Look at that, a tidy room!!

Well, will you look at that, a tidy room!!  After I got started I found that 90% of the mess was clothes, clean ones at that!!  I have had a big influx of clothes coming into the house the past couple of weeks from friends and so it was really great to sort out and get rid of even more stuff that Annabel had outgrown. Now everything fits in her draws and wardrobe shelf nicely!! And one more bag of crap has gone!  

All up This didn't even take that long, one hour tops.  It really is amazing what you can get done in such a short amount of time.

To see the before photo got HERE

Project for the future, the wall by her bed needs to be redone

 *runs off to Pinterest*

This has become less of a dolls house, but more of a shelf....lol But I may have a plan for a play area, so if it all works out Annabel may just get her dolls house back!

The disaster I call my daughters room

I don’t know what it is about this room whether it is me or her or both of us but it just will not stay clean and organized!!!  Well a lot of it is me. I have been in a bit of a funk the past few weeks and can’t seem to get much done, but come on it’s not even my room!! if you remember a post from a couple of weeks ago, I said this house isn’t going to change itself and after another woe is me day yesterday, I woke up and thought its time I got on that.

I have had to re-remind myself of that fact. I will keep having to remind myself of that. Crap isn’t going to change itself woman, get moving!! And as my poker buddies like to say NOBODY CARES. No one wants to her your woe is me stories so get over it and get shit done!! 

Anyway to make myself get stuff done its time for some before photos, all brutally honest and normal, there is no editing going on here this is exactly how her room looked. And let’s face it most of you know I have no shame, if me showing you me before photos makes you feel better or helps you out in some way then hell, I am more than happy to do it!!

Yes I know this looks like a episode of horders

I will be back tomorrow for a progress report!!

(Meaning, I have mostly finished already but forgot to take photos)

Time For A New Direction!!

Ok people it is time to be brutally honest. I am not a good blogger (I think we all know this already), I am not a good speller (I think we all know this too) I am not a great cook or house wife and I am really not a great poker player. But you know what I am doing it all anyway, and I really want to get better at it all. I have decided that a new direction is needed.

I first made this blog solely for my craft stuff but at some point I started adding new things to it then I went back to crafting, and I have just sort of flip flopped ever since. truth is that I don’t always craft so I don’t always have crafty things to blog about, but I am always living my life and have things to say, So why not  say them here!! So much has happened in the last 6 months I could have told you guys all about, and I have just sat silent and being very blah!

I am a mother, wife, friend, crafter, reader, DIY enthusiast. I am messy, unorganized and a lot of the times unmotivated. I am honest if not with myself with you guys, I am not scared to show you my before pics no matter how bad they are (ok  so that’s a big fat lie I am petrified) I am not perfect and I don’t come off as. I am a mess, I have a couch full of washing (mostly clean) none of the beds in the house are made, I haven’t unloaded the dishwasher this morning, and I haven’t brushed my hair. But I’m here in the hopes that as I stumble and fall I can help a few of you get your shit sorted too!!

First off

The house

I have decided I hate living in my house the way it is. It is messy cluttered and untidy All the time and I’m over it, and guess what??? It’s not going to change itself it’s up to me!! I can’t be doing the same stuff everyday expecting different results, then complaining about it. So I am making it my mission to do it up one room at a time. Starting with the master bedroom, so keep an eye out for that very soon, the wallpaper striping has already begun!

Next

Look good feel good

I don’t bother dressing up most of the time and I only every really wear makeup if I’m going out for the night or out to dinner, I’m thinking it might be time to change that, I’m not meaning going full on Kim Kardashian everyday but you know making an effort every now and then could be a good thing and might just make me feel a little bit better about myself

So this is me now and the new direction I am going to be taking with this blog. I will still be posting crafty stuff as I do it but now it will just be mixed in with a lot of other awesomeness!

It also may be a time for a bit of a makeover!! what do you recon??

Thanks for reading Jennie

Spring clean update

So I said I would be back with a update in two days and here I am, are you shocked…I know I am.

Let me start this off just buy saying yes I did get Annabel’s room done yay us.

And secondly this clean up thing has started to spill over into other places already…how long this will last is beyond me but the day after I posted  this post here the next morning I had 2 loads of washing out and some beds made by 9 am unheard of  in this house! I would have had more washing out but I ran out of pegs!!

Anyway back to Annabel’s room I have cleaned walls, windows, sorted all the draws, cleaned out the toy box, I have done it all and man it looks good!!! And best news of all doing all of this only took about an hour, I was in the zone!!

It is so nice to walk in there and not have clothes and toys everywhere!!

Also Miss Bel and I have had a nice little chat about her dragging out all her clothes and changing at night when she is meant to be in bed going to sleep!

