Resolutions

I don't normally do New Years resolutions I figure why set myself up to fail BUT this year I decided to log goals I plan to aim for as much as a reminder to myself as anything.

So this year I plan to .....

1) Keep doing weekly menus and try and do some more long term planning with batch cooking and so forth.

2) Get our finances on a more even keel and sort out proper budgets as we have been doing to much random spending and while our income is good we have slipped into bad habits.

3) Get the allotment up and running properly.. long term aim to visits regularly enough I can consider getting chickens which I will not do unless one of us is going up most days anyway.

4) Get my fitness levels up another notch.

5) Get the bikes sorted and a space to keep them that is easily accessible so we start riding again (plus a child seat and/or trailer) which indirectly should help with aims 3 and 4.

6) Learn to drive the bigger manual car.. I have a manual licence but have only driven automatics since and need to relearn how to use a clutch !

7) Declutter some more - I do think we are very slowly starting to do this but with a house full of squirrels it is hard work.. in line with 2 I want to rapidly cut down the amount we spend on storage by getting rid of things we are just not going to use particularly spare furniture and so forth.

8) Move the industrial sewing machine to the workshop so Mark can use it and I have somewhere to go and work that doesn't have outstanding housework and a hundred and one other distractions !

I think thse are the main ones. I'll add to this if I think of anything else later.

Re-organising the house

We are planning to have a belated fifth birthday party for Small in a few weeks because the August bank holiday means most of his friends are away on holiday. This year we have decided to have the party here and he has been planning it for weeks but anyone who knows our house will know it's rather over crowded with stuff.

We have moved the furniture around in the front room and made much more floor space which is also good because Treestump is starting to move about, not crawling more throwing himself about but still moving quite a bit. We still need to clear a few piles of stuff but the moving about has made some shelving a lot more accessible which helps.

We also currently have the last bit of flooring in the back up while we put in the underfloor heating and have to get the new floorboards down before the party !.

We have been trying to sort some better storage particularly for toys so got some Trofast storage from IKEA which is basically frames into which slot plastic tubs and you can chose which combination of size of tubs you get. We only bought some tubs, not enough to fill the frame though we already have some upstairs in Small's bedroom. The plan is the top layer is for spare tea, t-towels, placemats etc and the lower layer is for toys which will get swapped around for boxes in the bedroom as the boys decide what they want to play with.

This unit sits just outside the kitchen and has the tea making stuff ie kettle , t-bags etc and the bread prep area so that breadcrumbs don't contaminate the food prep area and make me ill. We used to have a tall boy there which was narrower than the new unit.

Until now the area by the back door has had a book case next to the sewing machine storing sewing and other craft bits. I realised this was the same width as the tall boy so I have combined them into a narrow dresser. The contents looks rather scrappy as it is random boxes and so forth currently but it is twice as much space for crafting bits and you can never have enough space for such things!

In case you are wondering the back door which should be in the space to the left of the dresser is currently boarded up hence the strange triangles you can just see in the space.

Copper Inchies

These are for another swap on ATCs for all. Inchies are one inch square bits of art, in this case embossed stamping on inked card.

Took a bag of random bits and a big bag of clothes to the charity shop. The clothes were mainly tailored jackets and ladies suits that belonged to a friend of my partners parents. Lovely clothes but too small for me. I think she was quite a small lady by the look of things but I was lucky enough to inherit her stash, fabric, some haberdashery and some clothes. I am gradually getting rid of that which I can't use. I also washed a bunch more as they smelt rather musty before I take them up too.

Convertble Dress

I've been coming across this idea on and off for awhile and today I came across not one but two tutorials.

The idea is a skirt with long straps attached which can be wrapped in various ways to give different looks, I think it needs to be a stretch fabric, certainly all the ones I've seen have been. It very much reminds me of the wrap sling I have for Treestump and wearing the two together might end up with accidentally getting undressed when you meant to take the sling off! On the other hand I can see it could be good for breastfeeding if you wore it the right way.

