TOH 20 day challenge – Week 4

And just like that, we have reached the final week of what has been a wonderful challenge.

I cannot thank The Organised Housewife enough for putting the challenge together. I know that not only mine, but many households, are now cleaner, tidier and more organised as a result.

Did you miss my other recaps?

• Week 1
• Week 2
• Week 3

But now, it’s onto week 4!

Day 16 – Walk in Robe

We kick started this final week with a task I knew had to be coming. The dreaded wardrobe / walk in robe.

Ours is located off the ensuite, and although I try to keep it relatively tidy, its open shelves means it can fall into a state of disarray fairly quickly. So a good clean out and tidy up what just what it needed.

When I opened the door on this particular morning, it looked like this..

Not ‘too’ bad, but it certainly could be better.

‘Her’ side…

And ‘his’…

I pulled pretty much everything out, threw away any rubbish, bagged up some clothes for donation, and gave the shelves a good wipe.

Then it was time to put it all back in, folding and de-cluttering as I went.

And after a while, I had a far more respectable space that looked like this…

Her’s…

And his…

I thought I would share with you some of the storage solutions we use to keep things in order. Starting with these baskets, that I finally got around to labelling.

They hold all our caps, scarves, spare sports clothes and thermals. Now labelled so we can actually see what’s in them without pulling them apart each time we are looking for something.

Beside the door I also have a tie rack that I picked up from Howards (?).

– This contains all my jewellery and hair clips – and is so much easier than having it all thrown in a drawer or jewellery box.

Under the hanging rails I also have a couple shoe racks to keep all my shoes in order.  It seems I have quite the collection of black court shoes, although I’m starting to add some colourful shoes too.

In amongst the coat hangers I also have another tie / scarf rack that houses all my scarves and belts.

Not the most ideal system, but it sort of works.

And finally, on Mr BBB’s side, we have a set of hanging shelves that we picked up from Ikea, which houses all our spare towels and linen for our bedroom.

This saves us having to go up the other end of the house to the linen cupboard when it is time to change over towels etc.

And finally, just for comparison’s sake.

Before..

After…

Much better!

Day 17 – Medicine Cabinet

Today was all about cleaning and organising the medicine cabinet. And while we don’t have a dedicated cabinet, as such, we do have a cupboard above the fridge that I knew had started to get a little cluttered.

See what I mean…

Again, I pulled everything out, to give myself a ‘blank’ canvas to work with.

I was quite surprised at just how much ‘stuff’ we had been hiding in that cupboard.

I threw away what I could, and placed the medicines into a small basket.

Then it was time to put everything back in!

Before..

After..

The empty space to the left is where I normally keep our cat food and, as you can see, we need to go shopping for more.

p.s. it seems we have a rather large collection of stubbie coolers. As every good Aussie household does I suspect

Day 18 – Handbag

Today it was time to clean and organise another item that can get quite cluttered – our handbags!

Mine was not too bad, admittedly, although I did find some rubbish, receipts etc that needed to be cleaned out.

Including a random chuppa chup?! I have no idea where it came from or how long it has been in there…

I was actually quite grateful that today’s task was not a big one for me, as the little Miss is getting another tooth and I had been up since 5am. She was also off her food, on a bit of a nap strike, and I had to go into work for a few hours, so I was feeling rather stressed by it all.

But instead of focusing on the negative, let me share with you a handy way to store all those shop cards that inevitably clutter your wallet.

My lovely bloggy friend Libby gave me this idea a while ago – and I love it! All manner of shop cards held together with a keyring clip,  freeing up so much room in my wallet.

Day 19 – Kid’s room Guest room 

The second last day of this challenge was all about the kid’s rooms. However, seeing as I tackled Charlotte’s nursery in week 2, I decided to clean our guest bedroom.

Before…

Photo-bombed!

With family and friends living interstate, this room actually gets quite a lot of use. It is not the prettiest of spaces (ugly bedside tables, I’m looking at you), but I do try and keep it nice so that our guests have a comfortable place to stay in.

I changed the sheets, dusted and vacuumed. I also took the opportunity to hang some artwork on the walls beside the window, something I had been meaning to do for ages, and the room soon looked like this…

After…

I picked these prints up at the Reject Shop a while ago, and hung them in some spare white frames we had lying about.

All in all – I think they cost me a total of $26 – not bad! I’m still looking for a bigger print to hang on the side wall, and perhaps a nice lamp shade overhead, but they will come with time.

Given I normally engage the services of Mr BBB when it comes to picture hanging, I must say I was rather pleased surprised with my own handyman skills.

Here’s hoping they don’t fall down…

Day 20 – Entryway / Baking

The final day of the challenge asked us to clean an area of our choice, and make some time for baking (my favourite!).

I knew exactly which area I would tackle – our entry hall. For this space, despite my usual best intentions, had become a bit of a dumping ground recently.

Before..

Not a great first impression of our house right!?

The bowl we have on our hall table is meant to be a storage place for keys etc when we enter the house. I say meant because it had somehow turned into a bowl for all manner of things…

(Running cap, CDs, pens, chewing gum, headband, lint brush…you know….the usual)

So I got to work, and in no time at all, we had a far more respectable entry hall.

And a far more user-friendly bowl!

And again, for comparison’s sake -

Before…

After…

Much better!

As for the second part of the challenge, it was a rather fortuitous inclusion. For I already had plans to ‘get my bake on’ today for a party we are attending over the weekend.

So the BBB kitchen was certainly a flutter this morning, as I prepared not 1 but 4 ‘make ahead’ dishes to take on our trip.

On the menu - Chocolate chip cookies

Rocky Road

Vegetable slice

& a vegetable and ham slice.

All packed up and ready to go!

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So there you have it! My final recap of what has been a great 20 days of organising, cleaning and de-cluttering. Again, a big thankyou to The Organised' Housewife for putting this together. I’ll be sure to keep you updated on our future house adventures too.

But now, I must go pack the rest of our things. I am quite shocked at just how much stuff we need to take when travelling with a baby…