Just Do It.

My dad was not the kind of man you went to for sympathy. He had a very straightforward, black and white attitude to life, and his answer every time something went wrong was "That's life. get on with it."
Don't get me wrong, he was a lovely man who'd be first on the scene to help you out, but he had no time for wallowers or quitters. His philosphy was simple - if you can do something about your situation, do it. If not, get over it.
In some ways, this was a negative thing because I didn't feel as emotionally close to him as I'd have liked. If I felt upset about something, I'd have never gone to him about it as he was not one for tea and sympathy. However, it was a huge positive in the sense that I grew up to have a similar outlook on life. I don't wallow in self pity when things go wrong, I find a way out, and I'm very proud of my ability to turn a disasterous situation around as soon as possible.
I don't let things happen, I make things happen!

This was a huge advantage this week. We were due to move into mum's house on friday past, so you can imagine my dismay when I woke up on the thursday to find everywhere covered in snow! The weather forecast said it was only going to get worse and they even predicted the worst blizzards for over 100 years! Damn.
We had a van booked for the following day, but it was pretty obvious that even driving a car in our street was going to be a challenge, let alone a huge van! Steven wanted to just admit defeat and put off the move until the weather improved, but I was having none of it!
this move has been on the cards since february, and I have been absolutely desperate to move in before Christmas. The weather was set to continue for several weeks, so I was having none of it - we were moving and that was that!
I cancelled the van and phoned a friend to ask if he'd help me move the big stuff before the weather got any worse. He agreed, and I was delighted! Steven went off to work, I dropped the kids off and immediately rushed home and dismantled all my furniture singlehandedly, then phoned my friend to say I was ready. He said "Oh, today? I thought you meant tomorrow. I'm fully booked today."
ARGH! Meanwhile, there was a raging blizzard outside and I had no way of getting my big stuff moved!
Well, I had a minor panic for a few minutes and then set about doing what I could manage on my own. Lots of things were thrown into boxes and chucked into the car, and I even had my TV wrapped in a duvet, inside a bin bag and on a sledge!
Several trips later, and I had managed to move a good amount of stuff completely on my own. I was really proud of myself for taking the bull by the horns and making it happen!
The next day, Steven was off, so despite the roads being even worse, we flattened all the seats in the car and managed to squeeze our 2 seater sofa inside - it was like something out of Pimp My Ride, you'd have thought we were trying to make a limo!
Our friend did eventually manage to help us take the 3 seater sofa and our double mattress over, and we now have the bulk of our moving done, phew!
We've got a long way to go in terms of getting the old house completely emptied and what we'll do with it now, since it's not selling, is anyone's guess, but that's another post for another day!
Anyhoo, the point of today's post is, don't put things off and absolutely don't give up at the first, second or even third hurdle. If something needs to be done, don't think about what is in your way - Just do It.

Joy!

Have you ever wanted something that you just couldn''t afford? Something so ridiculously expensive that you can't ever imagine being able to justify buying it, yet something that makes your heart ache with longing every time you see it?

I have had a longing like this for several years. The object of my affection? A Kitchenaid Artisan stand mixer. At almost £400, it's a serious investment, but oh my god, how I've wanted one!

The thing is, some people would think nothing of spending £400 on a handbag, or a necklace, or an outfit. I have no interest in expensive clothes or jewellery, but my passion is cooking and there are some things that are worth investing in.

They are solid machines, all metal with no cheap plasticky bits. They are built to last, like, forever. I've seen photos of mixers from the 1930s that still work for goodness sake! They are proper workhorses, not a faddy gimmick that will be used twice and then banished to the back of a cupboard, No, these machines are designed to be used and used and used.

I'm serious about my cooking and it's something that is top of my ultimate "someday" list. Well, this year, my dream has come true!

My husband saves money all year so that we get a lump sum in December, and usually are able to afford all our Christmas shopping, plus an investment for the home.

Last year, we got a PS3. this year, I got my Kitchenaid!

