K.I.S.S: Decluttering the Computer Desktop

 

Well, this is embarrassing...

Here I lay bare my ridiculously jumbled, unorganised desktop with you, in the hopes that the shame of it will drive me to pick up my game. Simplifying life for us is an all-encompassing pursuit, and that means the hub of our digital life too - the computer.

Confession Time:


I edit photos and "save" them straight to the desktop. I have files and folders still there from my business (which has been closed for over a year now). Not to mention scores of hours of video and thousands of photos that haven't been catalogued or sorted. Ever.

And please, please, please don't mention the b-word. (Back-up). I did have it setup before the renovation, but amongst moving and having Toby and moving back in and life, I lost one of the cables and haven't ever bothered to find it again and set up the external hard drive.

This isn't going to be a quick project, but I'm putting it out there now, that by the end of the month I will have organised my desktop and put in place a system for blog images, family photos and videos, personal files and home files. Plus set-up my backup again.

Hold me to it. Please!

Bringing the Outside In

Spring has sprung and I'm over-the-moon, crazy excited! I'm a huge fan of the warmer weather, the longer days and the lively garden this time of year brings.

I've been spending a lot of time outside, starting on the spring-time garden jobs (list coming soon) and have been snipping some of the beautiful blooms to bring inside. Such a little thing can make the biggest difference to a space and the way you feel in it.

I've got some teeny tiny white paper daisies in the front hallway, some kangaroo paws on the dining table and azaleas next to my side of the bed, and I can't tell you how happy it makes me to wake up (multiple times a night at the moment, thanks to Tobes) and see something so simple and beautiful. It's my little piece of zen amongst the chaos.

K.I.S.S: Tips on Reducing that F****** Ironing Pile.

I am very, very, very bad at keeping up with my ironing pile. Like, bad enough that there are clothes at the bottom of the basket that may or may not have been there since...May. That kind of bad.

I generally manage to take care of the top 75% every couple of weeks, but rarely seem to find time/motivation to finish it completely. (That's probably a sure sign that we have more than enough clothes in this household, don't you think?)

This has been something that's bothered me for a while now. Growing up, my mum was Master of the Laundry. No sooner had you discarded your dirty clothes than they were in the washing machine, hung, dried, ironed and back on the bed. I grew up using this as one of many measures of competency at home.

And while that is super admirable and my hat is forever tipped to such Laundry Masters, my recently adopted path towards the simple life has seen me looking for a better way (for me). And as a result I've cut down so much on the amount of ironing I need to do, which leaves me time to do more pleasurable things, like scrape paint off windows or clean the toilet. Some tips for you:

1. Shake, shake, shake! 
My sister told me about this method, and it really works. As I'm hanging up the wet laundry, I give all the kids' clothes, plus mine and Sparky's tshirts, jeans, etc three really good, firm shakes before I peg them up. This plus line-drying generally takes care of most things.

2. Sort and fold straight away.
Not always practical, I know, but when I can I like to fold and sort the clothes as soon as they come inside or out of the dryer. It means they don't get all creased up sitting in the basket for who knows how long.

3. Drop your standards a little. 
I can't be sure, but I don't think people talk about us behind our backs due to this non-ironing thing. "Oh, would you look at that rumply family? How embarassing for them. Can you believe they walk around with unironed clothes? Maybe we should give them some money as they are clearly destitute." Um, if anyone does say that then I suggest they get a hobby.

Point being, I no longer iron tshirts, the kids clothes, pyjamas, outside work gear, exercise clothes, jeans, shorts etc. I iron Sparky's work shirts, anything really creasy like cotton and linen, and a handful of my delicates. I will admit that I love ironing pillowcases and teatowels though. Weird, I know.

How about you? Do you iron? Do you avoid the ironing? Do you outsource it? Are you the Mayor of Wrinkle Town?

My Name is Brooke and I am on a Decluttering Bender.

Sorry for the radio silence, friends. Every spare moment lately has been spent clutter-busting our home. I'm only a fraction of the way there, but damn it feels good. I feel lighter somehow.

I've been reading lots about minimalist living and the slow home movement, and buzzwords aside I think they're both really interesting, desirable, accessible ways to live. They both apply to what this whole journey is about.

