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!

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.

New Wardrobes!

In previous posts you may have noticed that one wardrobe really did not survive the move very well

To be honest it wasn't in great condition before we moved and there had been numerous attempts to fix it up, reattach the doors or brace it somehow, but now it really was going to fall over any day, and while we had been talking about getting new bedroom furniture for a while we didn't have the money to get new wardrobes right away. We wanted to get two the same or similar to go either side of the bed. For the size wardrobe we were looking for it was going to be about £300 each minimum, and we didn't have £600 knocking about just after moving house and Christmas. 

This is why I love the internet. I put out a wanted ad on Freecycle, did anyone have a wardrobe going spare that we could have until we saved up to replace this one? I got an email from someone saying that while they weren't free he was doing a house clearance and had some going very cheap and if I would be ok to pay a small sum we could collect them this week. I emailed back that we were definitely interested and could he send me more details. He had 3 wardrobes going for £10 each.

He sent me pictures and they were lovely 1920'-1930's wardrobes solid wood, good condition, for £10 each! We got a van from Tom's work and enlisted his Dad's help and went to pick them up the following weekend. When we got there he had a house full of stuff to go due to a family bereavement. Tom's Dad bought a lovely writing desk/bureau from him for £15. We bought all 3 wardrobes, as we also had been talking about getting one for our hallway to tidy it up in there a bit. 

So here they are...

My one:

Tom put the hamper on top because we have high ceilings so the top of the wardrobe is prime storage space, but it looks so much better than having boxes and bags of stuff up there. In these pictures the bedding is in there but it didn't stay for long, as in the first picture the duvet it all poking out of the top because even standing on a chair I can't reach to put it in properly!

Tom's one (The wall is crooked not the wardrobe, this is an old house!):

They were a little dented as they're quite old and also got a little scuffed in transport, but I think most of it will buff out and because they're solid wood I could always try re varnishing them if not.

We also swapped our wardrobes around, as Toms wardrobe before was larger then mine so it had to go in the larger alcove opposite the door, but it was then on my side of the bed.

And we love the one in the hallway

I'll share full room shots of them once we have reorganised as we currently have 3 wardrobes in the bedroom, one dismantled in the garden and the office looks like this because the chair has been evicted from the bedroom.

There are also coat hangers everywhere, we have gained a wardrobe but the hangers seems to have multiplied as well and there are hundreds of them! 

It also prompted a bit of a change around in the bedroom again, as the new wardrobes actually have less hanging space than our last ones but actually we both have too many clothes so we had a bit of a sort out and there are piles of clothes to go to the charity shop all over the place, and I can't hang the shoe rack on the front of mine any more. Also with the large one in the hallway we finally have more storage space for larger items!

Office Additions

There were 2 small changes in the office recently, this canvas migrated into here from the living room

In our first ever post you can see it's just leant on the back of the sofa, but it kept getting knocked and we were having our housewarming party the evening after taking these pictures so I moved it out of the way. This is also temporary really as I think it will get damp on top of the warm tank.

I made this myself, I would do a how to post but I didn't take pictures back when I made it and to be honest it's so simple I can do it in 2 sentences. Stick wooden letters to canvas and paint over everything in your chosen colour to make the 3D word, or words depending on your quote. Write on the rest of the words using a narrow tip marker, I used a stencil and did it in pencil first because my handwriting is awful but you could freehand it if yours isn't.

Also I put our old bath mat under the litter tray becasue it had a hole in it (the mat not the tray, it's in the middle so hidden by the litter tray but made it useless as a bathroom mat), and I've wanted to have a mat to put under this for a while to catch bits of litter so it's not strewn all over the floor. Now if only I could train them to wipe their paws on it...

