The Big Fat Blah (Continued)

Okay, here is my previous post on "De-Itemizing". For those who have not read it yet, it's a must read!

So, here is an update on how well I have de-itemized my home.

It's been incredible! I have literally grabbed stuff that we do use and put them into black bags, bag after bag until I filled up 4 large Black bags and took them to our local thrift store. That's a lot of stuff.

This is how I did it. I walked around the house, analyzing each item and being quite brutal about it. "a brush! One of our 3... OK in the bag it goes!" / "bed sheets, rarely used, gotta go!" / "a board game, used, loved... time to move on -in it goes!" / "candle holders, pretty..but got to go"

I've taken out my coffee mugs and replaced them with my "special" tea set. I want to use beautiful cups to drink my tea/coffee from. I want my friends to enjoy them too. If we have more than 5 people visiting, I'll take out the mugs as a back up, not the other way around.

My kitchen surfaces are bare. Whatever doesn't fit into the cupboards must go. I really needed to prioritize. Some stuff is seasonal but they cannot have a temporary space in my kitchen, so some I have given away and some I have stored away-away.

We de-itemized our books as well. This is a thing, I never thought I would do. 1/3 of our books will be donated to BabyAnne's Mansion in the Philippines. This was really nice to do with the kids, they get it!

My home looks bare-ish, but we have a long way to go... I think we are half way there. It sure is liberating.

I'm feeling a lot better than this

You know, there are a lot of beautiful things in the world, a lot in your local shops, in the thrift stores...  it's okay to want them, and NOT purchase or receive them, even a fraction of them. Once owned, the beauty and excitement is not the same and it weighs upon your shoulders.

"Everyone wants to be happy; we make chasing this elusive ideal a lifelong pursuit; spending money, collecting things, and searching for new experiences. But if happiness depends on our circumstances, what happens when the toys rust, loved ones die, health deteriorates, money is stolen, and the party's over? Often happiness flees and despair sets in.

In contrast to happiness stands joy . Running deeper and stronger, joy is quiet, confident assurance of God's love and work in our life -- that He will be there no matter what! Happiness depends on happenings, but joy depends on Christ." - NLT Study Bible

Some of you might think, by reading this post, that I am breaking away from excessive shopping. This is not true however, even if I have wanted to shop I couldn't  (frugal living, budget issues). My "breaking away" is from the little (compared to most homes) existing items I have in my home.

I encourage you to de-itemize your home. For those who are already thinking about it or doing it, or even done it -tell me briefly how, what, when, where...?

More of home making here

Empty Fridge, Oh Bliss! No Unnecessary Organizing Part 3

When you go to your fridge to have look, you open the door, see it packed with tons of jars and bags of something, a few tupperware containers with something in them, left overs, bit and bats, but there's nothing for you to eat, or you cannot see anything you can cook with? You know, your door is filled with small jars, quarter empty, bottles of dressings and what not, but you can't see the wood for the trees? Not only that, but you see pieces of dried up onion peel in nooks and crannies? a sticky spill?

Here me out! This is the time for you to start fresh! No need to plan your next week's meals according to the random ingredients which have lingered in your fridge for months, ( really would you want to cook with a food" which doesn't go bad? ) Get rid of it, toss it out, start fresh! I am going to give you a few rules of thumb of what to chuck out and a recipe for a non toxic fridge cleaner!

Rules of thumb:

• If you haven't used it for a few months, chuck it out. When and IF you really really need it, make fresh or spend the penny to buy "fresh"... you don't want to store jars of random pickles and salsas for months. You'll end up with a hall of fame jar-landia.
• read the ingredients, if there is more than 2 ingredients that you cannot pronounce or know what they are, toss it, just toss it! Go back to basics, to ingredients which won't "cause cancer". Natural.
• If the food product has it own TV commercial, toss it, just get rid of the devil! 

Recycle the jars and containers according to your local recycling instuctions. Empty the fridge, Categorize in the simplest way that you can really, in all honestly, follow through with. Keep the meat away from your fresh produce. Make sure your fridge looks more colourful than "beige", this way you know you're eating healthy(er). Store in glass containers, see this blog post for why you ought to! 

Fridge Cleaner Spray

•  warm water
• 1 tbsp bicarb (baking, washing soda)
• 2 tbsp vinegar
• 2 drops of cinnamon oil (lovely scent, super bug killer, antifungal etc)

1. mix the oil and vinegar first in a spray bottle
2. add the bicarb
3. then fill up with water

Empty your fridge, spray scrub, wipe down. Fill up your fridge. Be picky, think twice. Cut a lemon in half and place it in the back of your fridge for freshness.

