Cleaning and Organising

Hi everyone thanks so much for stopping by today. I’m excited to join Shay and Erika for this month’s edition of “Let’s Look” where the topic is organise your closet. Closet, Walk-In Wardrobe, Built-in Wardrobe, or Wardrobe? It’s so funny how different English words can have different meanings depending on what part of the English-speaking world you come from. Here in Australia, we have different names for a closet. We call them wardrobes. A lot of the older-style homes are typically quite small. So if you are lucky enough to have a place to store your clothes that you can actually walk into. Then we call you a millionaire and we call this place a walk-in wardrobe. I think that most homes have either built-in wardrobes or free-standing wardrobes. A built-in wardrobe is a wardrobe that is built into the wall cavity and can’t be moved. A free-standing wardrobe has different compartments and clothes railings as well as internal shelves. One more thing, we spell the word organize with an s. Haha! So now the Aussie English lesson is out of the way let’s jump in and talk about closet organisation! How Do I Organise My Closet? I have a built-in wardrobe. Our house is small so I have spread some of my clothes into other parts of the house. We have a free-standing wardrobe in the converted garage which is now a storage and home office space. I keep my winter coats in there as well as some handbags. We also have a chest of drawers where I keep my underwear and work clothes. I love clothes and I have a real weakness for shoes and handbags. But I am pretty strict when it comes to buying clothes. My rule is that I have to love whatever I try on. If I don’t absolutely, can’t live without it, or love it then I won’t buy it. Keeping Clothes To A Minimum I am not a minimalist but I am drawn to the minimal way of life. I don’t like a lot of stuff or clutter so I try to stick to the one-in, one-out rule. If I buy an article of clothing then I will try to make sure that I donate a piece of clothing that I don’t need or want anymore. I like to organise my wardrobe or closet by colour and it just makes sense to me. Because I don’t have a large collection of clothes it’s easy for me to remember what I do have. And if I am deciding what outfit I want to put together then I know where my pieces are kept based on their colour. I find it much easier to find things this way. As you can see I love black and neutral coloured clothes. They’re so much easier to mix and match! Occasionally I will be daring and buy a piece of clothing from the current colour trend but not very often. Shoes I like to keep my shoes in their original boxes. The other day I was looking at some of those nice plastic shoe storage boxes in K-mart. But they are quite big and bulky. So I think that I will stick to the old original cardboard boxes. Especially since my built-in wardrobe is not huge. Bags And Accessories I store my bags and accessories in the drawers. Again I am not a big fan of too many accessories. So they mostly fit nicely into the drawers. I have some more bags but they are in the free-standing wardrobe that we keep in the garage/office. Oh yes, I have to mention that these cedar balls are fantastic and I scatter them in my drawers that have any wool clothing. I bought them from Amazon and they have been great for keeping the moths from eating my jumpers. My friend and I joke that the only jumpers which tend to be eaten are the jumpers from Uniqlo. We have a theory that they are either super delicious to moths or they already come with moth eggs. Because without a doubt only my Uniqlo jumpers have ever been attacked by moths. The same applies to my friend’s jumpers. That’s about it when it comes to how I organise my closet. I like to keep things simple and minimal. 😊 I hope you are all having a great Wednesday and I look forward to hearing about how everyone else organises their closets.    

