Keep it simple, make it great #3.3 Tha laundry cycle

A step by step project to declutter and organize your home spaces to make every day life easier. You can read past episodes here.

This month we are working on the laundry room. 

Day 1: Check your current laundry cycle. Where does it start? Do you have a routine? How many loads a week? 

Day 2: Where does the laundry cycle start? Where do clothes need to be to be washed? Designate "collecting points" at home. E.g: a corner in each room, the bathroom or the laundryroom. At our home: the bottom steps of the stairs going up to the attic room.

Day 3: Plan a washing schedule. Are there "urgent" pieces like uniform shirts? Work out a balance of clothes, bedclothes and towels.

Day 4: Do you wash by colour? Work out a separating system. I use plain bags inside a big basket. One for school uniform pieces (all white), one for non uniform whites, one for blues, one for black and red, one for pinks and naturals, one for greens and oranges. Yes, we are a colourful family. :D

Day 5: Designate the "parking lot" for clothes after washing and before ironing/folding.

I admit, not the best example. ;)

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More on this next week.

Day 6: Saturdays are "Lists days". Today: instruct your family on collection points for clothes, get your laundry schedule onto your planner.

Day 7: enjoy a day off! :)

The project´s summary:

9 months to streamline your home spaces and systems

3 months for the practical spaces: kitchen, bathrooms, laundry room

3 months for the shared areas: entry hall, living room, dining room

3 months for the personal spaces: bedrooms, office, hobbies room

1 big task each week illustrated with my own pictures and daily {gentle} reminders, tips and cheering at my Facebook page. Like it to be able to receive them every day and record your progress with a friendly crew!

Donna´s creative space, an interview

Donna is a life coach, writer, teacher and is currently immersed in a hundred ideas for products to help people fall head over heels in love with their lives! Donna works with women who have lost their mojo to help them rediscover their zest for life and bring the big dreams hiding in their heart out to play!

1) When did you start dreaming about having your own creative space? Did you have one as a child?

I did have a creative space as a child – although I didn’t really think of it that way until I answered this question. I had a shed that was converted into a ‘playroom’ for me. I wasn’t hugely ‘artsy’ though – the space was filled with records, posters and books so I could enjoy other people’s creations! For years, I thought I wasn’t creative, and my creative space was my office, without me realising that it was a creative space! I thought of it more as a working space until I realised I AM creative and now I’m constantly fine-tuning the space to make it more and more conducive to creativity.

Believe it or not, this is quite tidy for me

2) The day you stepped into your space for the first time, did you already know how you wanted it to look like or did the design evolve from the actual space?

I knew I wanted a light space, a colourful space, a space with ‘space’ – storage, room to move about, and it’s still evolving to make this space the most creative-encouraging as it can be.

Arty stuff box

My beads

3) After the work is done, do you clean up after each piece, after each day or whenever you can´t find the table any more?

I want to clear up after each project…but more often clear up daily…and sometimes when I can’t find the table! I know I work better in a clearer space, but as I look around me now I can see chaos…I may have to stop and do a 10 minute tidy after this!

4) Do you have a system to keep all your materials or do you have your most favourites always at hand?

Most of my creative work is writing so I always have pen and paper to hand. And I’ve got a big clip to keep all the odd scraps of paper with ideas together so I can do something with them. I am also playing with jewellery creation and drawing/painting though so I have a system for those materials, so I can just pull out the bead box or the sketch pads/paints/colouring pencils.

Thank you Donna for sharing your creative space stories!

You can find out more about Donna on:

* "Donna at the beach", the blog at  http://www.donnaonthebeach.com 

* "Donna on the beach" Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/donnaonthebeach

* "Donna on the beach" Twitter @donnaonthebeach

* Or on google plus https://plus.google.com/b/112465465817827476389/112465465817827476389/posts

Week #19 with Liz Davidson

If you are looking for this year´s decluttering and organizing crew click here! This month we will be taking care of the laundryroom. For daily tips on both the practical and the spiritual process you can also follow my Facebook page. 

