Two minute tidy tip: use chalkboard stickers to label household items

Chalkboard stickers are great! They're reusable, and you can clean off whatever you 've written and start again - so they're really cost effective.

You'll need:

A set of chalkboard labels - I got mine for around £3 on Ebay:

 A chalkboard pen - this cost about £4 from a stationers, but normal chalk would be fine too.

 

Write out what you want the label to say - you can wipe it off with water and a cloth if you make a mistake:

 

Then attach your labels to wherever you want to stick them! I chose them to identify these boxes at the top of my wardrobe:

 

And you're done! Cost: around £7 - I already had the boxes, and they cost £2 each.

How to: organise and store bed linen

Keeping linen organised can be a bit frustrating! I keep mine in a drawer under the bed. Quickly finding what I need can sometimes take time:

I thought I'd share a great tip that I saw somewhere online. Take a pillowcase from any duvet set (and no, I never iron mine, I cover my bed with a nice bedspread!)

Next,  put your folded duvet cover, sheet and other matching pillowcases inside the pillowcase. Then, fold it  in half for neat and tidy storage:

Now your bed sets will have their own storage 'compartments' and will be easier to grab!

Quick fix for tidying: repurposing a kitchen item for organising jewellery

Sometimes, items can be used for a completely different purpose to the one they were designed for. I needed a tray with sections to organise my bracelets and brooches. So I bought this ceramic platter for 99p:

 It looks like this out of the packaging:

 

It looks great with jewellery in it, and it was a real bargain!

Quick fix for tidying: hanging up washing up gloves

Earlier I posted a tip on how to organise necklaces. I used adhesive hooks as part of the tip, and have some left over. I've used one of them to hang up my washing up gloves, with a bulldog clip:

 

I can now store them away under the sink instead of leaving them on the dish rack where they never seem to dry properly, and have occasionally been known to fall into a basin full of water!

Quick fix for tidying: organising necklaces

There are a few necklaces that I often wear  that are a bit too bulky for a necklace stand. I've got an easy and cheap way of storing them away where I can access them quickly when I want to.



I used 2 adhesive hooks - these were part of a set of 20 which cost £1:

 

I positioned them inside a cupboard door, making sure to check that they were at a height where I could see each one, and easily grab the one I need. The result:

I'll be posting again later with another great use for the left over sticky hooks!

My cleaning routine: the kitchen sink

I thought I'd share my great tip for keeping my kitchen sink limescale free and sparkling clean!

I use a great white vinegar spray that I bought in a 99p Store:

I live in a heavy water area, so my taps and sink get a lot of limescale, even though I clean it thoroughly every week. I've used all the well known products with limited success, so I thought I'd try vinegar, as I read somewhere that it was great on limescale. It's the best product I've used so far, it gets rid of limescale really quickly. I cleaned my sink this morning and took some photos to show the results. I sprayed the sink and left it for 5 minutes -  here are the before and after photos I took for my weekly clean of the kitchen:

Before:

After:

 

And another after because I'm so pleased with it!

It also works really well on the bath, toilet and mirrors and is good at removing stains on clothes. Cost: 99p

Sort it Saturday: organising paperwork

Paperwork can be a struggle - we get a steady flow of bills, letters and receipts into our homes every day! it can easily become overwhelming. I find keeping it all in one place and sorted by theme helps me to keep on top of it. I've previously written about how I store receipts, and here's how I organise the other documents that I need to keep.

You'll need:

A box file (around £5 from any stationers)

 

And some plastic zip folders:

I got these folders for £1 - I really liked how I could use them to colour code them to distinguish what was what, and that each pile of paperwork would be in its own container. I then grouped them into themes  and wrote labels that could slide into the plastic pocket at the front. My labels are bank, health, key documents (passport, birth certificate) manuals.

And that's it! Cost: around £6, you don't need to use a box file though, a cardboard box would do the trick too, and would make this really low cost.

Friday photo: home design ideas

I thought I'd share a recent purchase with you (I follow the one in, one out rule when buying things for my home!) to give an example of how making your home feel welcoming doesn't necessarily need to be about buying expensive items.

I bought this 'Love' sign online for £1.99, and the vase was a gift from a relative. I've seen similar ones for sale at low prices in charity shops/thrift stores. The rose is from a rose bush that I have growing on my window sill. You could replicate it with a silk flower to be even thriftier - they can be purchased pretty cheaply. Arranged together, they help create a warm and cosy feel to my lounge.

