Keep us updated! I know most of the tidying articles you see these days are cribbing from either Marie Kondo or that Swedish Death Cleaning book, and those seem really useless to someone trying to live in a limited space as a collector. You might find some good tips at Unfuck Your Habitat. I have found that a really good resource for sustainable lair management.
I just came here to recommend that exact website - good luck!
So this isn't my interior (which almost certainly does need fixing, but whatever), but it's an interior I've fixed. The first summer I came back home after my mother died, it became immediately apparent that my father hadn't opened the pantry for 8 months and had mostly likely been living off smoothies, frozen dumplings, and cereal. There was a huge pantry moth infestation, spiderwebs everywhere, crockery was all over the place, spills and stains had been left to fester ... I think it took me two days and six large trash bags to clear out. This is what it looked like when I was done
Came back this year, and things had mostly been kept in order, at least the visible bits (see below)
but the moths had come back ("uh ... a month ago maybe?" direct quote) and I had to do another major turf of grains and a lot of mystery bottles and preserves. Took about four or five hours, only two rubbish sacks this time.
I didn't take a before photo (it was gross!), but this is the pantry and storage drawers now, which I'm pretty happy with.
The laundry/storage/sitting room has always been a bit weird, so it was on the 'to-do' list even when they bought the house, and after my mother got sick it never really got any attention. But we installed two long hardwood shelves to give some storage areas and make the space more useful (ignore the imac graveyard)
and I managed to persuade my father to buy a bench unit he could use to fold clothes on, because otherwise all the chairs became containers for piles of clean and dirty laundry. In theory there's a narrow shelf we can use for ... something, but it's unclear what as yet.
Still to-do: A major re-org of the spare bedroom, the hallway and second bathroom really just needs to be renovated but I don't know if he'll ever bother, and fixing up the garden, especially replacing the old chook shed that's currently used for bike storage and head injuries with a usable workshop he can make furniture in. I'm only ever around for 2-3 weeks a year, and I don't usually want to spend all my time here fixing up my father's crap, but it's gradually coming together.
AthenorBattle Hardened OptimistThe Skies of HiigaraRegistered Userregular
edited January 2019
Little bit of work today:
Cleaned up the kitchen a bit, throwing away trash and plastic bags (that are the bane of my existence)
Put my Amiibo back into their carrying case, which cleans up a decent amount of space and gets rid of the storage containers that I was using to move my gunpla:
Also threw away some floor clutter, including old mylar card sleeves.
I also put away a few of my board games, helping move towards cleaning off my living room table.
I need to go in and figure out some place to put all the manuals to my toys. They take up so much room, but if I donate my stuff I want the manual and accessories to be with them. So much paper though...
I am tidy as hell and I live my life browbeating messy assholes and pulling my hair out picking up after my unkempt roommates who clearly needed more aggressive mothering
We just replaced most of our lightbulbs with Phillips hue lights! We also got a new bookshelf and rearranged plants in the front sunroom - I’ll take a picture in nice light tomorrow!
it's me, i adore Ikea; it's a half-hour drive and full of cool shit.
it helps that i go during the 9-5 workday or other weird hours, so it's rarely crowded
like this, which i obtained for a Dirty Santa gift that went over well (but not enough for anyone to steal, oddly. ...no one tried to steal the sex swing, either, but jokes aside, no one made appreciative noises over that.)
the beau had the worst slot as second to go (first gets to go again at the end), and guess who unwrapped the sex swing. we traded it for a random board game, and then both left our winnings at the party; i always enjoy putting together a gift, playing, and hanging out more than whatever rando thing i pick.
specifically, the one on the left, which i put in a gold frame.
we hung out with the recipients a couple nights later, and while they're debating where to put the fox, the 'Love' print has been claimed by their older girl, and the tapestry-like one might go in the office since he is a fan of that sort of art. i didn't expect all three to play so well, so.. bonus!
more seasonal Ikea
i went from, "Nah, not gonna decorate for the holidays, we don't really have room, we'll be out of town for the relevant dates, and I don't want the cats eating my festive decorations" to "Oh, as usual, shops discount holiday stuff already because all the norms have done their decorating long before now", so the catsitter could enjoy this backup porch light
fuckin'-- flash-style swallows on a wreath! yeah!
and this small tableau
because i try not to kill my cats, and at least they lose interest in the plastic versions fairly quick.
the air bnb we stayed at was minimally decorated (in a cozy way), and making me want, again, to pare down.
