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.

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!

Bedroom Brainstorming

The bedroom is the room that I most dislike in our flat, the new wardrobes help but the rest of the furniture is so mismatched as it just always looks such a mess as nothing has a home and just seems to be out all the time.

exhibit A

The trunk just collects junk, we got new pillows and want to keep the old ones as spares but they were waiting for us to find somewhere for them. We got memory foam pillows when we got the new mattress and we love the mattress but the pillows are very hard and we never really got used to it. So we got the 'super bounce' overstuffed pillows from silent night and love them!

This side of the room is also really cluttered and my hair products, makeup and jewellery seems to have spread over 2 areas although I don't actually have that much!

We also have to leave the drawers out from the wall a little so we can get to the window to open and close it, so it just kind of floats in the middle of the space

 It's full of clothes, tops in the middle drawer and dresses in the bottom

However I also have dresses in my wardrobe, which is looking a little crowded, but I thought I could maybe get all my dresses together in the wardrobe.

 I had a brutal clothes cull, the pile is for Ebay, one bin liner for the bin and the other for charity

I bought a few vacuum bags from the pound shop a while ago, so also vaccum packed a few things (like winter clothes and holiday stuff) and slid it under the wardrobe

I then swapped the drawers and chest around, much better! I can step on the trunk to open the window so it can go right up against the wall. This was actually all I set out to do that day and it kind of spiralled into a complete reorganisation of all my stuff!

It's nicer to have less furniture going on in this corner, it looked a bit crowded with all the drawers.
I've got all my clothes together on one side of the room as well as all my hair stuff and makeup which is nice.

Although my shoes, bags and belts are still in the trunk

I managed to get all of my makeup jewellery and hair stuff together here after a bit of a throw out, I'm not a big makeup wearer yet still had tons of it! So now all I have is makeup in the bottom drawer of the wicker drawers, hair stuff in the top, my glasses are in the silver bucket with my hairbrush. Underneath are my jewellery boxes and larger hair stuff like cans of hairspray, my hair dryer etc.
 I also cleared the top of these drawers so Tom can have a bit of room for his stuff

And look, empty drawers! I'm not going to fill them for the sake of it and keeping them for if we need space, the top one is Toms man drawer, and the second one has all my glasses cases and a few random things in. I managed to get all my underwear and socks and tights which were in here into the chest of drawers in place of the dresses (which I did manage to get into the wardrobe) so all my stuff is together in one place.

It looks so much clearer and cleaner in here now, the mismatched furniture is still a slight issue but we will eventually get a new bed and I will do something with those drawers above I just need to figure out what. I've debated painting them, covering them, just getting rid of them (reluctant to do as we struggle for storage in some areas), moving them to another room...but nothing has really clicked or inspired me yet.

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!