The Organised Home Challenge

Our house had been built by a builder just to sell. In Australia we call these houses, 'spec' houses. I never would have thought that I would just walk into a house, already built and say "OK, this is it." It is far from my dream house, but it ticked all the boxes of what was required by our family at the time, and it still does.

While the house was well finished off, the yard was finished off in a hurry. Yes it looked good, but it soon became apparent that we would need to put drainage in our back yard. Also the turf (lawn, grass) that had been laid was not suitable for the southern aspect of our back yard. It quickly died off.

Three years on and it has finally happened.

I am ecstatic!!! I know, it's just grass, but I really am ecstatic.

After a week of leaving it to settle, we were able to walk on it. The kids instantly ran about and fell onto the grass, laying spread out, looking up to the sky. I joined them.

"This is perfect grass for daydreaming" Spunky Monkey said, as we lay back on the soft grass watching the clouds. I would have to agree with him.

Our landscaper was a friend of my Mum's, so she turned up with her clippers and work clothes to help with the back-yard blitz.



While I made a batch of jam drops for the workers, the photo above, is what she cleared from our very neglected and overgrown garden. Miss Moo Moo and I carried it all to the front of the house. We also:

• washed all of the fabric covers on our daybed
• scrubbed the mold from the outdoor chairs
• sanded back and re-oiled our wooden outdoor table
• used the high pressure hose to clean the exposed aggregate on the driveway, under the clothes line, on the path down the side of the house and on the tiles of our back deck/patio
• cut back all of the wildly overgrown passsionfruit vine. It is so much happier now.

It looks fantastic. Although there is still a lot of work to be done in the garden. I was hoping to get started this week, but with sweltering heat one day and pouring rain the next, it just didn't happen. Here is our weekend gardening 'to do' list:

• thin the ginger, heliconias and banana trees
• attend to our sick looking citrus trees - prune? fertilize?
• order more topsoil and mulch for the back garden
• purchase and plant ground cover gardenias
• attend to our very sad looking vegetable patch. Pull out, dig over, replant, mulch.
• buy more herbs, lots of herbs.

This will keep us going for a while, as we actually won't be starting this weekend. We have family visiting from far away and I can see a whole lot of 'summer holiday fun' happening around here instead.

The Organised Home Challenge

Or should that read the The Un-organised Home Challenge, for if it did, I would have accomplished something this week.

I have managed to forget drink bottles, homework, sleep sheets, school swimming payments, sunscreen and my internet banking password! Yes, after five years of internet banking, my brain short circuited and went BLANK for a whole day.

I started re-organising the kids bedrooms in an aim to de-clutter, but I was over it very quickly. I got down a box of trims and doilies to sort out, I sat playing with them for over an hour, then jammed them back into the original box, unsorted. I walked into my walk-in-robe a hundred times and very quickly walked back out again. This is my biggest problem area in the house, but I just can't face it yet.

To be fair, I have not been feeling all that well. I spent a few afternoons on the couch and a few days out and about with odd jobs. I also spent two mornings at school.

So tell me, how is a girl suppose to get anything organised around here?

What's that you say - discipline. Yes, well, wish me luck for next week.

Go here, to see who else has been getting organised around their home this week.

I have also been a little disorganised in welcoming my new followers. So welcome, Alice, Carol, Mac, Tartankiwi, Tat, Karen, ILIS, Karen, Wendy, Caz and Julie.

The Organised Home Challenge

A while back, I read on someone's (?) blog, this question.

If you could only move one piece of furniture with you across the country, what would it be?



This would be it. It is over 100 years old and made in India. I found it in a very small, country town about 10 years ago. I had to have it. My husband, did not think, that we had to have it. Apparently, we did not need it. It sat waiting patiently for me, for a nearly year, until I could wait no more. Without telling my husband I rang the store up and paid for it over the phone.



The day that it was due to arrive, the store owner rang me at work. His voice was breathless and I was worried. He told me I'd better have four strong men ready to take it off the truck when it arrived. Oh dear, we did not know anyone in Brisbane. So, I offered beer and dinner to a guy from work, if he would turn up at our place at 6:00pm, with a very a strong friend. He did and all was fine (well kind of). After dinner, with our new friends gone and a pile of boxes unpacked, the cupboard was filled to the brim. We have not added a thing since.

I guess we needed it after all.