For Creative Every Day challenge 2013 by Leah Piken Kolidas, I´m taking at least a picture a day for the whole year. I´ve checked 132 out of the possible 132 pictures for 2013 so far. Click on the pictures to see them bigger!

But before that, let me introduce to you another amazing artist from the UK: Liz Davidson from "One day in my life" who is my guest today.

Here she is!

Hi I am Lizzy Davidson and I have been crafting all sorts of things for the whole of my life. It started way back in Primary school where I was taught how to make stuffed felt toys by my teacher. I moved on to baby clothes, knitting and cross stitch before finding my enduring passion of papercraft.

I am an avid scrapbooker and as a result of that, a love of recycling and being thrifty I have arrived at crafts that I can do using essentially left overs.

I make cards for all my family and always make all my Christmas Cards. As a result of that I often have lots of bits of patterned paper. I keep odd bits of paper in colour collections and use them when I have a bright idea.

At the moment my youngest daughter is about to leave her Secondary school, I can’t believe that she is moving onto college. She asked me to make some pictures for some of her favourite and most supportive teachers. It was a good chance to use up some of those co-ordinated scraps and make something pretty.

A long time ago paper punches were very popular and crafters used to buy them in all sorts of shapes, recently they have come back into fashion, I decided to use some box frames that I had in my cupboard and make some personalised pictures.

The majority of the papers that I used came from a range by Dovecraft called Garden Party.

To start with I measured the size of the background and divided it up into squares. I cut the squares out and inked the edges with Chalk ink. I arranged the squares onto a sheet of paper from the pack . I then cut out a variety of shapes with my paper punches. I arranged them on the background squares, inked the edges and stuck them down with foam squares to give a three dimensional effect. I added some little embellishments, sparkly self adhesive stones and finished it off with some stickles glue to give it a bit of sparkle. Finally I mounted the piece on a piece of white card, added a few words of thanks and outlined the picture with a black pen.

I love the pretty colours and I am sure the gifts will be well received. 

Thank you for sharing your work here today Liz! To see more of her superb paper art you can visit her at "One day in my life".

On to the weekly pictures!

Monday, May 6th (126/126): every Monday morning I go walking with my friend Virginia. This time I chose another route. I like looking at my neighbourhood gardens when the seasons turn. Some weeks ago our favourite park was being refurbished, now it´s this one´s turn. Some gym features have been added. No, I haven´t tried them yet and I don´t think I will. ;) 

Tuesday, May 7th (127/127): my own front lawn has a bit of colour with this white/light purple winter flowers.

Wednesday, May 8th (128/128): Michelle from Virtual Assistant 4U posted about the paperless office. In an effort to get there I threw away 10 years of utility services bills. I checked with each company. Utilities payment proofs need to be kept for 5 years in Argentina, private companies like cableTV and mobiles ask for a year. 

As we have been in this house for about 15 years, that is a whole lot of paper that we could dispose of.

Thursday, May 9th (129/129): a friend brought us this huge chocolate bar from Germany. Yum!

Friday, May 10th (130/130): usually I buy our daily food around my neighbourhood within walking distance and I take a fabric bag instead of accepting the market´s plastic ones. From time to time I go to the "big" supermarket in the next neighbourhood for a bigger shopping list with the car.

Saturday, May 11th (131/131): even if I´m throwing away bills, leaflets, notes and newspaper articles I kept all my letters. Those are three boxes of letters we received while living in the UK, only one box since we returned and two boxes of our own mutual letters. Not in the picture: two boxes of Christmas cards and two boxes of holiday postcards and letters. :)

Sunday, May 12th (132/132): Frida loves eating nuts from my in laws tree. She finds them on the grass and brings them to where we are to snack on them. She loves food but she loves people even more.

See you next Friday for another interview, on Sunday for the household decluttering and organizing series and on Monday for the week´s summary. And of course find me everyday on my Facebook page.   

Keep it simple, make it work #3.2

A step by step project to declutter and organize your home spaces to make every day life easier.

This month we are working on the laundry room. This week we will take care of the household cleaners.

Day 1: let´s start by the laundry itself: check your supply of stain remover, detergent both in liquid and powder form and the fabric softener. Try all the triggers and wipe the bottles clean.