@pooka I adore IKEA, too, and that swallow wreath is totally sweet!
+1
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FishmanPut your goddamned hand in the goddamned Box of Pain.Registered Userregular
edited January 2019
So I was supposed to stop re-ordering the house today and start packing for a 3-week road trip we're starting on the weekend, but the unfinished disorder was an itch that I needed to scratch so I did a bit more today (besides, I needed to get through a couple loads of laundry to get the clothes I needed to pack, so I so I had a couple hours before that was done anyway).
Yeah, those are one of the things I need to tidy up. Most of the City stuff was on the high shelves to rotate in and out of the little town table, but everything got dumped on the table in the name of moving things around, and now I'll need to filter out enough so that the table is still a play area for the kids, especially now that the big sofa is there so Javi can play with everything along that one side.
@Fishman I love that pink sofa and that looks like a really friendly and inviting place!
It's super comfy, too! Jen I specifically set out to find one for sitting together on, so we tried a bunch and that one was good to sit on, but then we tried the 'watching-movies-together-with-her-snuggled-up-under-one-arm' pose and it was amazing, so we bought it on the spot. It's like the ultimate in snuggling comfort.
Here's a work-in-progress shot of the front window sitting area in the morning before the Sun comes around:
The kids love playing at that front window and looking out down at the street and across the valley, so there's constantly toys along the sill.
The big shelf there is made from a recycled historic carved wooden doorframe and is super nice. The top two shelves are pretty nice displays, but below that it starts to get increasingly cluttered and filled and surrounded with boxes of stuff that needs home-finding. This was the situation at the start of the morning, anyway. By the end of the day I had cleared the bottom two shelves completely, ready to be filled with kids toys or whatever we will put there (it'll be kids toys).
The Pink Sofa has a nice companion in a comfy little blue chair which hardly get sat in in it's previous location, but has been added here close to the window and now has a nice perch close to the window where you can look down along the valley. All in all, it's coming along nicely, but isn't finished yet.
2. I keep the manuals for the toys I buy. Used to be I kept parts of the boxes too, but I've at least let that habit go. But the manuals, especially for things like Lego, take up a lot of room. I'd like to sort those in with the toys if/when I donate them.
I don't know what you're talking about.
These are just the ones I'm getting out of the house today. There's still a couple more I'm keeping around for ~reasons~, plus the 4 or 5 unbuilt/unopened sets from Christmas. But most of these I was fine with moving on, I had just put them to one side when I had finished them and either used them as part of the display or just never got around to getting rid of them because the were never in in the way. Until now!
Anyway, the things I sorted through today were shuffling things around into new homes now that the shelves and living spaces are all different.
First off was sorting the kids toys so that the kids had access to all their favourite shit, especially those buckets underneath.
There's one bucket for the Duplo, 2 Drawer sets of Lego (with manual drawer open @Athenor , and 2 at the end for the wooden train sets.
For the adult stuff, I'm pretty happy with how this one came together the way I wanted, with the old consoles displayed in the upper cubbies and the bulk of our boardgame collection below.
I didn't quite manage to fit all of our games collection here, but this is the core of what we play all fairly well sorted and ready to be pulled out and played right in the heart of our living space.
Plus, it was a good opportunity to sort through these:
Empty expansion boxes where the expansion has been fully integrated into the base game
I'm telling you, I don't have a problem, I can throw away empty boxes any time I want. I just liked having them around, is all.