The two tutorials are on Burda Style and rostitchery, both used a circle skirt but you could do it with a straighter tube skirt. Personally the more flare the better, with a circle skirt it has a real Marilyn Monroe look. I would very much like to have a try and do have a nice piece of jersey somewhere though it might be a little heavy as it looks like it would work best in something very drapey. As it is meant to only take an hour or so it sounds like a perfect project to fit round a small baby,

I missed a couple of days posting though I have done a couple on my food blog but hey I still think I'm doing quite well on the post a day thing. Less well on the decluttering it's easier to ignore things because often starting makes things worse mess wise before it gets better and while I want more space I don't want to give up what we have managed so far.

ATC's and paper clothes

Today's Decluttered Item - Tidied the storage container cupboard and chucked several containers and lids that no longer had partners.

I have done two mosaic ATCs that I am happy with though I noticed when scanning one has lost a tile. The first is styled on the various mosaic tables and so forth I've seen, the sort with a shape done in square pre made mosaic tiles then surrounded by randomly broken larger tiles. The second is more experimental. I cut up a picture of a face and stuck it back down in the right order but deliberately a little out of sinc then put a mosaic frame round it like a portrait, I like the effect, as it is going to a swap at ATCsfor all.com I hope others do to.

I have also been playing with my new paper fashions set as mentioned previously. I did a quick ATC of a mandarin jacket on a tailors dummy, which I like but I think it needs a bit extra somehow, possibly some nice paper as a background or similar I'm not sure.

The person and bag are currently loose but may become a card and the other clothes are also loose as mostly I have just been playing at adapting the basic shapes that the stencil gives you following ideas from the book such as the pleated skirt which is two skirts one on top the other, with slits cut in the top one. I think it is very effective. I was thinking of a washing line for them though I have got glue on the pleated skirt so that may become something where I can put something in front of it like a bag. The various items come with tags to allow you to glue them on to other pieces like the dummy. Skirts etc have a tab at the top so you can join them to tops where as tops have fold over tabs like a paperdoll. The kit has lots of different shapes which you can then extend even more by cutting up and adapting, for instance the mandarin top started as the rollneck top.

Decluttering

I am going to attempt to declutter at least one thing per day. Today I cleared part of the desk, got rid of a bunch of paperwork and decluttered two chocolate boxes by dividing the remaining chocolates into ones I can eat and ones I can't ie those with gluten in or coffee. The boxes can then be thrown as there was only a few in each box.

This should mean there is now room on the desk for my scanner so I can scan ATC's and the like rather than taking photos which are warped one way or another.

Christmas decorations

Look we have a room that looks grown up and everything.. The tree ended up in front of the french doors as they don't really need opening much this time of year. You can see the end of the settle collected from mum. The table is not the new one as that is still propped against the wall till we finish sorting a few more things out.

The top picture is Jake one of our cats on the settle looking towards the tree. The cushion is the one my gran had on it when I was little and the cover mum had made has shredded so that is the original cover, not bad for something that has got to be over 20 years old and possibly a lot older.


It even still looks reasonable a day later for Christmas dinner. This side of the room is more sorted and clear than it has been for a long time. I can't in all honestly say the whole area is or that I got as far as I wanted to but I had to be realistic about how much physical work i could do currently so things like painting the walls has been put on hold for now, however I quite like bare plaster especally when it as well done as this is, the plaster we had in I can't fault..

The other side of the room is less organised Ill show you a picture at the bottom, However to be fair it isn't as bad as it looks. Against the wall is the octagonal table top with a cloth over it, in front of that is a sideboard with some stuff in front of it and the the table base, which has a couple of boxes piles on top. There is also some building supplies that haven't yet been used In front of all that is two more dining chairs and a rocking chair with some stuff on them mostly opened presents which haven't found homes yet. So with that out the way here is the picture.. I hope to find homes for some of this before new year as we are having a party then.

Progress on tidying

Progress has been slow this last week as we have all been down with colds. However I have done some things.. I get a bunch of tester pots and have been trying out paint colours so I can paint as areas get cleared. As the room is almost a T shape and the light levels vary from very brightly lit by natural light to pretty much no natural light at all colours look very different in different areas. I have narrowed it down to two, one twice the price of the other but it's coverage is MUCH better. I have been trying them on pieces of card as they can be moved about but now I'm going to use up the rest of the test pots on the actual walls in a couple of different places to see if the more expensive one is worth the money, if I have to do one coat not three it probably is both because you actually use less paint and because of the time saving.