This morning, I skipped into John Lewis like a child entering Disneyworld, and immediately made a beeline for the kitchenware department. There they all were, lined up proudly and looking oh so beautiful. I had originally wanted one in Candy Apple Red, but as soon as I saw the Cranberry one, I felt a rush of joy and couldn't stop smiling. It had to be Cranberry!

I was offered the Collect at Door service, where it would be taken to a door for me to drive up to, but I couldn't let it go, I just had to take it away there and then! I carried that machine to the car as if it were made of solid gold (and it felt like it was made of solid lead!).

Here she is in all her glory on the counter, along with the banana bread I made to ensure she was working...

Isn't she stunning? You just have to smile when you walk into the kitchen and see this beautiful lady! Of course, I had to give my machine a name. After all, this will be my partner in the kitchen for hopefully the rest of my life! Well, what other name could I give her than Joy? The very feeling I get whenever I realise that this beautiful thing is mine! The feeling I get every time I cook and bake, and every time someone tells me how much they've enjoyed something I've made. We all need a little joy in our lives, right?

For me it's cooking, for others it might be clothes or holidays. It's whatever makes you happy, and I have certainly found my Joy.

A day in the life.

5.30am - Get up
6am - leave house and chisel ice off car
6.40am - arrive at work, have cup of coffee
7am-3pm - work my little ass off
3pm - leave work and go to Toys R Us to exchange a duplicate gift
3.40pm - go to asda for mince (forgot to take out of freezer this morning, doh!)
4pm - pick Daisy up from grandma's
4.45pm - pick Charlie up from after school club
5pm - get home, straight into kitchen to make dinner (lasagne and garlic bread, from scratch)
6pm - eat dinner
6.30pm - help Charlie with homework
7pm - get Daisy's PJs on and get her settled with story and cuddles
7.30pm - get Charlie warm milk, have a chat and get him settled
8pm - clean kitchen, clean bathroom, put on load of laundry, fold, sort and put away clean laundry, tidy living room, lay out kids clothes for tomorrow, put cans in recycling bin, put bin bag in wheelie bin, list a few things on Ebay.
9pm - update blog
9.30pm - have a cup of tea and flump.

And people wonder why I don't watch much TV - I don't have time!!!
I'd love to see a day in your life :-)

Lessons I've Learned the Hard Way - winterproofing the car

I'm happy to admit that I procrastinate. Well, I won't admit it right now of course, maybe later...BOOM BOOM!

It's true though, I have a terrible habit of knowing I have to do something but putting it off until the very last minute. Take my car for example. now, I knew that snow was coming, and when it did come, I was lucky enough to be off work on holiday so I didn't need to be driving anywhere.

the thing was, I knew I'd have to go back to work this week, and I knew that the snow was only going to get worse, but did I take action to keep my car running? NO!!!!

Instead, I left it to get buried deeper and deeper under the snow and ice for ten days, so that on the morning I had to go back to work, it looked like this...

I swear, there's a car under there somewhere!

That last picture is a close up of frost, isn't it cool? Apart from the fact that it's on the INSIDE of my windscreen! Why oh why did I wait until the day I went back to work to deal with this? It took well over an hour to get my car cleared, and involved me having to stand on a stepstool and use a sweeping brush to get almost 2ft of snow off the roof. Not good. My fingers were screamingly painful from the cold, and after clearing the snow from the car, I then had to shovel the mountians of snow away from the wheels! My wiper blades had become so wrecked by the ice, I had to change them completely. Well, the nice man at Halford had to change them completely, cos when it comes to cars I'm ashamed to say I'm a pathetic little girl who doesn't have a clue!.

So, lesson one of winter car maintenance, even if you don't intend to drive in the snow, make an effort to scrape the car and run the engine for a few minutes anyway. That way, you won't end up completely buried.

Lesson two happened when I parked at the chinese takeaway to pick up dinner, and then got stuck in the icy car park. Every time I tried to move, the wheels spun wildly and all I did was slide ever closer to the car behind me. Did I have provisions with me for such an event? Sand or salt maybe? A shovel in the boot? NO!!!

