Day 209: Finding These Pretty Bowls in the Garage, Motivated Me to Reorganise a Kitchen Cupboard

Posted on July 27, 2020 by Sandra Madeira
Crystal dessert bowl set

Yesterday I found this pretty crystal bowl set in the depths of the garage which I forgot that I had. It was all wrapped up carefully in newspaper dated 2008 which was the year we moved in. I don’t bring much back in the house (most of it goes in the charity box, recycling or rubbish sack) but this was something that we could possibly use on special occasions. If we don’t end up using it then I’ll rethink things.

After I cleaned it all in the dishwasher today, I tried to work out where I could store it in the kitchen. We have an end cupboard which has our best plates at the top but the rest of the shelves are just random bits and pieces like this..

Kitchen cupboard before decluttering

I thought that if I move the lower shelf up, I could fit the bowls on the middle shelf. At that point, my youngest came downstairs and asked what I was doing. She liked the crystal bowl set and said that it would be nice if everything in the end cupboard was our ‘best stuff’. I liked her idea.

I added the crystal bowl set to the middle shelf and took a photo. It didn’t look right that the bottom shelf stuck out like a sore thumb. I remembered what my daughter said and found our best wine glasses, decanter and brandy/whisky glasses (below) that were still in their boxes taking up space elsewhere in the kitchen.

Our best glasses and decanter

I removed everything from the the bottom shelf and displayed our nice decanter and glasses instead. I think that the cupboard has a much better purpose now. This is how it looks now that I’ve finished…

Kitchen cupboard after decluttering

Other progress today

As it’s bin day tomorrow, I was able to happily go around the house finding things that I could throw away. I already had a nearly full bin outside from the hours I spent in the garage yesterday, so the rubbish round the house filled up the remaining space nicely. I ended up collecting quite a bit of recycling from around the house as well, so that’s all outside ready for next week.

An electrician came round today to quote for some work we need doing around the house as well as to look at replacing the lights outside. I’m really excited about getting rid of some of the old lighting in the lounge and hallway. It’s a job that we’ve wanted to do for a decade! It’s about time we made some changes… we’re getting there slowly.

Until tomorrow…

Sandra

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Day 208 – Great Progress in the Garage, and Some Thoughts on Being Stuck Behind a Wall of Clutter

Posted on July 26, 2020 by Sandra Madeira

I struggled to sleep last night and I was tempted to just get up and get on with the decluttering. I think that the words of last night’s blog were still lingering in my mind about feeling overwhelmed with the stuff all around me. I eventually fell asleep and woke up around 8.30 this morning. After breakfast I knew that I needed to make some headway with this wall of clutter. I was so determined to make a big dent in it today.

Making more space in the garage

Clutter!

I’m pleased with the progress that I’ve made in the garage today. I went through quite a few boxes and plastic drawers, recycling old cards, unwanted paperwork and cardboard. I also filled three black sacks of rubbish, one large box which I immediately sealed and labeled ‘charity’, and a couple of other boxes and bags for charity. I’ve got a better feel for what’s in the garage now as I got right up to the far wall where there were some very neatly packed boxes. I’ll go through those another day as six hours was enough today.

Boxes of clutter to go through

I think I disturbed a few spiders in the corner of the garage and it was very dusty. I had to wear a face mask! What I also noticed was how dirty the garage doors are inside and out (a job for another day).

Stuck Behind A Wall of Clutter

I’m getting a bit of pressure from my husband to talk about how we want the rest of the house in terms of home improvements, but I’m really struggling to think of the big picture right now. It’s hard for me. I need to process the clutter first and only then will I be able to think straight. He sees me moving the clutter from room to room (which I already identified that I do on day 203) and he doesn’t understand why I do it. I try to explain that it makes sense to me. He does offer to help but because I assume that he will just put pressure on me to throw it all away, I say no and that I want to do it my way.

