Order Restored!

Posted on 18/05/2020 by Jan

I’ve had a lovely weekend here, slowly putting my bedroom back together after a thorough clean. I’ve moved some furniture and have been enjoying re-organising the wardrobes and drawers.

Its been quite enjoyable just to fold and sort the clothes when now I only have what fits, what gets worn and what fits in the space. The room feels calm and tidy and there is order instead of overstuffed closets and piles of excess ‘stuff’ that had no space to be stored. Today I have just the clothes that need ironing to do and then its complete. I quite enjoy ironing when I’m not in a rush to get it done before work, so in between work commitments today I’ll iron a few baskets and then I’m done.

Mortgage Payoff:

I’ll be exactly half way through my five year goal on 30th June.My mortgage balance should be $83,999 at the half way mark so I have some catching up to do.

My plan is to pay a full mortgage payment each fortnight on top of our regular weekly payment which would be three payments a month. I’ll also put the income from my second job straight to the mortgage. It means a really tight budget but I’m going to do my best to stick to this plan. I got paid for my second job on time this month and have paid it all off the mortgage.

Well its Monday morning here, time to get started with the day and get ready for a day of work meetings. I had been doing some my day job work in my bedroom but I’m going to stop that as I just want to keep it peaceful and free of stress.

“Your home should be the antidote to stress, not the cause of it”

Peter Walsh

Autumn Spring Cleaning & Lockdown changes.

Posted on 12/05/2020 by Jan

We’re still enjoying the beautiful Autumn weather here, cold and foggy mornings with the sun out and blue skies by morning tea time. The trees are all changing colour and starting to drop their leaves.

Over the weekend I finished the decluttering of our clothes & wardrobes.

I’ve filled 10 large shopping bags with clothes/shoes etc to be donated when the op shops open up again. Everything has been washed except one basket of woollens that I’ll hand wash over the next few days.

My next step in this big declutter will get done over the coming week in between working from home, and basically we’ll be doing an ‘Autumn spring clean’:

~~wash curtains~~
~~wash wardrobe surfaces & spray with surface spray~~
~~wipe cedar oil on the back of chests of drawers~~
~~fold & hang clothes back into bedroom~~

I can’t wait till its all done and I will only have the clothing that we actually use. Its going to free up a lot of space and now that I’ve started I’d like to go through the rest of the house, room by room and be more ruthless with the decluttering.

I’m ready to just let things go and live with less and being at home is giving me time and energy to get jobs done around the house.

So far there is no talk of any of us returning to the workplace. Some social restrictions have eased this week:

five people can visit a home
cafes & restaurants can have 10 seated customers
10 people can gather outside
10 people at weddings
20 people can attend a funeral
people are still to work at home if possible
travel is still limited
many businesses providing personal services remain closed
some hairdressers are opening
students started attending school one day per week

We still have no new cases in our area and hopefully our numbers stay low as restrictions start to ease a bit. Fortunately state premiers (like governors) are setting their own rules & not rushing to re-open as our Prime Minister would like.

We will be staying home apart from getting shopping and DH had a coffee with a friend yesterday – they sat in the park. The majority of people are being sensible with the few that aren’t getting much more attention in the media than they deserve.

Stay safe everyone xx

The Great Wardrobe Declutter!

Posted on 06/05/2020 by Jan

On Monday morning I was doing a bit more sorting in my wardrobe, only planning on spending 15 minutes or so decluttering in the bedroom. Next thing I know a moth flew out of the wardrobe, I shook the clothes and another one emerged.

… and so began The Great Wardrobe Declutter, which is still in progress…

I decided that since I was going to wash everything I might as well downsize our clothes and get rid of at least half of what we own. Fortunately work has been very quite this week so I’ve had plenty of time to sort, wash, dry, iron clothes. And I’m still not done!

I’ve kept far too many clothes that no longer fit me in case I lose weight. I’m not doing that anymore, they are all gone. I have kept five pair of black and navy pants for work, that should see me out till retirement. I’ve kept four dressier dresses that I can wear out, two long dresses in case we ever cruise again and one winter coat. I had been keeping three other long dresses to sell but I’ve decided its just time to pass them on and free up space.

I love scarves and have a LOT of them. I wear scarves every day in winter so they all get used. But I bit the bullet yesterday and got rid of about one third of them. I also sorted my jewellery and almost halved it. I do not spend much on jewellery at all, often buying items off aliexpress or op shops. Years ago our house was broken into and all my jewellery was stolen, it wasn’t a lot but the sentimental value to me was priceless, every gift my DH had given me, items my mother had owned, my wedding and engagement ring, DH’s rings – all stolen. It was really distressing. I did not replace any of it and never will. It would just be a reminder of what was taken. Since then I only buy cheap junk jewellery that makes me happy and I will not miss it if it gone. So I have a lot of it, but now I have much less.

Today I’ll sort through my tops and my woollens and my shoes and keep on washing everything. Once I get all the clothes washed we’ll clean the furniture and start re-organising it all, it will probably take the rest of the week to get through it all.

I’m really enjoying just being at home and being able to get things done around the house. I am seeing this big declutter as a way of letting go of a lot of things that I will no longer need in retirement and preparing for living a simpler, less cluttered, less stressful life – having Just Baggage Enough.