Spring is in the Air...

Now that the nice weather is on its way we need to be thinking about what we need to get ready for use. Here are some helpful suggestions to get ready for spring:

1.  It is time to organize and declutter your gardening supplies. Gather all supplies and have them in one space, the shed or garage. Organize by putting like items with like. See what items are worn or broken, you can toss these. See what you have multiplies of, do you need so many? Donate what you do not need. Garden centres will be open by months end so you will be able to stock up on what you need, make a list and keep it with your supplies. You will then know where the list is when you are able to go shopping for needed supplies.

2.  The garage can end up being a space that is a catch all area. It is best to pick a weekend to tackle it. Move all items out onto the driveway. Put like items with like, ie. sports with sports, gardening with gardening, car seats with car seats etc. If you do not have shelving in your garage it may be best to invest in metal shelving you can get at any Canadian Tire, Home Depot and so on. You can also use plastic bins to contain items together in a neat manner. Put all your sports into one or two bins and label them. You do not need to keep the lid on as you want easy access to items. Most garages are made for 2 cars, use one side for storage on metal shelves and the other side for one vechicle. use all the space you can along the walls, hang bicycles, yardwork tools, tools and so forth.

3.  Tools tend to take over spaces all over the home. It is easiest to gather all your tools together and go through them. Put like with like and see how many multiplies you have, donate them as tools are an essential need for all. It is common for those who have many tools to have one tool box with day to day needed tools; pliers, hammer, screwdrivers etc. You can keep this in the garage, kitchen or basement. A household with several tools used for more specialty projects need to find a place to call home. An easy way to store them is on a pegboard. This will make all the tools easy to see and acess and will only take up wall space.

Spring is in the air and now is the time to get all those essential tools and items ready for the season. Hope you found this inspirational and informative. If you did feel free to comment below.

Happy Spring!!

Walking the Walk...

I had recently put my house on the market and therefore had to declutter to have it ready for showings. I realized I need to take my own advice..."Do you really need that? Can you take pictures of all your knick knacks and then make a collage or nice photo album with them? When will you use this next? How long has it been since you wore that?

I have emotional attachment to items just like the majority of us. I found it hard to let go of several items and know I will repurge when I unpack. One thing that helped me was reading a book - The life-changing magic of tidying up by Marie Kondo who has a style of decluttering; the KonMari Method. She is very extreme in her method and believes one should be rid of everything that does not spark joy or does not have a purpose. This helped me to unload, so far, 5 bags of garbage, 6 boxes of donations and this was just to get ready for staging. I have a lot more to go through as I am downsizing too. I like the question, "Does this spark joy?" it made me think about what am I realy getting from this item? Do I use/wear it? Do I feel happy looking at it? I recommend this book to anyone who wants to be inspired to lessen their items in their household.

I realized that I too will tell myself, I will use that someday so I better hold onto it. You see I am a crafter aka craft supply hoarder. Most crafters have an abundance of supplies since we are always creating new projects in our mind and hold onto items we will use one day soon. But life gets in the way and only a few projects can get done so our supplies sit and wait in anticipation of being used. I have put together, so far, one bankers box of supplies to give to a fellow crafter. She will then choose what she will keep and throw out or give the rest to another crafter. We tend to do this in our crafters community. What I cannot use another creative mind will see how to create something with it.

I was able to stage my house for showings. I ended up with 8 offers in less than 30 hours! I don't think people understand the importance of staging ones home for selling. You need to create a neutral, decluttered; almost bare space to help buyers see their own furniture/art work/photos and knick knacks in your space. People cannot see past another person's style. I am not sure why but people pay attention to small details and not the large picture. So it is worth investing a few dollars to paint your home in neutral colours, have a professional help declutter and stage your home. It will optimize your selling price and bring in more offers. You will also save on moving costs as you will have less to move after you purge and declutter your space.

Here are the final result of my house, I love how it turned out. It was very hard to clear it of all my style but knew I needed that blank slate to show it off better.

Thanks for stopping by and reading my latest blog. If you found it helpful or inspirational please comment below.

How to keep jewelry organized.