<.<
>.>
So yeah, not a bad days work and I'm pretty happy with how it's come along on a day where I wasn't really supposed to be doing that much.
We finally did something about the whole "Lego all over the floor" problem. Two Trofast storage cabinets bolted together makes a nice height play table with a good surface area for a decent amount of city. We've already filled the Trofast in the background with City sets, mostly the ice stuff, so it was past time we got some more.
There's another of the smaller Trofast units mounted to the wall above the one in the corner which is where all the miscellaneous bricks go, sorted by colour. So there's a place to build and then a place to play
The big bins were to put buildings in so we can rotate those around so it doesn't get stale
Somehow the playroom is the most organised room in the house
The one about the fucking space hairdresser and the cowboy. He's got a tinfoil pal and a pedal bin
That's unbelievably cool. Your new name is cool guy. Let's have sex.
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FishmanPut your goddamned hand in the goddamned Box of Pain.Registered Userregular
I will say that the 3-year-old seems to have grasped the intrinsic nature of tidying through observation. Last night after dinner my wife sent him through to me telling him to "Help Daddy tidy in the kitchen", meaning assist in clearing the table and putting the dishes in the dishwasher.
Instead he headed straight over to the pile of empty boxes by the back door awaiting breaking down to put in the recycling. He then proceeded to move them from one side of the room to the other seemingly at random, all the while announcing "I'm tidying the kitchen!".
Because clearly, after watching Daddy for two days, tidying means moving boxes from one side of the room to the other.
We just replaced most of our lightbulbs with Phillips hue lights! We also got a new bookshelf and rearranged plants in the front sunroom - I’ll take a picture in nice light tomorrow!
We set up a routine for my workdays in the morning so the lights come on in the kitchen just as I’m done getting ready in the bathroom and switch off as I leave for work. The color light is set to blue to help me wake up (there’s two set up with white lights and one with color). I feel like I’m living in an episode of the jetsons or something.
+14
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AthenorBattle Hardened OptimistThe Skies of HiigaraRegistered Userregular
I will say that the 3-year-old seems to have grasped the intrinsic nature of tidying through observation. Last night after dinner my wife sent him through to me telling him to "Help Daddy tidy in the kitchen", meaning assist in clearing the table and putting the dishes in the dishwasher.
Instead he headed straight over to the pile of empty boxes by the back door awaiting breaking down to put in the recycling. He then proceeded to move them from one side of the room to the other seemingly at random, all the while announcing "I'm tidying the kitchen!".
Because clearly, after watching Daddy for two days, tidying means moving boxes from one side of the room to the other.
As I was hauling my recycling out to my car this morning, a young lady and her toddler were coming into the complex, and the toddler said "Garbage!" I smiled a bit, but resisted the urge to correct her and put her on the path of being an eco-terrorist.
so we've jettisoned the idea of putting my daughter (21mo) into my son's (4.5y) bedroom, under the bunk, and have started rearranging the sunroom, which was a sewing room, and most recently an impromptu office, into her bedroom. she moved in a couple of days ago and has slept soundly... so it's a good start!
I'm moving to a bigger apartment tomorrow! It's equal parts exciting and terrifying, to the point that I'm not sure how I'll manage to get to sleep tonight.
A huge load of new Ikea furniture will arrive the same day, so I have quite a busy weekend ahead of me.
I found myself fairly tired tonight, but I stayed committed to cleaning up at least one area.
So that means I have a mostly clean table!
This gives me a place to work from. I can take care of my clothing, organize papers, so on and so forth.
This does present a problem, though.. Where do I put the figures on the table? Or the organizers under it?
But.. it is a start.
Good on you! You have a lot ahead of you, and probably some tough choices of things to keep vs store vs donate/toss, but you have already done a lot, and you can do this!
