Tag Archives: home

Fresh Eyes

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We arrived home yesterday and I am working my way through the washing.

We had housesitters staying here while we were away so naturally I left the house clean and tidy for them and they did likewise for our return. Nevertheless, it is really interesting to come home and look around the house after having been away.

It is 2 years since we moved here and it is mostly set up the way we want it. Our home is definitely not cluttered but there are still some spaces that have too much stuff or are not adequately organised for my liking. Other spaces tend to become a bit of a dumping-ground so I need to be more vigilant about leaving things where they should not be. I have returned with renewed enthusiasm to sort out some things. As always, one thing tends to lead to another and can turn into a bigger project than planned. A quick tidy up can become a major rearrangement of storage options but that is OK because it usually has a better long-term result.

Here are a few photos of some things I want to tackle. I will share how I do it and the results in future posts.

The guest bedroom. There is nothing desperately wrong with it. The bed needs to be remade and I really need to sort out what bed linen is required at the moment for both this bed and ours. I find this time of the year difficult as the overnight temperatures vary widely. The other thing that is bothering me about this room is the bed. We chose to buy it from the previous owners and while it is a good bed in excellent condition, I can honestly say that I hate it. The storage drawers are useful but not having any space underneath increases the difficulty of making the bed. The wide timber surround is also unhelpful. So, I am determined to search for a more user-friendly bed secondhand. The trade-off will be the loss of the underbed storage but although I do have some linen in the drawers it is definitely not essential.

The 3rd bedroom which is still trying to work out what it is but otherwise known as a junk room. It tends to be a collection of things that I am certain do not belong elsewhere. The wardrobe in this room is wine storage, suitcase storage and some items belonging to a community group where we volunteer. I do intend to set up the exercise equipment better so that it can be used more readily.

Our walk-in wardrobe. This is not a massive space since we purloined half of it to extend the pantry. We only recently added the shelves and hanging space and it is more than adequate for our needs. The box on the floor is administrative stuff for our volunteer work which I put here while we were away. That is overdue for sorting and rearranging and it needs to find a permanent home in the 3rd bedroom. I also want to look for a small seat which would be useful when putting on shoes and socks.

Chest of drawers. We do not have a dressing table as such as I use the large mirror in the adjacent ensuite bathroom. This large chest of drawers is shared by GMan and me. Our folded clothes are in the drawers and the top is a shared dressing table although it can be a bit of a dumping ground. Time for a clean up and decide what belongs here or not.

These jobs will take some time but I will share my progress of each space in upcoming posts.

Four Fabulous Days

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I have had the most glorious 4 days at home.  Friday was a well-earned day off followed by a long weekend.  Most weekends I am left with the feeling of wanting a couple more days to try to catch my tail.  I would not say I have done everything but I do have a degree of satisfaction that I have made some progress beyond the basics of washing and meal preparation.  The best part is that I have worked steadily but not frantically for some of the time as well as simply doing nothing at other times.

Here is a snapshot of what I achieved:

Washing and ironing – the first 3 days were brilliantly sunny with a breeze so all of the washing was done and dried which left me with a pile of ironing.  I tackled this with enthusiasm since I was armed with a new iron as well as the ironing board cover that I made on Friday.

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Shopping – most weekends I buy enough fruit and vegetables for the week as well as a few things from Aldi and Saturday was no exception.  However, I also drove a bit further to go to Morayfield so that I could stock up at Simply Good, where I buy all of the flours, dried fruit, seeds, nuts and legumes that I use.  I do this every 4months or so.  Spotlight is nearby so I took the opportunity to have a look and found the fabric to recover the mattress for the day bed.

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Decluttering/recycling – as we change and re-arrange furniture there is often some to move along to someone else who can use it.  This weekend I listed 4 outdoor chairs and a large pine chest of drawers on our local Buy, Swap, Sell Facebook page and they have now gone to new homes.  I also tidied and sorted the shelves in the wardrobe in the sewing/spare room and put a few things in a bag to go to the op shop.

Gardening – when I was at the market buying fruit and vegetables, I noticed a neighbouring stall selling seedlings.  I bought and planted out basil, beetroot and capsicum seedlings.  GMan mulched the shrub we cut down a few weeks ago and planted out several native trees and shrubs.

Outdoors – we have taken a few more steps towards finishing our outdoor living area on the verandah.  The newly painted table is back in position as is the day bed, albeit without the mattress yet.  I spent a good portion of today cleaning up the large concreted area under the house.  This is a lovely cool area in summer and I am trying to make it more useable.  I sorted and stacked various building materials so that they are in a logical order and easily accessible.

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What a shame that I have to go to work tomorrow – there is so much more that I could do here at home.

I will some more details of some of the things I have mentioned tonight in upcoming posts this week.

Flasback Friday

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Today marks the beginning of a new series of old posts.  I was inspired by Julia’s comment last week in which she said how much she was enjoying the links to some of my previous posts as it gave her a reason to read some of the content I had published before she started following my blog.

I have also been enjoying re-visiting some of the earlier blog content as I continue to add back more of the photos.  So, I have decided to dedicate my Friday posts to some interesting tidbits from the archives.  It will not always be a simple link – there may be updates, comments or even additional photos to go with it.

This week, I thought I would start with a post that is mostly photographs which showcases the area where I live  – Living in Paradise.

Perhaps you would like to share a little about where you live and why?