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How I Created a Calmer Home

Since I started my social media free month I’ve found myself with a lot more spare time, which has been lovely!

I’ve used a large chunk of this time to finally get a handle on the state of our house. It was by no means a mess beforehand; I think I’d perfected the art of having a home that appeared tidy but had clutter hiding EVERYWHERE. In our living room footstool, in every drawer and cupboard, under our spare bed, throughout the house in various Ikea storage boxes.

We moved into our house in August 2016 and we moved with a lot of stuff we probably didn’t need. I moved in alone, with the help of parents, siblings and friends whilst Jonny was leading a field trip in the Himalayas and was totally overwhelmed by the process so ended up just stashing a lot of stuff. Finding homes for things rather than properly sorting through the stuff we really needed or not.

Fast forward to this month and I discovered the Marie Kondo show on Netflix. I’d tried a while ago to KonMari our previous home but stalled pretty much straight after I’d sorted through my clothes. This time round, however, I was more determined.

It’s been almost a month in the making but I’ve finally sorted through everything in our home. I found the KonMari method of taking everything in one category out and sorting through the things that spark joy really helpful. I didn’t go as far as thanking items for their role in my life, and some things that don’t spark joy but are a necessity needed to stay such as cleaning products.

Now I’m (almost) finished, everything has a home. We’re 20 bags and boxes lighter. Our local charity shops have done very well out of my decluttering and we’ve made just over £40 from old textbooks and books that were never going to be re-read. Weird as it sounds, I feel much calmer at home now. There isn’t that nagging thought that I need to just sort out the kitchen cupboards or that I really should declutter the stuff from our storage boxes.

The only category left to go is the sentimental stuff. Photographs, old diaries, wedding paraphernalia, trinkets/souvenirs from various trips, a plethora of old birthday/Christmas/anniversary cards etc. I’m a little stumped as to how I go about dealing with this lot. How do you organise your sentimental bits and pieces? I could really do with some ideas on how to tackle this last area of our belongings!

Things I Do When I’m Home Alone

Whilst this sounds like a clickbait-y title all about the gross shit I do whilst home alone, it’s really not that weird. I’m not sitting here post chewing my own toenails ready to share grim tales. (Although I did just check to see if I’d be flexible enough to do this should I so feel the desire. Turns out I can, so that’s a treat.)

This is more accurately, the things I do when Jonny is away with work and I’m home alone. He’s lucky enough to get to travel the world with his job which means I’m now pretty much down with my own little home alone routine.

Things I do differently that I wouldn’t do if he were here start with the sesame based binging. Jonny has a fairly severe sesame allergy so I make the most of gorging on humous and Chinese food whilst there’s no risk of killing him with a kiss!

Another thing I do differently is to sleep in my wedding and engagement rings. Normally they get taken off at bedtime for fear of scratching my own face whilst snoozing but I keep them on when home alone in a stupid fear that if I need to get out of the house in the middle of the night for any reason it’s one less thing to remember!

We’ve got 2 doors leading into our house. One is the original, the other is a second one built in front (I’m not really sure why as it doesn’t create a porch or anything useful, merely a space where I often get entangled trying to manoeuvre out of the house laden with school stuff whilst opening one door and closing the other behind me.) Normally we’d just lock the door that actually leads to the outside world but when I’m home alone they’re both locked and I regularly triple check that this is the case.

I think the main reason I’m such a worrier when I’m alone is down to how much I read. My imagination is a little on the overactive side and I always assume the worst is going to happen if I’m on my own!

I’m increasingly good at entertainment myself; I read, I sew, I catch up on TV shows that Jonny hates and I watch trashy movies that I loved as a teenager. 10 Things I Hate About You, I’m looking in your direction. I also talk to myself. Full on crazy lady talking to myself so that the quiet of the house doesn’t feel too full on!
I’m fairly sure I’m not the only one who has different things they get up to when they’re home alone. I can’t be the only one who’s paranoid by all the strange noises the house seems to make when there’s just me in the house?

Life Lately…

I’m currently on day 3 of being confined to barracks with a sickness bug. Being ill is the worst and I’m rubbish at being a grown up about it. I generally just mope and feel sorry for myself under a blanket whilst somebody brings me cups of tea.

We’re going to the wedding of a wonderful friend on Saturday so I am willing my body to kick into gear and recover in time for that!

The joys of working with children is that, inevitably, you pick up some of their lurgies. Thanks kids.

So here are a couple of snapshots of our new place instead of a photo of my (currently grey) face. We’re at the stage of painting tester blobs around everywhere whilst I increasingly lean towards wanting an almost entirely white home…

Any decorating tips would be gratefully received. Are there any wonder products I need before I jump headfirst into the painting?

New house!

We’re finally in our new house! It still definitely feels like we’re playing house but I am loving it. After living here for almost a month we’ve only just got the internet so I’m now ploughing through Pinterest for decorating inspiration. We just need a small lottery win to fund it all now!

It’s so lovely to have our own space, one that’s officially ours rather than rented. Once we start decorating I’ll share some before and after photos of the rooms as they get taken on.

My favourite things so far are:

1: Our kitchen/diner/conservatory space. It’s light and airy and with the help of the record player and bookcase already feels like home!

2: How lovely and welcoming our neighbours (one grumpy man aside) have been.

3: How cosy our little living room is once the fire is on.

4: Our dinky little garden (much more manageable than the 4 lawned monster we had at our last house!)

5: That even when Jonny’s been away I’ve felt safe here on my own (I’m just about used to all the funny noises the house makes during the night now!)

6: That our airing cupboard is so big I can fit in it. Yes, I tried this out by climbing inside it.

I’m so excited to really put our stamp on the place! If you know of any quirky, mid-century style online homeware shops please let me know (I’m almost certainly going to bankrupt us…)