Wednesday 5 June 2013

My decluttering efforts - I've shifted out of first gear finally!!!

Been a bit busy the past couple of weeks since we returned from holidays...  I'll post about holidays another time I think, but tonight I want to share with you the efforts that I've been making in the past couple of weeks with the help of some Help-x people...

In case you don't know what Help-x is, it's basically Help Exchange.  You give free room and board to a person or persons, and in return they give you 4 - 6 hours of work for free each day.

We had an absolutely delightful French gay couple, who cleaned our outside patio, and did a lot of sanding and re-shellacking of my silky oak dining room table.  Fabien was a wonderful cook we discovered too!!!! 

We followed the boys really quickly with Laura also from France, who was very young, but boy she also did a great job!  I put her to work cleaning out the kitchen cupboards, washing windows etc., and that's how my decluttering efforts got off the ground....

Here's a couple of pic's....

The after shot of under the sink after Laura had attacked it....  I'm secretly pleased there's no before shot, because it was most terrible!!!

Ditto as above for the "crap" drawer...

This is the almost before shot of the desk tonight.  I had taken a bit off the desk already, as is pictured below.... 


I spread it all out over the kitchen bench.  Look closely and you'll find my dinner in amongst it.  Shitty day at work so comfort food of baked spud with sour cream :)

The end result...  Yes, that's a mighty pile of filing, but I will be sorting that in about 4 weeks at tax time.... 
 
 
What I have found with this decluttering and cleaning caper is that once you're on a roll, it's easier to keep being on a roll.  I know you've probably heard it a zillion times before, but just starting, making that first little step, is what works.  It's working for me, and I'd have to say that I'd be one of the hardest nuts to get going.  However, now that I'm off the mark, I need to keep travelling.... 
 
Holiday photo's soon, promise!