Your pics also inspired me to to around and clean up all of my hobby things as well, so double thanks!
Posts
I just came here to recommend that exact website - good luck!
Came back this year, and things had mostly been kept in order, at least the visible bits (see below)
but the moths had come back ("uh ... a month ago maybe?" direct quote) and I had to do another major turf of grains and a lot of mystery bottles and preserves. Took about four or five hours, only two rubbish sacks this time.
I didn't take a before photo (it was gross!), but this is the pantry and storage drawers now, which I'm pretty happy with.
The laundry/storage/sitting room has always been a bit weird, so it was on the 'to-do' list even when they bought the house, and after my mother got sick it never really got any attention. But we installed two long hardwood shelves to give some storage areas and make the space more useful (ignore the imac graveyard)
and I managed to persuade my father to buy a bench unit he could use to fold clothes on, because otherwise all the chairs became containers for piles of clean and dirty laundry. In theory there's a narrow shelf we can use for ... something, but it's unclear what as yet.
Still to-do: A major re-org of the spare bedroom, the hallway and second bathroom really just needs to be renovated but I don't know if he'll ever bother, and fixing up the garden, especially replacing the old chook shed that's currently used for bike storage and head injuries with a usable workshop he can make furniture in. I'm only ever around for 2-3 weeks a year, and I don't usually want to spend all my time here fixing up my father's crap, but it's gradually coming together.
Origin ID: Discgolfer27
Untappd ID: Discgolfer1981
Fisheye, it's actually a very long narrow galley kitchen so fitting it in one photo is tricky
Cleaned up the kitchen a bit, throwing away trash and plastic bags (that are the bane of my existence)
Put my Amiibo back into their carrying case, which cleans up a decent amount of space and gets rid of the storage containers that I was using to move my gunpla:
Also threw away some floor clutter, including old mylar card sleeves.
I also put away a few of my board games, helping move towards cleaning off my living room table.
I need to go in and figure out some place to put all the manuals to my toys. They take up so much room, but if I donate my stuff I want the manual and accessories to be with them. So much paper though...
Mine are in purchase order. Only I know where anything is.
we hung out with the recipients a couple nights later, and while they're debating where to put the fox, the 'Love' print has been claimed by their older girl, and the tapestry-like one might go in the office since he is a fan of that sort of art. i didn't expect all three to play so well, so.. bonus!
more seasonal Ikea
fuckin'-- flash-style swallows on a wreath! yeah!
and this small tableau
because i try not to kill my cats, and at least they lose interest in the plastic versions fairly quick.
the air bnb we stayed at was minimally decorated (in a cozy way), and making me want, again, to pare down.
if and when i make progress, i'll share.
@pooka I adore IKEA, too, and that swallow wreath is totally sweet!
Yeah, those are one of the things I need to tidy up. Most of the City stuff was on the high shelves to rotate in and out of the little town table, but everything got dumped on the table in the name of moving things around, and now I'll need to filter out enough so that the table is still a play area for the kids, especially now that the big sofa is there so Javi can play with everything along that one side.
It's super comfy, too! Jen I specifically set out to find one for sitting together on, so we tried a bunch and that one was good to sit on, but then we tried the 'watching-movies-together-with-her-snuggled-up-under-one-arm' pose and it was amazing, so we bought it on the spot. It's like the ultimate in snuggling comfort.
Here's a work-in-progress shot of the front window sitting area in the morning before the Sun comes around:
The kids love playing at that front window and looking out down at the street and across the valley, so there's constantly toys along the sill.
The big shelf there is made from a recycled historic carved wooden doorframe and is super nice. The top two shelves are pretty nice displays, but below that it starts to get increasingly cluttered and filled and surrounded with boxes of stuff that needs home-finding. This was the situation at the start of the morning, anyway. By the end of the day I had cleared the bottom two shelves completely, ready to be filled with kids toys or whatever we will put there (it'll be kids toys).