Day 2: check the multipurpose creams and sprays, dish detergent, sponge, metal sponge, gloves. Remember to have the spare one ready!

According to Unilever´s Cif site (no affiliate link) "The cream is especially effective for clearing away scorched food. Simply apply the cleaning product using a clean damp cloth and give the stain the once over. The stain should wipe away. But if not, give the product a minute or two to break up the stain before wiping. Rinse carefully afterwards."

Yes, I have something for sets of the same brand :)

Day 3: back to the bathroom we go. Check your toilet cleaner and anti mold spray supply. I found some anti mold natural recipies here.

Day 4: How´s the weather where you are today? Is it time to clean the windows? Check your window cleaner. Do you use fabric or paper to dry the windows after cleaning?

Day 5: let´s take care of the floors today. Is your vacuum cleaner in working condition? Check the plug and the mobile parts. Check the filter, replace if necesary. How often do you replace the bag?

Day 6: cleaning products shopping list. Include tools like buckets and brushes.

Day 7: enjoy your day off!

The project´s summary:

9 months to streamline your home spaces and systems

3 months for the practical spaces: kitchen, bathrooms, laundry room

3 months for the shared areas: entry hall, living room, dining room

3 months for the personal spaces: bedrooms, office, hobbies room

1 big task each week illustrated with my own pictures and daily {gentle} reminders, tips and cheering at my Facebook page. Like it to be able to receive them every day and record your progress with a friendly crew!

Week #18 Illustrated by Cristina Svihalek

If you are looking for this year´s decluttering and organizing crew click here!

This month we will be taking care of the laundry. For daily tips on both the practical and the spiritual process you can also follow my Facebook page. 

For Creative Every Day challenge 2013 by Leah Piken Kolidas, I´m taking at least a picture a day for the whole year. I´ve checked 125 out of the possible 125 pictures for 2013 so far. Click on the pictures to see them bigger!

Week #18 illustration courtesy of Cristina Svihalek, 18 dried flowers on a painted canvas. To see more of her work, check last Friday´s post with many more beautiful canvases.

Monday, April 29th (119/119): gnochis on the 29th of each month is a tradition in Argentina brought by the Italians. You need to put a bill/note (money) under your plate. :D

Tuesday, April 30th (120/120): time for the monthly goal check. My Facebook page went from 149 fans to 269. Yay me! With my thanks to Sue Worthington and her fab Facebook pages course.

Wednesday, May 1st (121/121): Gooooooo FC Bayern!

Thursday, May 2nd (122/122): it is starting to look wintery in the garden.

Friday, May 3rd (123/123): Year 6 students are allowed to have their own jacket design for each class instead of the uniform´s sweatshirt. My son belongs to the Business orientation class. "Wirtschaft" means Economy in German (He goes to a bilingual school).

Saturday, May 4th (124/124): Tati and two classmates working on their Biology team homework.

Sunday, May 5th (125/125): lunch at my in laws. Extra sweet treats for the kids. Yes, definitely starting to look wintery around here. :)

More from the weekend, just because:
Playing "Where´s Wally?" with our medicines for the "organizing your medicine cabinet" week. 

 I read one of those Facebook memes that said "I go to sleep so late and I wake up so early that I almost cross myself in the hallway". I took last week as "sleep less, work more" and by Friday all I wanted was to eat cake and read teen chic lit. So I did. :D

 Moving furniture around.

Keep it simple, make it work #3.1 The washing machine

A step by step project to declutter and organize your home spaces to make every day life easier.

This month we are working on the laundry and this week on the washing machine because as it takes the dirt out of our clothes, a bit stays in the machine itself. Think lint. Yups, lots of fluffy bits.

Day 1: the top of the washing machine. Get everything off the top of the washing machine. Consider each element. Does it belong there? Clean it and place it back. Does it belong somewhere else? Find a new home for it or get rid of it (Throw away or give away).

Day 2: the exterior of the washing machine. Clean it with a cloth and household all purpose cleaner. Keep an eye on nooks and crannies. Don´t forget the knobs.  

