N is for . . . Nursery De-Clutter

#FebClutterBust has arrived! And im kicking off with the worst room in our house, the Nursery!

We never, ever got it organised as we moved just after E was born and then I got lazy as he is sleeping in our room. But its time for him to make the transition to his own room, so Feb Clutter Bust came at the perfect time!

So here are my top tips for starting to organise/cleaning out your nursery

-First, get all the furniture in the room that you want and get that in the places you want. Decorations come last.

-Make sure you have plenty of room for clothes, both folding and hanging storage. And only have clothes out that bubs fits into at the time. 

-Have a toybox or some sort of toy storage, so that toys aren't just laying around on the ground

-Pick a theme and stick to it, a colour, character, whatever you choose, but it makes decorating and furnishing much easier when you have something streamline to stick to.

And finally,

If you have your baby already, Take him or her into the room and practice walking from the cot, to the change table, to the chair. Make sure you are comfortable, the furniture is spacious enough that you dont knock into things and that nothing is in the way of your feet,

This is simply because if you can do it easily in the day while wide awake, you should be able to do the same in the night,if little sleep has been had.

So here are my before pictures...

...be prepared, they are awful!

Pretty horrible right?

I would say that it turned out to be the junk room, mainly because its the closest to the living room, so everything just got thrown in there, especially if we were having people over. Stuff gets thrown in and the door closed.

So where to start?

My number one rule that ill follow the whole way through this month is BE BRUTAL!
-Go through and throw out anything your not going to use, or haven't used int he last month.
-Go through each individual item and put it in its home, If it doesn't have a home, find one that doesn't just add more clutter to your house.

I started by folding away the bassinet and putting it in the garage. I then went through and cleaned out all the clothes that he wont be wearing anymore. The ones that were still good I kept, the ones that were worse for wear, I threw out.

I went through his toys, of which there are SOO many, and donated some to charity.

I find the key is to set yourself mini goals rather than just, get the room clean

So my mini goals were

1. Sort through the clothes
2. Only keep toys that fit in the toy box
3. Clean the floor

So I did the following goals, and this is what I was left with.

Im only half way through at the moment, I will finish off the rest tomorrow and post my finished product!

O is for . . . Organising

This is something I fail at. I find it way to difficult to try and organise my time. It seems that looking after a little person as well as myself, as well as keep the house clean, as well as provide dinner, as well as have an attempt at a social life. . . Is just too much effort.

Or it was anyway.

As stupid as it sounds, and as blantantly obvious as it seems, all I needed was a diary. I had never kept anything like a diary before. You see, before baby brain infiltrated my mind. It was a secure place that kept everything in perfect order. I never forgot anything, I remebered dates months in advance and even working and being out of the house 12 hours a day, I managed to keep a neat tidy house, and a warm steaming meal on the table for Thomas every night.

Then said baby arrived, and it was as if I let him loose with all the files, neatly filed away in my head. And he ran wild, pulling files out and throwing them all over the place...hence the baby brain im not (still) stuck with. I'm now at the stage where everything goes in one ear....and falls out my mouth somewhere along the way, im pretty sure it doesnt even make it to my brain.

So a diary I have invested in, simple solution really. But isnt that how life works? you end up overlooking the most simple of scenarios trying to be a super hero with a brain that doesnt work? Well here it is!

I try and plan all my social stuff a week in advance, so I can make sure im not doing something every day of the week. And the rest I slot in nap spots. Obviosuly this works better with E decides to stick so some form of a schedual which doenst always work. But this is how my week worked (last week)

 As simple as it seems, I personally find having it right there in front of you and being able to tick off items slowely as you do them, makes the horrid task of cleaning, just that little bit smaller.

It takes a number of small steps to climb a mountain, you cant do it all in one giant leap.

It really does work great, and you get the added accomplishment of being able to see exactly what you have done every day. Its like a little ego booster.