I know that I can’t move forward until I remove the clutter all around and this is very hard for me; however, I do give myself a pat on the back every now and again for making progress. I’m aware that I won’t be able to open up new spaces and opportunities until I shift everything, but at least I know that I’m moving in the right direction. This blog is like therapy for me and I thank you for listening. I appreciate each and every one of your likes and comments (you know who you are and I just want you to know that you really keep me going). I hope that my posts are helping you in some way too.

I will get better and I will create the space we need, and once all the clutter has gone, I may discover the answers to all of the questions about how we can have this house the way we want it. Sometimes I think that there’s an easier way and that maybe I am just trying to make it hard for myself, but I haven’t found it yet. Until then, I will keep chipping away at the wall.

Hope you’ve all had a good Sunday doing what you love to do. Stay safe!

Until tomorrow…

Sandra

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Day 207: Inexpensive way to Keep Bathroom Cleaning Products Tidy

Posted on July 25, 2020 by Sandra Madeira
Wham tray

I heard about these Wham plastic trays recently and bought a few for the bathrooms to make it easier to clean around the bottles and sprays that sit around.

They come in all different sizes but this one is narrow enough to fit in the small gap that I have in the bathroom downstairs.

I’ve been looking out for something like this since I decluttered the bathroom space back in March.

I have also bought some shorter and deeper ones for other bathrooms as I have more space there.

Carpets and burgers

My daughter and I went out to look at carpets today, not just for her room but to get ideas and prices for all the rooms that we want to do. Someone is coming round to measure and give us a no obligation quote next week. When we got back my youngest had made burgers for us which was a lovely surprise.

It was delicious!

Other progress today

I spent some time this evening helping my eldest declutter and sort out the tall end cupboard in her room. We didn’t realise how much stuff was in there. I think we could start a small library with the amount of books that she no longer wants. I already have a big box of unwanted books from my other daughter’s room and some that I have put to one side as well.

We have a lot more clutter to be going through tomorrow and it all feels a little overwhelming, so I’d better get some rest now.

Until tomorrow…

Sandra

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Day 206: The Cleaning Bug is Catching

Posted on July 24, 2020 by Sandra Madeira
Clean floor tiles

My daughters are teenagers and they won’t mind me saying that they go through mood swings. One minute everything is my fault and the next I’m the loveliest mum in the world. Like all children, they also get bored easily and it doesn’t matter what I suggest, they don’t want to do it. I’ve learnt to let them get bored enough to work it out for themselves – how would they learn important life skills otherwise. I’m not always going to be there to decide on a good use of their time.

What I didn’t expect today was for my eldest daughter to say ‘What can I use to clean the bathroom floor tiles?” I know that she’s also been watching Mrs Hinch’s cleaning stories on Instagram so she’s either been influenced by her or me (probably the former, ha ha).

I got her all the products that I thought might assist her and went to cook dinner. She didnt need me standing over her and I was quite looking forward to seeing the results. The only guidance I gave her was to wear rubber gloves and open the window! Once she’d finished scrubbing the floor she moved onto the shower head, the wall tiles around the shower and the limescale on the taps.

When I called her for dinner she was proud of what she’d done and so was I. Tomorrow she wants to have a go at the shower screen. I’m perfectly happy with that!

I’m shattered this evening after a long day of zoom calls at work, so I’m going to bed earlier than usual this evening.

Looking forward to what the weekend is going to bring.

Until tomorrow…

Sandra

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Day 205: Going With the Flow and Keeping Things Moving

Posted on July 23, 2020 by Sandra Madeira
2 chicken dishes, egg fried rice and spinach

My husband offered to cook this evening and then asked for mine and my daughter’s help (which sort of didn’t feel like much help to me at first, but there you go). My task was to cut up the chicken and then fry it. My husband asked me to keep the chicken moving in the pan which I was going to do anyway. I don’t enjoy cooking at the best of times, and even less so when I’m being told how to cook; however, I remembered something that I’d read this afternoon about letting things go, and going where life takes you, rather than resisting and swimming against the tide. So, I decided to go with the flow and tried to fry the chicken mindfully; turning over each piece individually.

