Problem corner in the living room

Before - not a nice looking corner.

Our living room is really tiny and there's not much room for anything especially not clutter and mess. Still, the corner between the living room door and the fireplace has obviously been a place where we threw quite a few odds and ends together. Now all this was about to change. 

After - looking so much better. 

I removed the PC-bag and the children's chairs to better suited places, so also the rubber basket and the oven on wheels. What was left then were two baskets overcrowded with toys. 

I emptied them on the floor, gave them and the corner of the floor a good cleaning, and put the baskets back. This corner ought to be reserved for storing firelogs, but since it's now a warmer season I'll wait till autumn to bring the firelogs back in. 

Instead I wanted to keep games and DVDs here. There wasn't room for all of the games - some of them come in excessively big boxes, nor all of the DVD's. I put the baskets lying on the floor  with the openings turning towards the room. I placed the games in the bottom basket and the DVD's in the top one. The bag, the teddy bear and the boxes on the top is my attempt to style the place up a bit. Not my strongest side, but I think it turned out really nice. 

Now to the problem on the floor. My daughter and I went through this pile of toys together. We sorted them in keep, toss and donate. 

This pile is for keeping and gets to stay - for now. 

This stuff is donated out of the house.

Although the biggest pile was the keep pile, we managed to fill up a bag to donate and a bag to toss. Yey, two bags out of the house, double yey, because this is what it's really all about. 

A bag to toss - yey!

Organizing under the kitchen sink

So now that the holiday is over it's time to get some serious work done, remember my scheme to get the house in order?

There's so much to do I hardly knew where to begin.

I decided to start in the kitchen.

I cleaned out the cupboard under the kitchen sink, it really needed an overhawl and a good cleaning. 

Empty and clean. I didn't take a before picture - it was too horrible.

This is what was in the cupboard.

This is what was put back into the cupboard:

-  two trash bins; one for organic / smelly trash and one for not organic / not smelly trash

- a stylish bouquet of dish brushes, 9 to be exactly. I'm not sure how many are necessary in a household, but apparently quite a few.

- cleaning products for the dishes / dish washer

- cleaning products for the stove and oven

- stash for the house plants; water can, shower bottle

This was relocated (to the cupborads in the downstairs hall or garage):

- two packages of plastic gloves

- two bottles of hand soap

- a bag with tree bottles of strong detergents

- extra parts to the dish washer

Nothing was tossed.

A stylish bouquet of dish brushes

  

So now it looks like this - not charming, but tidy and clean, and with only products I'll use.

It might leave a messy impression however because of all the colourful packaging. I prefer the original packaging - it makes it so much easier to find out what the various products are and what its contents are.

Not very classy with the plastic bags in the bins, but I truly didn't notice them when taking the picture. 

Fantastic Frank

Love the styling in these pictures for real estate agent Fantastic Frank in Sweden.
The twisted towels and the magazines on the floor, the pair of shoes in the spot light - I'm so intrigued. 
It's certainly a new and fun way to attract the interest of potential buyers.

Easter shopping

My decision earlier this year not to buy more stuff for my house did not hold through Easter. So many nice things have come to the shops lately - and I went shopping!

This is what I brought home:
- hand lotion
- sticker letters for marking the mail box
- felts bits for the new dining room chairs
- timer
- batteries
- pink napkins
(all very sensible stuff and not very exciting)

- Three wooden boxes/trays that I plan to paint
- tea box with black dots
- cotton yarn in beautiful colours
- three cardboard boxes in nice colours and patterns

- three look-alike tin cans that are really ceramics

- two small turqoise bowls (I have four in my cupboards already)

Swedish retro

Check out this stylish apartment in Sweden. Found via Mackapär.



 

Spring garden

The garden needs some preparing to meet the spring and I did some of it today. 
Afterwards I took a walk in the garden (wow, sounds like it's a park - but it's tiny) and took some pictures to show springtime progression. Which, by the way, is very poor so far.

The New Dawn roses have received heavy cutting earlier years, but now I've learned that climbers don't like this, so this year I'll only cut the tips- and the brown parts.

The first slug of the year. I contribute to the reduction of their species by cutting them in half and dumping them on a destined spot.

The lawn has been very yellow-brownish all winter, but is finally getting its destined colour back - green. I raked and aired it - and look at the pile of dead grass I got. 

What are these buds. Could it be... Yes, I think it is! I planted a couple of hvitveiser last spring, but they died. So now I'm very surprised to see them growing again.                       

I've weeded the big corner bed, and the soil now looks dark and fresh.

By the front door I planted a petunia.
And on the terrace I planted some lilies.

Glimpses from the living room

So here's a few glimpses from our livingroom., just a couple of corners and some close ups. 

I can't show it all now, just the parts that are presentable. The rest will have to wait till it's been blogified.

A language is announced

My native language is Norwegian, but I'm so facinated by the English language, it is so rich and nuanced. I love to read in English.
But I suck at speaking the language and I'm completely out of practice. Giving directions or writing this text is oh, so troublesome! 

So naturally I chose English as my blog language - writing a blog in English will give me lots of practice. It may be painful to read my texts now but hopefully it will only get better.

First thing's first

This is my plan: 

Finish what has already been started. 

Use what I already have.

Remove what is no longer needed. 

A tiny start

So I'm doing this. 

I'm starting a blog. 

To help me sort out my house and garden.

My house is too full - it needs emptying.

My garden is too empty - it needs to fill up.

Both mean a lot of work.

Hopefully blogging about it will make me more determined to finish this and the blog will also be a record of this process.

This will probably not be of interest to anyone but myself so I thought it necessary to put up a warning in the header.

Anyways - I'm so excited and can't wait to roll up my sleeves and get started.