There are also some little things about the house that drive me nuts. Example: in our cloakroom, some wise soul decided it would be nifty to install a light pull that lights up in the dark. On the surface, this seems like a genius idea – in a dark room, who wouldn’t like a little help finding the light pull? Only, the glow-in-the-dark light pull needs light to charge up. So it only glows in the dark after you have been in the room for a bit. I don’t need to be able to see it once I have turned the light off because I AM LEAVING THE ROOM, THANK YOU. Oh yes, and it has a light bulb graphic, how witty. Ugh.

I have started a Pinterest board for our future redecoration of the cloakroom (hardly a big job since the room is tiny; hardly an important job but we have to start somewhere). Eventually, I want to create boards for all the rooms in the house so I can actually plan our redecoration a bit.  It will be nice to be doing it for us instead of being motivated by trying to sell the house. Do you see the Laura Ashley light pull? Much nicer…

I was excited (because I am sad like that) to get to the sixth chapter of Organized Simplicity because it deals with setting up a Home Management Notebook.  I have so far only set up two parts of this organisation aid but already I feel like my life at home has been transformed. I have been at my most productive now I have established the system and I feel more in control of my household chores and all the other things I try to get done.

I am using a Paperchase organiser I had bought a while back for this purpose.

So far, I have set up the Daily Docket which captures a whole day with your To-Do list (no more than 10 items) including 3 ‘MIT’s (most important tasks) which are the three things that if you get those done, you feel like you have had a successful day!

It also has an area for your meal plan, daily inspiration, a timed planner so you can remember times for specific appointments etc. and a notes area. You can download one to print for free from Simple Mom.

I have also started using her weekly chore chart Cleaning Checklist to keep track of the housework – this is exactly how I like to work: ticking things off as I go. I will probably make my own version of this eventually so that it fits my house better and so I can take off chores which I don’t intend to do on a weekly basis (don’t you dare judge me for not cleaning my windows every week / ever). I print these off, like the daily docket, in A5 onto the paper provided in the Paperchase planner using both sides for the Daily Docket to save paper.

Simple Mom keeps her Cleaning Checklist in a plastic sleeve and uses a whiteboard marker to tick off the chores so that she can wipe it all off and reuse it each week. I am not sure this will work in my notebook and since I doubt I will ever finish the list each week, it is good to be able to refer back to see what DEFINITELY needs doing!

Last Friday, I was buzzing from getting the house into some semblance of order and cleanliness and on Monday, I had the most productive day; despite a deadline of needing to leave town at 4pm, I managed to wrap eBay parcels, take them to the Post Office, reply to emails and blog comments, pick up a delivery from Asda, put away a stack of DVDs, wash up and load the dishwasher, as well as all the usual baby-related things like feeding, changing, washing etc!

Things that Simple Mom has in her notebook and that l might still implement (and will hopefully be able to share with you when I have done so) include:

• Monthly Calendars
• Master Grocery List
• Monthly Budget
• Ideas areas

Snow Day – the full kit is available!

Walk in the Woods

Ice-Skating Afternoon

Here are my creations:

I need to remember to take a photo of the ice-skate ornament when I get the Christmas decorations down this year!  Ooh, it’s enough to get you excited about Christmas!

I managed to make a decoration for Halloween for the second year running and I am quietly pleased with the result, especially compared to the child’s effort from last year. You will be able to read a bit more about how I made it over at sew make believe on Monday.

I am getting excited about Evelina’s first Halloween. We have a first birthday party to go to on Sunday which is fancy dress so whe will be wearing her witch outfit. I also bought a HUGE pumpkin which I was going to decorate with my Martha Stewart pumpkin transfers which my Mum brought back form the States a couple of years ago but I can’t find them. Instead, we will be carving the pumpkin ready for my front door display. I’ll post photos on Halloween!

First planted

I am not really known for my green fingers but in the spirit of living more simply and therefore frugally, there is definite appeal in growing our own veggies.  Admittedly, our crop is hardly going to keep us fed all summer but it has been pretty cool to see the pea and bean plants which my parents-in-law planted for us flourish.

Beans before they are beans

All grown up - peas and beans behind with lamb mint and flat parsley in front

Our peas were the first to grow to maturity (is that the right phrase? I am so out of my depth here!) so we picked them, shelled them and enjoyed them with two meals!  See what I mean about not really the biggest harvest?!

Peas

Pea harvest - enough for two meals for two people

Shelled peas

We used a veggie plot which was already there when we moved in, albeit with nothing but some oinion bulbs.

An onion!

Our kitchen garden wouldn’t be complete without some herbs – my favourite kind of plant!  Our lamb mint and parsley which we bought from a National Trust shop at Baddesley Clinton have gone crazy.  The thyme and parsley from our old garden are just struggling back to life after the harsh winter.

Thyme and parsley

I also have a basil plant which I bought from Sainsburys as I love having fresh basil to hand but cannot for the life of me manage to keep it alive in the garden.

Basil plant

In addition, I am growing some more thyme from seeds which came with our latest tub of Lurpak!

Tiny Thyme

A flower fairy keeps watch

Sunflower!

Downstairs, we use a basket to store all the toys which is hidden down the side of the sofa. I am sure this will change as she gets bigger (and her toys do the same).

The exception is her play gym which has to stay out due to its size and frequency of use!

