So, how much stuff CAN you fit in a zafira?

So on Sunday, I took a trip up to Scotland, to go & collect some furniture from my Mam.  Did I hire a van to do this?  Nope, I took the childseats out of the car & folded the seats flat...

Now, I know I have a Zafira but I was still mildly surprised to see just how much I could actually get in...

1 double wardrobe (dismantled); 1 bookcase (dismantled); a chest of drawers (assembled) a kitchen table (dismantled) 4 chairs; a set of dishes for chinese meals; 2 small wooden boxes; 2 mirrors (1 full length, 1 large to fit on the chimney breast); 1 small corner shelf unit; 2 single duvets & a TON of bedding; a heap of vinyl records and lots of books.....  phew 

and here it all is in my living room (I forgot to take a pic whilst it was still in the car tho...)

So that pic shows some of it, here's another view, just to show the height of the wardrobe.... ignore the bookcases that you can see & the telly - they're not part of my haul. Oh & neither is the racing track you can see!

Here's the final pic, even tho I don't think it shows much to be honest...



phew...

Tell you what tho, the journey back was insane... (although of course, if you know me from elsewhere, you've probably already read this next bit, so feel free to ignore!!)

 I'm so glad I didn't have the kids in the back of the car cos on the M6, the language coming out of my mouth was disgraceful . I was fighting the wind every step of the way till I got to Wales where it wasn't so bad but feck me, the wind was desperate to blow me out of my lane....

Mind you I've never seen a motorway where everyone was happy to crawl along & there was no traffic in the inside lanes before!!!   And no pressure when I was overtaking & doing so at a measly 60mph either!!!

Ah well, I made it back in one piece!

Now to get all this furniture put back together....

September Goals

Somethings gone awry in the Myzzterri household....  5 people treated for headlice & bathed/showered; meal prepared/cooked from scratch; 4 people fed & watered; 4 sets of teeth brushed; 2 stories read & 4 little bodies in bed & the kitchen cleared  - And all before 7.30pm!!!  Good grief - it's almost like I'm a proper Mummy...!!!

(But it hasn't been a totally cataclysmic change - the washing's still sat on the kitchen floor & the dining room's full of Avon junk waiting to be put away/delivered....)

Anyway - September Goals.  Back on Damsels.org, we used to set ourselves goals that we wanted to achieve in any particular month...  Now we don't seem to have done that for some time but I feel it may be an idea if I set them for myself anyway even if I am just sharing them with the whole 6 people that read my blog!!  It could hopefully help me get to where I want to be...

So here goes..

By the end of September I would like to have:

Finished decorating the bathroom
Sorted the junk out of the dining room (I came to a halt in there - it used to be the kitchen I could never get my head round, now it's the dining room...)
Started planning for Christmas (I know, I know)

little goals but hopefully achievable....  I'll let you know how it goes!

Creating calm from chaos

Well that's the plan anyway!

So, all is quiet upstairs (thank the Goddess!!), dinner for me & him is in the oven & I've got a chance to actually sit down & think about HOW I'm going to create this lovely organised household that I really really want to have...

I'm signed up to Google calendar, set myself up to have it synced to my phone & now I'm thinking about the babysteps I need to follow & putting them on the calendar so they're in front of me, ready to put in action at the appropriate time...  Let's hope it works...

On a less boring front, I need to work out what music I want to dance to in the forthcoming showcase at my pole-dance class.....  ooh decisions, decisions!!!

The noise, the noise...

One of the disadvantages of having 4 boys is the constant noise...  Even when they're just talking to each other they're SHOUTING!!  So when they start playing whatever make-believe game it is (currently Jake & the Neverland Pirates) then it's just an absolute cacophony!!

Add to that one heading out of tantrums, one smack bang in the middle of the tantrum phase & one heading into it and sometimes my house is a recipe for disaster!! It's no wonder it never seems to be organised...

I did hear back from the council about the garden mind.... apparently they need to send an inspector round to examine the rubbish/asbestos to determine the best course of action.  As for the oil tank, apparently that conforms to the minimum legal requirement... well if the minimum legal requirement is to put it smack bang in front of a window, then fine...  However, I do know that the concrete base needs to extend out 30cm further than the base of the tank & ours doesn't, so I'll be emailing them about that shortly; along with asking why other tenants have their tanks more discreetly placed....