Next I am moving on to the dining room, this is the first room you walk into at our house, we don’t have a nice entry for our house once you’re in it you’re right in the thick if it

*The list Clean up declutter the shelf’s by the door

* declutter the fireplace mantle

* Sort out the mess I call a table

* Clean windows, walls, and the door frames

*Find a new home for Vinnie’s medicine (having it sitting on the floor just isn’t a good look)

 Watch this space!! This Old school desk wont be blue for long!!

And FYI those boxes are Vinnie's medicine.

 The table top, better known as the dumping ground.

above the fire.

Shelf by the door.

This last pic is what it looks like from our door.

And that’s all for now, but I’m sure as I go ill find more stuff to do. I’ll be back in a few days with a progress report.

thanks for looking :)

Spring has sprung

Spring has sprung here in NZ and so with it the flowers….

But there is a down side to spring and this is the dreaded spring clean. Now I know there are no rules that say you have to have a huge clean up in spring in fact I know many ppl who have no use for this term at all but sadly I am not one of these people.

I am a messy person by nature. I can’t even open a tin of paint without getting covered in the stuff. At a young age I can remember my mother yelling at me to clean my room over and over and over again, so I did what any good kid does, I shoved everything I could into the wardrobe, under the bed and into draws in till it passed muster!! But sadly as an adult nothing much has changed. I didn’t grow up and suddenly become clean, tidy and organized. My house is a constant mess of papers, clothes, kid’s stuff etc. and over winter I just get so lazy. But it’s is just so easy to turn your back on it all, sit in the corner creating something snazzy for the wall or a scrapbooking Layout and all the while hoping the cleaning fairy has come a done all the work for you, but it just never happens and before long the kids are home from school the husband is home from wok saying.

Husband “So, what have you done all day??”

Me “Well, …I…ummm Have made this really cute scrapbooking Layout and finished my book.”

Husband   rolls eyes looking a bit disappointed.

That’s not really what he wants to hear…lol and it’s not just inside either. The outside of our house is a shocking mess. I won’t let the kids have friends over cos I am so scared they will disappear in our yard never to be found again!!!

I have done more than a couple of posts in the past about getting organized and staying that way and some of what I did has stuck!! The bathroom shelf as an example, is still mostly clean and tidy, the TV cabinet stays good most of the time….the book shelves not so much.

But like I said it is no longer winter and my utter laziness just can’t go on, its time I got off my backside roll up my sleeves and get some work done…I am starting in my daughters room this week. I swear this kid is a messy one …Like mother like daughter. I have made a list of things that need to be done.

*Clean out dawns

*Get rid of clothes that don’t fit (I mean really get rid of them, as soon as you have a bag, get it gone!! Otherwise it will sit on the deck till the kids find it and go hey, I wanted that. Or the dog thinks hmm, this could make a nice bed rip the bag and make a huge mess , then the kids go hey I wanted that, and so the clothes end up back inside the house in the bottom of the washing basket)

*clean out toy box,

*clean dolls house

*clean walls, doors and windows

*clean under bed

And that’s all I have so far. I am sure as I go I will find more to add to the list. But for now I am going to show you some pics of her room as it stands right this minute.

Now after seeing these pics I would like you to bear in mind that this room was tidy 2 days ago!!

Any way I will be back in 2 days with a progress report for Miss Bel’s room and a new list of what’s going to come next!!

Now I am posting these pics not for those of you that are just born organized people, but for people like me who just can’t get on top of these things, and are starting to lose hope. So you can see you are not the only one. I know there will be people out there that will look down there nose at this a little bit but these pics aren’t for you guys, This is just a honest account of my house on a daily basis and how I hope to change my habits and to try and make myself more accountable. For any of you out there who are trying and need someone to talk to please send me an email, my address is in my Facebook badge on the right hand side of this page. Or drop me a comment about what you are doing this spring. Do you have a blog I can go visit and see your progress??

Project House Back Under Way!

A few months ago I started project clean up at my house before and afters. I got very brave and posted before and after pics of some of my many clean ups and problem areas in my house, well now its back, now some of my areas I will be doing I have done before and some of you may be thinking, well that didn't last long, but really this worked for me for so long but after Christmas I have just gotten lazy and can't be naffed doing anything!! so to start off this time I did the lounge window and the top of me blanket box.

See example of laziness, Christmas decos haven't been put away!

 

And ten minutes later this is what it looks like, now what can you do in ten minuets in your house?? I would love to hear!! Oh and the door that's under the window is going to be used hopefully real soon and a new project!!

Oh and BTW I will add that the TV cabinet has stayed clean and tidy!!

thanks for looking

Getting back in to it!

So its been a bit of a off week so not much has been going on here, only really getting back in to the organize house thing yesterday.


I did get my office/big cupboard done, but then life happened and well I never got around to posting it. I will not be showing you the before photos for this room thou, cos well it was really that bad, the difference is night and day in that little room!!

