Category Archives: Organising

Joining In

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Organisation and settling in to a new home is much more than simply unpacking possessions and arranging furniture.

Last week we joined the local library. It is not a Council-run public library, but rather, an independent community library which is run entirely by volunteers. Membership is $30/year. The opening hours are limited – 2pm to 4pm on Monday, Wednesday and Friday as well as a few hours on Saturday morning.

The Maldon Athenaeum Library is located in the Mechanic’s Institute building in High Street.

This photo of the exterior is not mine as there are no leaves on the trees at this time of the year but the rest is entirely accurate.

Likewise, this photo of part of the interior.

I borrowed this book by Michelle Obama last week and finished reading it this morning. It had been on my ‘to read’ list for some time and I found it most interesting and illuminating.

Of course, borrowing books is not the only service offered by the library. I discovered that there is a small group of Scrabble players who play at the long table in the front room. I played on Saturday and am looking forward to making this a regular event.

We are planning to get involved and volunteer with this great organisation.

More Marketplace

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One of the few pieces of furniture that we did bring with us when we moved was our dining table and chairs. However, we soon realised that due to the space available that a round table was not the best option.

We bought another setting from Marketplace a couple of weeks ago and you can read about it here. The next step was to sell our existing one. After a few unsuccessful enquiries it has now gone to a new home.

The lady who bought it has downsized to a retirement unit and was very excited to find what she wanted. I also gave her several tablecloths which fit the round table and are no longer any use to me.

We had been using a couple of the dining chairs at the office desk and also my sewing table so it was time to find some suitable replacements. So, it was back to Marketplace where I found these 2 from different sellers.

They are perfect for our needs and we picked them up yesterday.

I am currently looking for a suitable floor rug for the family room so stay tuned.

In the Garden

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The past week has been full of activity which didn’t leave a lot of time for writing.

Lat week we had our first overnight guests as well as other visitors for lunch one day.

Meanwhile GMan has made a start on refashioning the garden a little. This photo shows the garden as we inherited it although the trees have grown somewhat. In fact they had grown so that much of the canopy was actually above the gutter. They are deciduous and as it is autumn (or officially winter in the past few days) much of the debris was ending up in the gutter. What wasn’t in the gutter was on the patio and subsequently being walked into the house.

So we agreed that these two specimens needed to go. This is the result. The next step is to hopefully dig the stumps out so that we can add some plantings more appropriate to the location and space.

Yesterday morning was a trip in the ute to the local rubbish dump to take a load of tree cuttings. The weather did not co-operate and this was the view. GMan persevered and had it unloaded fairly quickly.

We know that there will be more removal and renewal of plantings as we gradually decide on our preferences for the garden.

We would like to devote a bit more space to food production and some of this may be at the front of the house in the north-facing space but that requires some realignment of existing elements. In the meantime, we planted some broccoli seedlings this afternoon and rigged up some temporary fencing to protect them from the dog.

Fun with Furniture

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Yesterday we picked up a couple more secondhand finds. A pair of bedside tables to complete the guest room from one seller and lamps from another.

I am convinced that there is plenty of suitable pre-loved furniture and home decor available if you are prepared to look around.

In fact, the other success actually came from within our own home. When we moved here there was cube shelving along one side of the walk-in wardrobe which was not terribly useful in my opinion. So, yesterday we moved it out of that location and into what is going to be my sewing room. Now I just need to unpack all of the boxes of fabric.

It is a very good replacement for the storage we left behind in Queensland.

Kitchen Reveal

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I finally have the kitchen pretty much the way I want it so now I can show you a few more photos.

It is a fairly simple layout with the stove and refrigerator along the back wall and plenty of bench space on either side of the stove. There are good-sized drawers for storage.

The island bench includes a large sink. There are also cupboards and drawers below the bench.

The bench has an overhang suitable for a breakfast bar, however, I am yet to decide whether to utilise this feature as the dining table is a mere couple of steps away. At the moment I have some of the bulk buckets stored under here whilst I work out the best spot for them.

The butlers pantry is adjacent to the kitchen and includes a sink and dishwasher as well as the microwave, open shelving, bench space and cupboards.

We have future plans to extend the size of the pantry but that is a story for another day.

More Progress

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Since my last post we have continued to make progress in setting up our new home. A huge achievement has been to pass all of the unpacked boxes and packing materials to other people for reuse.

Meanwhile, I have continued to successfully trawl Facebook Marketplace to source items I need.