Very, very luckily for me, a lovely couple came to my rescue and put some flattened cardboard boxes under my tyres, then pushed while I drove. It worked, and I was extremely grateful for their kindness and the fact that they were clearly more sensible and prepared than me.

So, lesson two is if you're out driving in the snow, make sure you have items to help you, should you get stuck in ice. A quantity of sand, maybe some de-icing salt, cardboard to give your tyres a dry surface, and a shovel would all be brilliant to keep handy. Also, your phone (fully charged), a spare blanket and a drink and snack in the glove compartment. The kindness of strangers is brilliant, but you can't always rely on everyone else to be prepared for you.

My dad was brilliant with cars. He just knew the basics, but he was the first person I phoned whenever something went wrong. He was a real stickler for maintanence of cars, and made a big deal about checking tyre pressure, oil levels, etc before long journeys. I trusted him totally to keep my car running smoothly and now that he is gone, I realise that it's down to me now. Sink or swim. As much as I have zero interest in cars, I have to learn how to look after mine, so that I'll be able to get myself out of the next car related difficulty with a smug sense of pride.

My dad did such a lot for me, he was a real old fashioned "man's man", so he insisted on helping me with most manly jobs around the house and car. Well, like I say it's sink or swim, so there will be a lot of learning going on!

The Importance of Being Anal

Yes, I am aware of how wrong that title is, and no, it's not a movie review...

I was thinking today about the theme of my blog, and although it's mainly just a memoir of everyday family life, it's also to document my journey from the chaos of right now to hopefully a more settled and calm future.
Well, the truth is, if I want a calmer life, I'll have to start running a tighter ship. It's all very well to be impulsive and spontaneous, but sometimes there needs to be a place for everything, and everything in it's place.
I know several people who think it's dull to be super organised, but I've yet to meet someone who thinks it's fun to be racing around searching for a lost item when you're already running late.
I thought I'd do a little series of posts about several areas where I'd like to become more organised, saying how I plan to go about it and hopefully inspire someone else along the way!
So here are the categories I can think of, just off the top of my head;

*Kids toys and clothes
*Paperwork
*Finances
*Housework
*Food storage
*Meal planning
*Time management

Sound good? I may add to this list, but at some point in the near future, I will do seperate posts on each of these categories.
At the moment, I'm completely disorganised. This year has thrown me into a tornado of chaos and confusion, and trust me, there's nothing more stressful than waiting until the day your road tax is due, then tearing the living room apart because the post office closes in 20 mins and you can't find your MOT certificate. That was only yesterday!

Wouldn't it be great to be able to know off the top of your head where every important item in your house is, at any given moment?
Wouldn't it be great to know, without checking, how much money is in your bank, what day your bills come off and to know that you have the best possible deal for everything?

I'd love to spend 2011 getting to bed at a decent time, having all the housework done before 8pm, paying my bills when they are due and not when they threaten to break my legs, having a meal plan and spending my spare time doing something constructive instead of stressing out over everything that needs to be done!
In short, I want to learn the importance of being anal :-)

Cabin Fever...

It's been snowing here for a week, and the schools have been closed. The kids loved the snow for the first couple of days, but now they just want to stay in, watching DVDs and playing Club Penguin!

The trouble is, Charlie has just started playing Club Penguin, and needs frequent help from me. Daisy is at that adorable stage of being completely unable to stay focused on any one thing for more than five minutes, so she'll start colouring, then abandon it to do a jigsaw, then abandon that to make paper plate masks, then abandon that to play Puppy in my Pocket...

Which is why my living room now looks like this...

Argh! I swear today my ass had an alarm on it, so that every time I landed on it, someone had to shout "Muuuuum!"

I couldn't even make a cup of tea in peace! if the school is still closed tomorrow, we HAVE to go out. A day in the house is all very well and good, but it gets really stressful when you see the place slowly falling apart around you, the kids are bored and kranky, you're exhausted and beginning to get really short tempered!

