Not Making Plans Anymore

Today we have had a constant stream of visitors and it's not polite to wander off while people are here and start cleaning things. So all I've done today is make (what feels like) endless cups of tea! It seemed to be that as one visitor left another would arrive within 10 minutes. Once {TH} and I had eaten it was getting on and a bit late to be striping out cupboards. So from now on I'm just going to do things when I can rather than trying to plan in advance.

Tomorrow I have stuff planned with the kidlets so don't think it will get done then either, hopefully next week.

I also have some major decisions to make over the next 24 hours, so for today I'm going to log off and go think somewhere quiet.

Saturday

A lovely relaxing Saturday, I have nothing that I need to do today (except laundry which I always have to do lol) but my brain is working over time wondering which area of the house to tackle next. I still have quite a few rooms that need a thorough clean and de-clutter, but where to start..... 

I have decided today I will tackle the kitchen and the cupboards, since {TH} did the baking cupboard yesterday it seems a shame to just have one lovely neat and tidy cupboard. So that is my challenge for today, I'm going to take it easy and if I don't get it all done, it's doesn't matter as long as I make a start. Some of the cupboards are a total mess, stuff just thrown in and stacked all over the place.

Going to go take my before pictures and then I will get myself together and get started.....back later hopefully with lots of after pictures

PoundShop Bargains

I love my local poundshops, stores full of tat hehe. We do get quite alot of stuff from there, I get most of my cleaning products from there and other odds and sods. I love to wander round and see what other junk useful items I can get. Yesterday, I got some Colgate toothpaste ({TH} got the same stuff from tesco the other day for £2.50), I also got some kiddie toothpaste as they don't like the one we're using at the min, it's a little too strong for them, some hand cream, rechargable batteries and this neat little storage drawer unit thingie-me-bob lol

Despite my best efforts recently, I have ended up with with multiple pots/jars/buckets with pens, pencils etc etc in and then a storage box under my desk with sellotape, glue, more pens and pencils in. It was getting silly, but I won't throw pens away until they don't work and I only throw pencils away when they either get to small or the kids have dropped them once too often and the lead is broken. So when I saw this little drawer thing I knew I needed it. 3 drawers and it's quite small so I hoped it would fit under my monitor shelf on the desk. Which it does *smiles* I have the top drawer filled with pens and pencils (I admit spares are still in a box under the desk). Middle drawer has felt tip pens, highlighters, glitter pens and metallic pens. Bottom drawer has my 2 spare post-it note pads, sellotape, eraser, sharpner, staples, scissors and some glue. This leaves my desk quite alot clearer and everything is contained in one area. I just need to make some labels for it, but since I don't have a label maker I will have to attempt to make them by hand. I think I will check ebay too and see if I can grab a small (& cheap) label maker. I only remember the old fashioned Dynmo (sp) ones that printed embossed text on very thin sticky strips, these new ones seem alot more high tech and funky!

I nipped into the other poundshop and got some more bargains, I picked up some 2 packs of ribbons (5x1m), a yellow DVD storage box (not for dvd's though), 3 small baskets (in a bundle) and a candle in a jar. I got them all with a purpose in mind. I also picked up some mechanical pencils, handwriting pens for {B} and some little notebooks (pack of 4). {LM} keeps asking me for a notebook (diary) so I grabbed those, which means one each for the kids and one for me hehe. I also grabbed a letter rack, we still get mail for our landlady and previous tennent, but our landlady comes round about once every 3 months and collects all the mail. It's getting less and less but still it comes to us. It was always just dumped on the window sill next to the door, but it always looked scruffy and untidy. So when I saw a letter rack for just a pound I grabbed it. It's not fantasically pretty, in fact it's plain and quite boring, but it does the job. I have put it on the shelf under the mirror, rather than on the window sill. It has 3 sections for mail, so I have organised the mail too, a section for the landlady's mail, a section for the previous tennent and the front section for us.


Onto the things I bought with other things in mine for those things.........
Ribbons - technically these are for scrapbookers/card makers (which I don't do) but I thought they would be nice to wrap wround jars to make them look pretty, plus I am going to 'attempt' to make a card for my mum for mothers day and thought these might come in handy.

DVD Storage Box - I wanted something to put my spare printer inks and photo paper in, this is the right size and nice and bright. I could probably have got a slightly smaller one, but for a pound I got this one.

3 Small Baskets - I picked these up for the kitchen cupboards. We (ok {TH}) has a few little pots and jars of baking stuff. It's always getting lost in the cupboard so I thought putting them in baskets would help and makybe save some space.

Candle In A Jar - I use alot of hair grips in both mine and the girls hair. However I hate digging round in the bottom on the bobble bucket to find them. So I thought this little candle jar would be idea (once I burn the candle away). It's got a lid so the grips will be safe and tucked away. I may grab a few more next time I got as I think they would make lovely spice jars and because they look quite pretty would look nice on a shelf and once again save us hunting through a cupboard looking for the 'right' spice

So those were my bargains yesterday. I have to nip into the main town next week, where there are 3 poundshops (one is huge) so who knows what bargains I will find next week.