After

The red and blue boxes on the big shelf are for all the kids school/daycare stuff so its no longer just sitting around in big piles, all the paper work for the house, work, ird etc have been sorted too!! didn't I do well!!

In the big bins you see there the top one is part of out emergency kit and the bottom one is all the insulation that came out of the ceiling when Jon feel though it see that here. FYI still not fixed !!

Yesterday I spent a good 4-5 hours in the boys room sorting EVERYTHING!! but no photos of that just yet. (The batteries in the camera are flat) will do that later thou!!

So what have you organized lately??

Thanks for looking Jennie .

With No Apologising At All

Today I'm showing you my lounge and bedroom. In the lounge I started off by only planing to do my book shelf but that quickly turned a total lounge over hall, and because I wasn't planing to do it all I only really got pics of the book shelf but I have found a pic of my chair I took a wee while ago with all the washing on it so it looked much the same so ill post that to.

The book shelf covered in crap.

There really is a chair under there somewhere.

The floating shelves

Now I have a nice reading corner and my chair back!! yay!! I am loving the way the shelves are looking now the bottom boxes have a toy box for the kids stuff that get left around the place instead of making it back to there room,(you know how Lego's and marbles can travel) next is books for the kids, then plugs and cords, then the last one is Jon's 1980 wrestling mags and some DVDs.

Next is our bedroom

Now I went in there guns a blazing and forgot all about before pics so I went and grabbed during pics for this one, since we have four kids we decided to put all the boys in our big master bedroom and we have taken the smallest room in the house. Now Jon always sleeps on the right hand side of the bed and well he's not a little guy so it was always rather funny to watch him on his tipy toes edging between the bed and dresser but in reality it was rather painful for the lad he is forever banging his knees and stubbing his toes...lol I have taken pity in him and today moved the bed so he can now very easily get to it, added bonus is now he gets to sleep by the door witch he prefers but also when the kids get up they will bug him first HAHAHAHAHA

 
On a side note amazing the junk you can pull out of such a little room a 2 bags of clothes to go to the opp shop and a suitcase full of crap that didn't belong..lol My poor dinning room has become the dumping ground for everything that doesn't have a home ...lol

Thanks for looking

Ready for another shocker.

This time it was the bathroom/ laundry shelf. This was another dumping ground that got cleared sadly never...lol


Using what I have around this house I decided to get started on the organizing, I know its not fancy and flash but ill slowly get the fancy stuff later. I really want a big tin box thing like this for my washing powder, one day but for now doesn't this look so much better

Before

After

The pink box was filled with old bottles, old razors and junk that didn't really belong in the bathroom at all!! the shelf was covered with old hair ties make-up, hair stuff and lots of crap from everyone pockets or stuff I have dug out of the bottom of the washing machine.


Side note: Ok I know I have showing you some rather yuck spaces, but our whole house isn't all bad just a few real problem spots that always get over looked.

Thanks for looking :)

So I'm starting small

Yep I have jumped on the organizing bandwagon in a big way but have started rather small with big success.

The TV cabinet was shocking and now I and shuddering showing these before pics cos well there gross and  just yucky! (please don't judge me to harshly)

So here you go the before of the TV cabinet.

And now, doesn't it look better. I still want to replace the plastic tray things for some nice ones but I bought a bunch of stuff for the boys wardrobe today and the budget will only go so far, but I'm still very happy with how this is looking and it only took me 10 mins!!

So 1 little job down, 999 to go!!

Thanks for looking :)

Organization *sigh* and a RAK

Sadly organization Is not one of my strong suits. I really wish I was one of those born organized people. Even as a child I can remember my mum yelling at me to clean my room, and that consisted of just shoving everything into my wardrobe or under the bed, and sadly as a adult not much has changed.


I am in need of serious help here people I have piles of crap everywhere!!, I have been reading the blog I heart organizing to try and motivate myself , but in the end I just end up rather depressed...lol

I have one room in the house that's all good in the way of being organized and that's Annabels room, the one room I have done up and cleaned out completely. *sigh* its going to be forever before the rest of the house is done the rate I'm going. But I don't want it to take a year I want it done now but where to start?? what have you done that works.. another thing holding me back is wasting money I doing want to go out and spend heaps of money on storage and organization then find it doesn't work to well!!

So for now I have 7 rooms and a deck to get sorted and no clue how or where to start

Boys bedroom
Our room
Kitchen
Dinning room
Lounge
Computer room/ Big cupboard / Office to be
Bathroom/ Laundry
Deck
OK as I'm typing I have decided to offer a little RAK for your ideas if you have any tried, tested and doable organization tips for any of the rooms listed above leave a comment here send me a link or some pics so I can see what's up and in a week ill pick a random commenter and send them something little for there trouble, I don't know what yet but ill sort something...lol

Now things to remember , we have a very small house with 4 kids the boys are in in the same room and built in storage is non-existent and it has to be cost effective
Thanks for looking :)