The life and times of Libby Withnall

I saw the most wonderful (and easy) idea on A Bowl Full of Lemons and had to do it immediately.

I didn’t think to take a photo beforehand but I was storing all my store loyalty cards in a small softsided pencil case. It worked but it was always a hassle to quickly find a card when trying to pay.

Now they look like this…

Much more compact and so much easier to use and find at the shops. If you have a lot of cards be sure to try this idea. I think it is so brilliant.

With Christmas over and the decorations all boxed up, I decided it was time to do something with the cupboard where the bins are stored. I also decided to bring through the Halloween and Easter tubs so all our decorations are store together.

Hmmm… 3 shelves of Christmas stuff (not including all our trees), one of Halloween and one tub for Easter…. looks like I need to buy more stuff for Easter .

Of course, this means I have stuff left over to donate, throw out or find new homes for .

Still slowly making my way around the home. It’s very hard with this arthritis and heal spur, but last week I did manage to attack our walk-in-wardrobe.

Turning this…

into this… the top was driving me mad as this what you see when you walk into the room.

Before…

After…

And “Kevin’s” side….before…

After…

See my bags all nice and organised now…. I’m sure there is a better way though…if anyone has any ideas please let me know.

And the other side with Kevin’s stuff …. and my scarves…

Poor Kevin when I look at the photos I realize how little space he has in our wardrobe….not that he needs any more. Guess it’s lucky for me he’s not into fashion… or handbags!

Still gradually working my way around the house, but with my arthritis and heal spur acting up things are VERY slow. In fact, the bathroom was tackled last week. Next to do is my walk-in-wardrbobe but I can’t see that happening this week.

I don’t know why the bathroom always seems to fall into disrepair so quickly. I can assure you it already no longer looks like the after photos. I guess it’s such a frequently used room and we often use it in a hurry and don’t take the few minutes needed to put things away in their proper spots.

On this cleaning day I actually sorted through my makeup – tossing things I didn’t like and making a pile of things to try again (and toss if I’m still not happy with them). I also passed some things along to the girls

.

Since I sit here twice a day to do my skincare routine and/or put on make up it’s nice to have it all neat and tidy again.

It’s still a work-in-progress and I need to find someway to store my long necklaces. I’m thinking of a short towel rail on the wall – a bit like what I have for my scarves.

Then into the cupboard I went. This need a really good sort through.

Much better. Now I can get things without everything falling out.

I also went through all the drawers but Kevin’s drawer had the biggest makeover.

I had a tub waiting for him to go through when he got home so a few more things did go back into the drawer but he can still reach and access everything.

I also thoroughly cleaned the shower, toilet area, mirrors and the floor. Was exhausted afterwards but feel good to know it’s all done. I think there is something very rewarding about having things clean, tidy and organised…. or is that just me?

Before…

and after…okay so I cheated and we got a new coffee table (but I did have to tidy beforehand & move that pile of magazines)…

Hope you’re not getting too sick of the Spring cleaning posts. Today we tackled Amy’s bedroom.

Before….

after…

Before…

after….all done except for the fish tank….

Before….

After….

and into the wardrobe….before…

after…

and her clothes and shoes sorted and organised…

The big question is how long will it stay this way…..

With the school holidays drawing to a close it was time to get stuck into the girls rooms. Can’t remember the last time they had a top to toe clean and sort but it’s been a while. First up was Christy’s room. She was a real trooper, though a little unfocused at times, as it took most of the day to get it done.

We started by removing all the lego. She doesn’t play with it any more so it was time for it to go.

We then worked our way methodically around the room…including under the bed…

One thing that I found really helped, especially at the end of the day, was to handle everything just ONCE. So once it was picked up, you couldn’t put it down until it went to the right place. Christy thought this a fun game, and I think it helped me, tired as I was,  as well.

I had to wait for her bedding to dry and her bed made up before I could take most of the after photos, so you’ll have to excuse the poor lighting.

Before…

After…

Before…

After….

Before…

After…

We also went through her wardrobe, now a lot more spread out because her school clothes moved to the drawer where the lego used to be.

I also cleaned everything thoroughly, including skirting boards and the mirror wardrobe doors (though I did forget the ceiling fan). Christy is so happy with her room and we had a few finds – like $30, the i-pod and DS (though she claims to know where that was). I set her up a little charging station, but she never has ANYTHING charged when she wants to take it in the car.

We’ve got a fun, and more restful, day planned for tomorrow to visit the Powells, and their new puppy. Then Amy & I get to tackle her bedroom. Now that should be fun!!! (said sarcastically).

On  Monday (which was a public holiday here in NSW) I suddenly had the urge to tackle the garage. It has been in dire need of a good sorting out for some time but it’s such a big and daunting job I’d been putting it off. It’s also too big a job for just one person so I roped in Nan, Pop & Kevin and paid the girls to help out as well. In a few hours we turned this..

into this…

and this…

into this…

and finally…this…

into this….

There was a full car load of rubbish to the tip (in Pop’s 4 wheel drive) and a few trips to the local charity shop. And look – do you see that? A share shelf!!! Perfect for me to put things to donate (and keep them off the floor).

So, how’s your garage looking these days?

I didn’t get much done around the house this week but I did find a bit of time to sort through the recipe book cupboard.

I pulled everything out and sorted – books to donate to the library (so I can read them again if I want), books to donate….mainly kids party cake books…

books to look through again before making a decision… with so many recipes now available online I really need to cull the collection – esp. those that don’t have photographs as I find I very rarely will select a recipe that doesn’t have a photo.

and all the loose recipes to be sorted, culled and put into the correct binders…. I really do collect too many. In addition to these I have lots put in evernote as well.

I then put all the keeper recipe books back in the cupboard… on the right are the kids cook books….

Finally the binders (which I need to make labels for) are put in. I’m not sure what it says about me that the soup/salad/mains folder is not as full at the baking folder … well I do really  . Beside the microwave is my FAVOURITES recipe binder and new cookbook (to remind me to use it).

Well, it’s taken me much longer than I’d like to admit, and I’m not finished, but I have got a good chunk of the kitchen cleaned and re-organised. I’ve kept the photos small, since there are so many, but just click on them if you’d like to see them bigger.

I started with the display cupboard…

and underneath – this part has a door…

The baking sheets…. I moved the silicon stuff to a drawer…

and appliance cupboard…

and the drawers….

Some didn’t require too much work…

I sorted out tea-towels and placemats…getting rid of those past their best…

and gave the dog bowl drawer a thorough clean…

I decluttered the kids stuff and moved the silicon bakeware here…

The next day I tackled the fridge..

and pantry… which always takes ages…even though I did it not very long ago…

Finally I moved our meal planning stuff off the fridge and behind the pantry door…

Still to do – under the sink, the tea/coffee cupboard, the medicine cupboard and my recipe books (major culling needed there). In the meantime it now looks like this….