Nearly there...

I started this journey in the hopes that one day i would have something to show for it, that i would have a home that felt fresh and clear of excessive clutter and that i would be able to learn to say goodbye to things that really didn't matter. I think that i am finally making some real progress. Sometimes it feels like one step forward two steps back because it is such a long process, by the time i am done with one room and have moved on to the next the previous room becomes untidy again. Its frustrating and i have felt like giving up on many occasions and this is probably why it has taken so long to get this far. However this week we have managed to take some huge steps in this unstuffing journey.
I pulled everything out of our shed, we sorted it and started planning items that would be taken to the dump and others that would be either sold in a garage sale or donated.
The next step was to sort the toy room which had become my dumping ground for all of the excess stuff. This was a large overwhelming job that is now done.
We removed all of the furnature from the room and all that remains now are the storage shelves and a cupboard that previously lived in Mr 5's room.
Today I sorted all of the boys clothes out so that i could finally see what they have and make sure their summer wardrobe is suffient. I was pleasently surprised with what they actually have. I also tidied their rooms and bookshelves and changed their sheets so that now their rooms are clutter free and fresh. Our bedroom got a good tidy up as well.
The next step for me is to sort a few ods and ends that are still waiting for their turn on the dining table.
I am excited to be having a garage table soon so that i can see if i can make a little money to put back in to the house and then donate anything left as there is no point in holding on to any of it. The sooner i get rid of the the more free we will feel. Photos will come when i am satisfied.
I hope you have enjoyed this journey so far.

The Journey to a FUNCTIONAL kitchen: Unstuffed!

I have always hated our kitchen, though it was too small and i started to hate having to do anything in there and that's been hard for me because i love to cook and bake. Upon reading the kitchen section in this book i realised that i could work with what i have, all i needed to do was to unstuff the space and create a functional kitchen. The book suggests creating a special space for each are invloved in food preparation. I will hopefully be able to explain in the pictures how i have broken my kitchen down.


These pictures were taken after i had started pulling it apart, it didn't always have junk all over the benches, i did try my hardest to keep it tidy, but i felt i was fighting a losing battle. You get the idea.

Add caption

This is the finished product, i did a little more moving things around, you'll see that later. I love the gadget/appliance shelf now. I was very reluctant to have to get out the blender or the mixer as it was near impossible to get to it and now i can't wait to use them all again!!! I have swapped the positions of the microwave and toaster oven/kettle from where they were to here and back again but i think i'm loving it here at the moment. The knife block up on the shelf and chopping board form part of my preparation area which is the little 'L' bench space they are near/on.

This is my preparation storage space i lined all of the shelves with the matting as i HATED that stuck on gross mouldy torn stuff that was on there previously. Eventually i'd like to paint them. Anything that i would need to prepare food lives here and i have labeled all of the cupboard doors with the contents that are to be placed in there. The top shelf are the prep items and the second shelf will have all of my cookbooks and misc items like piping bags and cookie cutters. p.s. wish i had larger cupboards ☺

This area is pretty self explanitary cleaning and wraps/bags etc.

This is my food service area, really needs to be ten times bigger but i am making do as i have lost some storage space in the kitchen for now. All of the cups, plates, bowls and serving bowls. trays etc are in this section

The cooking area, includes saucepans, frypans, baking dishes etc. This area stretches along the back wall, the cupboard to the right of the oven was meant to contain my trays and tins (muffin tins, cake tins etc.) but we'll get to that later. I have since moved the saucpans.

Saucepans live here for the time being as well as the cooking utensils

Pantry, i have always labeled my pantry i think even if it's full everything has it's own little space.

 These are my ruined cupboards, the cause of the frustration i have felt in sorting this space out. Left is pantry, right is what was meant to be my pans and tins storage.

We had time today while i was avoiding the kitchen to do a quick unstuff in the boys rooms, this is Finny's room.

Owen's Room

 I still have plenty of spring cleaning to do and i still need to clean the oven and fridge and sort out the kitchen drawers but i'm glad i have gotten this far. I hope there might be some tips to help you in your unstuffing journey ☺☺☺

Frustration

It is with frustration and a little bit of feeling disheartened that i am writing this blog post and not sorting out my junkyard of a kitchen. I have always wanted more than what i have and always wanted a new house with everything untouched and unused however i have recently come to the conclusion that in fact i don't actually need that and maybe i don't even want that at least not at this stage of life. What i need is to make the best of what i have and create a living space that i love with what is already here. This is why i have been making such and effort and throwing myself into my 'Unstuffing' journey. I have been loving the results that i have been achieveing and have been feeling very proud of my efforts. This was untill i got half way through sorting my kitchen only to find one of our little cupboards and the bottom shelf of our pantry taken over by dampness and mould. By the time that that is sorted out it might be christmas 5 years from now. I had planned out what was going in each cupboard and they all had a specific use however now i have lost one i'll have to rethink it all and possibly just put all of the items that were to live in there into storage. I just gave up. There is still so much to do in there and as soon as i found that little suprise i lost my unstuff mojo. I pushed myself to sort the little boys rooms and i will push myself to hopefully finally finish our room as there isn't alot to do in there just get rid of the 'junk' lying around. I am also really hoping to re-enter the my kitchen headspace as i have been daydreaming and working so hard towards my fully functioning kitchen that to give up now isn't an option. So the next thing i'm going to do is sort some laundry out and then  get myself back in that kitchen. The more i overthink it the worse it will be. I am sure we will think of a solution, if not then i guess i live with mouldy smelly empty useless cupboards indefinitley and attempt to pretend that they don't exist.
Ok... that's it for now. Send me positive thoughts if you have any to spare x

A letter to my day....

