Laundry room re-do

DH and I picked up some shelves today for

our laundry room ~

since we rent, can't paint the room

(would love light rose color walls)

~~ this looks so much better than it was before !

 

Before the shelves, we'd just toss the kitchen towels into a pile on the floor

(I go through a lot - at least two a day) ~

and the baby blankets I make for charity would be piled on the washer until I had a full load.

 

Now I have baskets to corral them both ~

that's a roll-up ironing pad on the top. 
Before I could iron on washer ~ need to find
a new place now.

 

Don't you love the "tin" laundry room box?

Found it in a Sicilian flea market

 a few years  ago... brand new!

 

What have you done to simplify

or organize your life?

Always on the look-out for more ideas!    Holly 

 



Finished my other major organizing project -- Hurray!!

 Taking advantage of DH's deployment to get some projects done that are inconvenient to do while he is around ... so much easier to be able to pull apart a room or and and leave everything out for a day or two (or four ... snicker) while sorting, purging and re-arranging into a more user-friendly layout.

This is the after photographs of my latest project ... our pantry 

(still have to finish the bottle shelf) ...

                                         This is what I started with ... ick!

With a new year starting soon ~ is there a project you want to start on?    
                                                                      Holly

Success! Empty Spaces!

Look!  Open space!

Hooray!  Have got the armoire and the side boy purged out and re-arranged.  Have released so many things from our home ... and I have to wonder why I acquired many of them.  Feels great to have reduced a wee bit of my clutter ...
 it's almost a physical feeling of lightness ...

Now I want to find other things I can release from our lives ... and our home ...

Holly

 Check out all the open space!  Now to keep from re-filling it!

Cleaning and organizing

DH is deployed right now ... 
so I've been working on some 
long-overdue cleaning and 
purging.  Miss him bunches ... 
but when he's home, I can't empty
 cupboards and bins and leave 
the contents scattered about
while going through the piles 
to keep the items we want and donate or toss what no longer fits in our lives.

Over the last week, I've been going through the three main storage places in our home ... an armoire, a side buffet and a curtained off section of a dead-end hallway.  Should have taken pictures before I started ... but oh well... all three were PACKED TO THE GILLS!!

 

 Almost done with all the piles ... only a couple items left to deal with ... tomorrow I'll post what the armoire and side boy look like now.

DH will be so surprised (at least I think he will) when he comes home and sees there is actually some empty space in the three storage areas!  I sold a lot of it at fire-sale prices ... the space and having the unwanted items (most are still in like new condition) go away was more important than getting a lot of money for them.   What went away was my stuff ... I know better than to get rid of anything of DH's without his approval.

Are there any projects you have been working on lately?  I have several others I have been working on ... but this one has been a priority for me.   

Holly

Getting a jump start on New Year projects

My dear husband is currently deployed ... so I am home, alone and while I am getting out a bit to enjoy the German Christmas season ... for the most part, I am working on projects and purging out my clutter (and I seem to still have quite a bit even with all the de-cluttering and purging I have done over the last two years).

While roaming around the web today, I ran across this link ...  

 http://www.popsugar.com/smart-living/List-Things-Dispose-24575006

A lot of times I don't know quite where to start .. or I have a limited amount of time (15 minutes, half-hour,  maybe even just five) and while I want to do something productive, am stymied how best to spend that time ... this link has a great list of things to toss, purge, donate or otherwise exile from my home so I don't have to try and come up with ideas (if I don't already have "stuff" screaming "let me GO!!").  
 
I will be adding this list into my Home "Flight Control" binder (that is a long-term work in progress ... but I hope it will be finalized by early next year so I can have it printed off.
Yes ... I am old-school enough to prefer a "printed on paper" list of routine, home maintenance tasks and suggestions.  Having a known maintenance cycle of projects and upkeep will let me take care of most things preventatively ... love that concept!!

Here's to chipping away at the clutter and my projects .... would love to hear your ideas for keeping your life in control.  Please share what works for you.

Back into the dimly, dark corners to see what I can find!!   
Holly

I'm back ... what's new in my life

Seems like I'm making a hobby of disappearing for long periods ... I realized that I was spending way too much time on the Internet and neglecting my life, home and family.  Pinterest (love it ... but ....) especially was a source of hours of mindless wandering ... tracing one idea after another. 

Went nearly cold turkey ... only was on the Internet to take care of our finances and limited Emails.  Amazing how much time I had to invest in my home and family.  Didn't stop using the computer ... just the Web. 

