And I mean very little by very little, I am organising (or trying to) the house from top to bottom.
After living in this house for 3.5 years it is time, isn't it ?
You move into a house that is actually not suited to your lifestyle (and clutter) and you dump all your belongings wherever you find a place. Then after building an extension onto the original house you get so used to things being stored in the wrong drawer, cupboard, wardrobe, room, which inevitably leads to days spent looking for this or that.
But it has been niggling me for so long, I can't stand it any more. Thus, I made plans (in my head) to tackle one drawer at a time, one cupboard, one chest freezer....
I started with the medicine cabinet. They were stored in one of the original (deep) kitchen cabinets that now resides in the pantry. Too deep to find the things in the back and generally often used items ending up in the front to the extent that when you opened the door the lot would fall out. Bert I'm looking at you !
We have installed wall cabinets above the freezers and one of them is now the medicine cabinet.
It has made such a difference already, it is hard to imagine. And such a little thing.
All the meds for the pets are now also separate. No more rummaging through everything to get to a paracetamol for a splitting headache (not that I have many of these, luckily).
The wall cabinets above two chest freezers in the pantry. Note to self : paint walls.
Staying with the pantry, I've concocted a system for storing the eggs.
I found a sturdy piece of cardboard and glued egg boxes onto it. First I cut away the lids of the boxes
The eggs are pencil marked with the date and we fill from the left at the back and keep going, always from left to right.
Empty egg cartons are stored just above, where the medicines used to be.
We have 3 chest freezers, 2 in the pantry and one in the center of Bert's office.
They also got a sorting through (read, emptying and filling). One of them is now for pork, another for chicken, lamb and other meat. The third one is for vegetables, ready meals (homemade, of course) soups, cheese, .....
The kitchen was from the start reasonably well organised. The only thorn being the drawer with plastic containers. We found another unopened box in the attic which said plastic containers, still unpacked after more than 3 years.
So far, so good. It's been tidy for several weeks now. I love those yoghurt pots. They are ideal for freezing soups and whatnot.
Something I did, before I received my surprise sewing machine was organise the sewing boxes.
I just can't resist temptation when I shop at Lidl's and there are sewing materials on special offer.
It won't stay this tidy forever, I know, but it will for a while at least.
Have you organising tips to share, bar getting rid of all your stuff ? I'd love to hear from you.
Patricia xxx...x