Dear Thursday,

I had many productive plans for you however you and i had very different ideas about where we were heading. I know it isn't all your fault as our friend procrastination had some input today as well. I would like you to know that i have these possibly unnatainable unstuffing goals that i was hoping to have completed this week however now that this day is coming to an end and i have not done one item on my 'to do' list for today i am feeling a little disheartened. I don't think that what i had planned for today was beyond my reach however i didn't quite get there. Not to any of it. I am still hoping to get a bit done but with the day as beautiful as it is and two little boys begging me to take them outside how am i meant to decline? I guess there are jobs that i could complete outside the house that would still salvage the afternoon and then i could try and be productive this evening. I do know that tomorrow is a new day but i am quickly running out of days. I hope that Friday is kinder to me than you were Thursday. On a lighter not i don't deem today as being a total failure, i took my two sweet boys to the park and we had a lovely time. I of course was being a pathalogical picture taker. I hope to share the results (if i get time or if i am having a little visit with Mr Procrastination again) at this blog. I also had to take the time to work through our budget which was hurting my brain!
Anyway until next week

Goodbye

unstuffing goals today

If i blog it then I must do it.... right?
That's my theory so here goes:

Unstuffing today

Kitchen

 Finish Main Bedroom

Owen's Room

Finny's Room

 

If time permit's:

Bathroom

Toilet (yes i need to unstuff my toilet room)

 

 

Unstuffing does not necessarily include cleaning just FYI, i hope to get all of the spring cleaning done but i won't pressure myself to do it. I will if i can.

 

Right now the children are screaming at each other and demanding attention so i am not sure how this plan will play out but i have very high hopes.

Entrance, Lounge and Dining UNSTUFFED!

Play corner



The Unstuffing Dilemma

I am sitting here having leftover chicken and veg and a cup of coffee for lunch listening to the most random mixed playlist. As i am sitting here i am looking around at this room, I am very proud of my efforts and the feel of this room is like a breath of fresh, warm, homely air. I am well on my way in my 'Unstuffing journey' today...... however as i glance around this lovely inviting, relaxing room i catch a glimpse from the corner of my eye of the graveyard that is the 'room that was'. Everything from this room has been relocated to what used to be my dining room, dining table and part of my kitchen bench. Here is my dilemma. I feel so proud and satisfied at my achievement for this morning, though i also feel stuck and overwhelmed at the sheer volume of 'stuff' that has been taking over this space and now have to sort through it deciding in the process what to donate, throw away and keep. Every part of this experience is daunting to me as i have a very hard time knowing what i 'need' to keep and a hard time breaking through the 'i might need that later on or i am emotionaly attatched' scenarios. I am not a hoarder i think i'm pretty normal, most people i know have a whole bunch of stuff and usually not enough places to put it. I am more than happy to let go of of  these inanimate objects however i say again my problem is not knowing if i will need it down the track or that the item has sentimental value. As far as keeping things is concerned my fear is that i will just start jamming things back in to my lovely revamped space and it will end up overwhelmingly cluttered again. It is also hard being the only person responsible for the space as well, i am the one who has to sort it all out therefore all of the other lovley beings that habitate the area just drop things or jam things in spaces and walk away. I have decided on a plan of attack and it may well be the worst thing that i can decide to do but with two young children and a busy life it is the way i'm doing it. I have decided that i am going to have a 'dumping and sorting room'. My little boys have a playroom that is generally quite tidy, all of the toys are separated in to categories and placed in plastic tubs on larg shelves. This room has been 'trashed' and is undergoing some much needed tidying as i write. It is about to be taken over by the contents of my unstuffing journey. I plan to take everything from every room in this house that needs to be sorted and jam it in there until the time comes when i can sort through it thoroughly. This may seem like a bad idea and it is in some respects, i'm delaying the inevitable however i need to get this house completely sorted as it is driving me mad. I am downsizing, eliminating and simplifying to the best of my ability. This way i can do all of the process at once from the sorting (donate, keep, sell) to the re-homing (trips to vinnies, creating a place for everything-everything its place system, having a garage sale). Please wish me luck, i will need it!!

Room Makeovers: Room 1 Days 7-8

The last few painting days of the makeover were spent putting a second coat of colour on the walls, painting the door and the wardrobe sliding doors and also doing all of the touch ups. i have decided that i strongly dislike doing touch ups after my experience with it. Tyler also put up a little shelf under the windowsill.

Taking a Break

We had the first coat of paint on and had some time up our sleeves so we took the little guys for a little play in the park as a reward for putting up with their mummy and daddy being so distracted by the task at hand.




Burning off some energy





Down.....

....and back up

Cute little boys

Owen and I

Room Makeovers: Room 1 Day 6

Today was wonderful, we finally opened our tin of wall paint in our chosen colour

PEPPERMILL

It is so wonderful to finally be seeing the colour on the walls!

1. The opened paint tin.... finally!
2. First comple painted wall
3. Colour is what we hoped it would be!
4. The wall colour and new light looking wonderful
5. The site superviser dropped in to check on us.... sneaky!

Room Makeover: Room 1 Day 4

This day i had hardly anything to do with the room, i hit a bit of a slump as there were more repairs to be done. My husband wasnt 100% happy with the putty job so he re-did it and we had to wait for it to dry so we could sand before it could be painted. This is our new bedroom light, it was put in as we are sick of seeing oyster lights around the house, they are ugly, boring and the actual light isn't very desirable.

Room Makovers: Room 1 Day 5

Today i picked up a paintbrush!!! While one of us painted all of the 'trim' around the window sills and wardrobe the other painted the ceiling. Still doesn't look too much different but hopefully tomorrow we'll start on the actual wall colour, which we picked today, it's called 'Peppermill'. We are very excited to do a primer coat int he morning and then hopefully apply the first coat of paint. Now it feels like something is happening.