A Sneak Peek at a Master Bedroom Closet Makeover

While sorting laundry today I worked a little in the master bedroom closet, reorganizing items with storage totes. The totes just need their labels & then they will be all good-to-go!

I am making a big effort to get all drawers, closets and cupboards about the house as clutter-free and as organized as I possibly can. 

I am hoping this will prove to be the key, to achieving the break-through on the home organizing front that I am aiming to achieve.

My theory is: If I thoroughly sort the 'unseen' places, the 'seen' places should come together so much better. 

Here's a peek at a shelf that's looking a little prettier now. Yay!

Do you approach organizing this way? Has it worked out well for you? How do you like to corral items in the closet areas of your home? Please leave a comment & feel free to share some storage solutions you have found worked well for your household closet organization projects.

Linen Cupboard Organization

My most recent home organization project has been focused on the linen cupboard. Over the summer, my husband has been very busy painting the interior of our home. After he recently painted the interior of the hall linen cupboard and put the shelves back in place, it was a good opportunity to reorganize this particular storage area.

How I went about reorganizing this storage area is the subject focus of the latest video over at the Household Logistics Youtube Channel. In this video I share how I went about organizing a range of items, including bath linens (bath towels, face cloths, bath mats, etc), plus such bedroom related items as pillowcases, bed sheets, blankets, etc.

Here is the direct link to this week's video: Linen Cupboard Organization. If you would like to see other videos on the channel that specifically focus on organizing, please give this video a thumbs up, as it lets me know that it is a video subject that people have really liked. Thanks!

You can also subscribe to the channel so you get direct notification each time a new video is posted. This latest video is all about organizing an area of the home that can benefit from a little help to keep it orderly and tidy.... I  hope some of the ideas shared may be helpful.

Happy home-making, Everyone!

After Christmas Organization

After Christmas there can be a lot of extra cleaning up to do, as well as things requiring sorting and re-organizing. After Christmas Organization is the focus of the latest video posted on over at the Household Logistics Youtube Channel.

In the video I share the post-Christmas clean up that occurred recently in our household, and various ways that Christmas decor are stored after being put out for the festive season.

Everyone loves budget-friendly ideas, so if you would like to know what we have found both useful and budget-friendly, go on over and check out this latest video. Here is the link: After Christmas Organization

Happy home-making, Everyone!

A Simpler, Yet Stylish Christmas is Possible!

Are you keen to find ways to make things easier and not so overwhelming during the months up to and around the Festive season in December? Want to watch a Youtube Video with some helpful and practical tips on how to have a simpler, yet stylish Christmas?

How to have a Simpler, yet Stylish Christmas is a video I am excited to share with you! It is now uploaded over on the Household Logistics Youtube Channel.

Check out this latest video over at the Houshold Logistics Youtube Channel, to get some very practical and helpful tips to make celebrating Christmas easier on the pocket, and better overall for your well-being. Here is the link: How to have a Simpler, yet Stylish Christmas.

Be sure to subscribe to the Household Logistics Youtube Channel, so you do not miss any of the new videos coming out soon in 2019.

Happy Holidays Everyone!

Food Pantry Organization

The first of a two part series of videos about Food Pantry Organization is now uploaded over at the Household Logistics Youtube Channel. Check out the 10 great tips for organizing & managing a food pantry that serves your household fabulously!

Here's the link: Household Logistics: Food Pantry Organization

The Fine Art of Folding Towels

There is an art to folding towels and other household linens. Check out the latest video over at the Household Logistics Youtube Channel, to learn about a simple yet great technique I highly recommend.

Why not have your towels looking fabulous as well as neat & tidy, whether they are hung on a bar, stacked on a shelf, or put away in a drawer.

Check out the video via the following link: Household Logistics: The Fine Art of Folding Towels

Home Staging for Living

Why is it that we seem to only get around to having our homes looking orderly and at their most loveliest, when we are purposing to sell and move on? Why is it that so often we only just get around to doing what is referred to as staging our homes, when we want to see to our home being sold? Why do we not actually stage our homes more so for living, rather than only when we are at the point of listing them for sale?

I have been going through the process of preparing our house to go on the market, and it has really got me thinking.

