A New Project? Maybe....

www.flylady.net

A friend of mine was telling me about this site called flylady.net. Apparently it's goal is to help us declutter our lives and homes and my friend lives by this site. She suggested I try as I am always complaining about not having enough "me" time as I have become a slave to my house and family and blah blah blah... which I guess is true as I do stress about the state of the house but as a full time worker during the week I have very little time to catch up on housework and try and fit in all the things I want to do which is going out on weekends to catch up with friends and family and work on the many craft projects I have started but never finished. This site "guarantees" that you CAN do it all and have minimal stress. Uh huh...

So I have decided I would firstly start on my "craft room" which is actually my laundry and which MM had built into a nice little room for me as well. It started off so well...I have my washer and dryer in there and because it was a little too big for a laundry I got MM to help me turn it into a craft room as well which worked beautifully for a while then suddenly, bit by bit it became a "storage" room for all the crap we have around the house that has no real home. So every time we did a clean out we'd come across some random item and the call would be "where are we going to put this?"...to which the reply always is "Put it in the laundry for now until we figure out what to do with it". So as a result my laundry cum craftroom now houses a dumb bell set (whose I have no idea!), assorted tools of MM's, random parts off Mr 20's car, along with laundry, all my craft gear plus things donated to me by my mother and mother-in-law...you know the kind of stuff...things they think you would really like but you secretly think you wouldn't even donate that kind of stuff to the Salvos but you can't say no because they are so pleased to be able to give you something and because they think you too really love it, it makes them even happier so you take said item vowing to hoik it at the first opportunity but within a set amount of time just in case some day they randomly ask how you are enjoying that item and then you don't have to lie! Whew! So for the moment I am stuck with an old Japanese fan...the type that opens right up and everyone in the 70's had one hanging on the walls. I have old tapestries that my mother-in-law did years ago when she was first starting out (she does beautiful stuff now) and mum has given me bits of old furniture and old books and knick knacks and stuff she thought I should have. I have decided to start a kind of "glory box" for the kids just so I can stick in all their boxes and they can present it to their wives/husbands one day and then it can be their problems! *snicker*

Anyway I have taken before photos of my craft room and I'll show you before and afters when I am done. I'm thinking I may start this weekend and work my way through the house. The aim apparently is you are supposed to every day find 5 things and you have to either put it in its rightful place, donate it or bin it. They say if you do this every day for a month that's a lot of crap you have gotten rid of. We'll see...I am known by MM as the hoarder from hell although I have gotten better over the years and have been quite brutal with some things. For example I have boxes of stuff that have not seen the light of day since the day I moved here 12 years ago. When I lived at mum's I packed everything in boxes and moved into the house only unpacking the stuff I needed. So I still have 12 year old unpacked boxes and I sent one whole box went to the Salvos. I have no idea what was in it but obviously it wasn't stuff I cared about since it was never unpacked (and no there wouldn't have been $100,000 in there!) and nothing has been missed. If I needed something I went out and bought it. Funnily enough I have only now just unboxed some things I got as 21st birthday gifts some 20 odd years ago! Mum had a beautiful cabinet she was going to ditch and she brought it over for me before Easter so it now houses all my good glassware and crystal decanters etc all gifted to me at 21st birthday and engagement party all still in the original boxes. Now they are all housed nicely and I have my nice little collection of alcoholic beverages sitting on top so it now looks like a little bar area lol. MM commented the other day that all the bottles were still full and I have had them a few years. There's a bottle of gin (never opened and left behind by a previous party guest years ago), a bottle of Johnny Walker which son and his mate bought at one time and they both decided they didn't like the taste so donated it to me, a bottle of Wild Turkey (my favourite but I hate to drink alone so it only gets touched if I have people over) and a really nice Jaffa flavoured liquor which has never been opened because the bottle is so cute and it seems a shame to waste it! That was a birthday gift last year from a friend. We were always going to get into it one day but still haven't! Mm doesn't drink either so chances are the alcohol will remain untouched until the next party although I do need to buy some Frangelico to make a really nice cheesecake I have a recipe for.

Anyway I'll let you know how I go. Will be nice to have at least one room looking nice! MM went to so much trouble to make it a craft room for me putting in a big work bench and making me a special shelf that holds all my rows of ribbons etc for my scrapbooking stuff. Will be nice to get back into again. I also have my sewing machine in there and I want to get back into my bag making and a bit of dress making again. My craft keeps me sane!!