Decluttering Again

We were pretty lazy over the Christmas period when it came to keeping the flat clean, tidy, and generally free of stuff to the point where it did actually get a bit out of hand.  We're finally getting back ontop of it now though, with my husband doing a good general clean and me getting back into the zone cleaning.

One of the tasks in zone cleaning is decluttering an area before you start the deep clean and usually you would only do this once you'd gotten to the specific zone.  However, I didn't want to wait before getting the cleaning done and it felt like I needed to do a much more in-depth decluttering this time round, especially after Christmas.

I know this is something I've written about many times before, but I do think this is something worth doing on a regular basis.  Especially as we tend to collect things and what we need or think we need changes over time.  For me it makes sense to have our home be in keeping with how we are now rather than how we were in the past.

So, I've been going through our kitchen cupboards, clothes, my crafting box, our camping box, etc to really work out if there's anything we're really not using now or won't be using in the near future to help keep our flat clutter free.

I do find I've become more realistic with myself every time I do these decluttering sections, which means I am able to get rid of more things each time.  It also feels right decluttering in January as there's something about the start of a new year to make you feel better about getting rid of the old.  Though the same could be said about Mondays.

Update On Our 'Homely Home'

I'm still working on making our rented flat as homely as possible.  Whilst there is one thing we unfortunately can't do, which is put up pictures as we can't put holes in the wall, there are a few changes we have been able to do.  We have tried those Command Hooks for the pictures, but so far only one has actually worked so I might need to play around with that a bit more.

We now have two covers for the sofa as I brought an extra one from a charity shop and we also have two table clothes for the coffee table (also a charity shop find).  We rotate these to keep them clean, but it also means that we can make the room look slightly different each time, which works with my restless brain.  We've also changed the candles a little on the coffee table as well as adding a cup that I had made when I was looking after my niece and nephew.  I haven't decided what to put in there yet, but it's a nice little personal touch.

One of the most awkward things about our home was the amount of stuff we had tried to fit under the desk and which I have to squeeze between whenever I use the sewing machine.  It also meant that the chair couldn't fit under properly, making it awkward to walk by.  To make this area work better I've removed the two storage boxes that were there and move the contents of them elsewhere (more on that later).  The empty storage boxes I've hidden beside the sofa and am using as a type of stand for my craft projects bags.  It's much easier to use that space now.

We've added a bookcase (borrowed from my Dad) to our sitting room area and filled it with the smallest books we have, including what was left in one of the storage boxes under the desk.  The ornaments that were on the collapsing side table have now been placed on top of the bookcase and the side table moved closer to the sofa and now contains my knitting projects and our wedding photos.  There's something about books that makes a space so much more colourful and we both really like this area now.

There's now quite a bit more space on our old bookshelf and I'm using that to store the craft items that were previously under the desk as well as the stationary that was in the other storage box, which I've put into these recycled paper totes I'd found in Wilko's.  Doing all this has actually meant that I've been able to take a proper look at what I have and organise everything into categories a bit better.  There isn't much I'll need to buy in the future and I was able to get rid of some things I wasn't using.  These bookshelves will obviously change a little as we go through the books and crafts, but I plan on letting the spaces that appear remain until we're back down to just one bookcase again.

The next real project is to sort out the airing cupboard which has literally turned into a catch all area for things I'm not sure where to place.  I definitely need to give it a good declutter for starters and probably move all the cleaning products to underneath the sink with similar items.  I can definitely move the food dehydrator to the back corner as we don't use it often enough for it to be at the front.  Then I'll need to find proper storage for my tools and the plant pots that we got for when I replant the cacti.  I think I can reuse a storage container I freed up when I reorganised the car boot, but a proper tool box is probably a must.

Unfortunately not my cat.

Our flat definitely feels more like our own place now and it'll keep evolving and changing as we do.  We have had to be quite good with our storage as we don't have a lot of space to store all our things and when there's two people there's always quite a lot of things, but we're getting better at that.  All we need to do now is remember where we've cleverly stored a number of these things when we need them.

Making Our Home Homely

We live in rented accommodation and have been here for over a year now.  We had thought about looking for somewhere else to live, but now with all that's happening at the moment we'll probably be staying here for a bit longer.  The problem is that as it's rented, including the furniture, we can't make any changes to the property to make it suit us and that includes adding hooks to the walls to allow us to put up picture, which is what I normally do to add colour to a space.

There are a few things we have done already, such as the pictures I added to the wardrobes, perched some pictures around just sitting on desks and book cases, and some homemade crafting like my crocheted coasters.  However, I still want to add a little more to our home.  I have to admit that we did buy some stuff from IKEA including a table lamp that nods to a gas lamp and some flower pots to house our ever growing collection of cacti.  However, I would like most of the items we get for this to either some from charity shops or homemade.

Before

We've already brought a table cloth to go on the coffee table with matching napkins, but we don't have any napkin rings at the moment and I'm thinking of trying to make some out of the jute thread we have left over from the wedding.  If that doesn't work out I'll just look for some next time I'm in a charity shop.  We also got a wonderfully weird tea pot that we'll use for spare change.  

After

At the moment we have a throw to cover the sofa which I've had for over 20 years now.  However I feel like I'm getting a bit bored of it now so I'll keep a look out for another one in the future and, as Ed still quite likes this one, we'll just rotate them.  We also have a cushion that was a present from a family member, but it's falling apart in a way that I don't think I can fix.  So I've decided that I might just make a cushion cover to replace it, probably out of all the wool I have left over from previous projects I've made.

I'm almost done with making all the clothes I want to get my wardrobe looking the way I would like it to, though there are still a few more items I'd like to make just for the sake of it.  This means that I will then have more time to make things for the flat should we need them.  The one thing I don't want to do though is cover every surface there is with something as that'll make things a little bit too busy.  In fact, I'm hoping to get rid of more stuff as time goes on.

Who knows how long we'll be in this flat for, but even if it turns out to not be much longer I would still like to make it feel as 'homely' as possible and a place that it ours.  And I'm glad that I've learnt the skills I have over the last few years that now means I can make a lot of these things myself.