Hi friends, It’s so great to be back for this month’s edition of Let’s Look.  I love this linkup with Erika and Shay. It’s such a fun way to grab some amazing ideas and take a peek into how we do ‘life’. Today we are talking about how we do every day cleaning and I’m excited to share with you some simple tips that I use. How to keep a house clean every day? That is one of the big questions, isn’t it? It can be so daunting! But I have found that if you break up the chores into simple manageable daily tasks. Then life is just so much easier. I work full time and like everyone else does I really treasure my weekends! So the last thing I want to do is spend the weekends tackling a mountain of housework. These simple every day cleaning tips help me to keep my house clean and tidy. And best of all it means that my weekends are mostly free from housework. How To Keep A House Clean Every Day 1. Make Your Bed Every Day I know that it can be so tempting to just get out of bed and leave the bed unmade. But it really only takes a minute to get it done. And once my bed is made then the whole bedroom looks instantly tidier. Making my bed every morning also makes me feel much more productive for the rest of the day. Because I know that once I have knocked down that task like a champ then I can move on to the next! 2. Have A Place For Everything I try really hard to make sure that I have a designated place for everything. It just makes finding things so much easier. One example is. We have a round wooden tray in our entryway for our keys, wallets, and sunglasses. As soon as we get home we plonk all those essentials in there. And then we just grab them as we run out the next morning. There’s nothing more frustrating than looking for keys etc when you’re in a hurry to get out the door. 3. Do Laundry Every Day The laundry is never ending!!! I get so excited when I see the bottom of the clothes hamper. But sure enough, that excitement is so short-lived. To stay on top of the laundry I just make sure that I do a load or quite often more than one load every day. Then to make the task of folding more bearable. I will do it while I am watching/listening to a favourite show or movie. I have to admit that I also get a real kick out of seeing my piles of laundry all neatly folded and smelling fresh. Oh yes and another thing I do is that I make sure to put all the folded laundry away asap. 4. Keep A Squeegee In The Shower A friend of mine told me about this trick ages ago and I used to wonder how she got her family on board with it. I gave it a go and bought a couple of squeegees for our showers and now we are all in the habit of squeegeeing after every shower too! This is really one of the best ways to keep the shower from getting all mouldy and gross. Makes the bathroom cleaning chore so much easier! 5. Clean Up As You Cook I clean up as I cook so that I don’t have a huge pile of mess to deal with after dinner. I also wipe the countertops and make sure that they are clutter-free. 6. Turn The Dishwasher On Every Night Before bed, I will make sure to put the dishwasher on, and then the next morning one of us will unpack it and put everything away. 7. Deal With Mess And Spills Straightaway If I spill something I clean it up straight away and if I notice dust or something that needs a quick clean then I’ll try to do it as soon as I spot it. 8. Hang Up Clothes And Put Shoes Away I never leave clothes lying around they either get hung up straight away or they go in the dirty clothes hampers. The same goes for shoes, as soon as they come off they go away where they belong. 9. Give The Bathrooms A Quick Clean Everyday I like to give my main bathroom and ensuite a quick clean every day. All it takes is a quick spritz of my favourite Earth Choice Bathroom spray over all the bathroom surfaces as well as the bath and shower. Then I disinfect the toilet and squirt some Harpic toilet cleaner into the bowl and give it a good swoosh with the brush. I use the disinfectant floor wipes to clean the bathroom floors and that’s it! Done in a flash! 9. Sort The Mail Straightaway As soon as I get home I check the mailbox and then go through the mail. I recycle anything that we don’t need and then file what we do need. It’s a great way to keep that paper clutter under control. 10. Do A Quick Tidy Up Before Bed Before I go to bed I do a super quick tidy-up of the lounge room. I do things like make sure that the coffee table is neat and tidy and the cushions on the sofa are all puffed up. I just love getting up in the morning and starting the day off with a tidy space. Our house is not very big so I can do this really fast. 11. Stick To A Routine I’m pretty strict and consistent with my cleaning routine which you can read all about here. This means that my ‘every day’ cleaning has now just become a habit. I do my household chores each day of the working week and then I give myself the weekend off as a reward. Except for laundry because

Negative Effects Of Clutter And How You Can Change It– Without a doubt living in a cluttered environment can have negative impacts on your mental health and general well-being. However, there are many positive steps that you can take towards clearing the clutter from your home as well as your life. When you get rid of the clutter you will reap the benefits and rewards of having more living space in your home, increased vitality, and enthusiasm for doing the things you truly enjoy! Negative Effects Of Clutter Clutter Affects Your Mental Health If you have messy cupboards, piles of paper clutter, and overflowing counter spaces around the home this can have a very negative effect on your mental health. Without a doubt, clutter can leave you feeling anxious, stressed, and even depressed. Clutter Negatively Stimulates Your Mind It is really difficult to be productive in your life if you have clutter surrounding you. If you are constantly wasting time looking for things then this means that you aren’t being very efficient. Not to mention how frustrating this can be! Clutter Is A Joy Killer Clutter can stop you from engaging in activities that you enjoy. For example, If you want to do fun things like exercising, crafts, or even want to sit down to enjoy a book. It will be almost impossible if your living area has piles of mess everywhere taking up valuable space. Clutter Stops You Feeling Relaxed Your mind will not be able to fully relax if all you are seeing is mess and clutter. This is because clutter is telling your mind that there is unfinished work that needs to be taken care of.  