Enjoy!

Oh My Laundry! No Unnecessary Organizing (Part II)

I am so very happy to share this new "Ahaa!" experience with you! Finally, finally, after years of laundry torture, I got it!

Now picture this, some of you might deeply relate to what I am about to share with you:

You've done several loads of laundry, folded everything neatly and put them into dressers, wardobes and cupboards. After you have re-organized EVERYONES wardrobe. Finally, everything is perfectly organized and in it's place. Haa, not for long! As you walk into one of your kids' rooms, for one reason or another, you notice random CLEAN clothes pulled out of the wardrobe and on their floor. Hmmm... this is not new to you, oh no. It happens often. No worries, you "smell through them" sorting out the clean from the used clothes, and regardless clean or not, if they have been on the floor too long- they all need to go back into the washer. This is one vicous cycle!

But I got it! After reading Michelle Duggar's well put sentence in their book "20 and Counting"

..." all the trips made to carry our clean clothes from the laundry room back to the bedrooms and put them away neatly in the right closet or drawer. The "neatly" part would last until one of the children needed something out of that closet or drawer, then things got stirred up, moved around, and strewn all over the place. A lot of the time, clean, never-worn clothes ended up back int the laundry again..."... 


and walking into my childrens' rooms and witnessing this annoying habit, it solidified it for me! No more clothes in anyone's room! All of the clothes must be in one place. I figured out, if the clothes would be next to the washer and dryer, (they would not get moved from washer to floor, to being folded, onto chair to the wardrobes and back on to the floor- to the washer again,) they would stay put, hung and well, be tidy. What a liberating "Ahaa!" experience for me. Why did I not think of this sooner?!

 I know this looks like a horrid laundry room. Well, it is.

 idea + hubby + tools =

 half way there!

and 

finally done!

 realistic and complete!

yes, honest mess in a REAL home.

So,  my husband and I agreed on it,  I had it planned out and my husband made it happen! You gotta love him! Always trying to make my ideas come true.

Empty House -No Unnecessary Organizing (Part I)

What I am dreaming about is an "empty house".

Empty of what? Well, empty of junk, clutter, stuff I might want, posessions and well, EXTRA. I want my home empty of anything and everything that takes my mind and my time away from my family.

I don't want to feel guilty about drawers and cupboards that have been neglected. I don't want to carry stress and guilt over unfinished "one day" projects. I don't want to be afraid of living in regret for giving away books and "sentimental" belongings that I might want to keep, but honestly probably wont ever read or use.

I don't want to continuously pick stuff up, maintain order, dust, reorganize cluttered surfaces and feel like "heck sake! i just knocked something over!" I don't want to nag at my kids to watch out, they might knock off a pile of papers and magazines.

I don't want to carry anymore baggage!

I don't really want to create boxes and label them for the sake of organizing. I don't need my home to be a shop with isles and isles of labelled 'goods'. Even if I had labelled boxes, I would need to pick stuff up and find a place for them. Labelling might make things easier but I am still tidying up junk and that has not changed.

What if my home was as simple as it gets? What if we woke up in the morning and the day was about relationships instead of stuff. For instance, instead of having a swing, sitter, play mat and a musical play mat for my baby that are in the way on the living room floor, which are obstacles for me, we would have only one of them? Will the baby miss out on the stuff. What could we gain from owning a little less- just one thing? The baby is more bothered about the faces than the gadgets on the swing. Which will the baby learn more from? What will I gain from it? I can BE. I can enjoy. I can hold.

I am known for my laminating desire. I used to find any reason to laminate anything... like my cousin K.D once put it, "I would laminate my toothbrushes if I could". Come to think of it, why laminate? Better yet, why NOT to laminate. I have several reasons why NOT to; extra plastic covered paper clutter. How will laminating affect the earth? I know, pretty deep stuff right? But seriously, how will I recycle it? Life changes EVERYDAY! I change everyday. My teaching skills change and so do my ideas. Are my pieces of paper worth toxic build up? Besides, laminating paper tricks us to believe that they are important and eventually just piles up.

 These are my 2 rules of thumb (for now)

• Only laminate important documents/craft projects i.e diploma or hand made bookmarks which need protecting
• In homeschool or at work, instead of laminating words to place on the wall temporarely, use a marker/chalk and a board. 

