Starting the year feeling organised

The word of the week, and of the past few weeks in our house to be honest, is organised. Hubs had a good long break over Christmas for the first time ever and it really was amazing. We got the house tidier than we have since Monkey was born I believe and made a decision between ourselves that we were going to get ourselves more organised. We are out of the baby days and the building work in the house from the extension is all finished so there really is no excuse anymore.

So far we are doing well at the general cleanliness and tidiness of the house. We have implemented a tidy up time before bath time every day to get Monkey to help us tidy up the toys and we are both trying to be less lazy and get the washing up done straight away and to generally just keep on top of things. I’m not going to lie it is hard work some days when we are shattered but we are managing and it is lovely to have a house that is on the whole clean and tidy most of the time. It means our weekends are freer to enjoy rather than needing to blitz the house and feels a little like we have grown up haha. Took till our early thirties but we got here!

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All tha hand me downs we have for LM to wear for the next few years!

There has been some bigger organising going on too. Hubs has tidied and organised the garage and we have some new shelves up in there though it is a work in progress. He has also been organising the loft and making a huge amount of space in there. Which is where I come in! Half of the stuff in our loft is clothes for the kiddies. Hand me downs for LM to grow into and clothes Monkey has grown out of. We have already given away a lot but there was some serious organising to do of the remaining. So that has been my job this week. Sorting all the various bags and boxes of clothes properly and finally. I have also found homes for lots of the clothes and am hoping one of our neighbours with  a new little girl may like the rest otherwise it will be off to the charity shop with it.

 

Another big project has been sorting out the TV. We have been Virgin Media customers for a long time but only have the basic package and honestly the price has just been going up and up and up and driving us crazy. It hasn’t been that great either as the Tivo box is just so slow sometimes. So we have been trying to work out what to do and have decided to give freeview a try instead. There was an aerial in our loft from previous owners, though it wasnt connected and it took a bit of back and forth to the shops, hubs has been in and out of the loft fixing the cables and we had to try out a couple of different boxes but we finally seem to be sorted now.

There are a few things to get used to and different buttons and things we have to learn but on the whole it seems to be working well. Though we have had to spend money to get to this point it will cost a lot less overall as we won’t have the monthly outgoings anymore, yippee!

photoalbumsMy personal little project has also been organising our family photo albums. I plan to write a bit more about this later but it is quite a task getting it all sorted as I got quite behind. I love photo albums and though it is taking a lot of effort organising photos on the computer, getting the best ones printed out etc. I think it is so worthwhile. Especially in the digital age where otherwise you just end up with thousands of files on a computer that no-one ever has a chance to look through let alone organise. So it is a bit of a labour of love getting that all organised!

 

So there we have it, tonnes of organising going on! Feels good to get things done though doesn’t it?

The Reading Residence

18 thoughts on “Starting the year feeling organised

  1. I can really relate to wanting to get organised. I feel like it’s a never ending battle sometimes in this house. I am so jealous of you getting rid of your TiVO box – I’ve been battling my husband to get rid of ours for years, it’s SO expensive and personally I was always happy enough with Freeview. He won’t budge though. He apparently ‘needs’ all those channels he doesn’t watch! x

    • I know exactly how you feel as that’s how it was here, it helped so much having hubs home for so long as feel like we finally caught up a bit! If I’m honest I was more like your husband and wanted the daft channels… But I’m a bit of a skinflint and the cost was getting ridiculous and the channels are so not worth the extra money! Xx

  2. Oh sounds great. I love feeling organised. With our extension going on at the moment, we are in absolute chaos, so I can’t wait for the day we can get sorted too. I really must do some photo albums too, otherwise you are right, the pics just get lost on the computer. Sounds like you’ve had a good week. #WoTW

  3. That is a lot of organising! We need to be tidy and organised here in order for my brain to function properly! I keep saying we should print photos off and put them in albums (of course I have the albums as I couldn’t resist buying the pretty stationery!) I’ve just yet to actually fill them! well done on getting round to yours and hoping your new regimes last and help you 🙂 x Thanks for sharing with #WotW

    • Thanks lovely, the photo albums are taking a lot of work as I haven’t done any for ages, they will be so worth it though xx

  4. Hi Caroline, I should take a leaf out of your book and try being a little more organised. I did have a clear out before Christmas, but as for the day to day things, I’m bad! Sorting out your photos into albums is a nice idea. I am thinking of making an album or a calendar for family members for next Christmas (I hold my hands up, I’m one of those!).

    xx

  5. It’s such a fab feeling when everything comes together and you get organised. Our house has been so clean with the viewings and it has been nice but hard work. Your photo album looks ace 🙂 I bet you have TONNES of piccys xx #wotw

    • Haha I really do Sarah I just love them! Yeah it is hard work keeping it clean all the time but does feel nice doesn’t it? Xx

  6. We are on an organising mission too! Have you heard of Project Life? Im documenting all our memories using the IPhone app and will eventually print the pages as a photobook. I take hundreds of photos and like you said they will just get lost on the computer in the end. The app makes it so easy to scrapbook, and it’s coming to android very soon too 🙂

  7. I love organising stuff as well! For the past few weeks I have been organising our nursery and all the baby clothes that we have for our little girly when she decides to arrive! I am 40 weeks on Monday so anyday I hope! I love the idea of sorting out physical photo albums and scrapbooks as nowadays there is so much digital content. xx

    #wotw

  8. Organising your family album is a job that’s always on my to do list but it always gets pushed down the list time after time, It must be so satisfying to at least make a start! Good for you. It sounds like you’ve had a really productive week – I hope it continues!
    #Wordoftheweek

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