Getting Organized Updates

Happy Tuesday :) 

I had a very relaxing weekend on my own again. Tj gets back from traveling tomorrow (yay!) but it was nice to have the place to myself and get some stuff done. I  finally started to get organised. I had good intentions and got off to a good start, and then I was distracted by a baking disaster! 

On Sunday I wanted to make a recipe that I've shared on the blog before here. I've made this many times. It's not an easy recipe, there are a lot of steps, but it's delicious. But everything was going wrong! It was such a baking disaster!!! Part of it was due to my impatience. I forgot to take the butter out to soften so I just microwaved it instead. Except I microwaved it for too long and then it was all melted. Oops. Then my egg whites wouldn't whip. At this point I stopped, re-read the instructions and tried this step again with fresh eggs. They whipped a little bit better, but it still wasn't right. When I tried folding them into the batter, it just wouldn't mix. It looked disgusting. I tried using my hands to fold it in and that wouldn't work. Finally i used the mixer, but that just ground up all the blueberries so now my batter was purple. Sigh. It was just one of those days. Sometimes it's just not going to work. The end result was somewhat edible but definitely not my best work. I ate a few slices and then threw it out because it was so weird, I don't even know how to describe it. I'm determined to try it again soon though. I can get this!

A few weeks ago I talked about all the things I wanted to get organised while Tj was away. I got to some of them before my baking disaster took over. After that I was done being productive for the day LOL.

Here are my top organising tips:

Everything should have a permanent spot. 

When you live in tiny flats, having just a few things out can make the place feel really cluttered. So if it has a permanent place to go, we can put it away and both know where it is when we need it. Ex. the shoe horn belongs on the shoe rack, not on the kitchen counter or dining room table or couch

Put things where they make sense. 

As in the above example, keep the shoe horn next to the shoes. I put all our extra products in a cupboard near the bathroom, and all the tools and household stuff together.

Only buy things you love.

It's easy to accumulate junk. One thing I asked myself in London when I wanted to buy something was, where am I going to put this? Do i need to get rid of anything to make room for it? Everything I buy will have to eventually make it's way back to Canada so I better be sure I love it.

Get rid of things you don't regularly use.

Put things in storage. Sometimes I store stuff we aren't using or out of season stuff (like winter jackets) in luggage in the storage unit. It's also good to do with clothes I'm not wearing. If I pull them out later and I'm still not interested in them, its a good time to consider giving away, selling or donating to charity.

Clean out the junk drawer. 

It's ok to have a junk drawer. There are some things that don't need a permanent spot, they just belong in the junk drawer. But don't leave them there forever. Go through your junk drawer regularly and you'll be surprised at how much you don't need anymore and can throw out. 

File your papers.

I keep two little file folders here - one for our personal papers - receipts, visa documents, health insurance, etc. And the other one is in the kitchen and holds all of our household papers - manuals and letters from the building, receipts and warranties for household items like the vacuum or tv, etc. Tj used to like to keep all his papers in shoeboxes (and he's an accountant!?). He would have like 3 shoeboxes of receipts! But I am slowly converting him hahaha.

I'm not re-inventing the wheel here with anything, these are just basic organising tips. But the key is how good it feels to live more minimalistic, and to get rid of things that are just taking up space. Just because we finally have a decent sized closed doesn't mean we have to fill it!

I'm trying to get my friend to give me her top tips for selling things online, so stay tuned (hopefully) for an upcoming post!

Here are some before and after pictures. They're not the greatest, but you get the point :)