The Pink Sofa has a nice companion in a comfy little blue chair which hardly get sat in in it's previous location, but has been added here close to the window and now has a nice perch close to the window where you can look down along the valley. All in all, it's coming along nicely, but isn't finished yet.
I don't know what you're talking about.
These are just the ones I'm getting out of the house today. There's still a couple more I'm keeping around for ~reasons~, plus the 4 or 5 unbuilt/unopened sets from Christmas. But most of these I was fine with moving on, I had just put them to one side when I had finished them and either used them as part of the display or just never got around to getting rid of them because the were never in in the way. Until now!
No.
Anyway, the things I sorted through today were shuffling things around into new homes now that the shelves and living spaces are all different.
There's one bucket for the Duplo, 2 Drawer sets of Lego (with manual drawer open @Athenor
For the adult stuff, I'm pretty happy with how this one came together the way I wanted, with the old consoles displayed in the upper cubbies and the bulk of our boardgame collection below.
I didn't quite manage to fit all of our games collection here, but this is the core of what we play all fairly well sorted and ready to be pulled out and played right in the heart of our living space.
Plus, it was a good opportunity to sort through these:
I'm telling you, I don't have a problem, I can throw away empty boxes any time I want. I just liked having them around, is all.
<.<
>.>
So yeah, not a bad days work and I'm pretty happy with how it's come along on a day where I wasn't really supposed to be doing that much.
Now, if only I were also packed for our trip.
alphabetical by first name!? what do you think you're trying to pull, here?
There's another of the smaller Trofast units mounted to the wall above the one in the corner which is where all the miscellaneous bricks go, sorted by colour. So there's a place to build and then a place to play
The big bins were to put buildings in so we can rotate those around so it doesn't get stale
Somehow the playroom is the most organised room in the house
the way I see it is when I want to hear Tom Waits, I look for Tom Waits not Waits, Tom
Tom Jones, Tom Waits, and Tom Petty are separated by genre so it's no big deal
absolutely
the only "The" that goes in 'T' is "The The" those jerks
This is the 5th and 6th Trofast in the house so far. They're everything from Lego storage to toyboxes, to towel storage to steps up into a cabin bed.
I'd get the cheaper ones that are just plain pine coloured but at this rate I would never be bothered to paint them and they'd stay ugly forever
Pretty much, yeah, except in my case it's a 3-4 hour flight and an international border crossing and customs clearance.
Europe is weird.
(j/k!)
My mistake, apologies!
No worries.
Instead he headed straight over to the pile of empty boxes by the back door awaiting breaking down to put in the recycling. He then proceeded to move them from one side of the room to the other seemingly at random, all the while announcing "I'm tidying the kitchen!".
Because clearly, after watching Daddy for two days, tidying means moving boxes from one side of the room to the other.
We set up a routine for my workdays in the morning so the lights come on in the kitchen just as I’m done getting ready in the bathroom and switch off as I leave for work. The color light is set to blue to help me wake up (there’s two set up with white lights and one with color). I feel like I’m living in an episode of the jetsons or something.
As I was hauling my recycling out to my car this morning, a young lady and her toddler were coming into the complex, and the toddler said "Garbage!" I smiled a bit, but resisted the urge to correct her and put her on the path of being an eco-terrorist.
(swipe for second image)
A huge load of new Ikea furniture will arrive the same day, so I have quite a busy weekend ahead of me.
So that means I have a mostly clean table!
This gives me a place to work from. I can take care of my clothing, organize papers, so on and so forth.
This does present a problem, though.. Where do I put the figures on the table? Or the organizers under it?
But.. it is a start.
I keep asking Cortana where my shit is. She's not very helpful in that regard.
Good on you! You have a lot ahead of you, and probably some tough choices of things to keep vs store vs donate/toss, but you have already done a lot, and you can do this!
Your pics also inspired me to to around and clean up all of my hobby things as well, so double thanks!