I just love it and it contents of precious memories. Mainly filled with crockery and glasses from both mine and my husbands family's. Grandparents, great grandparents, great aunts and even great, great grandparents. And one or two found antique treasures.



I had other chores penciled in this week, for my continuing quest, for an organised home. But this cupboard needed my attention. Despite my love for it, it had been neglected. It should have been re-oiled about eight months ago, but it hadn't. The wood was very dry, and with our weeks of rain, came the mold. The mold decided that this cupboard was the perfect thing to latch onto, and cover. Arrgh! The inside had to be done also and that meant it had to be emptied, something I did not want to do with the kids around. I had organised weekend away for them so the job could be done next week, however the mold was so irritating and unhealthy I couldn't bare it. I just did it. I gave the children a very big lecture about 'touching' and unpacked all of the breakable heirlooms onto the dining table. It sat here for the next four days.

I cleaned the mold off with vinegar, washed all of the crockery and oiled the inside and out with orange oil. With the glassed cleaned and the contents neatly back in their place, it is back to being my favourite piece of furniture again.

Just a second coat of oil to go onto the outside today.

And another job will be crossed off the list.

Go here, to see who else has been getting organised around their home this week.

New challenges

Last week I signed on to be part of two new challenges, 'mousehouse's' Organised Home Challenge and 'five green acres' The Rumpelstiltskin Challenge. Usually I'll we be writing about them on a Friday, but yesterday disappeared with appointments, before school shopping, and oiling furniture. So here I am today.





The Rumpelstiltskin Challenge is all about making things with what you already have in your cupboard. In fact, I have been doing this for everything that I've made in the last six months. It is in part, that I have been following the Dottie Angel Challenge, but I have also done it for the gifts and dolls I have made too. This is the quote I have repeated to myself, every time that I have wanted to rush of to the shops and buy new supplies.

"Do what you have, with what you have, where you are"

This week I made two pillow cases from a Tasmanian tablecloth. My family went to Tasmania on a holiday when I was about eight years old. We bought the exact same souvenir tablecloth, that my Dad still uses daily. I knew that Dad would not part with our old tablecloth and that he would never understand why I would want to turn a 30 year old tablecloth into a cushion. So, I was thrilled when I found this at a local op shop.

I made these, this week because:

• This tablecloth had recently been washed and was still in the laundry. It seemed easier to make up the cushions than to find a spot for it in the craft room.
• Australia Day is coming up and I thought it would be a nice way to decorate the house for the day, however I love them so much, they might just stay where they are for now.
• After last week, I was in a cushion making mood.
• The study/craft room has been cleaned up. What a difference this makes to creativity. I can actually get to my sewing machine without tripping over the filing or a pile of secondhand books. I know where the tape measure is and I was able to easily find the grey cotton.



It was obviously no coincidence that I borrowed this book from the library last week. It seems that I am not the only one who needs to de-clutter, simplify and organise! I have joined the Organised Home Challenge to help me with this.

First and foremost I need to organise my time better. I have been making lists: our daily routine, my daily jobs, the kids daily jobs (we'll see how that goes!) menu plan charts, grocery list sheets, family day ideas, birthday lists, christmas cards lists, a family traditions list. I am currently in the process of going all 'Martha Stewart' and making a calendar list like this. Perhaps I'll share it when I'm done. If you don't think I've gone crazy?



This weeks main focus, was to clean up our lounge room. It was mess, filled with things I had moved in there from the study, christmas decorations that had not been put away, christmas presents that needed a home and a pile of half finished craft projects. I also had all of the cushions off the lounge, to air it out after all of the rain. I am grateful that we also have a family room, because you could not walk into the main lounge room.

First I cleared out all of the things in there that did not belong. I moved furniture and vacuumed, beneath and behind it, I dusted the bookshelves and sorted the books, I washed the windows, sills and skirting boards. I removed the video player that had not worked for over 6 months and packed up all of he old videos and took them to my Mum's place. I feel very happy now when I walk past. I just stand and smile.

Now on to the next room...

• I found this website, The organised housewife, after I had made up all of my own lists.

• The real simple website goes hand in hand with the book I have just borrowed

• And if you really want to knock yourself out in the organising department, there is always Martha.

Please don't forget that the Queensland Flood Appeal Auction has started and ends at midnight on Monday 24th January. A master list of other crafty auctioneers can be found here.

AND

Don't forget my Queensland Flood Appeal Dolly Drive. Perhaps you'd like to join us