Well I'm on my way to decluttering and organising the whole house. I've been in a slump as we have so much stuff I haven't known where to start and just put it off totally - it makes my brain hurt! LOL
Anyway, a few days ago I searched the net and found a fantastic site: http://organizedhome.com/index.html
I've been reading and reading some more....noting ideas and I've started printing and compiling pages for a Household Notebook as mentioned on the site. I haven't finished a detailed plan for decluttering the house but I'm getting there. I'm sort of getting inspired in bursts and will decide what I want to attack at that time.
So far we've:
1. Decluttered adult clothing: DH and I sorted through our clothes, threw out stained and damaged clothes, put other unwanted, unflattering, or ill-fitting clothes into a bag for charity, and put the remaining clothes into a new set of drawers for our closet.
2. Decluttered make-up: I decluttered my make-up bag and kept a select few bits and pieces that I've put in a plastic tray on top of the drawers in the closet. I threw out old make-up, practically empty lipsticks that I would use the brush to apply, nailpolish with stuck lids, horrible coloured make-up that I would never keep anyway, etc.
3. Decluttered & cleaned bathroom: I went through the vanity cupboard and only kept the essential, useful, practical items. I got rid of a curling wand (used it maybe once!), heaps of junky stuff, old shampoo bottles, etc - 2 bags worth. Now I know what I've got and where I'll find it! I used plastic trays for organising and it is working great. I got in with the Exit Mold and general cleaner....scrubbed the shower, bath, vanity, etc. Yesterday DH scraped all the old sealer off the shower and bath and replaced it...looks new and fresh looking! Yay!
4. Started decluttering downstairs storage: I've thrown all my paperwork from Uni (and the millions of papers I printed for teaching) into a box to be thrown out. I brought my textbooks and teaching resource books upstairs to sell online. Whatever doesn't sell will go in the charity bins - I'd rather just get it out of the house and not think about how much I paid for them all!
I am starting to get ideas about what can happily be stored downstairs (in the self-contained flat) - like all our art and craft supplies, including my scrapbooking stuff (only done one spread so far). I can put a table in there and use shelving to store the art and craft stuff in boxes. I might even go to IKEA today and buy the colourful cardboard archive boxes for that purpose.
There's heaps more clothes to be sorted through - the kids' stuff. Also, I've sat down with the kids to see what toys they like to play with and we'll donate the rest.
Yesterday, for the Household Notebook, I created an Emergency Help page with the 000 number for emergency services - this is particularly focused at the kids. I added a page with Medical Contacts - local hospital, usual medical centre we attend, plus 2 additional options for after hours. I included the dentist at the bottom. I simply went to the Yellow Pages online, copied and pasted the contact details, AND copied and pasted road maps that were linked through the Y/Pages. I got most maps so they showed the destination PLUS our street....so someone else (say if my mother was babysitting and one of the kids needed medical attention) could quickly look up the map and see how to get there. I also created a page with contacts and maps for a few of our local police stations. Oh, the police website had a form/checklist for describing suspicious persons and vehicles so I printed it to include in the Notebook. This will be a very handy resource too.
Well, I have to create my shopping list now as the cupboards are getting bare. BTW, yesterday I downloaded and modified a simple program that provides a master list and you choose what you need and print your list. The site is: http://www.acutesoftware.com.au/shopping.html