This week’s hotspot is the pantry (or in my case, the kitchen cupboards) and the fridge.  Again since we have only just recently moved in, this won’t be such a big job as we got rid of a lot of expired food when we were getting ready to move.  The fridge could do with a clear out though – I found a yoghurt from January in there on Saturday…

I was getting a bit fed up with the constant sorting of paper into piles, only for it to get in a mess again.  This is a kind of ‘before’ shot (in the background of a picture of ricardo and evelina):

So the first step was to gather every piece of loose paper from around the house then start sorting into piles: bin, shred, recycle, filing, action needed. I had a little helper;

After disposing of the rubbish, I then organised the three concertina files which were all serving the same purpose, meaning I could never find anything as I didn’t know which file things were in. I used one to hold all our old filing and labelled ‘archive filing pre’ plus the date.  i used a box file to store all our conveyancing paperwork from the move. I wrote proper labels on each section of the newest concertina file and filed away all our current paperwork which we might need to refer to easily.  The third concertina file is empty, ready to be used for archiving once the current file fills up.  Another box file has been used to hold all our receipts and manuals which take up room but might be needed one day.  Box files are great for this sort of thing as it is very quick to throw a receipt in a box file making it much more likely for me to maintain.  Some pretty filing concertinas house the filing for my teaching applications (not yet done but I already have a few leaflets etc.) and Evelina’s filing including her medical information, children’s centre timetables, nursery pamphlets etc.

Here is our side table now… just the ‘action needed’ pile attached to a clipboard with my nearly complete to-do list (although a new set of chores will be added this week I am sure!).

I will be getting an in-tray for this table which will store all the ‘to action’ papers and all the incoming mail which I will go through once a week (or more frequently if I get chance). The filing concertina, Evelina’s filing and the receipts box file are under the table within easy reach, all to make it as easy as possible foe me to keep on top of filing.  Having these in the lounge instead of the study upstairs makes so much more sense as I am much more likely to get it done while we are watching TV in the evening.  Before filing used to be dumped upstairs and since I rarely even go in the study, it got forgotten.

Next up: toys and kids clothes clutter.

So first of all, here are the before photos.  No judgement please!

The first step was to tidy up the hanging space. I moved Rich’s casual shirts to the guest room wardrobe and put all his work shirts and trousers in the wardrobe in our room – this makes sense since these are the things he needs daily.  I removed all the clothes from the shelving areas of both wardrobes and folded them neatly into piles on the bed: sweaters, big jumpers, night wear, sports wear, decorating wear (yeah, that’s a thing, apparently), polo shirts, smart jumpers, snow wear, shorts and jeans.

I cleaned out the wardrobe shelves with household cleaner and then divided up the areas (mentally!) for each of us.  I also emptied all the drawers of our two chest of drawers and added them to the piles.  I emptied out the shoe area and paired up the shoes.  All clothes that I wasn’t going to keep went in a big Ikea bag and all my maternity wear in another bag to go up in the loft for next time (fingers crossed!).

I still need to go through the big bag to split the clothes into charity shop donations, stuff to Ebay and stuff to throw away/recycle (fabric recycling does not care about the state of the clothes since they are shredded to make into bedding etc).

Then all that was needed was for the clothes to be put away.  I used a shopping bag to store all Rich’s snowboarding accessories.  We still need to get some shoe racks so we can keep the shoes tidy and remember to wear all our different shoes! I have seen some cheap ones in Homebase.  Overall, I am really happy with the result and it amazing the impact this has in the morning for feeling like you are on top of things. Here are the after shots:

Our room

Guest room

I even have some spare room in the guest room wardrobe for my crafting supplies!:

More photos here.

I am excited to get on with the next task which is paper clutter. I have already had one paper purge lately but I need to get a more attractive filing system so I can have it handy in the lounge.  That way I can file as I go along.  I might have to check John Lewis online as I have some vouchers to spend…

I have just started reading this book because ricardo and I decided that this year, we were going to wrestle our finances into order and simplify our lives. I have been reading Tsh’s blog Simple Mom for a while as it is a great source of inspiration when it comes to organisation and home management. However, now that I am a mama myself, it has become even more relevant.

The term Intentional Living refers to the idea that you don’t just let life happen to you but instead you live with conviction and have more certainty about why you make decisions. It seems to me it is activity versus passivity and proactivity versus reactivity.  This approach is very appealing to me, especially since I would like to get a hold of the things that constantly need to get done and shake this constant feeling of falling behind.  I want to be able to sit down and spend an hour sewing without feeling guilty. I want to want to sit down for an hour to sew rather than watching year-old episodes of Oprah. I want to be able to fully enjoy this incredibly blessed life I have.  I have a feeling that one of the changes will be ‘watch less TV’ but, you know, baby steps…

As a first step, I have made a short list of my goals for 2011 with this in mind. I will share my progress with you here and I have even changed one of my horizons to ‘Simplify‘ so you can easily find posts about frugality, the simple life and all that good stuff.

Finally, I will be participating in Project: Simplify over at Simple Mom.  The first hotspot is the wardrobe and that is definitely an area that needs attention.

Sidenote: The ‘z’ in the title caused me more pain than it should – I am no pedant after all – but it is the title of her book and who am I to impose my British spelling?!