So anyway, after dinner was over, the kids were running riot, Steven was getting ready for his night shift, and I looked around and felt pretty sorry for myself. By that time in the evening, I'm tired, I've been hearing demands all day, and I just desperately want five minutes peace - sound familiar?

Daisy decided to make me a puzzle as a present "because I wub you"

Can anyone resist that smile?

So I took a deep breath, counted to ten(thousand) and decided to embrace the madness. We played a couple of games, read a few stories and snuggled under the duvet. Daisy asked for some warm milk and when I came back with it, I found this...

No matter how crazy they make me, no matter how exhausted and frustrated I get, I look at their beautiful sleeping faces and I know that I could never love anything more. Ever.

Tomorrow I will be patient. Tomorrow I will tidy the house and keep it tidy. Tomorrow, we will make snowmen, and cookies and go sledging.

Tomorrow I will be a better mum, a better wife, a better me.

Tomorrow. I promise.

Julie & Julia...

I've been wanting to see this movie for ages! I'm a little obsessed with cooking, so any time something food related comes out, I always have several people telling me to check it out.

Well, this movie was one that a LOT of people had told me I must see, but I could never find the DVD anywhere.

Today, joy of joys, I was doing some xmas shopping in my local Asda, and there is was! Not only that, but it was at a special price of £5, AND came with a free recipe book!

The sticker on the front said "Gift idea - she'll love it!"

Okay, so that slightly pissed off my inner feminist, but I bought it nonetheless and guess what? She DID love it!

What's not to love? Two true stories running parallel to each other - the first, the story of Julia Child, an american woman living in Paris, who discovers that she is as passionate about cooking as she is about eating. She spends years pursuing her dream of publishing a french cookbook for american people. It's an inspirational story which teaches the all important lesson that nothing worth having comes easily.

The second, set many years later, is the story of Julie Powell, a woman on the threshold of her 30s, who feels a bit lost in a world where it seems that everyone else knows what they are doing except her. She hates her job, but adores cooking, and begins a blog in which she cooks her way through the now famous book of french cookery by none other than Julia Child.

There are disasters, tears, tantrums and a lot of work, but the movie is brilliant.

It's easy to assume that great cooks never get it wrong, but this movie reminded me that even the best of us has lain down on the kitchen floor in tears when it all falls apart...well, it's like I always say - I only get so upset because I care!

These are a few of my favourite things...

*That feeling you get when you come in from the cold and your fingers tingle
*Finding a crumpled fiver in your pocket
*Hot chocolate with marshmallows
*Playing board games with my kids
*A clean house
*Good friends
*Discovering the thing you were about to buy is on sale
*Snow days where nobody has to leave the house
*Absolute 90s radio
* http://www.craftster,org/
*reading other people's wonderful blogs
*slow cooked food on a cold day
*making something fabulous from stuff that would have been wasted otherwise
*sleep!

What are your favourite things?

The Great Declutter - the black bag challenge

Today I decided to get a head start on the decluttering by first getting rid of anything that needed to be binned. Today was not about tidying, or sorting what's to be sold and what's to go to the charity shop. No, today was all about the rubbish, the tat, the stuff that just has to go!

I put a big bin bag in each room, and focused entirely on throwing things away, and two hours later, I had a good old collection to be taken to the tip. My house feels lighter already!

Of course, among the stuff to go in the bin, there were some things of sentimental value. Mainly my kids' artwork. What do you do with the endless stream of arts and crafts that kids take home from school? Some things are just beautiful and deserve pride of place on the wall or fridge, but what about the piles of coloured scribbles and paint splodges?

I must admit I'm pretty ruthless about these and tend to get rid of the majority. To be honest, the kids don't even notice. I think they enjoy the experience of doing crafts rather than the end result!

As much as I love looking at their artwork, there has to be a limit!

I think I might borrow an idea from another blogger I read recently, and make a "clothes line" with pegs and hang up the kids' latest art projects, then change them monthly.