It’s too hard to relax and enjoy a quiet evening if your living space is in desperate need of attention. Clutter Give You The Guilts If you have excessive clutter in your home it may also mean that you are always living in a state of guilt. The thing is, you really don’t want to be living in a mess and therefore you might be walking around with those annoying nagging thoughts about how you should be more organised. So What Can You Do? If you understand the negative effects of clutter and then begin to realise how it can rob you of enjoying your life and doing the things you love. This might just be the motivation you need to begin the journey towards decluttering and organising your home. It’s never too late and it’s never unachievable. Tips For Decluttering  1. Be realistic Have a good look at all your “stuff” and be honest with yourself about whether or not you are ever really going to use whatever it is you are holding on to. Chances are that once it’s gone you won’t even miss it. 2. Donate Give to charity any clothes, shoes, and bags that you haven’t used or worn in a long while. If it really has been such a long time since you have used that particular item. Then you probably never really loved it to begin with. 3. Sell Have a garage sale and make some money from things that have been taking up valuable space. List them on eBay or Facebook Marketplace. This may take some time and effort but there is a real sense of achievement when you do manage to make some extra cash selling unused items. 4. Choose One Project Pick one area in your home that really annoys you the most and tackle that first. It could be as small as one shelf, drawer, or cupboard. Or you could of course do a whole room. Choose whatever you feel you will be able to start AND finish. 5. Ask Yourself Why You Are Holding On To A Particular Item Seriously consider why you are keeping something “for just in case”. Your lovely home is not a storage unit so don’t treat it like one. 6. Stay Motivated Keep motivated by visualising all the wonderful things you will achieve by getting rid of the clutter. Remind yourself that you will be living a much more stress-free life doing things you enjoy without feeling guilty about the state of your home. 7. Toss Outdated Technology. That broken remote control will probably never get fixed and that old mobile phone will never come back to life again. Trust me. 8. One Box Only Designate one box for each child’s artwork. Be strong and get rid of the rest. 9. Throw Out Old Linen Get rid of mismatched or yellowing linen you might be keeping for guests who may never come to stay. Once you’ve gotten rid of the unused/old linen you can use those amazing vacuum bags to create more space in your linen cupboard. 10. Yes, You Can Buy It Again! Try not to be too harsh and remind yourself that it’s perfectly acceptable to buy again later down the track. We often keep things because we don’t want to waste money repurchasing. BUT  by permitting yourself the freedom to do this then it will be easier to get rid of something. Don’t forget that once it’s gone you may never have the desire to buy that similar item ever again. Start Today So why not go ahead, take control of your life today, and don’t let clutter control you. Here is a practical list of 20 things you can get rid of to declutter your home. This can help you to start your journey towards a clutter-free home.  

Let’s be honest finding the motivation to clean and declutter can be hard sometimes. Life can be pretty hectic, right? And there are times when we can all feel tired, stressed, overwhelmed, or just lacking energy. So let’s look at some simple ways for how to get motivated to clean and organise when the struggle is real. Visualize Your Space Looking Clean This is the first step I like to take when I am looking at how to get motivated to clean and organise. If there is an area of my house that is bothering me because it’s looking messy and cluttered. I start to visualise how I would really like it to look if it was all neat and tidy. Making plans for how to use that space is also very helpful. My garage was converted into another living area a few years ago. But over time it had started to slowly become a dumping ground and it was really annoying me. I knew it could make a really good space for a little office if I got rid of the mess. So I began by imagining how I would like it to look. I thought about where I could fit a table or desk. How I could decorate it and how good it would feel to have somewhere quiet to work. I thought about it a lot and made many plans in my head. In the end, I psyched myself up so much that I was actually excited to start the whole process. Start Small Sometimes it’s easier to start on a smaller and more specific area than trying to tackle a whole room. Choose one thing that you would like to see tidy and work on that first. For example Get rid of paper clutter from your kitchen benchtop or table Declutter a desk Throw out old plastic containers from your plastics cupboard Toss old makeup and unused beauty products from your bathroom cabinet Clean out one bedside table drawer Choose anything that will make you feel good about having made a start. Play Your Favourite Music The music you love will always lift your spirits so why not go ahead and crank it up to make cleaning and organising fun. You can have your own dance party and bust out some moves alongside your broom. Perhaps make up a playlist with say 20 or 30 minutes worth of your favourite songs. That can be like your timer, once the music is finished so can you! Listen To A Podcast or Audiobook While You Clean And Organize Sometimes it feels like there are so many other things I’d rather be doing than being stuck cleaning and organizing. That’s where listening to something interesting serves as a distraction from what I’m NOT having fun doing. Listening to something while tackling unpleasant chores almost feels like you are killing two birds with one stone. You are cleaning and learning something at the same time. Win/win!! Watch A Cleaning Video On YouTube Another strategy for how to get motivated to clean and organse is to watch a YouTube video. I