Was able to organize masses of digital photographs which were buried in the hidden recesses of my computer ... no one could enjoy them, they were stashed away.  Gathered them all together ... sorted by month, then event, deleted the duplicates and the "fuzzies" ... next step is to create a photo book (I'm going to do it by year) and have the book printed.  Still tagging and naming some of the photos ... but I've gotten rid of SO many that were just there.  Such a feeling of relief!!

As you may remember - DH and I moved last year up to Germany.  Our home here is quite a bit smaller than our one in Sicily (still miss Sicily ... it's become a second home) ... so I've been purging out a lot of belongings.  Still have more than I want ... but making progress.   Have run into a problem with lack of storage pieces .... gotta have some place to store the extra blankets, jackets, cushions for the patio furniture ... so have to figure out how to resolve that.  Not a lot of room to put the storage units ... but I really do need to figure out how to store what is only used seasonally or irregularly. 

We're still exploring our new area ... lots to see.  DH and I have gotten into the habit of walking most mornings ... lots of walking paths in our village.   Am also been experimenting more in the kitchen ... lots of good food ... some failures. Weather has been changeable ... lots of drizzle, some rain, a bit of sun ... getting cooler ... the leaves are starting to change colors.

Shall we explore Holly Berry's World?

Holly

What's up?? Clearing and Purging ...

Howdy! 

Bet you all thought I fell off the end of the earth!  Sometimes it feels like I did!

Been busy purging out things I should have gotten rid of before our move last year ... and each go-round, I find more and more to get rid of.  DH and I went back to Sicily for a month (him for work and me to play, see friends).... and I brought back a ton of stuff ... most of which I am now looking at and saying "why - why - WHY???"

I forgot my codes to get into this blog -- embarassing, right??  I changed them ,,, and then didn't update my passwords chart ...like a goofball, I probably figured "I'll remember that!"  and promptly forgot.  

The last two months or so, I have working hard on organizing digital photos.  Have gathered up all the CDs, memory cards and sticks, old computers (still have to find a place to E-cycle them after getting them wiped clean) and anything else I can find that I've stashed photos on over the years.  Probably will find more as I continuing purging the excess "stuff" I've collected over the years (shudder to think of the money I've wasted ... but so life goes and learn from the mistake).   Getting rid of the fuzzy photos, labeling and organizing the others.  If I make the effort to take them ... may as well have them accessible so they can be enjoyed.

Plan to move photographs over to an online photo storage company like Flickr or Photobucket or such after I research which one works better for my life and also will go old-school and have some photo albums made of many of them.   Quite a few pins on Pinterest show people having photo albums again and using a company like Snapfish, Shutterfly or whatever makes it easy to put one together and with sales, it can be done fairly reasonably. 

Cleaning out my bookshelves (Son, bet that is something you NEVER thought you would hear your mother say) and have sent many books away using Paperbackswap.com.  Love, love, LOVE this FREE website!!  Been a member for about three years now.  You post your good condition books on the site.  If another member wants one of your books, you print off a mailing label, pay the postage and send it off -- the sender pays the postage and has credit posted to his/her account for the book.  That credit can be used to get other books from other members.  The "requester" doesn't pay a cent for the book ... just a credit from books previously sent out.    Over the last two weeks I have sent away 36 books ... but I've gotten in quite a few as well.  Not many reasonably priced English bookstores over here ... so this works great for me.  You can list books you want and if someone posts that book as being available ... you'll be notified so you can request it.   Makes up for the frustration of buying a book and discovering partway through that the book bores you silly ... put it up on Paperbackswap.com ... may find a new home for it.    Not limited to paperbacks ... there are hard-covers, audio books and more -- there's a sister-site for movies (though I haven't been over there). 
Yup ... I'm "Holly-Berry-Elf" on paperbackswap.com.

Been fighting a cold over the last week .. drinking lots of hot water with lemon juice, apple cider vinegar, honey and either ginger, cinnamon or cayenne in it.  Sad part ... I've actually gotten to the point that I LIKE the taste of the stuff !?!

Re-organized our pantry last week.  It was a disaster ... though I think I need one more "canned" shelf in there.  Found (and tossed) a lot of expired stuff and things I have no idea just why I bought them  .. donated the still usable items. 

Before

Before

After 

After

 










Chat with you all soon!   Holly