organise-your-life-blog

Crazy Clutter

Mon, 14 Jun 2010 21:41:55 +0100

There is clutter and then there is CLUTTER! ALL of us have a secret stash somewhere in our houses that we can’t clear out, be it the small drawer in the kitchen that all the “stuff” gets shoved, or the linen closet that doesn’t hold towels and linen anymore because there is no more room from the “stuff” that’s been put in there.

Out of sight out of mind is the catch cry of the modern home dweller; if visitors can’t see it, well it doesn’t matter does it. As long as for appearance sakes the shell of my home looks tidy well that is all that matters. Right?

WRONG!

One small pocket of clutter can quickly spread to the WHOLE house, Clutter is Cancer of the home, it is a by product of our neediness for THINGS. Our materialism that is fed by the advertisers and marketers of everyone trying to SELL us something that we just HAVE TO HAVE!

As soon as we consumers realize that we DON’T NEED things, the sooner we will live more fulfilled and happy lives.

I’m a participant in consumerism too, don’t get me wrong, I’ve bought “stuff” just because – not of any NEED just a WANT feeling. Do I use that “stuff”? some of it does get used, some of it gets taken out of it’s box and placed on a shelf, the rest of it CLUTTERS my cupboards until I sell it on EBAY or gift it to someone.

I’m not talking here to the people with “hoarding” issues of a psychological nature, I’m not qualified to help you if you are in this category. All I can say is for these people there is a need to find the true reason for your hoarding. Only a trained professional can help you clear your clutter.

I’m talking to the majority of us that have a “stuff” issue. Be it your husbands car magazine collection of the last 5 years cluttering your once beautiful antique bookshelf, or the kids toys that they have outgrown that still live in the toy box in the toy room, SHOES yes ladies yours, there does come a time when you must say goodbye to them.

Ask yourself these questions?

Why am I keeping it?
Does it have a use?
Am I keeping it because of the memories attached to it?
Is it special for other reasons?
Is the item replaceable if I find I do need it AFTER I have given it away?
Is it valuable in a monetary sense?
Was it a gift?
Am I keeping it because it was expensive but I bought it on impulse?

When you work out the TRUE reason it is in your house then and only then can you make the decision to clear it out.

I’ve been through the how to sort clutter in a previous article so I won’t bore you with details, but a quick overview for those of you just joining us.

Trash bag – for broken or unusable items
Charity bag – for things that still have a use and are in good condition.
Keep bag – for the FEW items you choose to keep.

The rules for the first two bags is to get them OUT of your house immediately. Bin them or donate them straight away that same day or first thing the next morning.

Now the trick is to find new homes for the items in your Keep Bag. You should have heaps of room if you’ve been thorough and ruthless. BEFORE you put these things on shelves or in cupboards ask yourself the questions listed above first and if it doesn’t fit toss it.

You MUST LOVE IT to KEEP IT.

Do not keep things around you that you do not LOVE. They are soul draining, little by little they zap your strength, why waste time dusting things that you don’t really care about? Pay attention to what is surrounding you. Do you love everything you see? Is it there because you are too lazy to move it? Does someone else in your home love it but you can’t stand it? Put it in their room out of your sight. Make it THEIR responsibility to take care of it.

My almost 9 year old son has a skull (yes just like the ones the doctors have in their surgery with brains and all) the thing gives me the willies but he LOVES it. I allow him to keep it on the shelf in his wardrobe BEHIND his games so I can’t see it. This is compromise and sharing space. That is OK, we must learn to share our space, however we do not have to suffer in our sharing.

As for hubbies car magazine collection they now live in plastic tubs in his garage, I refused to live with them in MY space anymore. You don’t ALWAYS have to share. “Wink”.

Kitchen Chaos

Thu, 13 May 2010 09:00:51 +0100

Can’t find all those lids for your Tupperware? 47 saucepans and frypans? Do you use that bread machine you bought on a whim “just in case”?

