The spare room, seven months later

While I can see a lot of stuff that still needs to be done, I find that the entire room is VASTLY improved.

This is the post from seven months ago.

This is the room now. I tried to take the pictures from the same angle.

Things I see to be done:

Pic 1 - The stuff on the coffee table needs to be moved. As do the fit balls. Where does one store these things anyway?

Pic 2 - I see there is something under the flat blue fitball. That needs moving too. And the towels need putting away. The box with the pink bag is rubbish at the moment.

Pic 3: Well, that's the computer desk at the moment. Its a bit untidy, but still workable.

Pic 4: That is a cat in the hamper full of baby toys. The desk really needs seeing to, the cans are my weights. In the icecream container in front of the monitor is overlocker cotton.

Pic 5: is the deplorable state of the carpet. The brown splot is shoe dye. The white one is where the carpet is all mashed from the bed leg. The rest of it is stains.

Pics 6 and 7 are of my new fangled cotton yarn storage. Made up of a milk crate (very useful items those) a scrap of sheer curtain, and an empty cushion cover.

tidy, mess, tidy

Its true. Sometime things have to get worse, before they get better. I'd been on the hunt for cotton yarn. I know I have specific colors, and thus I went looking for it. I found TONS of cotton...just not the colors I was looking for. :s The first picture is the yarn out of its spot in all its tangled glory. It should be noted that THIS is just the used parts. The shelf under where this came from has the full balls.

The second picture has most of the yarn in color groups. I don't have much yellow.

I want to find a nice, pretty, neat way to store the cotton I found.

Because the baby I was looking after is a) no longer a baby baby, and b) looked after by his dad now days, I decided I didn't need the baby toys in the lounge room.

I determined that the baby stuff would fit in the laundry hamper.

But to do that the hamper needed to be emptied and the stuff in THERE dealt with. It was mostly left over odd socks, a few clean doona covers and the pile of yarn I got out of the shed...for..some reason.

This is the lounge room floor currently. I used the old stand by of using a RAKE to gather it in one spot to sort through.

This is what the spare room looks like. :| Look...more yarn!

As a point of interest...how does the STUFF get on the floor after you have vacuumed? you know, those little bits you KNOW you just vacuumed? I can vacuum in here (and its not shaggy carpet) and but the time I have done the rest of the house, there are bits on the floor again!

work is progressing

The kitchen sink is clear (well, except for two plants) the lounge room looks much improved (you wouldn't credit how much ONE dining chair blocks space.)

I am quite disgusted at the things I've found in here, partly because its taken so long to get to them, and partly that they are here in the first place. Like an old cake box, with God knows what in it. It is from daughters 18th birthday, which was almost 3 years ago. I understand wanting to KEEP memorabilia, but a cake box? with cake crumbs/icing in it? More saddening is finding old school photos and report cards in a bag of what looks like rubbish, although, given some of the things I've found, perhaps its not a rubbish bag at all.

Anyway, the corner is done. its not the corner I planned on doing, but that just seemed a good place to continue on with. Every thing else on the list from the other day has been completed.

The list for the weekend (5/6 Nov) was:
Sort out wall unit corner
Return books to wall unit
Tidy door, and wardrobe door ✔-> bouncer in the corner, hanging hooks on real door. ✔

As I have done the OTHER corner, which was meant to be this weeks job, I am back onto the wall unit corner. There is more stuff to go, including more linen, an old fan, and two heaters. One of the heaters is broken (but probably still works) but I need to get rid of it anyway.

I found a great way for getting to the stuff on the floor right near the base boards, and that is with a little nail brush. I've been 'sweeping' the dust and whatever out and vacuuming that up. When the room is done I want to have a 'rededication' type 'ceremony'. Something like this Feng Shui method. This one doesn't quite 'speak' to me though.

"...The most important point to remember is that feng shui remedies/enhancers will not work if applied to a cluttered environment. For feng shui to work your space (home/work place) has to be free of clutter and energized..." From here. That page says no red in here, but more and more I think it ought to be.Aside from the price, this sofa bed looks like it would fit in here quite well, and is something I will need/want if I have guests. The other color for that style is white or cream, and DEFINITELY wouldn't be good. "...Red: A room that is painted red will energize, inspire activity and movement, help passion, be powerful and stimulating. A red room can also be exhausting and overpowering, and stressful for those who are anxious. Pink is less demanding. Choosing a red bedroom would not be restful, although some red can be used to enhance sensuality. A red exercise room would be energizing! In Feng Shui red means luck."

work is progressing

The kitchen sink is clear (well, except for two plants) the lounge room looks much improved (you wouldn't credit how much ONE dining chair blocks space.)