So far:

Sparky and I have cleared our wardrobes, with the hope of sharing one wardrobe and getting rid of the other, as it clutters up our bedroom far too much. This 30 minute exercise netted us 5 big garbage bags of clothes to donate and two big garbage bags of pure crap, which was recycled or tossed as a last resort.

Yesterday I cleared out both of our bedside tables (netted another huge bag of recyclables/rubbish) as well as our bathroom cabinet. Another big bag full'o'junk there.

Went through my multiple piles of costume jewellery and tossed 95% of it. It was mostly tarnished, broken, mismatched or really really ugly. I actually don't wear much jewellery, so I need very little in the way of this stuff.

I cleaned out my craft cupboard and threw away two more bags worth of random scraps that I'd been keeping for "just in case". Nope, no more.

I sorted through our cookbooks and bookshelves, put aside all those books I've borrowed over the years and never returned (sorry, Dad!) and now have a big basket that I will try to sell to the local second-hand bookshop or otherwise donate to Vinnies.

You know those magazines that you buy/subscribe to and keep for no real reason? Yeah, me too. But as of yesterday: gone. I tore out anything I really wanted to keep and the rest was recycled. (I did keep my Organic Gardeners though - I use them a lot).

This morning I'm tackling the laundry and may just be crazy enough to try and tame the beast that is our "store room". Maybe.

K.I.S.S: Chaos Reigns. Time to Make Friends with it.

Lately I feel as though I've been hit about the head with the crazy stick. Renovations, sick kids, parties to organise and host, the terrible twos, health troubles of my own, Sparky's insane work schedule, keeping some semblance of a social life (barely) and running the house have all left me reeling.

I figured, when this new level of crazy didn't disappear after a couple of weeks, that it must be the new kind of normal so I've decided to embrace the chaos rather than fight against it.

A clever lady once told me:

"Only be as organised as you need to be."

While another said:

"Your house should be clean enough to be healthy and messy enough to be fun."

I want to simplify life, not crowd it with stress and anxiety. So I'm accepting the fact that there are only so many hours in the day and many, many things that need doing and that means something has to give. Sometimes that's housework, sometimes social engagements, sometimes showering(!) I just think it's important for me to be an active participant in choosing to do (and not do) certain things each day.

I am a worrier (particularly of what others think of me) and a stresshead by nature so I'm sure this will take some work, but I feel as though I'm making peace with the craziness that is this stage of our life. And what's more, I'm starting to like it.

K.I.S.S: Love it or Get Rid of it (part 3)

As I've mentioned before (here and here) I've been trying to trim down our worldly possessions bit by bit every week. I'm selling some of our stuff on ebay, having a farewell fire sale on Etsy, giving a lot to charity and throwing out the bare minimum.

It was a bit of a crap weekend here, Sparky had to work and the kids and I are still a bit under the weather, but I did manage to clean out my wardrobe and swap over my summer clothes for my winter ones. (Our wardrobes are on the small side and I keep a box of seasonal stuff, to make sure I have enough room. Annoying but necessary. Plus it forces me to go through my clothes and shoes twice a year.)

I have a fairly decent amount of clothes and shoes for Vinnies, as well as a heap of maternity clothes I'm lending to my sister-in-law. It's so nice to be able to see the bottom of my wardrobe again, and not have to shove millions of coathangers aside whenever I want to see what clothes I have.

Bonus: I was going to give this skirt to charity too, but the fabric is too pretty and I think I'm going to try and use it in some as yet undefined craft project. (I'll add it to the pile of unfinished projects now, shall I?)

Brooke x

K.I.S.S: Love it or get rid of it (part 2)

My efforts to simplify and declutter are slowly paying off, as I've sold a few things on ebay already. It's so nice to get a bit of cash for clutter, but it's even nicer to see the back of the extra stuff we've accumulated over the years.

This week I need to get cracking though, and try and offload some more. Here's what I have lined up to go:

• ladies 160cm Salomon snowboard
• ladies Salomon bindings
• ladies Vans snowboard boots 
• ladies Dakine ski mittens
• 3 x snowboard pants
• tonnes of jewellery-making bits and bobs

There's a saying about only making space in your home for things that are either functional or beautiful, and while I think that level of extreme decluttering is a bit far-fetched for us right now, I like the idea behind it. I sometimes feel so tied down by our stuff (and we really don't have a huge amount by today's standards) and wonder how people think past generations got by without six of everything?