As I was keeping the chicken moving, I started thinking about how similar this was to what I do around the house and at work – I keep things moving. I don’t let anything stand still. I’m already going with the flow, so why can’t I apply this to assisting my husband with the cooking. We all worked together and it got done in no time at all. And we have leftovers for tomorrow which always pleases me.

Progress today

I had to get up early this morning for the shopping to arrive, so I pottered around the kitchen/dining room area tidying up and putting away surplus items. I then decided to focused on one spot in the kitchen by the sink and gave it a thorough clean – it actually took up a lot of my time but it was clean and fresh afterwards. The shopping then arrived and after putting that away I started work. It was a very busy day full of zoom calls but I kept the projects moving forward. This is what it’s all about… baby steps, and keeping things moving.

The kitchen stayed clean and tidy all day even though we were all in and out making breakfast, lunch and snacks. After dinner this evening though, it looks like a bomb’s hit it again. I could easily spend another 30 minutes in here getting it back to what it was like this morning. I’m really tempted to leave it until the morning, but I have a two hour meeting at 9am and I would really like to have breakfast in a tidy kitchen before that.

Oh well, I’ll just go with the flow and get on with it. All I need to do is pop my air pods in my ears and put on an audio book to motivate and inspire me and it will be done in no time at all.

I’ll then look forward to going to bed and listening to a meditation track – tonight’s one is called Looking at the bright side

Until tomorrow…

Sandra

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Day 204: Out Goes Some Returned Items and in Comes a Beautiful New Chair

Posted on July 22, 2020 by Sandra Madeira

I popped out today to return some items from Amazon that have been sitting around the house for a few weeks. It will not only be good to get a refund as soon as possible, but I’ll also no longer be tripping over the boxes and having to move them every time I want to sweep the floor! I ran a few other errands whilst I was out as well. It was actually good to be out and about, although I noticed very little social distancing going on. Things will be very different in a couple of days because masks are going to be mandatory in all shops in the UK from Friday 24 July. I only have a pack of disposable ones…

Disposable masks

… but I think I may look into getting a proper material one that can be washed. I’ll need to do some research and read some online reviews. Does anyone else have any preferences on disposable vs. material masks?

The best chair in the house

My eldest daughter has been doing a lot of research online to get ideas for her new room and I love the look of everything she has shown me (I’m getting quite excited myself). We’re not going to be ordering any large items just yet as we would struggle to find places to store them before the room gets emptied and decorated; however, there was one item that I was okay with ordering which was a new chair (you may remember me saying a couple of weeks ago that the one she’d had for years had broken).

It was in the sale when we ordered it last week so that made it even more worth it. When the large box arrived today, my daughter looked so excited and she hasn’t stopped smiling all day. Her words were “this is the most comfortable thing in my room – more comfortable than my bed”. She added a cushion and a blanket and kept dragging it from room to room to sit on it. I tried it out quickly and said if she ever goes off it, I’ll have it 😉.

An evening stroll

A pleasant evening walk

My youngest teen met up with a few friends this afternoon and they were still chatting on the green by early evening. My eldest mentioned about going for a walk (I think she missed her and wanted to see if she was okay). As we walked arm in arm around the green, we noticed that there were a lot of other mini groups of people out and about having fun; something to do with some of the primary schools finishing today for the summer holidays.

A very pleasant evening. Hope yours has been good too.

Until tomorrow…

Sandra

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Day 203: Making Good Progress on the Habit of Eliminating Clutter, Instead of Moving it From Room to Room

Posted on July 21, 2020 by Sandra Madeira

I have had a habit for many years of moving things from one room to another and tricking myself into thinking that I’ve decluttered. I would tidy the area that I was working on, having hidden or used the items in another room. Then, when I went to declutter the other room, I would find the items again and get frustrated that I still have them, and possibly move them somewhere else… and it goes on. I would get annoyed if anyone in the house mentioned that I ‘just move things about’, until I eventually put the items in the spare room or (as a final destination before exiting the house) the garage.

