Cupboard Shame

Good Evening all,

I've finally been shamed into sorting out the cupboard which serves as a loft in my apartment.  Now, it's important that you know that I am married to a hoarder, and we pulled about 8 boxes of CABLES, myriad broken laptops, access points, projectors and whatnot out of the cupboard.  In all fairness, not a great deal of the 'stuff' in there was mine, but there is a pretty hefty pile heading to charity shops tomorrow.  We also shifted 4 binbags of junk and 3 of recycling.  Yep, there was a place in our house dedicated to storing out of date pizza menus...

Without further ado, I present some pretty shameful before pictures...

It was, as I believe the kids say, a hot mess.

So, after about 8 hours and a trip to the local Staples, it started to look a bit more like this...

Finally, once everything was out and I could hoover, we had the fun of fitting it all back in.  I'd been 'editing' as it all came out, so I was faced with a  MUCH reduced amount of stuff to cram back in.  There were a few 'Tetris' moments, but on the whole it is SO much better!

Hurrah!

2011 Revisited

Good Afternoon everyone!

(Cards from Etsy shop dodelinedesign)

I apologise for the lack of posts lately, but y'know, life was happening.  Nothing exciting, just life.  So, I figured it was about time to take a look back at 2011, and especially my first post of the year-Things for 2011.
The first thing to note is that I made no 'New Years Resolutions' and I broke none. (It is also worth noting that I celebrate New Years properly on the 1st November, anyway).

There were quite a few changes around here last year.  we finished the Living Room, we painted the bedroom, we upholstered the bed (and I discovered Daniel over at Manhattan Nest...), I finished the bathroom, repainted the dining room aaaaaaand painted the hall, stairs and landing.  Actually, we painted EVERY SINGLE ROOM in our apartment this year.  I've finally started to be able to put together finishing touches without worrying that the actual paintwork wasn't finished...

I needed to get more organised.  I still need to get more organised.  The Great Wardrobe Experiment was a great start, and to be fair, that wardrobe is still looking pristine, so it seems that the experiment worked.  The 'Junk Cupboard/Loft' is quite another story though.  In 2012 I think I'll kickstart the year with a picture of just how bad this baby is.  The Mr is a hoarder, and I'm a minimalist/hider-The ultimate combination.

The second part of 'Things' was the intention to be more mindful of the stuff that comes into the apartment in the first place.  I think we've done a pretty darn good job of this actually.  By we, I mean me.  I think I've done pretty well here.  I reckon that this is the first year of my adult life in which I haven't bought a cushion or a lamp or a duvet set or some inane kitchen item.  I have bought a few things though, like the 1960's Hi Fi turntable, a Typhoon storage jar, a cake stand or two...  Okay, so it may not have been perfect but there's been such a vast improvement.  Honestly.

After the festive season is over and things start to die down and settle back into routine, we'll attack that cupboard.  If there's something in there that I haven't laid hands on in the last year it's going.  I still have a spare wedding dress in there. (Yes, Spare.)

Anyway,  I hope that you've enjoyed this year's journey, and hopefully we'll have another rollercoaster ride next year too.  For now though,

Happy Whichever Holiday You Celebrate.