Sorting the Linen

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I seem to have linen in a couple of different locations and I recently decided that I needed to look closely at what I had, and more importantly, where it is stored. The towels and bed linen were mostly in the small linen cupboard in the hallway. I had some tablecloths and less used bed linen and blankets in the large drawers under the bed in the spare room. Tea towels, hand towels and some table mats are in a drawer in the pantry.

The catalyst for my decision to re-evaluate the linen storage was the fact that the spare bed had become a bit of a dumping-ground which included the clean linen needed to remake that bed.

So, the first job was to hang up the coats which were also on the bed and remake it ready for guests at the end of the month. That immediately made things look better.

The bed was one which we bought from the previous owners when we bought the house, however, I can honestly say that I hate it. I like the look of the bed but it is difficult to make as the mattress which is very heavy sits inside a timber recess. I usually end up with scraped knuckles by the time it is made. The built-in drawers in the base are a killer for my back as I can’t get my feet close enough. I am currently searching secondhand option for a suitable replacement.

Meanwhile, I removed everything that was in the drawers in preparation for not having that space in the future.

The revamped linen cupboard – towels, sheets and doona covers.

Some extra blankets in a vacuum bag in the wardrobe. The bags on the floor contain 2 airbeds – one is a single and the other a queen-size.

Finally, I have relocated all the linen relating to the kitchen and dining room to a drawer in the extended pantry. These include tea towels, handtowels, table mats, serviettes and tablecloths.

The rearrangement did not take me too long and hopefully it will continue to work well.

Home From Holidays

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We arrived home from our holidays on Wednesday and I am pleased to report that in less than 24 hours after our return I had completed a significant piece of organising.

I had sorted, curated, numbered and labelled all of the photos from the trip. To be fair, I had begun deleting and curating them during the time we were away but the biggest portion of the job was after we arrived home.

There are a total of 135 photos from our 3 week trip and this is how they are arranged within a folder.

The naming convention I use is 001, 002 etc followed by a description.

We have looked at them all on the large television screen which definitely provides the best experience, apart from being there in real life.

My ability do get all of this done fairly promptly has reminded me that I should go back and do the same with all of the other folders of photos from various holidays.

A Mixed Bag

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They say that variety is the spice of life. Well, today has included a bit of everything.

I have done a bit of ironing, some sewing (paid alterations) and tackled what I mentally refer to as Operation Photos. I dream that one day I shall have all of my photos digitised, sorted, labelled and categorised. I know that it is not going to happen overnight but I now know how I can break it down into bite-sized pieces and feel that I am slowly, inexorably making progress.

These are slides of my siblings and me that were taken by my father over a period of 2 decades. The sorting began when our mother was still alive and my sister and I are continuing the process of making sure that they are properly recorded in a manner so that we can all enjoy the amazing memories which are preserved in the slides.

I am the eldest child and as far as I am aware this is the first photograph that Dad took of me. According to his notation on the edge of the slide, I was 8 days old.

Finally, we went out to dinner this evening at an historic hotel in Castlemaine which dates back to the mid 1800s.

I chose field mushrooms with salsa, guacamole, cauliflower rice and fresh green salad.

This is definitely a meal that I would consider replicating at home.

A Continuing Quest

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A sense of order in my sewing room seems elusive at times but I do continue to try. These shelves contain most of the fabric and sewing equipment that I have on hand and it could certainly be arranged a bit better.

I am not a massive fan buying heaps of matching containers to ‘organise’ spaces in my home. I generally use whatever I have on hand but it is also important to consider what stuff actually needs to be kept and organised and what actually needs to be decluttered and moved out of our life.

Most of the baskets that you can see previously belonged to my mother for a variety of uses and I have managed to re-purpose them. The shelves have also been moved from other areas of this house as I chose not to use them as the previous owners had done so.

Even the drawers, cupboards and 2 glass shelf inserts had been by left unassembled when we bought the house. I found the glass shelves particularly useful as they divide each cube into 2 smaller spaces.

When we were on holidays our travels took us directly past an IKEA store in Queensland so I took the opportunity to purchase 2 more sets (4 glass shelves) to further increase the functionality of the unit.

I installed them yesterday and am looking forward to some more re-arranging to improve the storage of my sewing fabrics and patterns.

Here is a close-up of one of the new shelves. The existing baskets are a perfect fit in these spaces.

Where’s the Wine?