like doing this before I get stuck into a task. For example, if I want to clean my pantry I might watch a quick video that will give me tips and suggestions. Plus seeing someone else’s pantry all organised usually gives me enough pantry envy to get the job done quick-smart! Other times I like to have a cleaning and organising video playing while I clean. I know it might sound strange but having someone cleaning alongside you is very motivating. You almost feel like you are not alone because you are cleaning with a YouTube buddy. Just be careful not to get distracted. Try A New Cleaning Product Find a new cleaning product that will motivate you to get started with cleaning. A couple of years ago the Method Cleaning products were constantly being talked about and recommended. They were very appealing too. The cleaning liquids were all pretty colours and they came in nice clear bottles. I bought some after I had read so many recommendations and got stuck into cleaning. They worked quite well and smelled really nice too. Best of all they motivated me to start tackling my floors and kitchen cupboards. Reward Yourself This is another big motivation for me. If I know something I like doing is waiting for me at the other end of the clutter road, then I’m all in! It doesn’t have to be anything huge. For me, it’s usually an episode or ten of my favourite show. The best part is that once you finish the cleaning task you have assigned yourself you will be able to enjoy your reward guilt-free. Implement A Regular Cleaning Routine Once you’ve successfully been able to clean an area of your home. You will definitely be more motivated to keep it clean. Perhaps consider assigning and delegating chores so everything is not always on you. Set up a doable cleaning schedule that you and your family can regularly carry out. Cleaning a little each day is probably the safest way to stop the household chores from getting out of control. Furthermore, if you do a little bit every day then you will be able to enjoy your weekends more. No none wants to waste their precious weekend doing housework. No ma’am Plan To Have Friends or Family Over This is a huge motivation because you don’t want your friends or family to see your house looking like a mess! Also if you know you’re having guests over on a certain date then you know how many days you have to get your house in order and meet that deadline. I have a friend who does this. She is naturally hospitable by nature so this is her big motivation. She likes having people over but detests cleaning and organising. If she knows people are coming over then she will get stuck into cleaning no

I must start off by pointing out that all mothers are busy working mums whether or not they leave the house to go to work or they are stay-at-home mums. However, mums who go out to work face different challenges so hopefully these simple hacks for busy working mums will be helpful. I’m sure that you are probably already doing many of these hacks. But I think it’s always fun to do a refresh and maybe find some new and more efficient ways to get stuff done. So let’s jump right in and look at some simple hacks for busy working mums 1. Order Your Groceries Online Up until recently, I had gotten into the bad habit of going to the supermarket almost every afternoon after being at work all day. I always went to just “pick up a few things”. Well, the truth is that it was never just a few things! Then one day someone told me about Click and Collect and it changed my life! I am not exaggerating!! Now I order my groceries online and choose a convenient time slot for pick up. Then I usually swing by the supermarket at around 4 pm after work and get the groceries on the way home. This is a FREE service! My groceries are picked for me, then beautifully bagged all ready for me to collect in-store. I find that I don’t impulse buy anymore. Plus it’s also so much easier for me to meal plan and stick to a shopping list. I save time, energy, and money. So make use of services like this to help you. Of course, there is also home delivery and some stores offer direct to boot service, where your groceries get placed directly into your car. Sadly our local supermarket doesn’t offer that yet but I’ll be sure to use that if they ever do. 2. Freeze Meals I like to try and cook extra so I have enough to freeze another meal. So if for example, I am making lasagna, I will go ahead and make two and freeze one. Doing this makes life so much easier, especially on busy nights where you might have to rush out for after-school activities with the kids. I like to save those meals for when I know I am going to be home late because I have to attend an after-work staff meeting. I just pull out my meal the night before and let it defrost safely in the fridge during the day. Then when I get home I can just pop it in the oven. 3. Have A Good Morning Routine Getting out of bed early in the morning is such a huge challenge for me. I am not a happy, bouncy, ready-to-go morning person at all. But in order to stay on top of all the chores, I have made it a habit to get up at least an hour before everyone else. Groan!! 4. Pack Lunches The Night Before I know that after surviving the usual afternoon and evening rush the last thing you want to do is muck around with more food prep after dinner. But it is so well worth it because it will make life so much easier in the morning. Everyone can just grab their pre-made lunches out of the fridge before they leave for school or work. Preparing lunches the night before also means that you can delegate this as an evening chore where family members can pitch in and get this done quick smart. 5. Use A Slow Cooker My slow cooker was my best friend especially when my kids were younger. I would throw all the ingredients into the slow cooker in the morning then turn it on. When we got home dinner was done! Slow cooker meals are perfect for busy weeknights. 6. Do Laundry The Night Before To keep the laundry pile from getting out of control, do a load of washing before you go to bed. Then it’s ready to hang out in the morning. Some washing machines have a timer, which is such a fantastic feature. By setting the washing machine to start an hour before you wake up, the laundry will then be ready for you or another helpful family member to hang out or put in the dryer first thing. Then when you come home try and make it a habit to fold and put everything away so it’s all over and done with. Breaking down the laundry into an everyday chore means that you won’t have a mountain of it to deal with come the weekend. 