Decorating

Home Organisation 101: The Living Room Before

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So, Home Organisation 101 moved into the Living Room this week. This is The Room in our house. The room we’re in most of the time, and the one where we do the most things. We watch things, read things, listen to things, play, drink tea and craft in this area. So it often contains all the detritus of life.

Here’s some before photos:

Adventures of a Subversive Reader

The arm chair and worst of the crafting area

Adventures of a Subversive Reader

The living room. Now with bonus baby!

Adventures of a Subversive Reader

The couch and coffee table

Adventures of a Subversive Reader

TV, DVDs, books etc

So, what to do here? Well, I’ve started by throwing out tonnes of old video tapes, which freed up room for DVDs that were taking up room in my study. Now I need to organise everything just a little bit neater. And then dust everything a million times 🙂

Home Organisation 101: Squirm’s Drawers

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Find the A Bowl Full of Lemons post here.

This was a pretty easy week. The task was a child’s wardrobe. Squirm doesn’t have a wardrobe, instead he had a set of drawers. He’s also much too young to use them himself, so this was about creating a system for Mr Pilot and myself to use.

Before Photos

The top drawer – this is where we keep the wipes and other small things – as you can see, our change table is on top of the drawers

The clothes drawer. So many clothes! And baby clothes are so hard to fold neatly!

The wraps and burp cloths. This is the neatest drawer, but very over crowded

The too big and too small drawer. It’d be really nice if babies could just stay one size for a while 🙂

Our biggest problem is the sheer amount of clothes in different sizes that comes with having a baby. There were clothes that Squirm had grown out of and clothes he hasn’t grown into yet. Both sets of clothes had to be dealt with. We also needed a very flexible system – something that was easy to alter for the different clothes and seasons.

I ended up buying two shallow tubs that are designed to fit under the bed. In one I sorted the too small clothes, the other held the too big clothes. This freed up a lot of space in the drawers. I also took out so e winter stuff that we din’t need now we’re going into summer. Those two tubs fit nicely under Squirm’s cot.

I kept the newly emptied bottom drawer and the one above it for burn cloths and swaddling wraps. There’s also room in there for bags and wearing wraps. The third drawer became the clothes drawer. The cooler clothes,are at the front – mostly singlets and cotton onesies.

The top drawer was the last to be organised. Because we use reusable wipes, we have a wipe system (two containers, one for clean wipes, one for dirty) set up in the divided,drawer. I moved the bibs forward (since we’re using them more now) next to the wipes, then put all the shoes and socks into a small container behind the wipes. Hats went into the corner. In the other side of the divider I put dry wipes on one side and wet bags on the other, with the wipe container at the front next to things like nappy cream.

So far, it’s been much easier to use and find things. I also realised how many clothes Squirm had, and realised we can probably pull back on buying so much. We do need to buy a couple of night things for the next size up, both not much more than that.

After photos

Plastic tubs for the too big and too small clothes

Top drawer. This one had the most organising and it’s the one I feel is working the best now

The clothes drawer. Not perfect, but an awful lot better. I’m going to try to put washed clothes underneath clean ones so that everything gets worn more evenly

The pretty empty drawer with burp cloths and a couple of lighter wraps. We were washing on the day I organised the drawers, so there were more things to put away later

The bottom drawer with heavier wraps


Find other Home Organisation 101 posts here

Home Organisation 101: The Master Bedroom completed

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Find the challenge post here

I feel like I’ve been working on the Master Bedroom forever. In reality it’s only been a little over two weeks, but there’s been some big changes in that time!

Before Photos

Adventures of a Subversive ReaderAdventures of a Subversive ReaderAdventures of a Subversive Reader

I started by buying some new bedding. We rotate two sets of sheets – our old ones were pale green and pink and were starting to look and feel old. I bought a set of sky blue sheets, along with a new pillow for each of us. I also bought pillow protectors and finally bought a mattress protector, so I feel less anxious when Squirm is in the bed with us! I also bought a new set of green sheets which go on the bed today. We still use our old quilt cover and matching cushions, which are pink and green, but the blue in the room brightens things up!

Then it was onto my bedside table. (I’m letting Mr Pilot attack his own side). I cleaned up the top, removing a lot of books I’d already read. Then I used the tins my sister gave me at Christmas to hold a bunch of stuff from the drawers and then act as bookends. I also finally finished rereading Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (it’s a sad ending! If I don’t read it, Harry won’t be sad!)

The insides of the drawers were pretty easy to clean out and I ended up with not much in them, which was nice 🙂

The top of the dresser was always going to be more difficult due to my necklace buying habit. I was kind of displaying them, but I wasn’t real happy with it. I ended up taking the cork board I was using and covering it with fabric. I’d used a fabric marker to draw a map on the fabric, which continues a map theme I’ve been trying for in the whole house. I then sorted my jewellery and ended up throwing a lot away. Most of the necklaces are on the board, a few are tucked away in other places.

Finally, I needed to add some decoration to the room. On the top of the trunk at the end of the bed, I put two baskets, along with a cushion and my old teddy bear. I added a vase and fake flowers to the dresser and bought two lamps for the bedside tables. Finally I put up hooks to display Mr Pilot’s hats and arranged a collection of pictures on the wall above my bedside table. I think I might put some more decoration in later, but for now this looks great.