Today we picked up this dining table and chairs. We plan to sand, paint and update them at some stage but at the moment we don’t have any workspace in the shed – and it is too cold to consider working out there. I think that will be a project for the warmer weather.

Hanging the artwork above the table was another achievement for today.

The curtains were a new buy as I decided that the semi-sheer ones that were already hung were not really suitable as we approach winter. The creases have not really dropped out yet but once they do we will adjust the position of the curtain rail to suit the length of the curtains.

A couple of days ago we picked up this desk to use in my sewing room.

I am working on finding homes for everything in the kitchen and the office and will share a bit more about those spaces in upcoming posts.

The New Castle

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We have now been in our new home for 6 days. I had delusions that I would share the unpacking journey with my readers, however, the reality has been a bit different. I have been either flat out unpacking boxes, too exhausted to think straight or actually out and about shopping or a brief stint of frivolous entertainment.

All of this brings me to the point where we are now. Most of the boxes are unpacked. The exceptions are boxes of books, wine and sewing supplies. None of these are critical for the immediate functioning of the household.

I listed the packing materials on Marketplace and most of them were collected yesterday. We will drop off the remainder tomorrow.

We have bought and had our new washing machine delivered. Our other purchases were 2 side tables and lamps for our bedroom. These were sourced from Marketplace – different sellers. The side tables will be restored and refinished eventually.

Our bedroom is now essentially complete.

The guest bedroom is also ready for use.

The flip side is the completely disorganised large lounge room. This room won’t really be in use for about 3 months – until the new lounge suite arrives.

I have yet to start on the room which is earmarked to be the sewing room.

The butlers pantry is a work in progress. The main part of the kitchen is not fit to be photographed yet.

Now that you have a bit of an overview, I will get back to regular posts with updates on the progress. Stick with me and follow the story as it unfolds.

New Bedding

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This time next week we should have the keys to our new home.

In preparation for the much cooler nights I bought some new bedding the other day. The most important item was a new feather doona which is predominantly goose down but very lightweight. I added a new doona cover which is a heavy textured cotton on one side and regular poly cotton on the other. It is navy which will co-ordinate nicely with the patchwork quilt. There are also 2 new pillows which I knew I needed but it seemed silly to buy them earlier and then have to pack them.

This close-up shows the textured pattern on the doona cover although the previous photo is a more accurate reflection of the colour.

A Week Later

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The last week has slipped by while we have been occupied with packing.

Our primary focus has been sorting, cleaning and packing up the contents of the garage and workshop.

Most of the big items will be moved by the removalists but GMan has packed quite a bit into the ute as we will be driving both cars to our destination and it seems somewhat pointless to take an empty vehicle.

Although we will not be leaving Queensland for about 6 weeks, the packing of the ute need to be finalised before the beginning of next week as it will all be relocated to a friend’s carport when we leave this house.

An important consideration was making sure that everything was covered and secured for the impending trip. After careful consideration, we decided to buy a new waterproof tarpaulin to cover the contents. There is no risk of it flapping or blowing off as it is securely tucked under the heavy boxes at both ends as well as being tied to itself with the ropes going right underneath the entire contents of the ute. The tie-down straps over the tarpaulin then anchor everything.

Countdown – Cooking

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Removalist day (17th March) is fast approaching and it is time I gave some serious consideration to the kitchen and food.

It will be almost 8 weeks between the date that everything is moved and when we actually move into our new home in Victoria. In that time we will be housesitting near our existing home, spending a few days with family and then house-sitting for a week in Brisbane before spending 5 days driving to Victoria and another 10 days in an Air BnB before our final relocation. All of this means that although I will have the capacity to cook meals, my access to a full range of ingredients and implements will be somewhat limited.

So, this morning a made a list of some of the major ingredients I have. The next step is to create as many meals as possible that can be frozen and fairly easily reheated or finished off with the minimum of ingredients.

The first cab off the rank was a batch of chilli con carne using up diced onion, mince, kidney beans and refried beans from the freezer. It made 5 serves.

Ingredients

1 large onion, diced
250g mince
500g kidney beans
1 cup refried beans
1 can crushed tomatoes
2 tablespoons tomato paste
1 cup water
2 teaspoons beef stock powder
1 teaspoon cumin
2 teaspoons smoky paprika
1 teaspoon powdered chilli
Tabasco sauce – to taste

Method

Gently saute the onion in a little olive oil, add the mince and stir until fully browned. Add the remining ingredients, combine and simmer gently for about 30 minutes. This will allow the flavours to combine and thicken slightly to a spicy, rich sauce.

NOTE: Adjust seasonings to suit your taste.