7. Prepare The Clothes You Are Going To Wear In Advance This applies to your own clothes and everyone else’s clothes in the family. If you lay clothes out right down to socks and shoes the night before. You won’t be desperately trying to find clothing items in the mornings. If you prepare clothes the night before it will be so much easier to remember for example, whether or not your child needs to wear a sports uniform the next day. There’s nothing worse than remembering in the morning and then trying to find all the bits and pieces in a mad panic. (Been there, done that. It’s not fun) 8. Stick To A Weekday Cleaning Schedule This is my most helpful hack. I despise having to do the bulk of the cleaning on the weekends. So I make sure to do some cleaning every single working day. I try and get the majority of it done Monday to Friday. Then my big reward is having the weekends off. Realistically there is always something that needs doing even on weekends. But cleaning will not be one of them if you smash it all out during the week. 9. Meal Plan Meal planning is by far the best way to deal with the eternal “What’s for dinner tonight?” question. Consider making it a habit to set aside some time during the

Hi All, Let’s jump in and look at good habits for staying organized. On Wednesdays, I like to talk about cleaning and organizing so I thought it might be fun to look at a couple of habits that will make life easier. It’s incredibly helpful to try and incorporate some organizing habits into your day-to-day. This will hopefully mean that keeping your home organized will be much easier. If you get into some good habits, keeping your home tidy will feel much more achievable and less like hard work. I wanted to focus on a couple of simple habits that will hopefully, with time and practice become like second nature. You won’t even have to think about ‘doing’ certain tasks. They will be things you do automatically as part of your daily routine. Here Are a Couple Of Good Habits For Staying Organized Tidy as you go Whenever anything is out of place, I’ll just take a few seconds and put it back where it belongs. If I open a cupboard or drawer and find some things that need fixing, I’ll go ahead and do it real quick. The same goes for wardrobes and drawers. If something needs to be folded or hung up properly I’ll try and take care of it as soon as I spot it. This is such a great habit and I think I picked it up from a friend a long time ago. I would have to say that she probably has the neatest house in the world. I had just recently had my first son and so had she. Our boys were about two months apart in age. I spent quite a bit of time at her place back then. One thing I noticed was that she would just tidy up as she went about her day. No big deal, she just did it! Well at the time my house was a disaster (cringe). I didn’t enjoy leaving her house and going back to mine, opening the door and seeing the mess. So over time, I made a point of making sure I tidied things up as soon as I saw that they needed doing. And now it’s just a habit. Thank you, tidy friend!! Tidying up as you go means that what may start out as a small mess doesn’t end up becoming a huge organizing nightmare. One or two things out of place quickly multiply into more and more. So it’s a great habit to get on top of things when it’s still only a small task. Finish Things Off Nothing frustrates me more than when I don’t finish what I’m doing before I move on to the next thing. Going back to find I still need to address the previous task exasperates me. Whenever I am working on something say for example folding the neverending laundry. I will really try to make sure I put it away immediately. If I leave it on my bed, which is where I do my folding, It stays there. I know this because I have been guilty of it. Coming back into the bedroom to find piles of folded laundry, no matter how neat those piles are. Is still very frustrating!! Another example of finishing things off in my day is to make sure the kitchen is clean and tidy after dinner. This means that the dishwasher is on, the counters are clean and everything is packed away. This is an area where the whole family can help out before they each run away to their rooms!! Once all this is done then I can sit down and really relax. The same applies to the lounge room. It only takes a few seconds to tidy up the pillows and throws at the end of the day, but it makes a huge difference to the tidiness of the whole room. I wish I could confidently say that my home is super tidy all the time. But life happens and so there are times when things just pile up or drawers and cupboards get neglected and get stuffed with clutter. Having good habits for staying organized does mean that it will take less time to address the things that might have started to pile up. Get Rid of The To-Do List and Just Get On With It! Years ago I used to like making to-do lists. But I found that they didn’t really work for me. Very rarely did I get to cross everything off the list and that left me feeling all annoyed! Now I might quickly write things down that I need to remember but I don’t write long lists. I think having good daily organization habits means there is no real reason to have a long to-do list. Good habits should mean that household tasks are getting done routinely and consistently. It Takes Time To Build Up Habits So Be Kind To Yourself Building a new habit takes time and effort. Start small like, for example, you could get into the habit of making your bed every day. Once this becomes second nature you can move on to other tasks until they too become a daily habit. Remember that if things don’t get done, it’s ok there’s always tomorrow. Just try and be consistent until it is part of your daily routine. Having a couple of simple consistent good habits for staying organized like tidying up as you go and finishing off tasks is the answer to staying organized.  I think organizational habits are really the answer to a peaceful, tidy, and clutter-free home. One Last Thing If you would like to read about some tips for a clean and tidy home. You can find them here.  