I am quite disgusted at the things I've found in here (the spare room), partly because its taken so long to get to them, and partly that they are here in the first place. Like an old cake box, with God knows what in it. It is from daughters 18th birthday, which was almost 3 years ago. I understand wanting to KEEP memorabilia, but a cake box? with cake crumbs/icing in it? More saddening is finding old school photos and report cards in a bag of what looks like rubbish, although, given some of the things I've found, perhaps its not a rubbish bag at all.

Anyway, the corner is done. its not the corner I planned on doing, but that just seemed a good place to continue on with. Every thing else on the list from the other day has been completed.

The list for the weekend (5/6 Nov) was:

Sort out wall unit corner

Return books to wall unit
Tidy door, and wardrobe door ✔

-> bouncer in the corner, hanging hooks on real door. ✔

As I have done the OTHER corner, which was meant to be this weeks job, I am back onto the wall unit corner. There is more stuff to go, including more linen, an old fan, and two heaters. One of the heaters is broken (but probably still works) but I need to get rid of it anyway.

I found a great way for getting to the stuff on the floor right near the base boards, and that is with a little nail brush. I've been 'sweeping' the dust and whatever out and vacuuming that up. When the room is done I want to have a 'rededication' type 'ceremony'. Something like this Feng Shui method. This one doesn't quite 'speak' to me though.

"...The most important point to remember is that feng shui remedies/enhancers will not work if applied to a cluttered environment. For feng shui to work your space (home/work place) has to be free of clutter and energized..." From here. That page says no red in here, but more and more I think it ought to be.

Aside from the price, this sofa bed looks like it would fit in here quite well, and is something I will need/want if I have guests. The other color for that style is white or cream, and DEFINITELY wouldn't be good. "...Red: A room that is painted red will energize, inspire activity and movement, help passion, be powerful and stimulating. A red room can also be exhausting and overpowering, and stressful for those who are anxious. Pink is less demanding. Choosing a red bedroom would not be restful, although some red can be used to enhance sensuality. A red exercise room would be energizing! In Feng Shui red means luck..."

I'm not up to the decorating or energising phase yet. But I will be soon.

wow....LONG absence!

You know that decluttering I was doing of the centimetres? Well, its working.

It worked so well, that I have only just started to get enough energy left to DO stuff. Like catch up on Flylady! I've done the missions this week, and I've made a start on the spare room. Or..ANOTHER start. Coz it got quite wretched in here. Yes, here. I am BACK in the spare room. I have a table again. I even have a floor. There is NO bed, and there are 6..yes 6 boxes gone from in here, plus a stack of books. I've given away stacks of linen, and the tv has been offered on Freecycle. The little white cabinet is in the bathroom under the sink, but I don't like it there. I may well Freecycle that as well.

There are still a lot of things that need to be done in here, but now the bed is gone, I have room to move.

The list I wrote up a coupe of days ago reads thus:
Get white cabinet out - bathroom? ✔
Move blanket box under the table ✔
Rehome tv
Move coffee table under the big table ✔
Display cabinet back in corner - or where cat post is? ✔
Blanket box under the window ✔
Desk off the table and back against the wall ✔

Flylady does have something when she tells you to get dressed to shoes. It makes getting out for a walk MUCH easier. A couple of days I've gotten up and put a dressing gown on, and have been very sluggy ALL day. Days when I get up and dressed in 'walking' clothes, I am far more likely to do it.

I've sewn some new couch covers and am slowly but surely managing to walk at least 5 times a week, AND get the house sorted. Its not been easy, coz the early days I walked and died in the ass for the rest of that day. Not that I was overdoing anything, my brain was just working lots.

Now that the laptop is in the spare room I can plug it into the wall in here and get the extension cord back for the vacuum cleaner! yay!!

But now, its getting on, and I should be walking again in a bit over half an hour, so I better get walking clothes on (I went out today so I have 'good' clothes on) and do the dishes.