C is for . . . Cupboard de-clutter

Do you have the cupboards in your house? The ones that you open, throw something in and then hope your not the next person to open them?

I do! well I did, until I de cluttered them this weekend! I am so happy with the result.

In our last house we had a glorious walk in pantry, it was pretty much my favourite room in the house! Then when we moved, I got a single door pantry and was faces with a rather large problem. So I squished everything I had into the pantry and just left it. Pushing it to the back of my mind, until of course I had to try and find something in there.
So FebClutterBust came, and I decided this was on my list of much needed de cluttering.

Along with the pantry, I decided to de clutter the plastics cupboard and the linen press. I did them all together because I used all the same hints and tips for the three cupboards.

1. Take everything out of the cupboard and lay it on the bench/table (this kind of de cluttering works best if you can see everything you have)

2. Throw out anything you don't use. As always, Be brutal! If you haven't used it in the last few months, throw it out. Its not needed.

3. Make sense of your items. Place them together in terms of how or when you use them.

4. Utilise all your space!


PANTRY

 This is my favourite of all my cupboards now, I have actually spent quite a bit of time, just staring at it.
It took me at least an hour in total. But it was worth every second. To be able to see everything I have, makes cooking dinner so much easier!

Pantry Tips

1. With the pantry, throw out anything past its used by, and with anything that might be half open, test if its still ok to eat, if not throw it out. If it is, either put it in a container to lengthen its life, or do as I did and create a few dishes with the little bits and pieces, to minimise waste.

2. I bought those super cool pantry shelves from Ikea. They were super cheap but added much needed space to my shelves. I highly recommend them.

3. Sort everything in a logical order. I have the premade food and food for lunches on shelf one, Baking and tea/spreads on shelf two and cooking on shelf three. It makes it so much easier to find things.

4. Use containers! It keeps things more fresh, it keeps the pantry more tidy and it helps with waste.

PLASTICS CUPBOARD

I dont know if anyone else find their plastics cupboard to be a nightmare? I know I do and I also know my family does. Its a shocking cupboard! But really, everything in it is stackable. Its just about making sense of what you have.

Plastics tips

1. Move the things you don't use often, to the back of the cupboard.

2. Use large containers, to put all the lids in. There is no point trying to get all the lids and containers matched up, it takes up way to much room. But as long as they are all in one spot, you will be able to find what your looking for. 

3. Make sense of what you have, plates and bowls together, containers together and so forth.

LINEN PRESS

My linen press wasn't as bad as the other cupboards, but it still needed some attention. So I took everything out, refolded it and placed in the cupboard in a more sensible way. Towels with towels, wraps with wraps.
It makes everything so much easier, now I can see what I have and I can actually find things.

Linen tips.

1. Refold everything, if something is unclean re wash it.

2. Make sure everything in the cupboard is ready to be used, ironed, cleaned and ready to go.

I am so happy with the results of my de-cluttering so far.

Have you started yet?

N is for . . . Nursery De-Clutter Part 2

I did it! I actually completed my first room for the Feb Clutter Bust.

The nursery is ready to sleep in! That is, as soon as we get the cot put up in his room. (Just because the room is ready, doesn't mean I'm ready)

So as you know from my last post, The room was quite a mess when I started. It turned into the junk room and, well it wasn't really ready for a bubby thats for sure!

But I have done it.

After completing my first goals, the last goals were easiest.

1. Arrange furniture
2. Decorate
3. Vacuum

And I did it! I haven't put the circus tent up over his Cot yet, as we want to put the cot in first, and find a way to secure it to the roof.

So here it is, the final picture!

I am so proud of the final product. This is the first time E has had a proper room and I really am looking forward to putting him in it. I just have to do it...

...Maybe next weekend!

So my final tips for the last steps of cleaning, which I think are the worst steps.

1. Keep going, when you can see the end is near, don't give up! Push on, the final product is worth it.
2. Write yourself a list of how you can keep the room like it is. For me I will be folding and putting clothes away instantly, Using the clothes basket next to the change table and no longer putting things in here to hide mess from other areas of the house.
3. Take pictures, so if it does start to get messy again, you can look back at the room and see how great it looks when its clean. Its the perfect motivation.

This is my before and after!

I'm so proud of my end results, that I cant wait to get into the spare room and de clutter tomorrow!

How is your de-cluttering going?

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!

F is for. . . Feb Clutter Bust!

Do you have a spare room in your house, brimming with mess? A car full of clutter or a wardrobe full of washing? I know I do so, i'm excited to be teaming up with Rachel from "Reality Chick" to a Launch our Feb Clutter Bust!

We will be posting about cleaning and de-cluttering different places within your house, and we hope you will join in! We figure the more people that get involved, the more we can help motivate and innovate each other to get those nasty dark corners in your house, clean and clutter free!

I will be posting some hints and tips for de-cluttering different places as well as posting before and after pictures on my

-Facebook
-Twitter
-Instagram

as well as on this blog post.

And so will Rachel (here are her links)

-Blog
-Facebook
-Twitter
-Instagram

The areas i will be focusing on will be,

-The Nursery
-The Spare room
-The Linen press
-The walk in wardrobe
-The pantry
-The car
-The plastics cupboard
-Your mind
-Your social life

So you should join in! You can choose any place in your house or life, what ever you think needs a bit of attention, we will be using the hashtag #Febclutterbust on twitter, where you can post your own links and pictures and will be updating our blogs as we declutter our houses!

So join in and de-clutter your houses in February, the more the merrier and motivational!


Linking up with "Blogs and PR" and "FYBF"

Image- thanks to "Your decorating hotline"