Personal storage facilities are a new invention - they've only been around for the past 20 years or so. Before that, we could just, you know, fit our stuff in our houses. Crazy, right?

K.I.S.S: Love it or get rid of it

so we bid a slow goodbye to our clutter...

In the never-ending quest to simplify our lives, Sparky and I have a heap of stuff we'd like to get rid of. Most of it is in really good condition, but we just have no need for it anymore (if we ever really did have a need for it to begin with).

So I've decided to start getting rid of five extra, unnecessary things every week. It'll be like an ongoing declutter. I'll either be selling them on ebay, donating to charity, giving them to someone I know who needs it, recycling or, as a very last resort, throwing them away.

This week we hope to bid adieu to these, via ebay:

barely used snowboarding mitts

dakine wrist guards - worn about three times

brand new ski gloves

good condition electric ski/board goggles

lightweight snowboarding jacket - worn three times max

heavy duty helly hansen snow jacket

Sparky and I lived and worked in Canada for a year a while back and fell for the snow big-time. Unfortunately we've only been once since coming home and the chances of us hitting the hills any time soon are slim to none. So it's all going. Our snowboards, bindings and boots are on next week's hit list!

Anyone else have some extra stuff around that they can clear out? I bet you'll feel better if you do!

K.I.S.S: Decisions

Chucks by Nan Lawson on Etsy

One of my dearest friends is moving to London today, indefinitely. We had dinner last week (such a pleasure, let me tell you! Great company, amazing Italian food, delicious wine...) and I was struck by how calm and committed to the move she was - no nerves or cold feet or second guesses. Not that it would be warranted mind you, I think this is going to be amazing for her, but you could be forgiven for feeling a little jittery about such a massive shift.

It got me thinking though about keeping decisions simple and owning your choices. Sparky and I have made a lot of big decisions in a seemingly short amount of time - the decision to sell our house in the city and move to the mountains was made early one morning and we were looking for property the same day. We also decided very quickly to close down Trove, just as it was becoming very successful. Both of these decisions have been life-changers and choices we've never once regretted. We made the best decision for ourselves and committed to it. There's no benefit in second guessing after the fact because the alternatives were never an option.

It's such a welcome relief when you commit to a decision and then simply move forward.

I once read an article on happiness, and one of the suggestions to creating more happiness was to simplify our decision-making process. If you need new shoes you should visit just two shoe stores and make your choice. More options doesn't mean you're going to feel more satisfied once your decision is made, it just means that making that decision will take longer and likely be more stressful.

Now, I don't know about you, but I'd quite like to spend a day shoe shopping, so I don't think that that was the best example but I do like the thinking behind it!

K.I.S.S: Garage Sale Tips

Our, ahem, "spare" room.

Since we moved back into the house after the renovation, we've been steadily working through each room, decluttering and sorting out all the things we no longer need. Some of these attempts have been more successful than others - like when Isy rediscovered all the toys I had squirelled away in the hopes of rotating them out every few weeks to cut down both on clutter and over-stimulation. It was messy and joyous.

The biggest job by far was clearing out and sorting through our garage and the huge amount of stuff we'd accumulated in there over the past few years. In fact, I'm currently surrounded by a lot of it, as it's now taking up every spare inch of the spare room, until we replace our garage with a smaller storage studio some time in the future.

Anyway, all this decluttering has left us with a LOT of stuff we no longer need, so we've decided to have a garage sale in a couple of weeks time. To make it a substantial one we're combining forces with one of my sisters and selling off furniture, toys, books, CDs, homewares, knick knacks and random pieces of sporting equipment.

I can't tell you what a huge relief it is to be rid of some of the extraneous crap we've surrounded ourselves with. There is still so much more I could do away with, being a reformed hoarder of useless things like old school assignments, uni books, ticket stubs, newspapers, odds, ends and tidbits, but it's a start.

And it's seriously addictive. I now find myself looking for things to sell. Nothing is safe!

