Decluttering books and CD's

Our floors are being sanded and polished in a few weeks, and during that time, we will be living upstairs in the separate granny flat.  It means EVERYTHING downstairs has to be moved either to upstairs or outside under cover.  What an interesting few weeks that will be!

I thought I would get a head start, and decluttered these CDs.  I got rid of a handful of them (only my ones, not Phil's), and dusted every single one of them.

 The pile of CDs to be dusted and sorted

 Back onto this black shelf went the CDs.  This shelf was on top of my sewing table, but I moved it to let in more light.

 The children helped me lug all my son's books upstairs, then I dragged the white bookshelf up too.  This bookshelf came with the house, and it has come in handy.  It is fairly solid, and I believe it was used as a tv unit as well (hence the holes in it).

 A big pile of books to sort out.

All the books and CDs looking neat and tidy :D

Mild Renovating - The Kitchen Floor

The lino in my kitchen that Phil installed many, many years ago was only supposed to be temporary.  It was from his parent's kitchen floor that they took up before putting tiles of a similar colour down.  The aim was to see if we liked it, and if we wanted to purchase something similar.  I did...but for unknown reasons, this lino stayed on my floor for YEARS.

Today we ordered some more lino for the floor.  I'm excited!!!

 I had to tape the lino for safety reasons.  I did not want to fall flat on my face with something hot in my hands tripping up over lino.

 I started ripping up the top layer of lino.  Oh, that's why we put a top layer down ;D

 It's very...um...busy, isn't it!

Yup, this was the old lino.    I don't even want to know what is under it!

The new lino looks like stone, and is a light brown and cream tile.  We wanted a thick industrial style lino that would put up with lots of wear in a kitchen area.  It's amazing what they have been able to do with linoleum these days.  So many types to choose from!

Kids Cooking - Chocolate Brownies in the Thermomix

My daughter really wanted to whip up a batch of brownies because she had found a recipe in one of her 'Princess Cooking' books.  I thought she might like to have a go at using my Thermomix.

 Measuring ingredients carefully.  I hadn't converted the recipe so we were still using 'cups'.

Measuring flour before we level off with a knife.

 Into the Thermomix it goes.

Smoothing out the brownies before baking them in the oven.

Sorry, no after photos.  They were the slightly crunchy on the outside type, and were devoured 10 mins after coming out of the oven.

Saturday Child Chore

This was another Saturday chore that my children were asked to do.  They have one each Saturday that I set for them, and they haven't complained yet.

This one again involved a bucket of water each, and a sponge.

 "I want to see that Air Hockey Table shine!"

So they did.

They did a really awesome job.  There were no complaints, no arguments, they just got right into it and cleaned it thoroughly.

Bet they can't wait to see what I have in store for them next Saturday! (I have to think of something fast!)

Council Clean Up Part 2...

Before each scheduled Council Clean up, I do a brief walk around the house and note what needs to go and what needs to stay.  Sometimes if I want to put items aside specifically for the Clean Up, I will put them in the front part of our garage so they're easier to cart out on to the street.

It's also a great excuse to do a little bit of outside cleaning.

 Here's one of the jobs that really is not pleasant.  It's washing off the 'bunny spray' from the Elephant Ear plant leaves.   Basically, un-neutered male bunnies like to mark their territory with their scent by spraying their urine everywhere.  It's just gross.  Even worse when they try and spray YOU! On the plant leaves I find that a bucket of water and a cut up sponge specifically for that purpose works well to bring the leaves back to their usual green self again.

 Sweeping up the carpet leftovers.

 This area of the house irritates me.  I can't do anything with the sheet of asbestos.  It has to stay put until Phil decides to organise for it to be disposed of properly and according to Asbestos regulations.

 I did however get rid of this rusting shelf (but not the bricks)...

...and the bunny hutch that Charcoal loved.  I found it in a Council Clean-up many years ago, and I got some excellent use out of it.  It was falling apart, the wood rotting and wasn't safe for bunnies any more.  It had to go.

Everything we put out was picked up bright and early Thursday morning.  Hooray!

Council Clean Up Part 1

We have a Council Clean-up in our area 4 times a year.  They always fall on school holidays as well which is usually handy for me.

I had an idea of the things I wanted to get rid of, and started to round them up.  The Council has requested that people only stack a 1 metre cubed pile of rubbish on the curb.  I have so much I would like to get rid of though, and I doubt anyone else would want it.

First thing was the carpet we ripped up...

... and a broken whiteboard, and why do I need to keep boxes?  The recycle bin was overflowing, so out went the boxes.

I found a rusted shelf left behind by the previous owners, an old plastic table and chair left behind by a previous renter and another box. We added a solid brown desk which I had really thought hard about throwing away but no-one wanted it, so out it went.

Looking around the house, I can't even tell that I decluttered anything.  *Sigh* It never ends, does it!

Chores with Water...couldn't be more fun!

My son has a rather large collection of Nerf Guns.  I'm not the biggest fan of the things but unfortunately I only get half the say in these sorts of matters.  Phil and Matthew get 1/4 each ;D

Back to the Nerf Guns...

I did a bit of a dig around my garage and I came across some old milk crates.  Goodness knows how long they had been sitting in my garage. It was time to put them to good use.

But first, they needed a thorough clean:-

 Enter: Child Labour...I mean...chores.

If there's water, a bucket and a sponge involved...this child will get his hands dirty.  Just a little ;D

Drying off in the sunshine once all the cobwebs and dust had been washed off.

These two crates made a perfect home for Nerf guns in my son's wardrobe.  They make it much easier for him to pack them away too.  I have to say, this has been the first week I haven't peeked into his room and seen Nerf guns all over the floor.  Yay for garage finds!