The Big Tidy Up #2

I don't expect to get much sewing done before Friday's Owner and Real Estate Inspection. Even with a decluttered house, cleaning just takes large amounts of time, and there is a sizeable list of cleaning jobs to do. But back to 'the big tidy up'.

Sewing/Guest Room

I had done most of the decluttering on the weekend but I still needed to take down my new fabric wall and a few other things I had pinned to the curtains and wall. I also cleaned the windows inside and out, window frames, sills and skirting boards. It rains a lot here and so there were some spots of mildew in sections. I've yet to bring down the cobwebs.

 Yes this is the view from my sewing table and ironing board.  

It is pretty soothing.

Pied Butcherbird

Most days there are plenty of  pied butcherbirds (my  favourite bird) and Australian magpies (2nd favourite) chortling their melodious choruses from the trees, grass or roof. 

Female magpie...or magpipe as my kids call them

See a black and white theme emerging here? 

Currawong....much more timid, tuneful and dapper than a crow

Lately they've been joined by a family of currawongs down from the high rainforests of the Nightcap Ranges.  

And also  what I suspect to be newly arrived extended families of blue-faced honey-eaters and blackbirds from goodness knows where! 

Then perhaps once a week we will have a wallaby hop into our yard to nibble on some native vegetation, lawn or just have a nap in the shade offered by the bushes. It's not the usual occurrence for families in Australian I can assure you. 

'Tickles', in March 2012, all grown up and nibbling in the font yard

We happen to live out of town in an estate that has a building covenant on it - no fences and no domestic pets. That way the native marsupials (echidnas and wallabies) are free to follow their traditional rainforest corridors without restrictions and fear of attack.

 It's a lovely way for my kids to grow up with native birds and animals (although one day we would like to have a schnauzer!) surrounding them. Next week my son's class has to prepare and present a talk on a pet and so he is going to do one of these native ones...he's not sure yet which.

'Mama Wallaby' with new baby 'Nibbles' poking her head out to munch on the grass. Poor focus sorry.

Mama Wallaby has had a joey every year (poor thing) that we have been here, so we have nicknamed them   all - Tickles (2010), Giggles (2011) and now she is carrying baby Nibbles in her pouch.

'Giggles' directly outside our kitchen window. She is still small.

Kitchen

The kitchen is the centre hub of the house and thankfully the layout of this house is conducive to this premise. I have rented in 2 houses where the kitchen is cut off from some vital lines of sight such as meals areas and family rooms. This house goes even better because the open-plan allows me to keep the computers and laptops out in the public domain.

To the left of these is my central storage unit - the ever so practical Expedit by Ikea. 

Directly opposite from this is my kitchen window and sink area. This is the inspection shot.

This is how it looks on a good day. 

I use two foam squares to save my feet and legs from standing up most of the time.

The wonderful benchtop...doubles as a fabric table quite nicely.

The stove top has been thoroughly cleaned with a special Ceran paste. The oven is quite clean thankfully. I never use the toxic oven cleaners whilst our children live in a house but only on the moving day. 

The front of the fridge needs a major declutter by Friday, but it shouldn't take long.

As a gift to myself, I even oiled each of my wooden cutting boards.

Cutting through the Clutter

I tend to accumulate clutter...well flat surfaces really - table tops, floors, and especially the kitchen bench. It is a constant battle and some days I win and some days I lose. I was alerted  to a great book called 'Cut the Clutter' by Cythia Townley-Ewer and a website called http://organizedhome.com/articles/cut-clutter.

I found that I fit more than one of the profiles of a clutterer - 'Hoarder - "I might need it one day"; Perfectionist - "Next week I'll organise everything perfectly""; Deferrer - I'll think about that tomorrow"; and Sentimentalist - "That belonged to my....". Four out of the five listed personality traits were mine...so I was in BIG trouble.

Plasticware

Yesterday I tackled the dreaded corner cupboard...always a difficult shape...but I had seen a great idea using an old cd rack on Pinterest and I put mine ("I might need that one day) to use. It turned out well. 

I also used an old Elfa shelf (see that came in handy too!) that was orphaned in our garage.

Kitchen

During the recent school holidays, a lovely friend gave us her old fridge for FREE, we in turn gave our skinnier version to another friend (love the 'pay it forward' attitude). But I was determined to make a fresh start. 

Using another  Pinterest idea, I bought some plastic shelf boxes with handles and made a tidy fridge. After 6 weeks, it is still holding up well under the demands of a family of 5. Can I also say that it is such a bonus to have more door shelves for jars and bottles too!

Loungeroom

Our dvd and cd shelves were prettied up with a couple of purchases from vintage stores...the tree and birdcage. 

Our sideboard top was covered in Christmas decorations and photos...so it got a clean and dust.

It has been 2.5 years since we moved in and I finally felt confident enough to unpack the good crockery (usually we find out that we have a new posting soon after I do this...so fingers crossed!) and hang a few pictures on the walls.

And I put the tea and coffee cups into the drawers. The two on the right come from my mum's crazy tea set collection. They include cup, saucer and a dessert plate. Beautiful.

About 2 months ago, we bought some Ikea 'Billy' bookcases for only $69 each. I decided to keep some topics together (Pre-Raphaelites, North American Indians, cookbooks, Tolkien etc.) but for the rest I sized and colour-coded. Having 2 bookcases meant that I could also break up the book stack with some frames (original painting by my preschooler) books on display.

My 'La Passion D'Adonis' J.W.Waterhouse frame was a bargain from a second-hand store.



Workspace

After 9 months, I finally got around to having the computer guy come and 'fix' the computers. It turns out that my computer  wasn't on the blink, but I had the monitor cable plugged into the wrong socket on the back of the CPU. 

Our Expedit comes in handy everyday. On hand are things like address books, envelopes, board games, scrapbooking pages, OT, Speech and visual aides. 

Lower left basket for cardboard boxes for preschool, centre left for wayward toys, centre right for playdough and mats and lower right for receipts. Upper right magazine holders have notes from Preschool, Kindergarten and Grade 2 respectively.