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In our previous home we had a storage space under the internal staircase and several dozen bottles of wine. We had a large modular storage system for them but decided to sell it when we were relocating interstate.

Like many things, the wine collection has been downsized somewhat, however, it still needs to be stored somewhere. The cartons have been in the wardrobe of the 3rd bedroom but invariably the desired bottle is always in the most difficult box to access.

We had talked about a variety of options but the wardrobe remained the best location due to the maintenance of a fairly steady temperature.

A few days ago I found some wine racks advertised on Facebook Marketplace so we decided to check them out. They are the same style as what we had previously and are perfect for the space we have.

GMan is very happy with the arrangement as it will make finding a particular bottle much easier. Additionally, it is much simple to keep track of exactly what he has.

One Thing and Another

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The main bedroom and the guest bedroom have been pretty well arranged since we first moved in, however, the 3rd bedroom has not been quite so lucky. It has tended to become a repository for everything that is pending a permanent home in another part of the house, partly restored furniture, pictures that are yet to be hung and various things that we are looking to sell or give away.

When we assembled the restored chest of drawers for our bedroom (see previous blog post), I could actually see what else was in the 3rd bedroom. The temporary chest of drawers which had been a fixture in our walk-in wardrobe were now surplus to requirements. For a short while it looked as though they were going to end up, at least temporarily, in the 3rd bedroom.

Thankfully, GMan decided that he could use them for storage in the shed so we spent a full day moving and rearranging things in the shed. While the overall shed storage is still a work in progress, it was good to get the drawers in position and create some more functional storage. The tall cupboard was also relocated from our walk in wardrobe and repurposed a few months ago.

Meanwhile, I could then work on the pile of assorted shopping and saved bags. I managed to quite quickly change it from this:

To this.

They are sorted into the shopping bags I regularly use, extra tote bags, saved plastic bags and saved paper bags. I can now find exactly what I want at a glance.

On the floor of the cupboard are 3 spare plastic storage tubs. I previously had another 6 empty storage tubs. I had been given some and used them for packing when we moved and the previous owners had left a couple behind. I decided that I really did not need them all and was debating who might be able to use them. It was rather fortuitous that there is a Community Pantry being set up and they put out a call for lidded plastic tubs for storing some of the donated foodstuffs so I was delighted to be able to help out by giving them the ones I did not need. A couple of the tubs had no lids and they have also been given away.

I am pleased to have sorted another small space and rehomed a few items plus been able help out someone else.

Hung Up

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One of the things we have spent time doing is hanging things up. Whether it is pictures, other ornaments or various storage solutions, I am a fan of using vertical spaces.

Here are a few of the things we have hung in the past few days.

Hooks in the broom cupboard helps to keep various items tidy and organised.

There was nowhere to hang a handtowel in the bathroom but we have remedied that now.

We hung this terracotta ornament on the fence above the pond. It is about the only sun I saw today as today is the winter solstice here in Australia and it was very cold and overcast.

GMan is keen to get some more hooks to help in his quest to organise the stuff in the shed. We spent most of the day working on that project yesterday and there is still more to do. I think ‘a work in progress’ is the best description.

Sewing Stuff Sorted

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It is over 2 weeks since I posted this photo of some shelving I repurposed from our walk-in wardrobe to my sewing room.

I knew that there some new IKEA flat packs which had been left by the previous owners but I had not investigated exactly what they were until yesterday. In what I would describe as a massive win, I discovered that there were 4 cupboards, a set of 2 drawers and 2 glass shelves – all designed for the above-mentioned shelving units.

So, I set to work and this is the result.

While there is still some fine-tuning to be done, I am pretty happy with the set-up and mostly know where everything is.

Now to get on with some sewing before too long……………

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.

Packing Priorities

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We now have a contract for the sale of our home. While the contract is still conditional for a couple more weeks, it is time to really start moving forward with preparations for our move.

I have been sourcing previously used packing boxes and today I packed up 9 boxes of books from the bookshelves in our office/library area.

With a little over 7 weeks until moving day most of my focus is going to be on preparing for the big day and blog posts will mostly reflect that over the coming weeks. I will cover various aspects of how we handle the preparation.

It is 17 years since our last move. We have spent much longer in our current home than anywhere we had lived previously. However, we have decluttered and simplified during that time and it will be interesting to see how that impacts the moving process.

When we came here both of our daughters had left the family home but only relatively recently so we still had quite a lot of possessions that related to them but that is no longer the case.

More information on our future plans will unfold over the next few weeks.