Why is it that the nicest of pillows and cushions suddenly only appear, all fluffed up and sitting just so, when there is a 'For Sale' sign soon to be set up out on the grass verge?

Why is it that the nicest of fluffiest towels get put out in the bathroom, or the sweetest of seasonal decor get displayed, often only when we are about to host an 'Open Home' or have Real Estate Listing photographs taken?

It seems a shame to only have everyone on board to keep all household surfaces looking decluttered, with ample space for everything, only when we are about to have a potential buyer come for a walk-through.

Why is it that the garden has only just got back in manageable order, or even landscaped and totally transformed, when there is a house sale about to occur?

Surely we have been robbing ourselves and our loved ones of having our homes truly at their best, if our homes only look well kept and well maintained during the short time we have them listed on the market?

Why, or why don't we see how much better it would be for all, to choose to stage, to set up and to dress our homes as best we possibly can, while we live in them!

This will be the second time my household will have prepared a property for sale.

I have been pondering, while in the throes of all the various preparations being undertaken, why it seems too often that we only just get everything the way we would have loved it, within any given house, to suddenly then move on!

I've been thinking about the art of staging a house to live in it, rather than simply staging a house to sell it.

Surely there is a place in the scheme of things for doing better home-making while we occupy a particular house and refer to it as home?!

Why can't it be a far more common practice to organise, to set up (and therefore stage) a house as beautifully as we possibly can, while we ourselves live in it, AND it is most definitely not listed for sale!

Why should we always only having things looking their upmost pleasant and orderly best merely to see our homes then be sold?

A house can be a home, with things that are both practical and beautiful in some measure at the same time surely?

There are sure to be ways of achieving this within one's set budget......... and taking the time and making the effort surely would be worth it???

Such have been some of my thoughts recently.

It does not need to cost and arm and a leg to add special touches to a room to make it look lovely and I have been seeing the results of this firsthand, as I got about preparing each space within our home for our anticipated home listing.

I have become increasingly aware over the last little while that a home can and should be staged for living, and not just be staged when it is time to sell it.

A house can be staged, set up or dressed to appear its best by being innovative and creative, as well as clever with one's time and resources, as they stand and pan out right now.

Those that live in any given house currently, can enjoy all the benefits of it being at its best both aestheticially and on the home maintenance front right now; TODAY!

It is a choice that we can make to stage, to dress our homes to make it appealing to a potential buyer, and its a choice with lots of great benefits to be had by ourselves, in current time also when it is most definitely not on the market or being prepared for sale.

A house CAN be visually pleasant and appealing on so many levels right now, while we ourselves call it home and live in it. This can be achieved, and a house can be 'home staged' with just a little extra effort being put in right now, for our own gain and for our own pleasure.

I am seeing firsthand that there really is a place for making one's current home a little more aesthetically pleasing to the eye, while we still go about our usual day to day routines within its very walls.

Towels can be folded in a manner that is both pleasing to the eye and also very practical.... A small bunch of flowers put out on a table in a vase..... a room's furniture layout can be set up to make a space appear larger.......we can use a colour palette that makes a room appear lighter and airer............It is those little extra touches that can make things around a home look more dressed, more staged and everything not just simply thrown together without care or thought.

Staging a home for living, rather than just staging a home to sell it.......There is definitely some great and significant value in it, and I would like to share some of the lessons I have been learning with you, in some further posts on this very topic soon.

An Audit of Clothing

Just how much clothing does any one person need? Often what we think we need and what we actually need can be two totally different things.

Taking stock and actually working out an inventory of the clothing each family member has and needs can be a great clutter buster.

I have put together a Clothing Inventory List Master Sheet, as it can be very helpful to get on paper the reality of just how much clothing is or isn't lurking around for each famil member.

What ideally is the number of jackets and coats each family member needs? 

How much underwear does each person ideally require? 

How many T Shirts? 

What does each family member in fact at this very time have? 

What can be purged? 

What is yet to be purchased?

These can be helpful questions to ask and to help us to take stock with regard to just how much is required.

Setting reasonable boundaries based on what really is really needed can help us to break free from getting caught up in yet another cycle of items simply becoming clutter around our homes.

Do you need to take an audit of just how much clothing is circulating around in your household?