Decluttering your entire house might seem like a massive task, leaving you feeling overwhelmed or even a bit frightened. A good way to begin is by simply clearing out items you no longer use or need. This easy starting point can make a world of difference. To make this process smoother for you, here is a list of 20 things you can easily declutter right now! Let’s simplify together and make your home feel more spacious and serene. Are you ready to dive in? Let’s get started! 20 Things You Can Declutter Right Now! 1. Stained, Warped, or Old Plastic Containers I think that it is so satisfying to get rid of old plastic food containers and it’s a good starting point to declutter your home. I don’t know why but these things just seem to multiply over time. Indeed it’s a good idea to just go through all your plastic containers and get rid of any containers with no lids or any random lids that have no containers. 2. Odd Socks Why oh why do we always end up with odd socks? I just don’t get it, because I have a consistent routine and I make sure I wash, fold and put my clothes away without letting them pile up. And yet I still somehow manage to end up with odd socks over time. I have stopped holding on to my sad odd socks and now I just get rid of them regularly. If I haven’t found their matching pair after a month I probably never will so out they go! 3. Books You Have Read and Will Never Read Again Just the other day I went through my bookcase and did a merciless declutter. I had so many books just taking up space and accumulating dust. I got rid of heaps of novels, textbooks, and cookbooks I had not looked at in years.  4. Worn out Underwear Any bras, socks, or undies with holes just need to go. End of story! 5. Shoes You Haven’t Worn In a Long Time Donate any shoes that might look good on you, but hurt so badly your feet are still traumatized. Who knows someone else might have the right kind of feet for these shoes. 6. Clothes That Don’t Fit Anymore Sometimes we hold onto clothes just in case they might eventually fit again but chances are they might not. Consequently, even if they do fit they might not even be in style anymore anyway. 7. Old Greeting Cards A few years ago we had to empty my mother-in-law’s house as she had sadly passed away. I found a huge amount of greeting cards and reading through them just depressed me. Therefore I promised myself that I would never want my kids to have to deal with that. So now I have a rule. If it’s a birthday card it’s allowed to stay up on display for about a week then it gets recycled. Christmas cards all go once the season is over. I have only kept a select few cards congratulating us when our children were born. 8. Paper Clutter Grrrrrr paper clutter!!! It just makes me go bananas. Papers all over the place give me anxiety. So I make sure I recycle them quick smart before they feel too at home. I’m talking about receipts, newspapers, two-for-one pizza coupons, and personalized junk mail from real estate agents telling me that one hundred people are dying to buy my house. I don’t think so. 9. CD and DVD cases This one is actually on my declutter list. I want to put my DVDs in those pocket binders and the good news is that CD and DVD cases can be recycled. So I am super keen to get onto this decluttering task as soon as possible because it will free up a lot of space. 10. Old Chargers Get rid of any chargers you don’t need because you no longer own that particular device. 11. Old Sunscreen Say bye-bye to any sunscreen that has expired or is older than three years because it won’t give you adequate sun protection. 12. Old Mobile Phones We have a company called MobileMuster which is an Australian recycling company that keeps mobile phone products out of landfills. They have special drop-off points conveniently located in places like Officeworks and many Telco companies. Old mobile phones can be dropped off at these locations. 13.  Take Away Menus These can be popped straight into the recycling bin because you can easily find menus online. 14. Old Hair Products In my constant quest for sleek shiny hair, I had amassed a large number of hair products promising me the earth but delivering very little. Some of them didn’t even smell nice anymore, I gave a big sigh and threw them out. 15. Old Makeup Yes, that’s right throw out old makeup, it’s not healthy to keep old makeup. 16. Mugs These seem to accumulate over the years so it probably doesn’t hurt to get rid of the ones that aren’t needed. 17. Old Sheets or Quilt Covers A few months after my oldest son moved out to live with his fiancee I went through the linen cupboard to declutter it and I got rid of sheets, mismatched pillowcases, and yes his Mickey Mouse quilt cover too. Boohoo! He didn’t need that anymore. 18. Wire Hangers These can’t be recycled but they can be returned to dry cleaners, donated to charity, or posted on share sites like Facebook Marketplace, or Gumtree. 19. Old Manuals These days it’s easy to find manuals on the product website, but if you’re like me you might still prefer the hard copy. Just make sure to recycle any manuals that are no longer needed. 20. Plastic Produce Bags I have switched over to reusable produce bags but I used to have a heap of them that I had guiltily stashed at the back of my cupboard. I took all of these to my

