Monday, July 16, 2012

Minor declutter and holiday fun!

It has been school holidays over here for the last two weeks and, although I initially planned for decluttering madness, it didn't quite pan out like that! So what have I been up to?

Let's start with business: I did some decluttering in our sleep-out at the back of the garage. We have a storage cupboard which is often where things that we don't know what to do with, or that we can't quite get rid of, go to hide. It is much tidier now and quite a few things got put in the recycling bin. I was only out there for about 15 minutes, but in that time I got such a lift and felt motivated to tackle a few other small projects.

One of the other small projects I did was to set up a home-management/planning space at the end of my kitchen bench.


 I used to have one, but decided in a fit of decluttering at the beginning of the year that it looked messy and it had to go.  The area was, in fact very messy, but that had more to do with my schedule spiraling out of control and me dumping school notices, receipts and lists on top of it, than the fact that the planning station itself was messy. Now that my schedule is slower and I have these l-o-n-g days to fill (youngest started school this morning) I thought I needed something to help me structure my days again and to help me plan in advance. 

I love using Simple Mom's daily docket for planning. It is so straightforward and  means you can combine a to-do list and a schedule on the same document. I also use a version I personalised of her cleaning checklist. I don't have so much success with this, but that is because of my lack of discipline when it comes to cleaning, not because of the list!

In the folder I keep the recipes I'm going to use during the week, my grocery list, blank versions of my grocery list and menu plan, take-out menus etc. I love having them all in one accessible place. 

I also have completely re-organised my kitchen, but that is for another post. What I will say though is that we are LOVING the new arrangement! 

Now for the fun! (though, to be honest,  I was already having plenty of fun with the decluttering...)

Despite Homer Simpson's enduring statement that "Good things don't end with 'eum'", my son actually asked to go to the museum! 


They have a human sized penguin that he was desperate to see again. And a fantastic 'house' you can go into in the volcano section that shows you what would happen if there was a volcanic eruption in Auckland, with fake news reports and simulated earthquakes! I enjoyed all this (obviously!), but my favourite part?

The view from the front steps. We couldn't have asked for a more beautiful day!


That is North Head in the foreground and Rangitoto Island in the background. Two of Aucklands 49 dormant volcanoes.

We also went to the Winter Gardens,


And the Fernery (which I think is my favourite place of all. I LOVE the damp, mossy smell!)


which are all in the Auckland Domain (of which the Museum is part of too).

How has your decluttering been going this week? 
Have you been anywhere exciting/interesting?

3 comments:

  1. Okay now green with envy. What a beautiful set of photos - amazing. I definitely need to emigrate!
    Your planning method looks fantastic. In fact so much so I'm going to check out Simple Mom's stuff.

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  2. Thanks Jo :) The photos were aided by a rather amazing day...it was only two days before it started raining again, but the sun is back now. I can promise it rains here almost as much as it rains in England!

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  3. ...that is not possible! :-)

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