trip to the climbing centre to attempt to sweat out the toxins then a sneaky kebab to replace them in the evening :)

I also spent the weekend attempting to get rid of our desk and desk chair. The ones I moved out into the hallway to get rid of 2 weeks ago. It looked like this for a week

Then like this for 2 weeks

It was a pain in the butt and I had hoped to get rid of them pretty much immediately via freecycle as stuff usually gets snapped up quickly. I know 2 weeks isn't actually that long to have some surplus furniture around, but we are limited on space. Certainly when we had a larger place and stuff could go into the garage or attic or spare room things hung around for longer than that before I got round to getting rid, but in a small place every square inch counts!

I listed the desk and chair on the Monday after the weekend of swapping the tables out (2 weeks ago today) on Cheltenham, Gloucester and Tewkesbury Freecycle groups. I had someone email me Tuesday interested, I said it was still available, after much emailing back and forth and sending photos etc it turned out she didn't drive so was trying to find someone to bring her, by the time she admitted this it was Saturday. I gave her until the Monday to sort something out then said I was going to have to relist it on Freecycle as I had been waiting almost a week for her, but if she did find someone to let me know. I've never heard from her again so am assuming she didn't. I'm not sure if she was expecting me to offer to deliver, but I don't have a car either so it wasn't an option.

Relisted it Tuesday last week, someone else emailed me, replied to them that it was available and when could they collect, no reply.

Another person emailed with days and times they could collect and then arrived on time to collect on Saturday, much more what I expect!

This is the first time I've had such a palaver getting stuff collected! I've had no shows in the past and people generally being unreliable/rude and that's just some people for you, but I've never had to send so many bloody emails to sort out giving away some furniture for free!

So it made me think about some guidelines for using freecycle and what to expect...coming Wednesday!

Kitchen Reorganising

Saturday while my table decorations for our engagement party were drying I decided to reorganise the undersink cupboard

We had a lot of stuff in the undersink cupboard and the one next to it on the left that didn't necessarily need to be in the kitchen. It was either stuff that we rarely use or stuff that isn't kitchen related but has ended up in here. In the undersink cupboard we had a lot of pet stuff like flea treatments, worming tablets etc in a plastic box. I took all this out and moved some stuff from the cupboard on the left into that box

It was all stuff we do use so want to keep but don't use that often, as they are all fragile or breakable I didn't want to put them into this box

The box on the left is full of kitchen items we don't use often like place mats (umm we don't even have a table?), straws, food processor attachments, cake decorating stuff. The box on the right is full of pet stuff. They're both now back on top of the wardrobe in the hallway, where they have been sat empty for a while since we got them, put them up there and forgot about them!

The cupboards look a bit organised and you can actually see what's in them!

The box on the top has all our tupperware and food storage and the one underneath is the box pictured above, I also chucked the tea towels in there. The rest is pretty self explanatory, vases, carrier bags, cat food etc

And look at all the counter space that is no longer filled up with bits and bobs and clutter as we can get everything we need to into the cupboards!

The kitchen is one room I always struggle to keep clutter free as we like to cook, and me being vegetarian and Tom not it means we need 2 pans to make meals that usually only need one and that makes for a lot of kitchen stuff, so keeping kitchen stuff in the hallway might seem odd but it's all hidden away and it saves us a bit of space. 

The storage boxes came with our ottomans in the bedroom (£49.99 for one large and 2 small from The Range) and we have 4 of them, 3 on top of the wardrobe and one under the coffee table in the living room. I must say I didn't know what I'd do with them when we got them but they've been pretty handy! I sorted the one in the living room out as well as it's a 'dumping ground' for living room stuff like remote controls but post, takeaway menus, nail varnishes and other random items often make their way in there and it gets full up so once every few months I go through and put everything away where it actually is meant to go (often the bin) and make room for more junk. At least it keeps the living room tidy!

Progress

We've been living in our flat 6 months now, so I thought it's a good time to look back and see what progress we've made (and what we still have left to do...which is plenty!)

Let's start with the kitchen, probably the room that's least changed

We've decluttered and added in some storage jars and storage solutions, also we've added in some finishing touches like the 'keep calm' sign. Still left to do in here are new mugs (thinking those DIY sharpie decorated ones that are all over Pinterest), new bread bin and mug tree, new canisters for tea coffee and sugar (thinking silver metallic) new recycling bin, maybe a rug or at least a doormat, new fruit bowl and possibly a window treatment. Also we still need to declutter some problem area like the top of the microwave.

You can see larger photos and more detail on the changes in the kitchen here, here and here.

Onto the living room

We got the new bookshelves and I changed the basket under the table for a larger one with a lid (It came with the ottomans from the bedroom), we also added in my DIY runner. Other than that the changes have been minor rearrangements of frames and CDs etc, I want to eventually get an ottoman or trunk to use as a coffee table, change the TV unit, add some art/photo frames on the fireplace (where we have been told we can put picture hooks, yay!), add more pillows to the sofa, maybe make a faux roman blind for the window (to go over the existing boring one) and generally add in a bit of colour as the room is a bit bland! Possibly thinking yellow to go with the Fender...

You can see more on the living room here and more on the DIY runner here.