I browse a ton of "organizing" blogs and sites on how to be organized. I find myself motivated and inspired in so many ways and feel that I want to get started immediately in tackling my home. Hold on! I've been down this road before and I'm perhaps on it again as we speak. Okay, so I have bought my supplies to help us to be more organized. I've labelled, stacked and made it look pretty. I am on a roll! I do a great job for about say, 2 weeks. One day I am overwhelmed with the day and pile stuff "to put away later" into my organized shelves, cupboards and wardrobes. This is forgotten and the piles get bigger and spread. See, those piles are unnecessary stuff, stuff we dont need and never get used. The piles keep on growing and one day when I do finally get to go through them, I store the items like I would need them, but I dont! I didn't even know I had most of it. Don't you get it, stuff in your home is clutter! What if those piles never appeared and you didnt have to store away stuff in colour coordinated cupboards to look perfect and then get overwhelmed and upset because they end up looking imperfect? Give it up.

NOW I KNOW I AM GOING TO GET A LOT OF HATE MAIL FOR THIS ONE please bare with me...

-BINDERS. Oh yes, I said it. I almost fell for that. I almost created myself an "excel sheets" in a personal binder to remind myself to drink water, scrub my sink and hug my husband... Where is the freedom in this? How about the spontinuety? Where in this do I "live"? If my days are filled with tasks to be done (tasks that someone thought were so important) where do I just 'BE' as we were MADE by our creator, to BE? Now if we need reminding of some things, can it not be done by having an accountability partner or friend?

Bad News Regarding Organized Home in 30 Days

My grand plans in organizing my home has stalled. As previously written HERE I had great plans for our outdoor shed. However, after cleaning it out, stripping it down and while painting it from the inside, we noticed mice droppings and dampness damaged walls. My grand idea of an extension to the house is not going to happen after all. 

More posts on the rest  of the house coming up soon!

DIY Toy Boxes (Organized Home in 30 Days)

We cannot afford to buy proper toy boxes for the kids right now. I wasn't going to look at their unorganized toy boxes either. They were in a mess. It made me itch. Yuck. I bought contact paper from Walmart (surprise! surprise!) and Simon got some empty shoe boxes. Ask from your local shoe shops.

 Yes, simple. Yes, cheap. And yes, ORGANIZED!

 Contact paper and FREE boxes

We piled their toys into categories and took a look which needed their own boxes. The ones left, random individuals ended up in one box labelled as BITS and BATS a.k.a bits and bobs, bits and pieces to some of you.

 Labelled and pretty

 Organized room and a happy kids (mum!)

 Organized! 

 My son's toy boxes ended up looking something like this; "GORMITS", "ACTION FIGURES", "SOLDIERS" etc

My daughter's toy boxes were more like this; "BARBIES, "DOLLS", "PONIES" etc

 Before

After

Restrategizing "Organizing my Home in 30 Days"

Okay, I know you all have been waiting for my updates on how my organizing has been going. Well, my start was strong. I had good plans for each area of the house. While I was organizing these areas, my plans changed from good to GREAT. Now, I have BIGGER plans for the areas I wan't to organize and this will take more than 30 days. I won't go over 30 days, as in, the tasks combined will not take more than 24h x 30. :) Are you curious about what my GREAT plans are?? Well I thought you'd never ask! Here they are!

The Shed will not be cleaned and organized, but it will be stripped, cleaned, painted and refurnished to be a very nice extention of our house! YES indeed! We will be getting rugs, a couch, scrapbooking table, shelving, mirrors, art- you name it! It will be a man cave, play den, pantry, art room and even during summers a great extra bedroom for visitors.

The Pantry will be dedicated for homeschooling and homeschooling only. Books, notebooks, workbooks, paper, crayons, art supplies, more books, more paper, craft supplies, board games etc

Laundry Room will be for linen, towels, blankets, basket etc

The Linen Cupboard will be extra space for clothes and other items.

Kayleigh's Room will have a whole new make over, paint job and a well organized toy area for her to maintain as well as a 3 years old can. We will go through her clothes and her princess dresses and give them a more accessable place for her to reach them.

The Backyard will be emptied from summer toys, gardening tools, pots, etc. We will decorate it to be a warm, welcoming back garden for the Autumn and Winter with logs, garden statues, Autumn plants and so on.

Joshua's Room will also get a make over, paint, toy organizing and so on.

Let the MAMMOTH task begin!