The other main thing that is an improvement is the table has stayed clear enough we have been able to have your evening meal all together at the table before the small one goes to bed which is something we've been wanting to do for a while.

Other sorting has been done but in other rooms rather than this one, though we are definetly at the looks worse before it gets better stage.

Spaceships and progress out back.

The picture at the top is a spaceship the small one made recently. We were told firmly we had to save rubbish to make things from and indeed we were happy to do so for the school as the teacher had asked but himself decided he needed first pick to build something at home which he had great fun with. Since then it has sat ignored on the table so I took a picture and took it apart so the parts can be re-used to make something else.

So on to progress with the re-organisation. The area to be sorted is too big to be cleared of everything as suggested so I am doing it in stages. I have started to clear the wooden floor area though the building supplies are still there.. however as those are to finished the heating and therefore destined to go under the floor which of course will be out of sight. There is no point making Jon's life more difficult by moving it farther away at this point. However the pile of fabric that was there has been moved and sorted into keep and not keep. I am part way through washing it all as it is very musty due to being a small part of a lot of fabric I inherited in a round about sort of way (see earlier posts) and had been stored in a barn for a while.

I have also got two huge boxes of sewing pattern which I have sorted into keep and give away and got several friends to take what they want. One more friend to look through them ( and anyone else who reads this and is local is welcome to) then I'll see if there is any interest in ebay for the rest.

I did however do some tidying in another part of the room. The dresser had become a complete mess as any small items without a home had been dumped there so I cleared it and got out some of my Denby which is now on display.. It makes me feel like I'm getting somewhere.

In reply to the questions here.

I haven't got appropriately labelled boxes because typically I managed to recycle all the appropriately sized boxes just before we started but I'm working on that. I agree it's a good idea however.

I haven't set a specific time each day but I am trying to do a bit each day and see how much energy etc I have,

I don't want to get containers because a) we have quite a few, they are just full not nessacaraly of stuff we want to keep and b) I want to get the shelving sorted first so they are the right size.

I feel both overwhelmed and excited at the same time.

Planning the attack

Questions from orgjunkie.com

1. What do I want the purpose of my room or area to be?
It should be a combined living and dining area,with the area near the kitchen having the dining table and the rest general living space which will free up the front room to be a more secluded, more adult sitting room.

2. What do I need in or near the room to serve that purpose?
Dining table, the current one needs to move probably to the attic as it has always been my work table and is very good fr that purpose, then my gran's hexagonal one has to come down from Mum's house.
Sofa, TV and most importantly probably shelving and other storage.

3. What can I remove from the room?
Some of the sewing stuff. Longer term this includes the sewing machine but it needs to stay till the workshop is ready so will probably take the place ear marked for a computer desk for now. There is less to chuck in this room than you might expect as it is where the stuff we actually want ends up because if it is put away we can't get to it as putting away currently means a storage unit!

4. What problems do I see with the room?
The area near the back door because it easily becomes a throw hole. This is where I plan to put a desk but for now will probably have to store the sewing machine instead. Getting the storage right so it works for what we want to store.

5. What organizational tools might solve those problems?
Lots of storage of the right size! Having a plan.

6. What habits need to change to solve the organizational problems?
Us all being squirrels. Ok that might not change but we need to stop being such perfectionists we need to realise the area is good enough to use and the last bits that need doing can be done around using the room rather than constantly waiting.. that is helped by Jon having realised he can do the heating from the void under the floor. Plus being realistic about what we are going to use and when, sometimes it's better to get rid of something and buy a new one later if we need it I know this in my head, my heart and the recycler in me finds that harder to accept.

7. What kind of a budget do I have to create the organized room of my dreams?
Most of the budget has been spent already on the remodling. Apart from paint and paper we have most of what we need as to start with we are going to reuse things we have at least until we get the new table and so forth in and see how everything sits..

8. What kind of a timeline is necessary to organize the room?
Next few weeks, end of the month at the latest as we need to get the furniture from mum's and get ready for christmas. Even though we don't decorate for christmas till the last minute I want to get everything out and go through it before the shops have run out of anything I might want otherwise I'll buy stuff I already have!