When I pull out my label maker I know that it means I have finally reached the last step of organizing a particular task. For me, this is probably the part I like the best. The reason is that it allows me to be creative with my labeling. I really enjoy looking through Pinterest and Instagram because I get so much cleaning and organizing inspiration. There are so many ideas for how to label the things around the home and I think some are more practical than others. But in the end, I guess it’s just all about personal choice and preference. When I was looking for labeling inspiration earlier in the year. I kept seeing the Cricut, it’s all over the internet and I nearly bought one but then decided not. Who knows I may change my mind and buy one eventually. For now, I own two label makers to label my things and I really like them both. They serve me well and they label things clearly. The Good Old Dymo Letra Tag Handheld Label Maker I have had this label maker for years and I probably use it the most. The letters are very clear and it has 5 fonts, 8 box styles plus 2 line printing. I find this labeler easy to use because it is light and compact plus it is powered by batteries. I also use this label maker to label all of my son’s school things. Like his books, folders, and stationary equipment. I know he’s a big boy but I still love to label his things.  Spice Jar Labels This label maker is also great for labeling my spice jars. The jars are quite small so consequently, I had to make sure that the lettering was clear and I think that this label maker did the perfect job! Labels For Files I have labeled all my files using this label maker. I can easily adjust the size of the letters to suit what I need and I think that this is a winning feature.   The Dymo Organiser Xpress Embosser Pantry Jar Labels Earlier this year I wanted to use something a bit different for labeling my kitchen things. I was happy to keep the spice jars labeled with the Dymo handheld label maker but I was keen for a bit of a change for the jars in my pantry. On Pinterest, I kept seeing pantry jars labeled using this Dymo organizer Xpress embosser and I was sold. I love the retro look, reminds me of when I was a kid. In Primary school, my friend Donna had these same embossed labels on all her belongings, she’ll never know how much label envy I had!!     Custom Made Vinyl Labels Labels For Hand and Dish Soap Bottles When we had our kitchen renovated I wanted everything to look clean and fresh with minimal clutter. (You can read about my kitchen organization here.) I was on the lookout for some pump bottles for my dishwashing liquid and hand soap. The online stores I looked at didn’t have any I was happy with. In the end, I found the perfect glass pump bottles at Ikea. I really like the silver nozzle and I think they look just right in the kitchen. While I was in the process of looking for pump bottles online, I stumbled across an Australian company called Blissful Little Home. They sell all sorts of really lovely organization products and custom-made vinyl labels. Furthermore, the best part was that I was able to choose my own font and size from quite an extensive selection. So I went ahead and ordered the labels for my pump bottles and they turned out to look way better than I expected! It ended up costing me a fraction of the price of some of the options, I had been considering. Vinegar and Oil Bottle Labels I also ordered These really cute and super functional oil and vinegar bottles complete with the vinyl labels. I was determined to get rid of the ugly mismatched bottles in the pantry and I was really happy that I had found these ones. The bottles pour beautifully and they also don’t leak so this means I don’t get any sticky pantry shelves. I thought I’d show you how I’ve labeled some of my things. While I am currently quite happy with my labels, who knows maybe I might be tempted to change them in the future. Because I am just constantly seeing so many beautiful labeling options. In case you are interested here is the Link for Blissful Little Home

