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

Yay

My new printer has arrived and it plugged and NOT ready to go. Everything you need comes in the box, printer, inks (+ spares), leads, install disk & photo paper. So you'd think I'd be a happy bunny and able to print out everything I need to print....WRONG. The one thing I didn't buy and didn't think to buy was plain paper. {TH} didn't think too either. Seems both of us read the description totally wrong.

Description read: 

HP Photosmart C4780 & 300 inkjet cartridge & tri-colour inkjet photo starter pack + 50 sheets photo paper

Now anyone (with a brain) can see that says photo paper but uh-oh not me or {TH}, we just read paper, so we thought I'd be getting some paper to set up the printer with. So tomorrow when I nip to pick up a curtain pole I reserved I need to grab some plain paper so I can finish the set up of the printer. I've got as far as printing the test sheet. I did try it on lined paper but nope that didn't work right - did I really think it would? Nope not really but a girls got to try lol


{TH} grabbed the most fabulous curtains from town the other day (in the sale) to go in the lounge. They have huge great big purple flowers on them and I thought it would finally mean not only getting rid of the yucky terracotta curtains in the lounge but also would mean I could at last paint the chimney breast wall, which is painted terracotta (to match the curtains). However it is not to be.
The curtains {TH} bought are tab topped and the window in the lounge does not have the right pole. It's a half bay window so putting up the right type of pole would be a nightmare. We'd have to cut the pole and try to join it where the bay bit is. Which is a no go. 
So the curtains are going in the dining room instead. We have a full size bay in the dining room, but we already have a pole up there and it's outside the bay. It also means the curtains currently up in the dining room will be going in the new laundry room so we don't have to look in there. Alls well that ends well I guess.


Will take some pics tomorrow before and after

Day Three

Ok it's several (2) days since Day Two, so technically I'm on day 5, but since I haven't really done anything since Saturday (day 2) it's my Day 3, confused? Me too lol


I set myself a target today, quite a big one. I wanted to tackle the dining room, which is a dumping ground for everyone and everything. {TH}'s desk could only just be seen under all the crap, the kids crafty stuff was just dumped under the coffee table, the coffee table itself was relativley (sp) tidy, but the main table was yucky! It didn't get cleaned yesterday so was awful, last nights tea, this mornings breakfast - a delight lol


Ok some before pics for you

 {Click for larger pics}

First things first, I cleared the table off and gave it a quick wipe over. Afterall all the junk stuff from everywhere else was going to be dumped on this table, so no point cleaning it properly, I just wanted rid of the crumbs and spilt milk and juice. 

I then stacked everything from everywhere else onto the table and sorted it. I binned alot of the stuff of {TH}'s desk (he hoards some crap, let me tell you that!) I then cheked the kids crafty stuff, made sure everything was complete and the boxes were all closed propely. Onto the games, removed batteries (before they get a chance to leak) and again made sure all the bits where there and the boxes were properly closed.

Due to my dining room also being a throughfair for getting from the kitchen to the lounge I have to clean and mop in sections, for some reason I also find this easier for me. I cleaerd everything off the fire and put my VW's in the sink for a wash

Some in the middle of everything pics 

{Click for larger pics}

My melted record fruit bowl that {TH} made me ages ago, draining after a quick dip in the sopay suds

So I dragged the table away from the wall, wiped the skirting boards amd walls behind where the table sits a, swept that part and mopped it.

It was then pretty much a case of wiping everything down, polishing where needed and putting everything back where it belonged. Mopping as I went.

I ended up with this :)

 {Click for larger pics}

A nice clean room :) and now it's fully done, hopefully it will be easier to manage