On a side note, when I showed {TH} the baskets I had grabbed he went straight into the kitchen and begand re-organising his baking cupboard. He put stuff in jars and labeled them and made the shelved look all pretty. He's only used one of the baskets so far, but has stacked the baskets inside each other ready to be filled. He also did that to stop me from finding somewhere else for them to go and get filled with other stuff lol. They had the same ones in bright green and pink too, I might get another set and put one in my top drawer to keep my hair stuff in, {TB} could no doubt use one to put his pens and stuff in that clutter his desk and the other one...well you can always find a use for a basket, even if not at the time you buy it.

Some pics of bargains 

 my mini drawer unit thingie-me-bob

the bottom drawer

the middle drawer

 the top drawer

candle in a jar 

 this picture doesn't really show it but the lid is air tight due to rubber/plastic seal

 the boring letter rack and my keys lol complete with Scoobies made by myself and {B}

 filled letter rack

the basket(s)

filled with goodies

back in the cupboard

all neat and tidy - sorry no before picture as {TH} had got everything out before I had my camera ready

The Master Bedroom

The master bedroom is an utter disgrace! The dresser is full of crap, the bed hasn't been made, washing needs to be folded and put away, washing needs to be moved from the floor to the basket........It really is awful. In comparison the the master bedroom the rest of the house looks immaculate! Quite depressing when you have to climb over crap on the floor just to get into bed. Our bedroom is very small and we have a very large bed, it's also designed stupidily. Which is why our wardrobe lives in the laundry room hehe. The other down side is, people who visit always use the en-suite so they see the disaster area and I get embarassed by it. Anyway, I decided I would tackle the room today, at least clear the floors so I we didn't have to scramble over things.

Here are the disgusting before pictures:

A cuppa to get me started (typically British hehe)

From the door into the bedroom and my beautiful Polly

My side of the bed (the white wire on the floor is so I can plug the dryer in)

The blanket box (off my nan) burtied behind and under washing, the en-suite doorway to the side

{TH}'s side of the bed!

 The top of the dresser

{TH}'s lappy on his side on the bed

Looking up the room from the en-suite door and Polly again 

My top drawer (on my bedside unit) crammed so full my hair dryer doesn't fit in anymore

So where the hell do you start?

I picked up all the dirty washing and threw (yes threw) it into the en-suite (where the washing basket is). I then folded the clean washing and sent the kids to put it away, none of it as mine or {TH}'s. I put the clean bedding in the blanket box. It's not perfectly folded but as Kia would say 'it's better than it was'

The bedding in the blanket box

The inside of the blanket box (originally a travellers chest we think) is beautiful, here's a close up of the paper used to line it

 I then started down {TH}'s side of the bed, getting rid of rubbish and picking stuff up. I wiped all the surfaces down and hoovered.

I then moved on to the dresser, I took everything off the dresser and dumped it on the bed

This left a very dusty dresser

So I gave a wipe down and cleaned it up. It was then time to work out what needed to 'live' on the dresser, out of the pile of junk on the bed. A while ago {TH} made some bowls out of records by melting them in the oven. For some reason (unknown to both {TH} & myself) one had made it's way into the bedroom and filled itself with junk! I wanted to keep this one the dresser as {TH} made it and I knew it would be useful. I decided to put the make up I use most into the record bowl and other stuff in the bag could be stored in the bed (storage top and bottom of the bed) So I wiped the record over and all my make up and in it went. I wiped everything over and dried it before putting it back on the dresser.

 

I then moved over to my side and picked up the bags and clothes off the floor. Clothes went in the en-suite to be washed and my bags were put away in the wardrobe. I emptied the 3 drawers of my bedside unit. 2 drawers have the kids stuff in and the top one had my stuff crammed in. I rehomed the kids stuff, keeping the new school t-shirts in the bottom drawer. That gave me 2 drawers to put all my stuff in.

Middle drawer, has cotton wool and the girls make up that is only to be used under supervision and only for specific occations. I don't want my girls growing up too fast. Also has some bit of mine in there, there's a basket so it keeps stuff together :)

The top drawer has all my hair stuff in, GHD's, hairdryer, sprays and bobbles.

 A quick hoover and I was pretty much done. Moved a few things about and set the clock on the ipod/alarm {TH] picked up the other week and I was done!

 My side

{TH}'s side

{TH}'s side

The dresser

All in all I'm quite pleased with myself

Week 10

Don't you love hoe far behind I am with this lol.

Week 10:

Questions to ponder:

1. What are your hot spot landing zones? the window sill next to the front door, the butchers block (my nemesis)
2. Think about ways you can tackle these flat surface areas to manage the stuff that continues to pile there. I have bought a letter rack to assist with the mail build up on the window sill and moved it to the shelf below the mirror, don't know if it will stay there but for not it's happy. Am also thinking of adding a vase or large candle to the window sill to avoid stuff being dumped there. As for the butchers block, nope I'm at a loss with what to do with that apart from put a note on it saying put stuff on here at your peril lol
3. What are you most proud of so far in your 52 weeks journey? Life in general, I am a happier person with each day that passes and with every bit of junk/clutter I manage to throw away. There's no one thing that I have achieved that I'm proud of, its the whole journey I am going on.