That way, the kids feel like their work is appreciated and enjoyed, and I don't feel to guilty when I eventually throw it out!

Oh, and in other good news, someone wants to view my house!!!

Having had no interest for months, I'm very excited about this and hopefully all my decluttering will leave the house looking it's absolute best :-)

Tomorrow's mission - getting stuff sorted into charity/ebay boxes...

The Great Declutter - getting rid of STUFF

STUFF annoys me. STUFF stresses me out.
Everywhere I go in my house, there are piles of STUFF, drawers full of STUFF, and generally so much STUFF that I don't know where to start!
Why di we do this to ourselves? We spend our whole lives pushing ourselves to work harder, earn more money and buy more STUFF, when we could just pare down and enjoy the benefits of a simpler life.

Imagine waking up every morning in a tidy bedroom, being able to easily choose an outfit from a small, clean and perfectly ironed selection and spend the day doing something peaceful and enjoyable, instead of waking up in a bombsite, struggling to drag things out of overstuffed drawers and wardrobes and spending the day stressing about how you want to do fun things, but have too much housework to do! Well, that's my life, anyway!

I'm moving house this month. In fact, after tomorrow I'm starting to seriously pack our things up and decide what we need to take and what we can let go of.
I realise that the majority of stuff I want to keep will be for sentimental reasons, rather then practical ones. We need very few things to live well, but some things just have a personal meaning. Do we keep them, just so we can pull them out every few years and remember? Or do we find some other way to remember and let go of the material things that are dragging us down?

I've decided to go for the latter. I've decided that instead of keeping so much STUFF, I will take pictures of sentimental items and blog about them, and then let them go.
It's been such a horrible year for us, incredibly stressful and manic. I'm ready for a simple life. I'm ready to let go of my STUFF, and start enjoying my TIME.

Stay tuned for some sentimental journeys coming soon!

Don't wish it away, don't look at it like it's forever....

I'll admit it, I have moments - usually very early in the morning or very late in the day when I'm a little bit tired, a little bit crabby and a big bit fed up with constantly tidying up after the kids or meeting their never ending demands.

In those moments I envy people who have older kids, the kids who are old enough to take care of themselves, go out without supervision and actually give their mothers a few minutes peace every now and then!

Wouldn't it be lovely, I think, to be able to tidy the house and find it still tidy an hour later, or to be able to slink off for an afternoon nap and trust the kids to be alright without me for an hour or two?

We all have those moments, I'm sure! We get so bogged down with the responsibilities of adult life - most of us are always juggling housework, holding down a job, maybe looking after ageing or ill relatives, worrying about money, pining the loss of an easier life where someone looked after us instead of the other way around. It's no wonder that when our kids whine or make a mess or wake at the crack of dawn, we sigh wearily and look forward to the day when they can be more independent.

When your mind if so full of to-do lists, scary bank statements and unfinished jobs, it can be hard to switch off and just have fun with your kids. It can be so difficult to stop and put yourself in their shoes, where they just want to play in the park and are desperate for you to stop what you're doing and join them.

I went to see Toy Story 3 the other day, and it made me cry like a baby! Without giving too much away, it's a movie that not only reminds you of the joy of being a child and having beloved toys, it also gives a harsh reminder that kids do not stay kids for long. Sooner or later, they grow up and stop wanting to play all the time - eventually they stop wanting to play altogether, They take on their own responsibilities, stresses and worries. Why would I want to rush my sweet little kids into a life full of stress and worry?

One day in the not too distant future, I will have a house that stays tidy for more then 5 minutes. I will be able to sleep past 7am on my days off, and I will be able to concentrate on doing a job without having to stop 25 times to get snacks, take someone to the toilet or break up an argument.

But today? Well, today you'll find me in the park, playing with my kids, and loving every minute of it!

Loving before leaving

I'm trying so hard to get excited about the daily grind of keeping the house pretty, but it ain't happening!
Keeping a house clean, tidy and sweet smelling when you have two kids, three dogs, a cat, a hamster, two goldfish and a job is NOT EASY.
I find myself brimming with ideas for the pretty house I will have after I move and start the project of renovating my childhood home, but when it comes to the house I'm in right now, I'm all out of inspiration!