Side note on my 2020 challenge: One of the reasons why I started this challenge is to shift the stuff for good and hold myself accountable by writing about it, so that I actually have more transparency about what I am doing. By tackling things every day and following myself around the house, it’s allowing me to work on eliminating this irritating and embarrassing habit.

When something enters the garage

Deep down I know that I really don’t want something once I’ve made the decision that it’s entering the garage; however, it’s still there in the back of my mind for me to retrieve it if I need to (not good). The way I’m feeling at the moment, there’s no way that I will be bringing anything back into the house as I’m enjoying the clear spaces. So, the stuff is piling up and by adding Covid-19 to the equation where it’s more difficult to get rid of clutter, things can get a little overwhelming and out of hand at times. Unless I actually throw things away in a black sack fortnightly or recycle on the alternative fortnight, nothing is actually going anywhere at the moment.

Whilst leaving items in the garage has got to be better than it entering a landfill via a black sack, it’s clogging up the space I made in there a month or so ago. So, I decided to have an hour in my cluttered hideaway today to clear the way for storing more stuff that needs to go to charity or be sold… more on that below. I need to investigate how I can shift the charity bags and larger unwanted items quicker. Someone must want them… more on that below as well. I think I’m also getting very close to agreeing with the rest of the family about getting a skip, but I need to do some research as to what happens to these items because I want to get rid of things the right way. Lots to think about.

Progress today

1. Advertising an unwanted item: Today I pulled out a ‘Sporter’ scooter from the garage that belonged to my daughter when she was younger. It looks as good as new as she’s hardly used it, so I washed it down in the garden and immediately advertised it on the FaceBook Marketplace Page.

Sporter scooter

I’ve had some successes this year already in selling some popular items including a rocking horse, so let’s see how I go with this.

2. Garage Sorting: I then spent a whole hour shifting some boxes around in the garage and making space for some of the items that I need to store from the spare room (soon to become my daughter’s bedroom). I found some half filled boxes and quickly shifted items from one to the other. I ended up flattening two or three boxes for recycling. I’ll be continuing with that process in the morning as there’s some easy decluttering to be achieved in there which requires no decision making (although I’m actually feeling a bit stronger about making decisions at the moment).

3: Calling all Decorators: I rang around a few painters and decorators to get an idea of pricing and availability for decorating the spare room and a few other rooms we need to get done. I did suspect that people would be booked up due to Covid-19 and I was right. I have one more person calling me back tomorrow and I need to speak to an electrician as well. My daughter is a little frustrated because there are a lot of steps involved to get the room ready and the delays will mean that she might not be able to enjoy it over the school holidays. I’ve explained that it will all be fine, and it might turn out that we paint that room ourselves and get someone to do the other rooms and hallway when they become free later in the year.

Another busy and productive day at home and at work.

Until tomorrow…

Sandra

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Day 202: A Lazy Morning Energised me to Declutter Like Crazy in the Afternoon

Posted on July 20, 2020 by Sandra Madeira

Don’t you just love it when you have a day booked off and you can actually have a lazy morning and not worry about doing anything or going anywhere? My girls are on school holidays now so my eldest daughter and I had breakfast together and then we cuddled up on the settee and watched a film together. It was so spontaneous and I definitely needed it as I felt so energised afterwards.

Energised to declutter

It was then time to face the boxes, baskets and bags that I moved from the spare room to mine yesterday plus baskets of clothes that were already in my room.

Pile of stuff to declutter

Some of it was easy stuff like clothes to put away. Then there were clothes that I had to make decisions about and I was proud of myself that I put some of them (that I’ve struggled to get rid of for years) in a charity bag. I’ve identified today that I don’t have enough storage for toiletries as we only have a small cupboard in our en-suite, so I need to have a think about that. I moved other items to their places in other rooms and some of the stuff got thrown away or recycled. Anything that I wasn’t sure about (i.e. difficult decisions) just went back in the plastic boxes for now. I’ll come up with a method of dealing with difficult stuff another time.