Start today, and make life a little less cluttered by doing an audit of clothing. Go for it!

The Life That You Want

What is the life you want? Its a question that requires serious contemplation. Its a question that requires time being taken out to really focus on it. What is the life you want?

As I read the question on the page, it really stood out for me. It is a question that goes beyond just seeing the here and now, and it is a question that possibly too few people really give genuine consideration to.

In his book, It's All Too Much, author and organising guru Peter Walsh does not approach helping people achieve transformation in their lives just by getting them to do some decluttering or reorganizing their worldly possessions. Instead, he confronts people with a thought provoking and life changing question: What is the life that you want?

This question really is a deal breaking question. It is a question that stops the craziness of going round and round in circles and not really thinking about the way in which we currently are using our time, energy and resources.

A life that you want. Not the life that is being lived by someone else, such as someone famous. A life that is your life. A life that is deemed to be better and a more perfect fit for you. A life that you want to live during the one lifetime that you have.

As I gaze with some dread upon piles of papers and boxes of odds and ends that all need attention on the decluttering front, this question has really reasonated. When looking at one's home and possessions and the habits engaged in again and again, through the lens of this very question, somehow clarity seems to come through so much more sharper.

 It is a question that really and truly helps give greater clarity.

What is the purpose of this particular room, this cupboard, this drawer?

What is the purpose of this particular item I keep holding on to and which is taking up valuable real estate space in my home?

Is it appropriate that I am keeping it, in light of the life that I want?

Is it appropriate that I am storing away these items that have no actual purposeful daily use, and they don't let me achieve the life that I really want, in some measure right now?

Does each and every aspect of my current home situation serve the life that I want, and could start stepping into, right at this present moment?

What is the life that you want? It is really and truly a game changing question.

I am sure Peter Walsh is not suggesting that we suddenly all throw in the towel and do something outlandish, because having the life that is wanted is not about suddenly throwing the baby out with the bath water, to use a coined phrase.

No! The life that is wanted can be garnered by determining what are our actual real, true and desired priorities and making a conscious effort to move towards them, right now, today!

We need to stop making excuses, stop feeling sad and sorry for ourselves, and actively and consciously step by step, work towards working out the life that is wanted, from this moment forward. Each step, no matter how small, is a step closer to achieving the life wanted.

No one else can give you the life that you want. You know the life that you want, so it is completely up to you to take the first, the second and every other step after that towards having the life that you want.

Having the life that you want requires some adjustments to be made. Adjustments in thinking. Adjustments in the habitual practices engaged in day by day. Adjustments that lead to the desired goal. Adjustments that will allow for the better matching of that which is truly deserving of our time, energy and money and what it is that we ourselves are actually daily putting time, energy and at times money into! We can want it and we can endeavour to make the changes required.

Facing up to and getting rid of the various hurdles that prevent us from having the life that we want, can only be a good thing. Figuring them out, addressing them face on, will allow for the correct and true direction being sought to be followed.

If I want my child to take responsibility for feeding the dog, I need to implement it today. They need to start feeding the dog today. I need to show them the portion of food, how to put it out, how to clean up afterwards. I need to parent them step by step through the journey of having them take full responsibility for feeding the dog each and every day. Rather than get frustrated and annoyed, I just need to keep on with the keeping on of training up my child, until they get how it is done and they can fully run with doing the job independently.

If we want our bedroom to be a sanctuary and place of rest and recuperation, then we need to remove the piles of laundry off the chair and make an effort not to keep on with that habit. We need to regularly change the bed linen so that it is fresh and clean. We need to actually make the bed (no excuses!), so it always looks inviting because we want a life in which our bedrooms are a sanctuary and a place of rest and recuperation always. We need to add the little decor touches that soothe and calm and are restful for our eyes. We need to consider the overall smell of the room, the noise level, the feel of textures. We need to do what we can, to set in place what it is that we want.

Having the life that you want involves doing what is needed to see that little by little it is made a reality. Each day leads to the next, and each step leads to the desired end result: having the life that you want.

Yes, it takes work. Yes, it takes time, it takes energy and resources to have the life that you want, but it is worth it.

What is the life that you want? It is a question that is incredibly thought provoking and habit challenging.