Mini makeover: under my kitchen sink

Here's one of my mini makeover projects - I decided to revamp under my sink as the storage container I was using was a little too small and I couldn't easily see what was what. Here's what it looked like before:

I took a trip to my local shopping centre which has a low cost store that sells containers and household goods. I bought 3 small red containers and used two of them for storing the household cleaning products under the sink, and I used an adhesive hook to hang up the dustpan. It often got in the way when closing the door, so hanging it up creates a little more storage space:

 

The red baskets were a set of three for £1.99, and the adhesive hook for the dustpan was part of a set of 20, which cost £1. A great bargain!

What's your clutter About? Interview with Peter Walsh

Peter Walsh is something of a guru in the organisational world - he's down to earth, direct and refreshingly honest. Check out this recent interview with him:

How to: make the best use of your computer by adding your most used programmes to the taskbar

A quick way to help you save time when you're using your computer, is to pin the programmes that you use most often to your taskbar.

Before:

To add your programme, click the Windows button on the bottom far left of your computer desktop:

Find the programme that you want to add - I'm using Internet Explorer for my example:

 

Right click with your mouse over the icon/picture of the programme. This menu will appear:

Choose and click on 'Pin this program to taskbar'. That's it!

If you want to remove a taskbar programme, just hover over it, right click with your mouse, and click 'Unpin this program from the taskbar'.

Please comment below if you'd like any more computer related tips!

Two minute tidy tip: keep disinfectant wipes in the bathroom

There are some jobs that need to be done around the home that can be tricky to get motivated to do. I sometimes find cleaning the bathroom a challenge!

I wish this was my bathroom!

My quick two minute tidy tip: keep a pack of disinfectant wipes (or even baby wipes) in the bathroom. When you've finished your shower or bath, grab a wipe and quickly wipe down the surfaces. It really does only take a couple of minutes, and it'll save you having to do more work when you next clean your bathroom.

Quick fix for tidying: organising blankets and cushions

Where to store blankets and cushions? I used to keep mine on top of my wardrobe but found that they were blocking out some of the light into the room:

I found these great folding canvas boxes that I could  use to store them away in a cupboard:

There are lots of great solutions available - this is perfect as I can pull them out if I need to and they'll be less likely to get dusty. And, they cost just £1 each - bargain!

Routines to help keep your home organised: make time to do the dishes

An important part of decluttering and organising is setting up a few short routines to help you maintain your home. It might sound a little boring, but it's key to creating an organised and homely environment for yourself.

Try and find time to wash up and wipe down your surfaces before you go to bed - that way you'll wake up to a nice clean kitchen and it helps start the day off on the right track.

 

You'd be surprised at the difference it makes, and it really won't take as long as you think - I promise!

Two minute tidy tip: use velcro to tidy wires

Sometimes wires on electrical appliances can get curled up or tangled and look messy:

 

My quick two minute tidy tip: use velcro to tie up long wires on electrical appliances. I got a roll for just under £2 on Ebay:

 

You can also get it in lots of other colours, which is really useful if you want to colour code, or if you have lots of appliances stored together and want to distinguish them. Just cut a small piece and secure it around the wires:

 

Done!

 

Or, if you want to save money, and have some lying around in the garage, cable ties would work really well too.

Two minute tidy tip: declutter your pens

How many pens do you own? You may be surprised!

 

My quick two minute tidy tip: gather up all of the pens you own - look in your bag, your desk, the kitchen drawers and put them in all a pile. Test them to see if they all still work, and then find a central place to keep them and put them there. 

Next, ask yourself - how many pens can I write with at once? I helped someone recently who had 18 pens, and when we tested them, about a third of them weren't working. You're really only going to need two or three pens. You could even donate the rest to a good cause.

Decluttering and organising your home: it's about more than buying cute storage boxes

Now who doesn't love boxes? I especially like the multi coloured ones that come in sets of three:

But buying boxes to put your stuff in won't solve your decluttering problem - many people move their clutter into the boxes and think that they're done. Organising and decluttering means focusing on the things that are important to you, and removing the things that no longer serve a purpose.

Before you buy any storage boxes, try asking yourself: which of my possessions have real, true meaning to me?

Do you have any storage boxes? If so, what's in yours? I cleared out one of mine out over the weekend and found a spare set of hair straighteners that I'd totally forgotten I had. I had kept them as back ups in case my main ones break down! They hadn't seen the light of day for 2 years, so they went straight out the door to charity!