A lot of times I've seen people advising home owners to mentally detatch themselves from their homes while selling them, but I think it is quite important to love the house you are in. If you go into a house for sale and can see the way that the current owners love the space, it makes you more likely to fall in love with it too, right? Well, that's my theory anyway!

So I'm trying as much as possible to forget the debts, forget the recent stress and fall in love with my current home again. After all, it's not the house's fault, is it?

Today, I'm concentrating on the garden and entryway, plus the good old ten minute tidies everywhere else. Plus decluttering...OMG, I could declutter a whole bin bag of stuff every day and the house would still be stuffed full! It's amazing how much crap you can accumuluate in one little house!

Today, I'm going to look at my house with fresh eyes, and instead of seeing clutter, mess and a place my heart no longer lives in, I'm going to see the house I brought my baby girl home to from the hospital, the living room I took my son's photo in on his first day of school, and the kitchen in which I have cooked many lovely meals.

How do you feel about your house? Have you lost that loving feeling - and if so, how do you plan to get it back?

Me old china...

I adore china. I adore tea and cakes. My idea of absolute heaven is a table full of mismatched vintage china, pretty floral cake stands full of beautiful homemade cakes, and a pot of tea. If the teapot is covered with a handmade tea cosy, all the better!

Yep, you can keep your drunken nights on the town, I'm a definite tea party kinda gal.

A few months ago, I bought an antique china cabinet, which I sanded and started to paint white. Of course, me being me, I haven't actually finished painting it yet, but I will, honest! I'm also going to find some pretty paper to cover the back of it with, and haven't quite decided whether to keep it solid white or distress it a bit.

The intention for the cabinet is to fill it with my favourite cookbooks and lots of my beloved mismatched china. I was going to buy a vintage teaset from an estate sale, but I decided to start a slightly more motley collection by picking up odd bits here and there from charity shops, with a few new pieces thrown in here and there if they make my heart sing enough!

I started my collection this week by buying this...

Isn't it lovely! Called a trio, it comprises of a teacup, saucer and side plate, and cost me £5 from a local Red Cross shop. I love the images and the gold trim, so pretty! Stay tuned for more additions to the collection soon!

Making peace with patience

I've been reading through a lot of blogs lately, and drooling over the beautiful houses that these women have!
There are tons of brilliant ideas and I'm feeling so inspired! When we move to my mum's house (hopefully soon), I know that it will be our "Forever" home. I wouldn't want it any other way - it's the house I grew up in, it's in the town that I love, my kids adore living here and it's right next door to my husband's parents! How perfect is that?
It will need lots of work done and it will take a long time and a lot of money to make the house exactly the way I want it. In fact, I'm not even sure how I want it yet!
In any house I've lived in before, I've never had that "Forever" feeling. We've decorated hastily and done the minimum we can get away with to have a home we feel content in until it's time to sell up and move on again.
In my mum's house, I will need to learn to slow down and be patient. I have the rest of my life to live there and make it perfect for all of us. It will take time and hard work, no settling for the cheaper option or the path of least resistance. In my forever home, I need it to be exactly what makes us delighted, excited and inspired.
I'm going to take it one room at a time, in fact, i'm going to get a folder and section it off by rooms, and gather ideas so that when the time comes to work on that room, I'll have some idea where i'm going with it. There are loads of ideas out there!

Saturday baking!

I like making sweet treats with my kids at the weekend whenever possible!
Today we are making the simplest of all kiddie treats - the world famous rice crispy cakes! I often do these with just chocolate and a little margarine, sometimes some golden syrup for extra glossy, gooey stickiness.
Today, however, for a nostalgic change, we're using mars bars. The recipe couldn't be simpler...

Mars Bar Crispy Treats

3oz Rice Crispies
3oz Margarine
3 Mars Bars

Melt the margarine and mars bars together, stir in rice crispies until fully coated and spoon into cupcake cases. Chill before eating, if you can wait that long!