Having an organized and tidy kitchen can be very challenging particularly if you have a small kitchen as we do. So you really need to rethink your small kitchen organization because sometimes kitchens can end up becoming a bit of a dumping ground for household items, children’s artwork, and papers. There is nothing worse than having to work on limited counter space and having a cluttered kitchen just makes life too chaotic. Meal preparation can also become completely unenjoyable or possibly even unsafe. Having a small kitchen space just means you need to be efficient and creative with how you organize and store your items. Because let’s face it, sometimes even when we do have large spaces with a lot of storage it can still be very tempting to keep unnecessary clutter. Even large spaces will look messy and be disorganized if this is the case. It is important to have good kitchen organization regardless of whether you have a large kitchen or a small one. General Ideas Small Kitchen Organization Keep kitchen counters clear Get rid of unnecessary kitchen gadgets and appliances you don’t use. Use clear storage containers with labels so you can easily see and find what you are looking for Try and store away things inside cabinets and cupboards as much as possible The idea is to try and get rid of any clutter so that the small space will actually look bigger 1. Be as minimalistic as you can I think for me the only way I was able to get on top of my small kitchen organization game was to be completely ruthless when it came to deciding what to keep and what to throw away. Earlier this year we had our kitchen completely renovated and you can read about this here. This gave me the perfect opportunity to get rid of anything I didn’t absolutely positively need. 2. Get Rid Of Those Unused Plastic Containers I got rid of so many plastic containers and it felt great! In my old kitchen, I had a cupboard full of plastic containers, I could almost swear they were secretly multiplying. There were missing lids and small containers my son who is now 16 had used for preschool. Plus almost every time I opened the cupboard, they fell out and I felt like I was being attacked! WHAT A MESS!! I dislike clutter and I am almost ashamed when I think back to that cupboard (sends chills up my spine). I kept only the most necessary containers and I am very happy to report that I have never regretted this. It’s funny how well we can function when we use what we need instead of keeping things ‘for just in case.’ 3. Get Rid Of Small Appliances You Don’t Use These days we can almost have a single appliance for anything and everything. There are those pie makers, cake makers, bread makers, etc. I know many families might probably put these items to good use therefore it’s not a good idea for them to get rid of them. But for my family, they were useless. Bye-Bye Bread Maker We had this bread maker that took up prime kitchen real estate. It sat there for YEARS! and not a single loaf of bread was made in it. Do you know why we kept it? Because my beloved Uncle who passed away had given it to us. I will admit I felt a pang of sadness when I got rid of it just thinking about my dear Uncle. But I am certain I have many more significant memories of him other than just a bread maker, so out it went. He probably would have told me to get rid of it anyway! Goodbye Slow Cooker Up until recently, I had a slow cooker which I had not used in a long time. There was a time when my boys were younger and we had many after-school commitments. So having a meal ready in the slow cooker was a sanity saver. The thought of living without a slow cooker back then was probably equivalent to living with no internet now. Totally inconceivable!! But I have come to the conclusion that sometimes things serve us a purpose but only for a time. And sadly for me, that time has finished. My oldest son has moved out and the younger one gets himself to his after-school activities. So now there is no longer a real need for a slow cooker. The truth is that I might have kept my old one but it ended up getting a huge crack along the bottom of the ceramic bowl. So after really thinking about it, I just decided to get rid of it and not replace it. 4. Transfer Items Into Containers An excellent way to keep your kitchen cupboards organized is by transferring all dry goods into clear plastic containers marked with labels. Boxes and bags of things take up so much room inside the cupboards not to mention how untidy everything looks. By transferring these food items into containers it will free up so much space. Another benefit is that it will reduce food waste. Food items left in plastic bags or boxes sometimes get lost in the cupboard and only found when they are way past their use-by date. You can see how much of something you have left by using clear containers. Hopefully, this will stop you from buying things unnecessarily and causing further cupboard clutter. 5. Use Shelf Inserts Shelf Inserts are a fantastic way of adding an extra shelf within your cupboard. I got mine from Ikea and we use ours for our glasses and for separating dinner and side plates. I have also seen them used in pantries to store things like cans, spices, or containers. They are extremely handy and versatile. 6. Only Keep Pots And Pans You Really Need We had pots and pans I bought when we were first married and that was just