Still drowning in paperwork...

So decided I should actually try to do something about this paper clutter... (motivated by finding something that should have been sent off weeks ago - oops)

So today I've updated my address details for my driving license, started my self-assessment, updated my address details for my student loan account...  god it's been boring!!!  And still there's tons of rubbish to go through... sigh.

On a more interesting note, we started to do something about the back of the garden - only to discover a load of asbestos roof panels down there - aaarrrgghhh... waiting on a response from the council at present to see if they're going to come & deal with it for us...

So this was the garden before we started pulling the fence down (that rotary line isn't there anymore - it collapsed & broke in a storm!)  Before you ask - the fence was put there randomly & isn't actually at the back of the garden - which is why we were pulling it down!

 This is it at the moment - all work halted while we get the asbestos dealt with... sigh...

On a positve note - it looks like I've worked out how to post pictures!!  Yay me!

Night all!

Paper, paper everywhere....

So finished surface decluttering in the kitchen (well, if you ignore the clotheshorse & laundry basket full of clothes - I'll go sort them out in a second, honest).  It's only taken me a week... (I need smiley's here so I can put an embarassed one in)  I suppose that's only just over an hour if you consider I was doing it in 10 min/day increments....  I've bought a new bin (oh the glamour!), one of those twin recycling ones, which takes up the same footprint as what we had before but is one bin instead of 2 stacked up so in practice takes up less space & is actually easier to put stuff in... (the old stacking ones are currently soaking in a bleachy bath to be recycled as toy containers for the boys - I have an exciting life!!)

Anyhoo, I've moved onto the dining room/office today.  It took 10 mins just to clear the top of the boiler & another 10 mins to clear the table - which is re-cluttered already...  Which brings me to the point.  Along with dishes, another one of my (many) weak points when it comes to being a calm, tidy, organised domestic goddess is filing (or rather the lack of it)  I have so many good intentions but alas, I can never keep up with it... and I constantly seem to have a paper mountain to deal with... (if anyone has any tips, please DO NOT send a postcard, but do feel free to comment!!!)

So the reason I've re-cluttered the table after clearing it, is I'm going through some of my Avon paperwork & attempting to put that into some sort of order...  I promise that for once we'll be able to eat at the table tonight!!  (where I'm actually going to put said paperwork once I've sorted it is another matter - the stuff that's not being kept is obvious - it's the stuff that needs filing that's stumping me!!!)

Anyway, ciao for now!!

Cutting the Clutter...

OK, it's time to stand up & admit it...

My name is Terri & I'm a slob as far as housework is concerned...  I don't want to be - I'd love for my house to be neat, tidy & organised but it's not....
Maybe I'm a perfectionist (therefore if I haven't got time to do a perfect job, I won't bother at all), maybe I'm just lazy, maybe my inner teenager is STILL rebelling against the idea of tidying up, maybe it's a little of all 3...  Either way, my house is an absolute tip....  And unfortunately my boys are copying the idea.... (which doesn't help!)

But I've decided ENOUGH IS ENOUGH - it's time to do something about it...

I've devised a babystep-by-babystep program for myself to start getting some routines/habits down as far as changing my slovenly ways is concerned.  I'm going to add a new step every 21 days (it may be a little longer - there may well be (ok, there will definitely be) times when I need to just stop, take stock & stay where I am for a little as I get overwhelmed...  Hopefully there won't be too many of those times.

Anyhoo - first step for me is to declutter/tidy for 10 minutes a day & to make sure the dishes get done every night before bed...  I usually fall down at this stage.  I don't know what it is about dishes, but I can't get it into my head that yes, they do need to be done (although admittedly, it was a lot easier when we had a dishwasher...)

6 days into my new regime & I've actually only missed one day (yay me!)  I'm so hoping I can stick to it this time round...

I'm taking pics as well, so I'll share those when I've figured out how!!  I started the decluttering (tidying) in the kitchen (I figure that part of the whole dishes problem is that the kitchen never seems to be tidy...)  I made the mistake of not taking "before" pics till today mind, but as there is currently no cooker & it needs decorating, (plus I've only surface decluttered - the cupboards are awful) then we should still see a difference....

Anyhoo - that's me signing out for today.. I'll see you soon!