No need for fanciness in this house...the simplest recipes are the best!

Tidy Tips - the ten minute tidy!

I thought today I'd share a tip that's helped me keep my house fairly straightened lately. Sometimes when every room of your house is a tip, it can seem really overwhelming, you can spend ages tidying one room only to turn round and find every other room is in a terrible state!
What I like to do is take it in ten minute chunks. The way I see it, it's only ten minutes, you can do anything for ten minutes, right?
So, here's how I do the ten minute tidy...

1) Set a timer for 10 minutes (I use the one on my phone)

2) If it's a bedroom, make the bed and open the curtains. Then start at one corner or the room and work your way round, gathering up anything that doesn't belong in the room and dumping it at the door of the room it does belong in.

3) When you get back to the corner you started in, gather up any dirty dishes and put them in the kitchen.

4) Take a rubbish bag and chuck in anything that needs throwing out.

5) Do another corner to corner sweep of the room, putting everything where it belongs. Take a cloth or baby wipe with you and dust as you go.

6) Straighten up and covers or cushions, spray some air freshener and sweep or hoover the floor. You're done!

If the timer goes off before you're finished, stop and move on to the next room. It's better to have a house full of semi tidy rooms than one really tidy room and a house full of messy ones! You'll find that as time goes on, if you do this every day the rooms will get better and better until you don't even need ten minutes per room anymore. Yesterday I did 4 rooms before my timer went off!

I do this in the morning after breakfast, and in the evening after dinner and before bed. I'm trying to get into the habit of tidying as I go, so the house never gets really terribly messy again.

Do you have any housekeeping wisdom to share?

Children DO NOT need a lot of toys!

OMG, I am exhausted!
We've been decluttering all weekend - Daisy's room has been emptied of all but the clothes she wears and the few toys she plays with.
If there's one thing I've learned the hard way in my 7 years of parenting, it's that kids don't need lots of toys. My two tend to prefer playing with "non-toy" items...cardboard boxes, elastic bands, paper clips, etc. They use their imaginations a lot more with these things and seem to get so much more out of doing so.
Unfortunately, it's taken me 7 years and a LOT of wasted money to realise this! Of course, every birthday and christmas they are completely overwhelmed by toys, both from us and from relatives. Why do we feel the need to give so many things to our kids? They seem to get so much that it loses all meaning and becomes just a contest of who had the bigest pile of gifts. As each parcel is opened, the contents are barely looked at in the excitement of looking for the next one. Lots of money is wasted, and lots of toys lie forgotten in cupboards until the next big clear out. Totally unneccessary.

Charlie is 7, and mainly likes playing video games. The only toys he still likes are magnetix and lego, so apart from his DS and games, those are the only toys he has in his room! It looks so much tidier now that I've dropped the guilt about how bare it would look with no "stuff"!
Daisy is only 3, and plays with a lot more. She likes her dollies and ponies, and her play kitchen and supermarket. Oh, and her dressing up stuff! I've tried to make sure that those are the only toys she has though, her little room was absolutely full before and now she has a lot more space to play with the stuff she enjoys using.

Of course, they both like reading and crafts, so we have books and boxes of craft stuff, plus a couple of family board games. I think they have all they need now and more. Now I just need to persuade the grandparents not to go overboard on the toys next christmas....

Day 1 - 3 bags down!