The into the Office

We have some art on the tank and a mat under the cat litter tray, but the desk is now even more of a mess as we have 2 PC screens at the moment (anyone want to buy one?!). We are looking at the whole computer situation, as I have my new netbook (which came with one of those screens) so very rarely use the desktop, Tom uses it sometimes but if we had a laptop that did iTunes and Tom could play games on we could get rid the desktop, freeing up some space. This all costs money though so will be something we sort out gradually. We also want to get a new desk and new desk chair, and possibly a rug under the desk. The turtle tank will also need replacing at some point (see this post on the leak we had the other week!) but that's also something quite expensive that we will need to save up for.

You can see more on the office here and here

Then into the bathroom

This room, like the kitchen, hasn't really changed a great deal it has mostly just been decluttered and I'm trying to not buy more than one bottle of something at a time (you know when your shampoo is on offer so you buy 5 bottles...yeah I'm trying not to do that). I want to get some more art or something in here as it's a bit bland, I'm thinking on the back of the toilet as I like the lilies there in this post. Also I think we need a new bath mat as our has goe a bit off white, new towels probably soonish as well as I bought really cheap ones and they're starting to go a bit off colour (they also looked great in our last bathroom but I'd prefer black or white ones here).

You can read more on the bathroom here and here

The bedroom, it was gross before!

We've gotten rid of the 2 armchairs that were in there, reorganised my shoes, moved the trunk in from the hallway, got new wardrobes, got ottomans for storage on top of the wardrobes, rationalised the stuff under the bed and moved a lot of it out to the wardrobe in the hallway, brought the canvas in from the office, got new paperwork storage and generally tidied up! To be honest it still has a long way to go, I want to get a new bed, get bedside tables, rearrange the furniture so the chest of drawers isn't in front of the window (makes it hard to open the window), add some art or photos to the chimney breast (again this is where we've been told we can put picture hooks) get new bedding and a mirror, get some bedside lamps and bring a bit of a cohesive colour scheme in (so far we have about 10 different wood tones and 5 different textiles in here and it looks a bit crazy). It all seems to hinge on the new bed I so once we have that we can do the rest.

You can see more on the bedroom here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here.

Then onto the entrance hall way, probably the most transformed room so far!

I reorganised in here a few times before getting our lovely big wardrobe to put all our junk in, it's a room that isn't really used by us except to walk through when we come in and out of the flat and for storage, so really I want to give this space a use other than drying clothes. As we don't spend any time in here more often than not it's full of clothes airers with washing drying on them, so you come in the door and it looks like this

Not exactly a warm welcome. So our aim in here is to maximise space so we could actually spend time in here, I'm thinking a reading nook as all the bookshelves are in here.

You can see more on the entrance hall and how we got to this point here, here and here

Onto the outside space, really we have just planted some things and are waiting to see how they do but it looks better already in the back garden

We're just waiting for seeds to grow and plants to fill in, then we might get a few more pots and some pretty garden things but we will build it up over time. There's not been any change in the front of the flat, not a lot we can change really!

You can see more on the garden here, and here.

There's the last 6 months of projects and changes, it's nice to look back and what you've achieved sometimes and see how much progress you've made even though there is plenty left to do!

Wardrobe Contents

I said back when we got the wardrobes I'd share what was inside them later, so this a little post on their contents at the moment.

In the wardrobe in the hallway is currently this

It's pretty much the contents of the ottoman and trunk that were in the hallway, now both in the bedroom, plus anything else from under the bed that I could fit in here! It will get a bit more organised at some point as we want to get another ottoman for the top of Toms wardrobe, then the smaller stuff from here will go in that and leave room for larger items. 

The hallway does looks so much better once the doors are closed though 

The bag hanging on the front of the wardrobe is full of shopping bags, the idea is it will remind me to take them with me, however I still keep forgetting them! I used to always keep them in the boot of my car but now I don't have have a car any more I'm finding I never have one when I need them. The chair moved out here because it didn't get used in the bedroom and we had a space in here, so it can be used for sitting on while putting on shoes and hopefully down the line (once we can make this room a bit more appealing) for reading as all the books are in here

There is still this corner which is a bit cluttered but once that box is sorted out (it's full of miscellaneous cables and electronics that we just need to sort out) and I sort out the baskets then it will look a lot better in here.

I also put these smaller boxes on top of the wardrobe that came with the ottoman in the bedroom, they don't have much in them yet but I'm planning on putting stuff from the kitchen in one, and maybe putting all the scarves, gloves and umbrellas that are in the bookshelf by the door up there in summer and replacing them with suncream, sunglasses etc. 

The wardrobes in the bedroom are laid out a bit differently to our last ones, both are forward facing, Toms has shelves and a tie hanger. He put all this jeans, shorts etc n the storage boxes in the bottom.

Mine is also forward facing but has 2 hanging rods and little shelf, which has my swimwear in that basket and my sun hat, also my jeans, PJs and knitwear in the boxes underneath

As I said in the last post, the wardrobes do have a bit less space in the than our last ones, but we were due a clear out any way. This suitcase is full of clothes to get rid of

That's the contents of the wardrobes, next on the to do list in the bedroom is new bed, new bedside tables and a move around of the furniture to balance it all out a bit.