Day 3: the door. Check the hinges for washing machine gunk (I like using technical terms, lol!). Scrub around the edge of the lid/door with vinegar to remove mildew and detergent build up.

Day 4: the interior of the washing machine. The best advice I found on this was from Jillee who wrote:

• If your machine has built-in dispensers, clean those too. I was fairly shocked at how grimy mine were! The fabric softener dispenser was all slimy feeling…and the bleach dispenser was just plain icky! If your dispensers aren’t removable, warm 1 cup of white vinegar in the microwave or in a small saucepan. Pour it into the dispenser and allow it to sit for a few minutes to loosen any build up.
• After an hour, run the longest wash and spin cycle again.

Day 5: clean the filter. Read your machine´s manual for the instructions on how to find and clean your filter.

Day 6: lists day. Get your To Do list into a schedule. Things in your app diary tend to be done more than those in little scraps of paper.

Day 7: enjoy your day off!

You don´t need to clean your washing machine after each load but taking care of it will make its life span longer and your clothes will be cleaner.
For a full "how to" post you can read this one by Regina Yunghans.

The project´s summary:

9 months to streamline your home spaces and systems

3 months for the practical spaces: kitchen, bathrooms, laundry room

3 months for the shared areas: entry hall, living room, dining room

3 months for the personal spaces: bedrooms, office, hobbies room

1 big task each week illustrated with my own pictures and daily {gentle} reminders, tips and cheering at my Facebook page. Like it to be able to receive them every day and record your progress with a friendly crew!

Cristina Svihalek working on canvas

For Creative Every Day challenge 2013 by Leah Piken Kolidas, I´m taking at least a picture a day for the whole year. And each week I invite an artist to illustrate the week.

Cristina Svihalek works in a multitude of different media. She has the most delightful pieces for home decor on her Manos Creativas Facebook Page. Go have a look!

Last year Cristina was my guest with a cork garland tutorial that you can follow by clicking on the link, this week she shares her work with canvases.

To begin with our week #18 piece: a canvas with 18 dried flowers. Deep burgundy for the background and her own handwriting. Lovely!

And now more pieces: same concept with different colours. Isn´t that bouquet absolutely adorable?

 Stamping hearts on the background for an old key. Click on the picture to see the interesting texture of teh key´s patina.

 Part of the canvas was left white while she painted other section. The elegant, glittery crown adds sparkle to the piece.

 WOnderful mix of flowers with the cute touch of the wooden forms.

Thanks for being my guest today Cristina!
Want to see more? Check her Facebook gallery out!

April´s summary / May plans

For Creative Every Day challenge 2013 by Leah Piken Kolidas, I´m taking at least a picture a day for the whole year. This is my fourth time around with the Pic-a-day project and at the end of each month I make a mosaic of the month´s pictures and also summarize it in numbers for the My month in numbers feature by Julie Kirk.  Here are some inspirational instructions on how to go about it. 

I´ve taken  all of the possible pictures for 2013 so far, here are the 30 that I chose for April from the 150 I will be keeping: CLICK ON ANY PICTURE TO MAKE IT BIGGER

* 150 pictures and 15 videos kept for April 2013

* (undisclosed)th birthday for mom

Checking my 50goals for 2013 that I wrote in January:

* 2 animé conventions: "Animé Legend", where we saw César Franco, Marisa de Lille, Ricardo Silva and Mauren Mendo and "World is Mine".

* 1 song sang by Tati at the convention

 

* 2 books by Nora Roberts read.

* 2 new places to eat: El candado and Wan Lin 

* 2 scrapbook kits bought at Giglykits

* 110 more Facebook fans! Yay! Thank you crew! 

Plans for May:
* For my decluttering and organizing spaces series I will be working in the laundry room. Check back on Sundays for very easy, doable tasks to streamline your home systems and find more time and energy to be creative! Want a reminder, tips and daily real life stories? Like my Facebook page.
* Second half of Sue Worthington´s Facebook Fan page Challenge
* I will make my Full Moon board with Jamie Ridler
* I will make a few scrapbook pages for my UKScrappers´team and a couple of cards