Week 3

Started in the bedroom this week which is great as it's one of those rooms with a bit more clutter than the others! Back story on the big declutter here, here, here and here. 

The list this week was:
Bedroom – Kate’s wardobe - Wed
Bedroom – Tom’s wardrobe - Tue
Bedroom – Makeup and cosmetics - Fri
Bedroom – Ottomans - Sat
Bedroom – Ottomans - Sun
Bedroom – Under the bed - Tue
Bedroom – Under the bed - Wed
Bedroom – Trunk - Mon

Remember - All 20 minutes each and leaving the stuff in the 3 categories (although ours have now kind of morphed into one huge pile due to lack of space to spread them out but we'll sort that out at the end!).

I did change them around this week a bit as there is a bit of mould back on the wall and ottoman on Toms wardrobe again so I wanted to do the ottomans over the weekend and give them all a good clean while I was there. It's condensation mould I think, as it isn't coming up from the floor or down from the ceiling like damp, it has just appeared in a fine layer on the middle of the wall, wardrobe and ottoman. We're trying to control it but will let the landlord know as if we keep cleaning the wall the paint is going to start coming off!

I actually haven't started under the bed properly yet (we went climbing yesterday after work, then food shopping then the next installment of The Walking Dead came on DVD so we got distracted!) but kind of inadvertently started it when I did the ottomans as one had loads of space in so I moved some Christmas decorations from under the bed into it. Tuesday is Toms day off and I left him his clothes to go through and the one ottoman which is full of his stuff.

Ottoman one (those are empty boxes which for some reason I keep, both the playstation and Wii are about 5 years old, not much chance we'll be returning them!)

 Boxes out

Spare pillows and rest of Christmas decorations in. We now have a bit more room in the hallway wardrobe and under the bed we gained 2 whole storage boxes which did have these decorations in them

The trunk also had a pretty massive overhaul. I've come to terms with the fact recently that I do not wear heels nearly as often as I think I do, and when I do I can't walk in them. So most of my 'dress up' shoes in here went, along with a lot of little clutch bags and loads of belts. I kept the big bag on the top I just put it with my shopping bags where it'll get used as I kind of forgot about it in there!

Perfect room for my climbing backpack and harness, which have just been hanging around in the hallway

I'll do under the bed later today and tomorrow, but look at the pile to go - we're making good progress!

 There are also all these books behind it under the chairs

I didn't get a photo of the second ottoman as Tom took a few things out of it to add to the to go pile and very nicely put it straight back on top of the wardrobe,so now I can't reach it! However, it also now has some empty space in it so once we've done under the bed there might be more things to go in there.

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!

Second Ottoman

We got another hamper for the top of Toms wardrobe

We put all the smaller stuff in there that was in the wardrobe in the hallway, like Toms remote control car, his telescope, board games etc. It leaves a bit more room in the other wardrobe for larger stuff like suitcases, cat carriers and the Christmas tree.

The bedroom is starting to come together a bit more, I want to get a new bed at some point and get the room into a more simple style as at the moment we have lots of different styles of furniture in here and although I like an eclectic mix of furniture and accessories (not the 'all from the same catalogue' look) this room looks chaotic and mismatched at the moment. The new wardrobes help and they kind of go with my little chest of drawers and the trunk, but the old bedside tables and the bed look so out of place. 

To be honest it would only take a few purchases to get this room looking more finished but they are large buys that we need to save up for or find second hand or cheap. When we have the furniture sorted and I can see the wood for the trees in here I want to get new bedding, artwork and either a new mirror or revamp my current one. I love to have an ongoing project though!

More Accessory Storage...

Tom remarked the other day while we were putting away clothes how he has his wardrobe to store all his clothes and I have my wardrobe, chest of drawers, the old bedside tables in the corner (my underwear, tights and socks are in them), my shoes in the trunk and my bags and belts under the bed. For someone who doesn't buy clothes that often I have a lot of them and I definitely spread them out! So I've had a clear out of the wardrobe, and I also noticed that actually my shoes took up only about half of the available space in the trunk, so I thought it would be good to get all my handbags and belts into here as well and have all of my shoes and accessories together!

The only problem is the space that was left was high not wide so I needed to layer my shoes, but the box from our old laptop fit perfectly on top of the bottom layer of shoes

 Then I put the shoes I wear more often on the top

The storage box my bags were in while under the bed fit perfectly next to them

Then I put the lid on and laid my belts on top

I moved this picture off the turtle tank as I was worried about it getting damp (it's been replaced by a wipeable print that I'll share picture of soon) and put it on here for now, although eventually I want it to go over the bed once we have agreed with the landlord where we can put some picture hooks (yay things on the wall finally!)