In preparation for the big garage sale I've been reading up on how best to run the day and have come across some tips that I'll be following:

• $1-$50 is generally the price bracket people are willing to pay at a garage sale.
• Group items of the same value together (all items selling for $5 placed in a basket, for example)
• Use colour-coded sticker dots to show the price of items
• Toys, clothes, books, CDs and music sell well. Show them prominently.
• Be prepared to bargain. I know I'd prefer to sell everything rather than lug it back inside the house at the end of the day.

I'll be sure to take some shots on the day and share any crazy early bird stories with you in a couple of weeks time. Is it weird that I'm nervous about holding a garage sale??

Kerbside Ettiquette?

Wish this was my neighbourhood's hard rubbish night. Look at that crib! From here.

Am I crazy for thinking this is wrong??

A couple of weeks ago we put our fully functioning but no longer needed electric hot water system out on the kerb for someone to pick up for free. (It's not something we do often, except hard rubbish nights - the funnest nights, excluding Firecracker Night and Christmas Eve!)

Anyway, a man from our neighbourhood, let's call him Captain McScroogepants, saw our fully functioning water system and rather than take the whole thing, proceeded to remove the copper pipe from the outside, rendering the whole thing pretty useless. He went home, profitable copper pipe in hand, but came back about an hour later and removed the element from the system, rendering it completely and utterly useless! At this point Sparky asked him what he was doing:

Sparky: What are you doing?
Captain McScroogepants: Well, I'm taking the element from your hot water system.
Sparky: Oh, OK. We were thinking someone could, you know, take the whole thing, as it is fully functioning.
Captain: Well, I don't need the whole thing.
Sparky: And now no-one will want the remnants.
Captain: Not my problem.
Sparky: ......

Technically he was right, it wasn't his problem. But I was under the impression that kerbside ettiquette means for you to take the whole thing and then deal with what you don't want. For example, you spy an awesome timber framed lounge in front of a neighbours' but it has disgusting poo-brown corduroy cushions. Too bad. You take the lounge and cushions and then deal with it yourself. I'd never leave the poo-brown cushions. I'd want to, but I wouldn't. It's just not cricket.

Am I being uptight? (Likely. Very likely.)

PS. A junkyard man did come and pick the rest of the system up a week later, which made me happy.

K.I.S.S: The New 'Do

Yes, it's a bad photo.
No, I'm not wearing make-up.
Yes, I am tired, thank you very much.
Yes, I do appear to be sitting in a store room.

But I did cut my hair clean off. And it is much simpler. 

A few nervous moments, but I am super happy with the result. Particularly when I take the time to, you know, style it.

I did make one (silly) mistake though. I got carried away by the hairdressers' product spiel and ended up leaving with a chunk of money's worth of salon product under my arm (shampoo, conditioner, treatment, styling paste). Of course, after spending a year trying to find natural body and hair products, this was a complete waste of money. Not only did the rich, synthetic, fragranced products make my eyes itch like crazy, they didn't do anything my previous shampoo and conditioner couldn't do (namely, clean my hair). So it's directly back on the Burt's Bees bandwagon for me, until I can find a better, more natural* alternative. I don't have a reaction to their products and they do a good job, so the search for a GOOD, 100% natural hair care range continues.

*Burt's Bees markets itself as being 98.7% natural. Some of their ingredients, as I understand it, are questionable.

Keeping It Simple, Stupid

In the quest to live a lavender life, or a simpler life, I'm looking for ways to cut the clutter and get rid of the unnecessary complexities in life. It might be doing things like cleaning out the junk drawer in the kitchen or having a garage sale (in March we are having a garage sale - it will be huge and there will be cupcakes and a sausage sizzle).

But to kickstart this semi-regular series, I'm going to simplify part of myself: my hair. It's a bit dramatic, but this weekend I'm going from this:

Taken a few months ago in Fiji. My hair is much longer now. And much tanglier.

To this:

The lovely Michelle Williams.

It will no doubt simplify my morning routine, it'll cut down the amount of shampoo I use, it'll mean less brushing, less drying, less straightening, less product! I'm quite nervous about it but need to do it. Otherwise I'll always wonder. 

Plus, then I get to wear pretty hair accessories like this:

Gorgeousness from ban.do 

I'll be sure to post my own (slightly less glamorous) after shots next week.