After Photos

The dresser with our clothes baskets on either side

The bed and bedside table

The other side of the bed. Usually there’s two wide brimmed hats hanging here

Detail on top of the dresser

The end of the bed

Bedside table

Jewellery board detail

The bedroom with the lamps lit up

Home Organisation 101 – Sneaking a peek at a nearly finished Master Bedroom

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You can find the prompt post here

I’ve only got a few things to do to finish up in the master bedroom, so I thought I’d give you a little sneak peek at what I’ve been doing:

It used to look like this

Adventures of a Subversive Reader

And now parts look like this:

Another couple of days and I’ll be 100% finished with my first full room of this challenge!

Home Organisation 101 – Linen Closet completed!

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I finally (after three weeks) finished one of the challenges! Announcing: The Linen Closet.

You can find the blog challenge here

Our linen closet is a rather big, built in wardrobe in the hallway. I have cleaned it out fairly recently (just before Squirm was born), but only the actual linen parts. The closet also holds cleaning equipment, my sewing machine, candles and decorative stuff, board games and some of the cutlery and glasses we use more rarely. It also has our wedding album in there.

It’s hard to get a good photo in there because of space issues, but I did my bestest . . .

Before Photos

As you can see, it was mostly just untidy. Although the challenge called for pulling everything out all at once, that isn’t really practical with a 10 week old. So instead I tackled one shelve at a time.

I wiped each shelf down, then put the items back in neatly (I did get rid of a few things we no longer require too). Then I organised the cleaning items into a metal bucket and a covered container

Finally, I made some paper bunting to cheer the closet up a bit 🙂

After Photo

And, presenting the final product . . .

I had heaps of fun finishing this one up. I think it looks much better, and it’s easier to find things. Now to get back to finishing the master bedroom and the laundry!

Home Organisation 101: The Laundry: An Update

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So, the other day I posted how I was starting work in the laundry. A large amount of it is complete, though now I need to do some sewing and other craft (and we need to buy a new sink) to finish up.

I didn’t want to wait until I was able to get all of that done, so I thought I’d post about my progress so far.

Let’s remember what it looked like . . .

The first thing I did was to move out all of the loose stuff.

I then cleaned everything down – well as well as you can when you have a baby strapped to your front. (For some reason Squirm hates the laundry, so doing anything in there can be a battle). The next day, after a visit to the shops, I organised the items on the shelf into decorated boxes and added a little decoration to the wall . . .

My Laundry To-Do List

  • New sink
  • Curtains
  • New towels
  • Peg basket cover
  • Rug for the floor
  • Canvas for the wall

So, other than the sink (which will require time to get), everything else is a craft thing. I’m going to aim to get them finished by the end of next week. Wish me luck!

 

Living at Home – Organising and Decorating

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When I was at work, I was never that concerned with how the house looked. I wanted it to be neat and tidy (well most of the house), but I wasn’t all that worried about making it look beautiful. Now I’m at home, I want to live in a house that make me feel good and makes me smile 🙂 I’m also aware that I’ve only got so much time to decorate and organise before Squirm becomes mobile. So, there’s probably some safety issues to consider too.

While I was thinking about decorating, I came across A Bowl Full of Lemons and the Home Organisation 101 Challenge. The challenge spreads over 14 weeks (with the understanding that you can take as much time as you need) with a different part of the house being targeted each time. There’s an example (with lots of detail) posted on A Bowl Full of Lemons, and you’re encouraged to share your own creations. This would work particularly well for me, as the current week is the laundry, which was exactly where I wanted to start.

There’s a few challenges with decorating our house. It wasn’t new when we bought it – it’s about 30 years old. The owners before us painted the whole inside of the house pale pink with pink trim, and since we currently have an 8 week old, we’re not in the position to repaint it. They also weren’t always careful with their painting, so we’ve had some trouble when we’ve had to change light switches and power points. Underneath our house has been built in, but it can be a bit dingy and dark down there, and some parts are unfinished.

We’ve done little bits and pieces around the place. Most of the work has been done in the front garden, where Mr Pilot has completely revamped it – removing all but one of the trees (one removed itself when we got the fence done), putting in a row of garden beds along the side and front of the yard and planting a range of beautiful Australian natives. Now, a year or so after we started, we always have beautiful colour out the front, and more lovely birds than we thought we’d ever have.

Other than that, we’ve done up the nursery for Squirm and done little things like hanging pictures and changing the handles in the kitchen. Mr Pilot has also done heaps to make the bathroom look better – putting in a new sink and taps. But the overall house is still undecorated and now seems like a good time to jump into it.

We’re looking at a relaxed country style in the house. We have some lovely handmade quilts and blankets, and we love things like cushions and rugs. We’re going to have lots of photos around the walls – of places we’ve traveled and family. And flowers – real and unreal – will probably make an appearance. We’re not looking to repaint or change carpet or do big jobs like that (yet) but we’ll probably do some smaller things we’ve been looking to do for quite a while.

I’ll be posting the results here, of course, starting with the laundry and moving on from there. But here’s a sneak peak of our laundry before photos 🙂