Voilà!

And there is an actual space under the bed now, how long do we think that will last?

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.

Bedroom Progress

After the new wardrobes arrived the bedroom looks so much better already

 We will get another ottoman for Toms wardrobe at some point I think

Although there is still a bit too much clutter on this side for my liking Under the bed looks better, we swapped the bedding out of the ottoman that's on top of my wardrobe for things like Christmas decorations, empty boxes and other stuff we aren't going to need very often. Because I can't reach into the ottomans it has to be things in there I can wait for Tom to get!

I also moved this canvas off the top of the tank in the hallway onto the trunk

This side of the room looks a bit bare and the other side looks a bit cluttered so I think I might move some things away from the window to balance it out a bit more at some point. The thing leant against the radiator is a guitar stand that apparently doesn't work very well so I'm going to see if Tom might want to get rid of it, the pile of frames underneath the radiator I'm hoping to find places for in here, and the thing on the radiator is Minty's cat bed

It's not exactly pretty but she loves it :)

Shoe Storage

Since we got our new wardrobes I had to find a new place for my shoes as my wardrobe won't fit anything hanging over the door, so the shoe rack had to go. My day to day shoes live by the front door, but there's not really enough room in there for all of them. Luckily as we had the new wardrobe in the hallway my lovely old trunk was empty and just waiting to be put to use.

 Ta-Dah!

The bedroom was still a mess when these were taken, as you can see in the top picture we still have 3 wardrobes in here, but it's looking a bit better now as my old wardrobe went to someone on freecycle and we've tidied it up a bit in there. I'll share the pictures soon!

Bedroom Organising

Our bedroom is the room most in need of some TLC, so I made some small changes in here recently to make it a bit more livable, we still have loads of stuff we want to do in here and want to replace about 90% of the furniture (seriously Toms wardrobe is going to collapse soon!)
It looked like this when we moved in

These are our old bedside tables which I just put in this corner when we moved in, I'm going to either spruce them up with a coat of paint or some spray paint, or get rid of them, depending on where the rest of the room goes. We can't use them next to the bed as it's placed in front of the fireplace with the wardrobes behind to make the most of the space in the room, and these are too big to fit next to it (Actually for bedside tables they're massive)

 There is so much stuff under the bed as it's our only storage space for larger items

That box by the door is the last box to be unpacked after moving! It contained all my old Avon paperwork, most of which went in the bin as I don't do Avon any more.

After buying 10 plastic storage boxes from Argos (12.99 for 5 with lids) and 2 over door shoe hangers (6.99 each), I was able to reorganise some things and get it looking more like this.

I got my shoes off the floor and into the shoe hanger, and also reorganised the top of Toms wardrobe, swapping some things out of the ottoman in the hallway so it could be moved in here and the bedding taken down and stored in it.

Also it gets these frames off the floor, they're pictures from our first holiday together to the Dominican Republic

The Christmas decorations and lamps that were on the floor here are now under the bed and on top of Toms wardrobe. We do still have 2 armchairs in here in these pictures as I was waiting for Tom to take this back to his dads, we borrowed it while we didn't have a sofa (Thanks Mike!)

This armchair is ours and used to be in our living room but with the new sofa doesn't fit, so in these pictures it's in the bedroom, although it didn't stay here for long.

It also made a massive difference that Tom went and bought us a new paperwork file from Staples, as ours didn't survive the move so in the pictures above there is a massive pile of bills etc on the floor on top of the mangled paperwork box file!

It also meant we have one less thing being kept in the hallway after the ottoman was moved into the bedroom so that looks a bit clearer as well

So that's our small reorganisation just using what we had and some cheap storage solutions, the 2nd over door shoe holder was used elsewhere and those plastic storage boxes have definately been worth it as we've used them all over the house, and at 12.99 for 5 with lids they are the cheapest I've found. Ikea do have cheaper ones but we weren't planning an Ikea trip any time soon and by the time we would have paid for delivery (I don't have a car and even if I did I'm not going to drive all the way to our nearest one in Bristol or Birmingham just for some boxes) they actually got a bit more expensive. There are rumours that there's going to be an Ikea built in Gloucester (in the space opposite Asda by the train station), I was actually far too excited on hearing this, and if the rumours are true our house will be full of lovely Ikea things and I will have no money!