I will work on going backwards as wellas forwards and trying to complete weeks 1-9 hehe

Meet Me On Monday

oh the joys of a Monday morning! I actually managed to get most of the clothes folded and put away last night - I folded all the kids and stacked them so they can put them away when they come home from school, it was a little late by the I finished to go putting stuff away in their rooms and risk waking them. There is a load in the dryer from last night that I need to tackle today and a few bits of washing but other than that I think I am done. Hooray!!!!

Questions:

1.  What is your favorite way to eat potatoes? I love mashed spuds with a dollop of Welsh butter mixed in
2.  What was the last package that was delivered to your house? The book I ordered from Amazon for my college course
3.  What is your favorite scent that you love to smell? Freshly cooked bread..don't know why but I just love the smell 

4.  Do you smoke? I do, I know it's bad for me and all that and I will give up one day

5.  Are your parents married or divorced? My biological parents are divorced but my mum and dad are still married :)

Linky:

 

Hot Spots vs A Good Book

My hot spots are almost clear. They need some tweaking and I need to find homes for things and rejig other places to accomodate other stuff. One job is never one job, there are always (in my case and maybe yours) 3 other jobs that need to be done before the job in question can be done and then of course another 3 jobs after, that were created by the job in question. So it seems to take longer to do the job that originally planned. Of course not every job has 3 jobs before and 3 jobs after but it's never, ever just one job.

Washing - laundry needs to be sorted before making it to the washer, then moved to the dryer, then folded and put away.

Hoovering - stuff needs to picked up, moved before I can 'whip' the hoover round.

So it's no wonder I got bored yesterday with my hot spots. I cleared and rejigged the kitchen sides, but after that I was incredibly pissed off. Why? {TH}. He had wound me up so much and he hadn't said or done anything, that was the issue. While I had busied myself in the kitchen moving things round and cleaning the sides {TH} sat in the lounge playing Call Of Duty (COD). He did nothing, he didn't even pick up the mess he made when he knocked the ashtray over. Why should I work myself like a dog to get the house looking neat and tidy when he can't be bothered to do anything?

As he was playing COD it meant I couldn't watch TV unless I went and sat in the bedroom. The bedroom that is scruffy, untidy and full of washing waiting to be folded and put away. I struggle to get the sleep in there some nights as the mess is actually annoying the hell out of me, there was no way I was going to sit in there on a saturday night and watch TV. Also we pay a fair whack each month for our Sky TV package, but it isn't in the bedroom, only the lounge, freeview in comparison to sky is poopy! 

My dad sent a few books round a few weeks ago he thought I might enjoy reading. I haven't read a book in ages, the last one was Sophie Kinsella's Mini Shop-A-Holic. I did pick up The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo a few weeks ago with every intention of reading it, but I never and when my bookcase arrived it just went to live there with all the other books. So yesterday I grabbed the newest one sent over, it's called Sister and by Rosamund Lupton. I couldn't put it down. I read until about 11pm last night when my eyes could take no more and this morning after I made my cuppa I sat back down and carried on. I had to stop to feed the kidlets lunch and then my father in law turned up, but I have now finished it and loved it... Synopsis below

Nothing can break the bond between sisters ...When Beatrice gets a frantic call in the middle of Sunday lunch to say that her younger sister, Tess, is missing, she boards the first flight home to London. But as she learns about the circumstances surrounding her sister's disappearance, she is stunned to discover how little she actually knows of her sister's life - and unprepared for the terrifying truths she must now face. The police, Beatrice's fiance and even their mother accept they have lost Tess but Beatrice refuses to give up on her. So she embarks on a dangerous journey to discover the truth, no matter the cost.

Now at 5:30pm on a Sunday evening I have no desire to tackle the mess that is our bedroom, nor to fold the endless piles of washing, I have no desire to do anything! Yet if I don't, I know that tomorrow when I get back from dropping the kidlets off, it will still be here waiting for me, mocking me for not doing it before. The thing is I have to tackle part of it in order to find the kids uniforms so they can be ironed. Common sense would tell me that as I have to tackle some of it I may as well tackle all of it, yet the shear amount that needs to be done terrifies me. It's gone past being a quick 10 minute job and turned into a monsterous hour (if not longer) chore, one I wish I could shut the door on and ignore, or one that someone else will say 'don't worry I'll do it' however I know that isn't going to happen and I will have to face up to it, at some point, so why not now? Well I could think of lots of things I would rather be doing, like sitting here reading blogs about people who are organised and have neat and tidy homes, or curling up on the sofa with the dog and reading another book sent over by my dad, or perhaps just sitting and doing nothing. I'd pretty much do anything rather than tackle that washing. There is no escape though is there? It has to be done......I'll just finish my cuppa first though