12 week turnaround

So much has happened since my last visit to this blog. I've expanded my chicken flock, invested in an Eglu, refurnished the main bedroom (and even built my own flatpack furniture!), decorated the middle bedroom, decluttered and re-homed more things and had the house re-roofed. Phew! There's probably more but that's all that springs to mind at the moment.

The middle bedroom went from this...

...to this!

Despite my efforts, there still seems to be so much to do, so i've decided to mix it up a bit and see how much I can turn things around in the next 12 weeks. I'm not going to give myself a to-do list as it'll be so huge that i'll feel like giving up before I start, i'm just going to focus on turning things around one step at a time. Whilst the main focus is reclaiming my space, i'm going to apply the 12 week turnaround to my life in general and make time to enjoy long-forgotten hobbies and maybe discover a few new ones along the way! It feels exciting to be on the brink of something so fresh and unplanned. I wonder where i'll be 12 weeks from now?

Hetty, Betty and more decluttering

Sadly, Anais and Lily have recently passed away - I think as ex barn hens they were just 'egged out' and exhausted. This left Violet wandering around the huge run on her own and looking rather sorry for herself so i've got her a couple of new friends, a couple of bantams named Hetty and Betty:

At first there were fireworks as Violet chased them around the run, ensuring that they knew that she was the boss. I brought out extra feeders and drinkers, lifted them into the coop for the first couple of nights and by the end of the week she had accepted them as part of her flock. As you can see from their barely visible combs, they're only young so i'm not expecting any eggs from them until spring, but they seem happy and quite clucky in their new home.

I've also got another, rather exciting, new addition to the run coming very soon, but i'll save that for another post...

On the 'housey' front, I spent yesterday morning decluttering the cupboard underneath the stairs. I've found a few old coats that i'm going to drop off at the charity shop tomorrow and i've managed to finally organise my tins of paint and painting supplies from my 'decorate two bedrooms in two weeks' challenge in August (yes I do like to put the pressure on). I also got rid of two bags of junk that were lurking in there, recycling what I could, and I also discovered a bag of hay from my guinea-pig keeping days (over 2 years ago!) which i've rehomed in the shed ready for when I build my no-dig raised bed in the spring.

Today, i'm hoping to keep up with the decluttering vibe that's currecntly enthusing me by cleaning out the cupboards under the kitchen sink. I'm sure i'll find more junk, but hopefully some useful things too!

Progress

Remember the junked up area at the bottom of the garden that I posted about here, well four months later and i'm pleased to say that i've finally finished it (I said I was a flighty person!). The junk area has gone from this:

to this:

As you can see i've created another compost area and have started to lay down some cardboard to kill off the weed growth. I've also been given a load of tyres which i'm planning to grow next years potatoes in. The area isn't completely finished yet as i'm planning on building a no-dig raised bed there but i'm waiting until the weather's a bit warmer before I begin that, otherwise the bed will keep in the cold.

Well at least that's one thing I can tick off my list and my life now feels slightly more clutter-free!

Simplifying

I'm in the process of simplifying my space as my home just feels too busy and I feel like I need space to breathe. I can't belive how much 'stuff' I have accumulated over the years, it just sits around doing nothing, untouched year upon year and it has such an impact upon my internal life too, I feel blocked, drained and unable to move forward. So I have decided that the time has come to have a major declutter and get rid of anything in my life that I don't find useful or beautiful, there's no more time for a bit of decluttering here and there - the time has come to be ruthless. So far I have managed to get rid of 3 bags of 'clutter', i've donated and recycled what I can but other things have had to be thrown away. I'm predicting that i'll have cleared out 100 bags of 'stuff' by the end of August, just the thought of scaling down my posessions feels like a breath of fresh air.

Clutter clearout grand total: 29 bags

Creating zones

I'm a naturally flighty person, my attention jumps from one thing to another and I find it hard to stay focussed for long. As a result, my decluttering endeavours seem to be rather shortlived and if I don't feel like i'm getting anywhere fast, I lose interest and move onto the next thing that catches my attention. To help me stay on track i'm trying to break my areas to declutter down into 'zones' to be tackled one at a time, the idea being that if I focus enough on one zone (rather than a whole room/area) i'll be a able to see enough of a difference to spur me on to complete the task. I'm hoping this approach does the trick.

So, to cut a long, procrastinating post short, my first zone is the junked up area at the bottom of the garden. If I declutter it i'll be rewarded with an area big enough to set up another, much needed compost heap.

Wish me luck!

Photo Reflections Day 6

Decluttering and clearing space has been the focus of the last couple of weeks and pictured above is todays efforts. For the past two weeks I have been doing 15 minutes of decluttering a day. I started in the dining room and i'm still working on it (nearly finished though, honest). I've had day long bouts of decluttering before but i've found that the enthusiasm has very quickly worn off so i've decided to try and turn it into a daily routine, hoping that in the process it will become second nature and the clutter wont re-accumulate. Since the start of the week i've been ruthlessly decluttering my file boxes, it's amazing how much junk accumulates in there so i've been busily emptying one section at a time and shredding whatever I remove - it'll make great bedding for the chooks and I feel very virtuous for my recycling efforts. I feel so much better about my practical approach to clearing my space and the fact that I can see daily improvements is fabulous. I'm back at work tomorrow so I just hope that I can keep up my daily routine.

Sometimes you just need to begin

I'm slowly clearing the clutter from my life. I've donated some bits and pieces to charity and am in the process of ebaying the other 'stuff' and yet I still get the feeling that i'm not really getting anywhere. I'm still feeling stuck. I'm off work at the moment having being diagnosed with labyrinthitis and i'm aware of the general untidiness around me. It feels like a mammoth task to tackle, especially when you're feeling off balance, but I just need to remind myself that if I deal with a tiny bit at the time then I will get there - sometimes you just need to begin. So that's what I will do, today I will declutter the living room table, i'll take the books and magazines and return them to their shelves, recycling what I no longer need, and in the process of decluttering i'll feel a teeny bit happier within myself.