9. What is my plan of action? (very much an overview at the moment.)

Clear the wooden floored area and go through the random piles so i at least know what is there, work out what is staying and what is going.

Get one of the boys to finish stripping the ceiling paper (there was a big leak so the ceiling needs re-papering), once that is done I can get on with painting. I'm not doing the ceiling myself as I'm 5 months pregnant and my balance is suspect.

Once that area is sorted moving items of furniture around, which includes things currently in here and ones that need to come in from elsewhere. Then the other part of the room can be sorted and rearranged.

Organising the back

Those of you who have been to my house know the back part well, even those who haven't have seen parts of it in pictures as that is where we normally sew. It has been a bit of a dump.. no strike that a huge dump. For ages as there is no organised storage everything is temporary partly because we were planning to take the floor up in the last bit to finish the underfloor heating. Those who know us know we have too much stuff so not having places to store stuff is fatal however big a house you have.

Well the news is Jon has started on the heating again and has decided he hates taking floors up so much he has worked out how to do it from underneath. This means we can get on with sorting the rest and it also means we can keep the original floorboards and sand them back. Those floor boards are in pretty good nick though we do need to patch in a few where he has removed the hearth from the no longer used chimney, leaving it would have been visible and coursed a cold patch.

For those who don't know the layout of downstairs is as follows. The front door is at the side of the house and you come into a hall with the stairs in front of you. To the right is a sitting room which goes across the whole of the front of the house. To your left is a door into the kitchen and straight ahead is a door which goes into what is now a tiny second hall with the utility room under the stairs off it and another door into the back of the house. The whole of the back of the house is open plan and is a bit like a horseshoe ie from the middle of the house you can enter into two areas (one the kitchen) with a wall between them, both of which open up into a large area across the whole of the back of the house. A huge amount of work had to be done to get the house like this including knocking about the whole area, new doors, windows, putting in beams to allow walls to be taken out, raising ceilings, redoing floors, including putting in underfloor heating and so forth. The main work was done a while now and the kitchen was finished the beginning of this year at which point we ran out of steam.

Now however we are getting on with things again all be it slowly at times. I am determined to get the back sorted and for it to become our main living area before Christmas hits and before it gets much colder so we don't have to huddle round the wood stove in the front room. Also mum is retiring at the beginning of next year so we HAVE to go and collect my gran's dining table which we said we would take and some other furniture as she is downsizing big time and can't store it any more.

To help spur me on I have decided to sign up to The 30 day Organizational Challenge. There are prizes and everything though most I'd either not get or would find out if they would send to friends in the states. The real prize would be to get the area sorted. Basically the idea is to pick a room, cupboard whatever that needs sorting and spend the month gradually doing it.

So what is it like currently? Well a few pictures in a mo. It is actually slightly better than it was at the beginning of the month as we tidied on, around and under the table as we had friends round for Saturday dinner. Currently it is a mix of building materials, sewing equipment and random tat. It all needs decorating as well.


Looking from the utility room into the area that needs the heating put in. As Jon is working under the floor now I can sort this bit. I think we are leaving sanding the floor till the spring but the rest needs painting and so forth before I can furnish it.

You can see right through the back area, to the right of the window the house goes back farther and believe it or not there is another window back there plus a back door at right angles to the window, or rather a boarded up space for a door as we need to get it fitted still.
Looking back into the same area. Much of the building supplies, mostly boards against the wall, will disappear under the floor shortly. The white pile in the for ground is hiding my industrial sewing machine. That needs to stay for now but hopefully come the new year I will be able to move it to a workshop a friend of ours is planning to get at the end of the road which he is happy for me to share.


This is the area round the corner, the other half of the main back area next to the kitchen. It is slightly better than the rest but not much. The floor in this part is concrete with the heating pipes screed into it. We plan to cover it with reclaimed wooden flooring but again that will have to wait till the spring I think as we need to be able to clear the room completely which will mean furniture outside in the day at least. You might just be able to see the fabric I have bought for curtains in the corner next to the french doors.

I think that is enough for one post I will post my plan for the month tomorrow.