After a couple hours I had filled another charity bag and thrown some things away. I didn’t finish but I was left with a much smaller and tidier area to sort through another day.

Reduced clutter

I then had a quick bite to eat – just a jacket potato with cheese and beans with spinach on the side. It was delicious.

Jacket potato with cheese and beans

Other progress today

It’s recycling day so I topped up the bins and boxes with any cardboard and plastic that was lying around. Below is the extent of what has actually left the house today (the charity bags can’t actually go anywhere other than the garage though, but at least they are not taking up space in the house).

Recycling cardboard, clothes and books

Downstairs was starting to look messy because of stuff that needed putting in the garage, so after doing the recycling I filled the garage with more stuff that we don’t want. I think I might have to spend some time in there this week as it’s getting a bit out of hand again.

My headache has gone by the way (probably went with the rubbish) so I’m looking forward to a good night’s sleep tonight. I’m about to switch my meditation track on – this one’s called Listen – which is supposed to explain the difference between listening and hearing.

Until tomorrow…

Sandra

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Day 201: An Unused Bathroom Gets a Freshen Up, and Starting to Box Up the Spare Room

Posted on July 19, 2020 by Sandra Madeira

Today I got up earlier than usual and went for a 30 minute brisk walk to clear the cobwebs in my head. Whilst I was eating my breakfast, I thought through the plan for the day which was to work on the spare room, starting with the en-suite bathroom that hasn’t been used for a couple of years. It’s become a bit of a dumping ground for spare cleaning stuff and other random items that we don’t want, most of which I suspected would end up in the recycling or bin but I kept an open mind as to what I would find.

Armed with rubber gloves and a mask, I entered the bathroom and opened the small window. I had a vision of a completely clean and clear room and I kept that picture in my mind for the next couple of hours. I knew that there was mould on the ceiling around the shower and above the sink so I sprayed it with Astonish Mould and Mildew Blaster and left the room for 15 minutes to let it do its work. It was at that point that the Really Useful Boxes turned up that I ordered yesterday so I put them aside for later sorting in the main part of the spare room.

Back to the en-suite

I moved everything out of the room and scrubbed all the mould off the ceiling and top of tiles around the shower. I couldn’t get it all off but it looked much better – I will have another go next week. I then cleaned the ceiling and tiles from top to bottom, and gave the windowsill, sink and toilet a good clean. The lino flooring desperately needs changing in there as it’s all bumpy and coming away at the edges due to a few incidents from the shower door not sealing properly. Ideally the whole bathroom needs changing snd walls re-tiling but we are going to make do for now. Here’s where I got to after a couple of hours and it looked clean and smelt fresh…

En-suite from cluttered to clean

This is what the unused bathroom was like at the beginning…

An unused bathroom

I purposely didn’t show you photos of the mould… I mean, who would want to see that 😀?

Decluttering the main part of the spare room

As I mentioned yesterday, my daughter would like to move into this room over the school holidays as it’s bigger than the one she’s currently in and it gives her a chance to use her creativity to design and furnish the room. She’s got great taste so I’m really looking forward to seeing her ideas. If you’ve been following my posts, you will know that the challenge I have is that the spare room is filled with ‘stuff’ – a mix of (1) clutter that needs to exit out of the house but needs to be sorted and bagged first, and (2) things we want to keep but will have to fit into a smaller room once my daughter moves into this one.

Now, we could move everything into her existing room, but in the spare room we have a large desk, filing drawers and two bookcases (one large and one small). These not only won’t really fit, but are also the opposite colour wood to the fitted wardrobes that are in there. There are also two cupboards full to the brim in the spare room – one with games which needs a good sort out and one with all sorts of things including a Playstation and accessories, dressing up clothes, photo albums and so much more that I couldn’t even take a guess at.