If you answered YES to these questions then read on McDuff!

Of course it may take you all day to clean out your cabinets or it may only take an hour. My suggestion is to have a plan before you start and a clear idea of what you want to achieve. If it helps write it down or draw a diagram of your space and put your belongings “away” on paper first.

You will need to firstly remove everything from each cupboard – one cupboard at a time. Wash down your shelves with hot soapy water. Take a good hard look at the things you removed – Are they things that you use regularly or irregularly or NEVER. The things that you never use I want you to place in a cardboard box and give away. The things you irregularly use place in a box but DON’T throw away yet. Now find new homes for the things you use always in a cupboard closest to your stove for your pots and pans and your oven for your bake wear.

With the Irregular Used box sit it aside and leave it out for a month – take note of how many times you used an item from this box in a month if you used it more than twice a week you may find it a permanent home. If it is something you only use seasonally then pack it away. Anything left in the box at the end of the month that hasn’t been used at all find it a new home.

If you have the money altering your current shelf space by taking out the flat shelves and putting in sliding wire baskets is a great space saver idea. You can always see what you have by pulling the drawer out. You can buy these systems at places like Howards Storage, IKEA, Bunnings – some K-Mart stores have them too. They range in price from about $40 per drawer unit.

These units are great for storing saucepans and frypans under your bench stove top, you’ll do less bending and less rummaging around in the back of dark deep cupboards. IKEA also sell fantastic full cupboard units that are fairly reasonably priced if you are lucky enough to be able to replace your current cupboard system. If not then the in cupboard solution is best for you.

We all have a drawer in our kitchen that is a mish mash of utensils for cooking. Tip the drawer out into a box and try the one month test on this box of items too. The essentials are – 2 wooden spoons, 1 metal spoon, 1 potato masher, 1 ladle, 1 spaghetti server, 1 slotted spoon, 1 set of measuring cups, 1 set of measuring spoons, 2 balloon whisks (small and large) and 1 egg flip, and one juicer. (the type that you squeeze the orange over into a jug)

For your glassware and mugs and cups that take up so much room buy tiered shelving unit for that cupboard and store them upside down to store them closer together. Plates can either be stacked on top of each other in kind or if you have higher space store them on their sides in a dish drainer.

Pantry Panic/Lacklustre Linen

Thu, 08 Apr 2010 21:59:39 +0100

Pantry Panic and Lacklustre Linen!

Are you frightened to open your linen cupboard door for fear of being drowned by toppling towels and droopy doonas? Flummoxed by the “where is that …” I put in the pantry... questions.

Let me help you get these two areas of your home under control once and for all.

Pantry … We use it every day, we fill it every week; fortnight or month, we have a love/hate relationship with it. It always needs to be bigger and yet even if it was we would still say there was not enough space.

I am a huge advocate for CLEAR plastic containers or glass jars for storing everything from breakfast cereals to flour to pasta – even icing sugars and all spices. Yes it can be a big investment and the question of what to buy can only be answered when you take stock of the products you store in your pantry.

So that would be your first step – take stock – what do you have in your pantry regularly?

Secondly – Ask yourself what sort of pantry you would like to have? The pantry of a chef? The pantry of a mum that likes to make good wholesome meals for her family? The pantry of a lolly factory? A combination of all three?

Designate each shelf with a specific storage purpose. A condiments, coffee, sugar and biscuit shelf, a cooking shelf, place a hanging rack on the inside of the pantry door to store spices on. a cereal and rice shelf and the bottom of the pantry is for storing large containers of flour and all the vegetables that don’t store in the fridge as well as red wine storage. Perfect.

Shelves seem to be stock standard in most houses pantries – however if you have the budget sliding drawers and lazy sussans are great storage solution for smaller pantries – sliding drawers guarantee that the things at the back won’t be forgotten or hard to get to. Lazy sussans are also fantastic for smaller spaces.

