52 Weeks to go!

Ok, so I'm a little late getting started this week....but come on, it was Christmas! :-)
I've been having a little fun!

My middle daughter (Sprog 2) is quite arty...this is how she spent Christmas afternoon! No playing with the new toys and books for her!

Now though, it's time to get back to work....I'm trawling the net for ideas and inspiration for my "Mom Binder" / "Control Journal" / "Home Notebook" ...whatever you want to call it! ....I've got one that I used for about 3 months in 2009.....it worked brilliantly and I was on top of things, but it slipped and I have't used it since.

So, Job Number 1 is to get it found, cleaned out, re-organised.....AND USED!! :-)

Bags and Boxes!

Ok, so still no photos.......I will get to them, honest! But in the mean time I have a confession, When I "clean up" what I really do is "Stash and dash"!

After yesterdays mamouth session in the living room, I discovered that I'd actually run OUT of bags! eekkk!
(Mind you, there are several in the boot of the car currently hiding presents!)

Stashed in the kitchen I have, at present, 23 Bags and 11 boxes of "Stuff" to sort through.....along with a mountain of ironing that will probably spend Christmas Day sitting on my bed and a basket of washing sitting infront of the machine!

...So there's one target for next year....NO IRONING in the way on Christmas Day! Lol!

Anyway....23 bags of stuff......that's an awful lot (though one is my Guide bag, so it doesn't really count!) and that's without counting all the ones in my bedroom! Even doing one bag a week, that's going to take me until June to sort out! Blimey!
....Still, slow and steady wins the race, so lets go with the target of 1 bag a week.....BUT it has to be emptied and put away, thrown away or given away.....not just redistributed amongst the other bags! lol!
(Although that could be difficult for a while, because I know there are quite a few things that need to go in my closet....that I haven't been able to get into for the last 3 years!)

I'll be back later with an update, some pictures and a "proper" plan of campaign!

Grinding Halt

UPDATED 04-01-12 With Photos.

Well, it's a bit later than the last post, and once again I've come to a grinding halt!

.....In the same place I always do! :-(

See, when I'm clearing the living room I start at the door and work anticlockwise. By the time I get to my chair in the corner I've had enough. I've run out of steam, usually run out of time, and definately run out of space to put "Stuff"....and I've done it again.

See - up to the chair it's looking SO much better!

When I started this last weekend I had the brilliant idea that if I went the OTHER way round the room I might actually get it cleared....only that means starting with my desk......

.......and it didn't work!

....But then you turn round and are faced with this mountain :-(

Oh well. Must go and re-heap the piles in the kitchen so we can make some lunch. Sigh!

...The remnants of the "tidying" Sigh!

Running it to the Wire

UPDATED 04-01-12 With Photos.

I'm still here - I'm still procrastinating - I still have a mess.......and I'm still overwhelmed.

Things WILL get better (they pretty much HAVE to!) but right now I'm trying to squeeze a quart into and pint pot AND make a silk purse out of a sows ear! (all favourite sayings of my Grandma!).....and Christmas is in a day and a bit!

I will be back with the promised photos....but they're on my phone and need downloading and .....(you're ahead of me here aren't you?!)..... I need to find my cable to do that! :-)

Oh well. Onwards and upwards!
When I was a teenager, a friend of mine - the one I'd admired and wanted to be like for several years, you know the type, accomplished, pretty, popular! - said "I wish I was more like you, sure of what you want and working to get there!"
At the time it floored me. She probably doesn't think like that anymore seeing as how her life has taken her all over the world and given her a family she clearly adores, but every so often I think back to the stumpy unsure teenager I was and think "Hmmmmmm!"

Why don't I have the same drive now?!

Right, more junk to shift, see you all again soon!

Managed to clear the TV corner! :-)

Just the rest to do now! :-(

53 weeks until Christmas!

UPDATED 04-01-12 with photos.

OK, so in a few days time it will be Christmas 2011.....and my house looks like a bomb has hit it :-(
Well, actually, a bomb might have made it a bit prettier.

For the last couple of years I've been in a funk and it needs to stop. And if that means I have to "air my dirty linen in public" (..actually, most of it's clean and hanging up to dry, you can see it all in the photo!) to give myself the metaphorical kick up the bum to make it happen, than so be it!

We hang wet shirts and towels on the stairs

- they dry faster!

Here it all is, warts and all. Hopefully I can show that we ALL get in a pickle, but that we CAN all "dig ourselves out of it"

I must get on, but I'll be back this evening with some photo's of the house as it stands, with a bit of look, as the weeks go on you - and I - will see an improvement. And NEXT Christmas??? Well, I'm inviting you all round for mincepies and coffee!
That's a promise!

The rest hangs on a drier

where ever we can fit it!