I ain't hanging around!
Today, I made an appointment for someone to come and start the house selling process. They are coming in one week. ONE WEEK!!!!!
Of course, to add to the stress of this, I'm starting my new job on monday, so for three whole days next week, I'll be at work. That means I have to make the absolute most of the time I have at home over the next 7 days.
This afternoon, I made a start on my daughter's bedroom by paring down her clothes. I read a brilliant blog post about how, if you want to keep clothes tidy, you should avoid drawers.
Having drawers means that clothes inevitably get stuffed in and become wrinkled and messy, doubling your workload. Ideally, everything yould be hung up, with the exception of underwear, which could either be in drawers or over door pockets.
Of course, we all have so many clothes that it would be impossible to hang up every shirt, tshirt, dress, skirt and pair of jeans!
Then I realised - if I'm keeping well on top of the laundry, really, we don't need more than 7 days' worth of clothes each. Really.
Now, for me, that's an extreme idea. I have no less than 37 dresses. I own 5 pairs of jeans, I have no idea how many coats I posess, and don't even get me started on shoes!
Having said that though, if I really think about it, what do I wear every day? For the most part, if I'm working, I wear a uniform. If I'm at home, I'm usually playing with the kids or walking the dogs, so it tends to be jeans, tshirts, hoodies - you know, comfy stuff.
I wear dresses when I go out, but that only happens maybe once a month, usually much less than that!
So no, I don't need 37 dresses. I think I need to choose 4 or 5 dresses, and get rid of the rest.
I'm going to go through all our clothes, and aim for 7 days' worth each, with possibly a couple of special occasion outfits.

On the subject of clothes, I've managed to simplify my laundry routine, which is working brilliantly! I used to wash and dry my clothes, then take them from the dryer, fold them and pile them on the floor next to the dryer.
More often than not, the kids would run past and knock the piles over, or the dogs would pick up random garments and drop them around the house. The piles would multiply through the week, until sunday, when I would get super stressed about the huge amount of stuff I needed to sort and put away. Usually, most of the stuff would need ironed too, argh!
Now, as soon as the stuff comes out of the dryer, I fold it and sort it on the spot. Folded clothes are piled in terms of where they belong, and the piles are immediately taken there and put away. Seemples! It takes maybe 5 minutes longer than making one pile, and saves me hours of stress on sundays. Love it!

A new beginning...

I had a blog before, based on saving money, but I was pretty disorganised about keeping up with it, and a lot has changed since I last wrote in it, so I thought it was time for a fresh start.

My life is pretty complicated just now. At the beginning of this year, my lovely dad went into hospital, and my life became a crazy, stress filled time of juggling hospital visits with working part time, taking care of my 2 kids (aged 7 and 3), trying to keep my house in order, supporting my mum and dealing with a spiralling debt crisis.

It made me ill, and I felt constantly torn between what I was doing, what I should have been doing, and what I wanted to be doing.
I swore that as soon as I could think straight, I would find a way to simplify my life so I wasn't constantly on edge, and could find time to actually enjoy nuggets of my day. After all, life is short and unpredictable, and must be enjoyed and appreciated.

Sadly, my dad passed away 6 weeks ago, which has been a horrible time, but I'm glad that he is at peace. Of course, I still support my mum a lot but she is doing really well.
I've taken a new job with fixed hours, working as an auxilliary in a hospice, which makes life easier to plan and means I can factor in more quality time with my husband and kids.

As for the debt crisis, we are about to sell our house and move in with my mum. Hopefully this means we can clear our feet and start afresh. We might even be able to save a little!
Plus, my mum gets to be with her favourite people every day - win/win!
Of course, in the meantime, the money situation is pretty dire, but the sonner we can get the house on the market, the better.

Which brings me on to the house...
This is probably the biggest cause of my stress. I used to think that we didn't have enough room. It was the house's fault, it was just too small! Not enough storage, yada yada yada...

No. It's not the house's fault. It's OUR fault. We have too much stuff. Way too much!
The cupboards and drawers are full of clothes we never wear. The bedrooms are full of toys they never play with. The loft and garage are full of stuff that might come in handy one day, might be slimmed into, might be worth something, might be fixed, argh!
I need to simplify. That is my goal.
I am sick and tired of spending entire weekends frantically tidying, cleaning, ironing and wishing I could do something fun instead. I want to enjoy life!

I plan to take one room at a time and ruthlessly pare down, weed out, minimise and clean. Then I plan to never let my house get so filled up with meaningless stuff ever again!

Come and join me on my journey from junk junkie to minimalist mama!