Five minute room rescue

It's amazing what you can do in 5 minutes!

This is one of the tools I LOVE from flylady!! From her site ... what is a 5 minute room rescue?

This is a reminder to spend just 5 minutes clearing a path in your worst room. You know this area of your home: the place you would never allow anyone to see. Just 5 minutes a day for the next 27 days and you will have a place you can be proud to take anyone.

Our worst area is our yard and shed. Neither of us love to garden (although I WANT to and I am going to try!) We have committed for the next 27 days for Paul to spend 5 minutes a day in the shed and me to spend 5 minutes a day in the yard.

I did not want to today. I am tired.

But really - it is only 5 minutes. So - since it was raining I spent 5 minutes in our undercover area at the back. It is a mess since it is where we do our artwork, store outdoor toys, and hang laundry when it rains.

Well - look what you can do in five minutes!

How to make organising fun #1

Teach your 4 year old to use the shredder. Make coffee. Sit back and "supervise" while she shreds away :)

Oh.my.the.dust.

I cleaned my laundry.

One garbage bag to the dump.

I should have worn a mask with my asthma.

Can I just say that damp dusting the laundry is now on my weekly to do spreadsheet???

OK - It's a work in progress ...

Ok - it's not finished - it's a work in progress ... but I'm happy where we are heading!

Before and after(ish)





about two bags of books and clutter donated or thrown. (as in garbage bags)

And homes for those little things! Boxes are cute! And courtesy of Ikea of course! (and the reject shop). (can you believe even ikea BOXES need screws!)

I need to get some larger ones for paper. And I'd like one large enough for scrapbook works in progress. And I need to further work through the books we have ... (this is one of three bookshelves in our home)

Still lots to do - but so much better than it was!

And no - I am NOT trying to organise clutter! almost all of these boxes are close to empty ... we have thrown SO MUCH.

Things I love - unpaper towels

I hate paper towels. I mean - they are useful and all ... but they tear, they are wasteful, they cost money, they don't absorb enough. Horrid. And don't get me started on the environmental impact.

So we use unpaper towels. Cloth. Easy to use. Very absorbant. Washable.

I use them in the kitchen for spills, wiping hands and faces ... all the things I used to use paper towels for.

I love THESE from Ikea! They are in packs of 10 in the baby product section. They are white (so bleachable - but I tend to use the sun to bleach mine), they are soft, they are cheap, and I LOVE the little hang loop on them all!

Much more useful, less wasteful, and it makes me happy to use them!

You can't organise clutter

I love this quote from Flylady. "You can't organise clutter". And it is so true.

I guess I just wanted to make a note of this for me, and for anyone wondering about the storage containers we bought yesterday.

YES - I bought containers to put things in - but they are not being used until we have gotten rid of the clutter - of everything that we don't use, don't enjoy, don't love first.

Nifty storage stuff is not going to solve our problems. Getting rid of the clutter will. (but then the storage boxes will sure look nice afterwards!

Boon frog pod

We had a fun day today!

The morning at Ikea and Howard's Storage World.
The afternoon at Dreamworld for some family fun.

I found heaps of great things on my shopping trip - all bought with an exact purpose in mind. Over the next few days I will show you some of these ideas and what we do with them!



This was bought at Howard's Storage World - it's the frog pod by boon. A scoop to pick up bath toys that mounts on the wall to store and drain them and has room for all those bubble baths and shampoos as well.

Miss E is definately old enough to use this after her bath. It should really help contain those bath time toys and some of the chaos. Only problem is it might mean I need to clean my bath more often now I can see the actual bath!!!

Where to start???

Clutter. Too much clutter.

We have so much stuff that our home is never tidy.

Now I am not talking scary lady things piled to the sky scary.

But I want everything to have a home. And a purpose and a place.

And for me to find the calm in the chaos. Here is our journey.

A little bit of flylady.

A LOT of donating and throwing.

And some fun along the way.