bowl full of lemons – CraftyGuider

Getting Organised – Halfway

I’m halfway through my organising journey with A Bowl Full of Lemons and I thought I’d reflect on how I’ve done so far.

Week One and Two – Kitchen and Utility Room

The kitchen and utility room are still organised. I just need to train the other members of the family to put things away in their new homes (or just put things away!). We’ve bought a basic IKEA TROFAST unit to store our recycling in, so that the first thing you see when you come in the front door isn’t baskets of paper and plastic bottles. Mr CG painted it cream to match the cupboards and it’s working well.

Week Three – Dining Room

This was my first unfinished task. I was ill this week and the photos I dragged out of the cupboard for sorting sat on the side for weeks. I’ve sorted through a few, but the dining room/Craftyguidelet craft room is a huge job.

Week Four – Launch Pad

Back to success. We bought a 2×2 KALLAX unit from IKEA with 4 baskets so there’s one space for each member of the family. The Craftyguidelets are getting good at storing away their shoes, gloves etc. so there is less “Mummy, where’s my other shoe?” going on in the mornings. I’m usually quite good, but Mr CG needs training up.

Week Five – Living Room

This was my week off due to a chaotic volunteering week. The living room is OK apart from my sofa which is usually covered (and surrounded by) admin, magazines, craft projects etc. I still have a magazine mountain to sort, but I’ve started trying to manage my admin using The Sunday Basket idea. Now my wardrobe is organised, I have somewhere for my WI and Guide bits to go, and I’m getting through the magazines faster than they come through the door. There are a couple of accumulations of papers starting, but I can have people over without worrying about the state of the place.

Week Six and Seven – Master Bedroom and Closet

To boost my resolve for future weeks, my bedroom looks great now. Anything that hangs around starts to bug me really quickly so I want to put it away. We are now thinking about a new carpet to replace the shabby, nail varnish stained cream one we were left by the previous owners. I also need to start making some new clothes that actually fit and suit me to fill the gap in the wardrobe.

Week Eight – Kids Closets

Unfortunately I find myself banned from the girls’ wardrobes as it’s their normal hiding place for presents. So with Mother’s Day coming up this Sunday, I don’t get access until next week. I’ve started trying to sort out the office/craft room instead, so if anyone can lend me a large warehouse to use as a craft room, I’d appreciate it!

It’s the linen closet for week nine of the challenge which I think will be easy to sort out. Famous last words?

How is your spring cleaning going?

Getting Organised – Week Six – Master Bedroom

Yes, I know there was no week five! I took a blogging break last week as it’s been full on at work and home at the moment. The thought of making blogging a necessity rather than something I do for fun fills me with dread, and I’m sure any readers I have aren’t hanging on waiting to see if I’ve alphabetised the DVDs!

My bedroom has been a tip for months. I dragged out the cardboard memory boxes that I used to store mine and the Craftyguidelets’ ‘treasures’ ready to sort them, and they sat in the corner of the room. I dipped in occasionally, but digging through past memories can be time consuming and emotional. After so long, they became a feature of the room and hardly noticeable. Having the blog challenge hanging over me gave me the push to get going though, and having frequently nagged the girls to “tidy your rooms!”, it was now mummy’s turn.I bought some Really Useful Boxes so that storage was sturdier, and just went for it. I’ve been ‘editing’ some of youngest Craftyguidelet’s stuff so we could get her some new furniture and not just move in the same old clutter as before, so I was a bit more battle hardened for the task. Out went piles of old birthday cards, school artwork that just didn’t mean anything to me any more and the pile went down. Once I’d finished, Mr CG did a great job of tidying his small pile of clutter, and we now have a tidy room. It’s now nice to go in there and relax without climbing over piles of clutter. I even found my marbles!The council has taken the recycling and we’ve done a couple of tip runs and a charity shop run to clear the rest.

Next week is the Master Bedroom Closet. How I’d love to have one as gorgeous as the one on the A Bowl Full of Lemons blog, but mine includes my Guide bag and flag, my WI bag, a guitar and many other bits and pieces as well as my clothes. Definitely a challenge!

Getting Organised

The Christmas decorations are down, the birthday cards are up, the Craftyguidelets are back at school – it must be time to get the house back in order.

There are so many books and websites to trawl through to plan a declutter or instigate a new housework routine. The Fly Lady will have you shining your sink, tidying to bless your house and “getting dressed to lace up shoes” as part of your new routine. Marie Kondo has her KonMari Method which gives you “the life changing magic of tidying up” and seems to have you assessing every item for sparks of joy and thanking them for everything they’ve done for you, before donating them to the local charity shop. Anthea Turner will make you the Perfect Housewife and will have you buying wooden coathangers and folding towels just so. The different lists, methods and techniques are endless.

Everyone has something that clicks with them, and although I haven’t immersed myself in any of the above methods, I have cherry picked a few ideas which work for me. To save the last minute rush in the morning, I now get dressed before going down to breakfast, so even if I’m signing reading records or getting lost in an interesting news article, I’m at least decent for the school run. I have parted with several years of birthday cards and some Craftyguidelet artwork, as although they spark joy, I’d rather have the room for new memories to come. And if you check my airing cupboard, my towels are all folded beautifully!

My house does need a severe declutter though as living in chaos gets me down. My life is so busy I need to be able to find things easily without a whole cupboard of stuff falling down on me. It would also be great for everything to have a home so at Christmas we aren’t stuffing vacuum cleaner parts in the airing cupboard or losing PE kits in the Christmas decoration boxes under the stairs.

I spotted A Bowl Full of Lemons blog when I was sorting out my Bloglovin feed. She’s written a book which is out in the UK in February, and is running a Home Organisation 101 Challenge. It’s a 14 week challenge with a printable checklist and it starts on Saturday this week. Although it looks like she’s into baskets and drawer liners (that ain’t happening in my kitchen!), the basics appeal to me. First week is the kitchen so I’ll be going in to sort through exactly what is stashed away in the drawers. If you don’t hear from me by next week, send in a rescue party. With gin. And chocolate.

Do you have an organisation ‘guru’?