This room will have some more changes made to it eventually like:

• A new desk, larger than our current one, maybe a corner desk to maximise space.
• A new desk chair - probably without wheels as it's not great on the wooden flooring
• A new computer - This one was a hand me down and it works ok but it's massive (In the picture above see how the chair cannot fit under the desk because there is a monster sized computer there, also the desk is tiny) and OLD, seriously it's over 10 years old and until last year had never been connected to the internet, but it's keeping up just about. I'd like to get a laptop or netbook.
• Depending on the desk we buy (Hoping to get one with it built in) some office storage like a small filing cabinet, so we won't have to keep the paperwork under the bed.
• Some different art to go on top of the tank - As I like the look of the canvas there, but I think it needs to be something that won't be affected by the warm water underneath (Like in a sealed frame which I might DIY)

Although this room isn't a big priority as the stuff we have in here is functional and we have lots of other things to sort out first, so this will probably all be further down the line. Although you know I won't leave a room completely alone for long so there will be small upgrades along the way...

Junk in the Trunk

We downsized to move to our current flat from a two bedroom to a one bedroom, although we didn't lose a lot (if anything) in floor plan as we do have those 2 hallway areas that make up for it. However we did lose the garage and the attic which were both full of stuff at our last house. This means that although we got rid of a lot of stuff before we moved and are still getting rid of things now we are eager to get our hands on any storage solutions going.

After our trip to The Range to get our book shelves I went back to get some things we saw there but didn't buy at the time. One was this:

A set of one large and 2 small hampers, £49.99. Which is a bargain for how much storage space they allow, they were destined for the hallway.

I just wanted to make the room look better and a bit more usable as one side looks like this which is fine (Although the bookshelves don't match as 2 were in our spare room and one was in the living room at our last house)

But turn around and hiding behind the door is this mess

So I filled both our new hamper and the old trunk that's hiding under all that mess in the picture above with smaller items

All of Toms music equipment I sorted into this small chest of drawers that we have had for years, it's even filed (You can tell I'm not the musician huh?) into top drawer microphones, headphones and misc small items like plectrums, second drawer pedals and bottom drawer cables. I restrainied myself from labelling the drawers. I'm really not that sad that I file everything just, well, um, ok yeah I actually probably have some kind of organisational system for most things. My nickname really should be Monica, although my need to organise everything has found me a job that I'm told I'm good at so it has it's up side!

Much better! The view now when you walk in the front door

And to the left the shoe rack

And to the right the bookshelves and our spare chairs (Freecycle finds that I repainted that colour a while back, I'll do a how to at some point) and Toms amplifiers.

I got this old chest for £10 from a guy who was selling the whole contents of his house, he had such an interesting attic full of stuff like this and I could have bought about 10 of these from him if we had room for them! I'm planing to clean it up (Not too much though as I like the worn look) and maybe even use it as a coffee table.

Although this room is mostly for storage and we don't spend a lot of time in here I do like having some pictures and pretty canvases in here as we pass them every time we go out the door.

Our post and key bowl and some pictures of our beautiful nieces

The obligatory lint rollers by the door - we have 2 cats! Underneath is a box full of our gloves, scarves and hats and our bike pumps etc and backpacks. The canveses all came as a set of 3 from Asda a while back.

That was the first change to this room, I expect there will be loads more as we would like to make the room a bit more useable not just a storage area. The eventual plan is to get a large wardrobe or storage cupboard so that we can store large (Toms amplifiers, our suitcases) and small (tools, board games) things in there. There is so much stored under the bed that it's all starting to poke out the sides and it would be great to get some of the larger items like the Christmas tree out from under there (as I never considered it before but where the hell do you keep the Christmas tree when you don't have an attic?!). The hamper could then be reused in the bedroom to store all the bedding that is currently shoved on top of Toms wardrobe in an ikea bag. The smaller hampers don't have a home as yet but I'm sure I'll find somewhere for them before too long.

The other thing I bought was a solution to an issue in the kitchen, more on that in another post. 

P.S like the snazzy title? I thought it was hilarious when I thought of it...not so sure now