I have three options:

  • Somehow fit it all into the smaller room as well as the furniture mentioned above (issue: the smaller room would become my husband’s temporary office so we can’t make it too cramped).
  • Sell the furniture we don’t think we’ll use elsewhere (issue: this could take a while to sell and then I have to find somewhere to put the stuff that’s in them)
  • Make space in the garage and dump it all in there for later sorting (easy option meaning less clutter round the house… but then I need to make room in there… it’s a viscous circle).

What I do know is that I have my work cut out for the next couple of months, but as you know, I do love a decluttering challenge and it will yield positive results. I made a start this afternoon and boxed up some items to sort out properly tomorrow.

Really Useful Boxes put to good use

I’ve put the ‘filled’ boxes in our bedroom as my husband will be working in the spare room tomorrow. I have the day off so I’ll have lots of time to sort and declutter whilst playing music or listening to audio books.

Until tomorrow…

Sandra

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Day 200: By Identifying That Decluttering has Different Levels of Difficulty, it Motivated me to Move Forward

Posted on July 18, 2020 by Sandra Madeira

When I’m feeling stressed and headachy, my body and mind still want to declutter; however, it has to be something that doesn’t require decision making. What I’m finding is that there are different levels of decluttering and the ones that involve decisions can quite easily stress me out even more.

When there is mess everywhere (which feels like all the time and everywhere in my house) doing something little and often works for me as long as I can see the progress. By doing what I feel like doing every day, I am making the whole process more pleasurable which is an important part of my wellbeing. When there are decisions to be made, I find it very stressful.

I’ve also realised that it’s important to rest and my body knows exactly when to do that; it awards me with a 48 hour stress/tension headache. It’s usually before I have time off and guess what… I have Monday off. As you know yesterday I had (and still have) one of those headaches which I believe is linked to a few things:

  • Not resting when I should i.e. pushing myself to do something when all I want to do is curl up and watch a feel good movie.
  • The clutter all around me still hanging around in areas of the house that we use every day (which is getting better downstairs but just not upstairs).
  • Not asking for help, which I’m getting better at. Everything I’ve asked for help with today my lovely family have done for me.

Last night I went to bed a lot earlier than usual and drifted off to sleep during my meditation track. Then I woke up at 3am and couldn’t go back to sleep. The pain at the back of my head was lingering in an annoying way, so I got up and had some porridge and camomile tea and sat quietly in my tidy kitchen 😀. I then tried lying down on the sofa and I actually ended up drifting off at 6am for a few hours.

I had things I wanted to get on with today so I really didn’t want to spend the whole day lying around so I went upstairs to assess what needed doing in the spare room (the one I mentioned the other day that my eldest daughter would like to have as her bedroom). As there’s going to be a lot of decision making in that room it wasn’t the best thing for me to be decluttering today with how I was feeling. So, I just moved things forward by ordering some large Really Useful Boxes which will be arriving tomorrow. The girls are going to help me pack the stuff up that I want to keep and put the rest in relevant bags.

I then turned my attention to something easier to take my mind off my headache and it worked.

My progress today

Bedroom after decluttering (step 1)

I walked into to our bedroom and saw the mess that had been piling up for a couple of months. I suddenly had a vision of how I could make a couple of changes and stop the clutter build up and I felt instantly motivated. I just needed to move the baskets of clothes, washing and other stuff that didn’t really have a home. It was getting difficult to get into bed at night and walk around the room. I saw it as a decluttering task that could be broken down into 2 steps – first step was easy, (perfect for today) and second step was difficult (for another day).

First step (today) was to shift the bed to the left, move the dressing table to the right side of the room, dump all baskets of stuff in the far corner on the right for sorting another day. Then clean, dust ceilings and walls, change sheets and vacuum the surrounding area. I was determined to limit myself to around an hour and it took me 57 mins.

57 minutes of decluttering and cleaning

Second step (for another day) will be to sort out each basket in the corner of the room. As they’ve been moved away from the entrance of the room they won’t get in the way anymore so there’s no rush to do that.

Great progress for day 200!! And I managed to cook a roast beef dinner as well.

Until tomorrow…

Sandra

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