Baking

One of the ways I intend to De-Clutter my finances is by reducing my monthly spend on food. I will openly admit that I don't actually know how much I spend every month on groceries, but I feel pretty sure that it is too much. The main reason for this is that we are too prone to buying quick fix processed foods. Although my lovely husband will cook for us, his concoctions often contain tinned vegetables and we are big fans of frozen mash!

I've made it my mission this month to attempt to cook more from scratch, which is easier said than done seeing as I have never been a particularly good cook and I don't really enjoy it. However something seems to have changed there, perhaps it's reaching the old age of 31? I've been getting out the cook books which were getting dusty on the shelf, finding recipes, buying the fresh food and so far so good. I've made a few lovely stews in my slow cooker and even cooked for two of my girlfriends on Saturday night totally from scratch dessert and all!

My search for recipes led me to a blog that I have been following for a couple of years Country Heart & Home written by the very talented Debbie. She has decided to launch a 52 week cooking challenge and is posting a recipe a week to try. You are under no obligation to make any of the recipes but last weeks carrot cake took my fancy. Having always made solid, burnt offerings, or cakes that didn't rise, this one actually looked easy and low and behold, last night out of my oven popped a perfect cake! I urge you to try this recipe it is delicious and could not be easier. It doesn't do a lot for De-Cluttering the extra inches I've acquired round my waist this Christmas but who cares? It's cold out and I need something to go with my cuppa!

Freecycle

During operation de-clutter I will doubtless be mentioning Freecycle on a regular basis. A great resource for those things you clear out that are unsuitable to sell but you dont want to throw away.

Of course you could always take them to the charity shop, but this option means people will collect your unwanted items and save you the journey. You'd be amazed at what you can give away on freecycle, even things you might class as rubbish such as old cardboard boxes and broken plant pots!

You can also get things from freecycle. In the time I've been a member I have received a steraliser, baby bottles, toys and lots of other useful items.

I was going to write a guide as to how freecycle works, but those lovely people at Money Saving Expert have done one for me! You can read it HERE

De-Cluttering can be fun

Dont think that De-Cluttering your life has to be dull or even mean hard work. Take last nights challenge for example. Empty the fridge, loose some Christmas food and clear off some of the saved programmes on our sky box. We had 16% of space left and are about to start recording 3 new series so it was about time I made some headway through the 12 episodes of Ugly Betty I had saved.


So I finished off a bottle of the 3 bottles of wine in my fridge, cooked some garlic bread from the freezer, finished a box of chocolates and ploughed my way through 4 hours worth of Ugly Betty. We now have 26% of space and room in the fridge/freezer/pantry for my weekly shop.

A thinner me

Back in the spring I was working hard to loose a few pounds as I was a bridesmaid at my best friends wedding. I dont know about you but unless I have a reason to diet and excersise I find it really hard. Sure enough as soon as the wedding was over I was back on the cheese and wine and the pounds have slowly been creeping back on. I still have all sorts of bad for me goodies in the house following Christmas so there is no chance of dieting till after they have gone, but to get me started on the right track I popped down to my old gym and signed back up for another year.

I know it's pricey, but Clearview is lovely and has the most amazing swimming pool and spa area. Tom (my little boy) loves going swimming there and seeing his little face in the pool every week is incentive enough to keep me going. Mum and Hubby have signed up too, so watch this space to see how we get on with our weekly weigh ins!

The Linen Cupboard

Once thing I have learnt from my various attempts to get organised is to take it one step at a time. In terms of sorting out your house this means little job by little job. It's no good attempting to clear out your entire bedroom in one day. You'll just end up in even more of a mess than you started with and although your bedroom may look wonderful at the end of it, I can bet there are bin bags full of items to go to the charity shop lined up in your hall!

For me this means one job at a time and I started with my Linen Cupboard. This consists of a built in narrow cupboard in the corner of my bedroom. I think it started life as a coat cupboard, but I had some shelves fitted to make it more useful. It had become a general dumping ground for everything as you can see from this before photo.


I started out by organising my bedding. I had about 6 sets of double bedding which is pretty useless to me as we have a Super king size bed, so I picked out the best stuff and freecycled the rest (More on Freecycle in another post). I am a stickler for hoarding things and one of the things I like to keep is the zip up clear plastic bags from sets of towels and toys etc. These are great for storing bedding as you can see whats in them. I packaged up the duvet cover, sheet and 4 matching pillow cases in each bundle so I can take out what I need when I need it.


After clearing out all the towels etc in the same way I had gained an entire bottom section that I no longer needed so I gave it a purpose and made it my 'For Sale' area. A place to NEATLY store all the items I no longer wanted but that I thought I may be able to sell. I used various boxes including these handy red fold up crates from the works to store all the items in neatly, so I can add and remove items as and when I need to.


This whole job took me about 45 minutes, but has made so much of a difference. It's amazing how refreshed you feel just for sorting out a cupboard! So after all that here is my finished Linen cupboard:

My Welcome Post

Well here I am with blog number 5 under my belt. Some might say not a good start for someone trying to De-Clutter her life and make less work for herself. However you can blame my Mother for this particular blog. She too is trying to De-Clutter her life and apparently she would find a blog about my progress inspiring and feels it would help her on her path!

Well taking that snippet of information on-board I decided to go for it. Who knows I might get some followers who feel inspired to share their de-cluttering tips with me along the way. If you are also on a mission to De-Clutter your life, then jump on board and join me on my adventure.