Most of us have a lot of pieces of expensive to costume jewelry. How to keep track of it all and be able to see what pieces you have. There are several solutions out there to store your jewelry it all depends on the look you are going for and budget.

1.  A velvet lined jewelry box is great for your expensive pieces as they will have their own compartment and will not get damaged. This type of storage is nice and neat when closed up and can sit on a dresser without looking cluttered.

2. An easy and inexpensive way it to keep ice cube trays in a drawer, they are easy to stack. Each cube can hold one piece of jewelry. It keeps pieces neat and tidy with no worry of getting tangled.

3.  Another inexpensive way to store necklaces is to buy a regular hook rack, a small sized one, and hang your costime jewery necklaces from them. If you do not want this to be seen you can hang them behind your door or on the inside of a closet door to use up the dead space.

4.  If you want to see your jewelry displayed there are so many fun and unique holders out there. They have ones to hang pieces from, stacking rings on and laying pieces flat on silver/glass trays or you can always use rice in a one inch deep tray to place pieces on top and stick rings into.

5.  There are several DIY jewelry storage ideas, my favorite is one for earrings. Use an old wooden frame you like; approximately 8 x 10 inches in size. Attach mesh material or lace or a fine crocheted piece to the back. This will allow you to hang your earrings from whichever material you choose. It can easliy be hung on a wall, inside a closet door or behind a door.

Remember when storing your jewelry keep in mind the value of the piece, this will let you know what surface to use to store it (velvet, plastic, wood etc.). Use what makes sense to your budget and how you like to see your jewelry to choose what pieces to wear.

Share your jewelry storage ideas here to help others and to encourage them.
Thanks for stopping in today :)

How to Simplify your Life...

I think most of us talk about finding the balance in life. I come from the belief of there is no balance, just living life on lifes terms and therefore feeling balanced. There is no magical way to balance work, life, love, family, friendship, volunteering, housework etc. as we will always have a feeling of guilt in one or two areas of our lives since we are doing too much. We can look at simplifying our lives to make it less hectic. Here are some tips on how to do this;

1.  Cut down on the amount of paper coming into your house/life; reduce subscriptions, paper bills (set up automatic payments online), flyers and other adverts.

2.  Go through your mail once a week. Make a specific time to go through it, pay any bills and file any papers that need to be filed. This will stop you from piling papers all over and will allow you to finish the task at hand, not trying to go through mail daily and multitasking, ike most of us do.

3.  Start donating more things as opposed to buying more things. Have a donation box somewhere in your house, the garage, front closet or in your bedroom closet. Make it a habit to add things to this box daily. Do you have multiples of a certain item? Do you have 3 items that technically do the same thing? donate 2 of them. Once your box is full bring it to your local shelter or Salvation Army.

 

4.  Take a look at your schedule, how many commitments do you have? Can you reduce them? Is there a committee you belong to that is not what you thought the group was going to be about? Start to say no to new commitments until you finalize other deadlines. The groups that you are committed to be sure you are passionate about them still, if not move on your time can be used elsewhere as you are most likely resentful at having to attend and are not producing your best work.

5.  Make time for you, some quiet time, no electronics. Either reading, meditating, doing yoga or breathing exercises. The main pint is to decompress and slow down.

6.  Take on a weekend decluttering project; your attic, garage or basement. Going through everything and donating and tossing items you no longer use. Ask yourself: Do I use this? Does this make me happy? When will I use this? Do I need this? If you can answer yes find a home for the item.

7.  Use up all that is in your freezer and pantry before you buy more groceries. This will cut down on your time of shopping that week, use up what may be going bad, Keep things in perspective; we do not need to store so much food we will not go hungry. This is a time where hoarding canned goods and toilet paper is rewarded. Most items go on sale every 6 - 8 weeks so we do not need a years worth of items when they go on sale. If you buy what you need when you need it you will actually end up spending less, since you won't be buying up 2 - 6 of one item on sale, and will not have a cluttered home.

I hope these tips have helped you to start new rituals in your day to day living. Simlplify what you have to do so it does not become such a lage task at hand. Share your tips to help others and to motivate change!!

Serenity Organizing Solutions first video check it out!!!