Work on a First In First Out basis – so the new stuff you buy is put on the back of the shelf while the older stock is bought forward, this way everything is used before it’s best before date and you are putting money in the bin by food being spoiled before you eat it.

Linen cupboard - My biggest and best tip for storing sheets and blankets is DON’T store them folded in a cupboard – lay your spare blankets and doonas flat between the mattress and base of the bed they belong too. Sheets and pillowcases should be folded and stored on a shelf or in a blanket box in the room to which they belong. Towels should be rolled and kept in a basket in your bathroom. Or if you are lucky enough to have room for a shelving rack in your bathroom rolled on a shelf there.

All of this frees your linen cupboard up to store the important things like photo albums, boxes of keepsakes and heirlooms, board games, those huge serving platters that don’t fit in your kitchen cupboards – have grooves put into your shelf so they can be stood on their sides and take up less room – you can also store seasonal linens and tablecloths in a plastic storage unit in the linen cupboard.

This all has a knock on effect to other areas of your home as well – freeing up space everywhere else.

Clutter buster

Sat, 27 Mar 2010 10:22:44 +0100

HELP! My House is drowning in clutter!!!

Hi I’m Lisa, I’m a mum just like you, I have 3 younger children and a husband. I’m going to help you, help your home to become a haven. In the coming months I will be answering your questions to do with your home. De-cluttering, cleaning, sorting, and organising yours and your families stuff.

Each month I will lead you through an area of your house that may need some tweaking. Step by step to clearing the clutter and cleaning the space. So without further adieu let’s get into it….

We’ll start out easy in the KITCHEN. The kitchen is the heart of our homes, we nourish our families and nurture them from this little room.

The first step to clearing the clutter believe it or not is to do NOTHING. Yep you heard me! Step into the middle of your kitchen and look around – make mental notes on how you would like this room to appear when you are done. The power of this thought is amazing and helps you later when deciding what storage and decoration you would like.

This room is the soul of the home, treat it with dignity and respect and it will reward you in ways that you never knew. Once you’ve cleared the bench, you all of a sudden have room to cook those wonderful healthy meals for your family, If your space is welcoming and clear and you don’t need to clean before you work you will be more likely to want to be there instead of getting takeaway. Cleaning it out once and maintaining saves you time as well as mental energy. No more stress about the mess, won’t that be nice.

Start with your kitchen sink and bench top – how much space do you have – is your bench top a home for everything that doesn’t have a home? Collect 3 BIG plastic bin bags one for – RUBBISH, one for – RE-HOMING and one for CHARITY (you’ll need this one when we get to the cupboards). Now just toss – don’t sort yet just toss into the bag you think is right – and one big rule you may NOT go into the bag and retrieve items at a later date. Once your bench is clear give it a good scrub and do the dishes in the sink and give that a good scrub make it shine. Take the rubbish bag outside NOW, take the Re-homing bag and put things where they belong.

Now that’s done – move onto each cupboard and do the same thing – you will be amazed at how many electrical appliances you can get rid of and do you really need that 7^th wooden spoon? I want you to clean out a drawer for your tea towels and aprons. They should live in the room that they are used not in the linen cupboard 3 rooms away. Added bonus is you clear a space in your linen cupboard.(ready for next month).

The idea is to do ONE cupboard or drawer at a time, and repeat the process for the bench top - if it helps you- put the timer on and have a race and see if you can beat it.

Once the kitchen is done – take the charity bags to the charity shop straight away. Clutter in bags is still clutter.

Remember the idea of de-cluttering is to REMOVE not RELOCATE.

Now sit down with your favourite wine and chocolate and a good book and pat yourself on the back for a job well done!

get some ideas here

Fri, 26 Mar 2010 00:43:14 +0100

This blog spot will give pointers and guidance and some little tips and tricks along the way.

Follow along and learn something. Hope I can help.