Category Archives: Guest Posts

Let Me Introduce You To The Clutterfairy

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When I first started out on the road to a Family Life Simply Done over 4 years ago , the first thing I did was start to declutter. I believe this is the starting point for many life-simplifiers. What I have discovered, is that there isn’t an end to decluttering. It’s a routine, a habit, a work in progress. 

Recently, I contacted Lesley Spellman aka The Clutterfairy. Lesley kindly offered to do a guest post, and also be on hand to answer any of your clutter questions…

So without further ado please let me introduce you to The Clutterfairy!

It’s that time of year when the world and his wife are talking about decluttering. Newspapers, magazines and blogs are all trying to motivate us to spring clean and declutter. Now, motivation is key to a successful declutter, of course, but alongside that you need education on how to tackle the job and a big dose of realism.

As a professional declutterer one of the key skills I need is honesty. I am honest with my clients and I will be honest with you.

So here’s the reality – if you have quite a lot of clutter in your home, it probably didn’t build up overnight; it took months, maybe even years, to get to such an unmanageable level so it shouldn’t be surprising that it will probably take more than just an hour or two to sort through and get your space back to the way you want it to be. There, I’ve said it – it’s not a “Ten minutes a Day for a Clutter Free home”, it’s not a trip out to buy a gorgeous storage unit from Ikea, it’s not about a labelling machine or post it notes. If you have a lot of clutter, it’s going to take time to sort it.

And time is not all you need. More than anything you need focus, determination, motivation and a huge amount of energy. Clearing clutter is emotionally and physically draining if there’s a lot of it.

The ideal scenario is of course to get a professional organiser to help you. What they will try to achieve is a balance between your vision and the amount of stuff you are willing to get rid of. If you have said you want a minimalist home with clear surfaces more akin to an edition of Ideal Home and you only have one carrier bag ready for the charity shop then it’s time for some questions to be asked. A professional will keep you focused, motivated and above all entertained throughout what can be a mind-numbingly tedious job at times.

If a professional is not an option for you try to bear in mind the following.

Having well meaning family to help can be, in my experience, a disaster waiting to happen. A daughter, a mother in law, even a husband is not impartial. If someone has been living with the fallout of your clutter they are likely to harbour a small amount of resentment and perhaps may struggle to understand the  psychology behind your attachment to your things.

If you are going to go it alone you need to be realistic about time. For me an averagely cluttered room takes between four and six hours to declutter, reorganise and the final vitally important part – discarding the stuff to charity, an eBay seller or the tip. And that is based on me working with a client at a reasonable pace.

Be prepared with bin bags, transport to take the stuff away and plan to avoid any distractions (kids, phones, facebook, loose women etc)

Remember it will get worse before it gets better. All that stuff in those drawers and cupboards is going to have to come out to get sorted before it can go back in.

Stay focused on your goal. Don’t move from room to room. If something belongs in the kitchen, for example, put it in a box labelled kitchen and move it later with other things that you find along the way.

I could go on and on but after what might appear to be a very negative blog, I want to end on a positive note. All that is standing between you and a home that you want to be in, where you can find what you need and above all can be proud of, is time, energy and focus. And we’ve all got a bit of that stored somewhere!

Good luck and if you have any questions, put them in the comments box and I will try my best to answer them all. Happy Decluttering!

Lesley

**Why not head over to Lesley’s Facebook page and join in the conversation?**

    

Can A Family Kitchen Be Minimal?

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When my good friend Rayna (otherwise known as The Suburban Minimalist) kindly asked me to Guest Post on a ‘Minimal Kitchen’ it set me a little bit of a challenge.

I am indeed an aspiring minimalist and Mum on the road to a ‘family life simply done’ but the one area of my home you couldn’t really describe as minimalistic is my kitchen. I have in excess of 35 spices, and a cupboard almost entirely dedicated to cake-making and decorating paraphernalia. It is the room in which I spend most of my time and energy, and organised it is (very) but minimal it is not.

I’ve decided to open the floor up with a little bit of a ‘show and tell’ post. I’m suspecting that my kitchen couldn’t pass as minimal, but I hope you will agree it’s functional and organised with a little bit of fun thrown in.

Continue reading →

The Simple Guide to Meal Planning

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This post was originally written as a Guest Post over at The Minimalist Mom
I am a huge advocate of meal planning, and here I outline the basics – enjoy!

The Simple Guide to Meal Planning by simplybeingmum

Meal Planning can seem a daunting task, and yet by following this simple guide, I guarantee you will save time, money and effort, and ultimately reduce waste.

By Meal Planning you will:

  1. Save Time – No more wandering round the store with no direction, or wondering what to cook for dinner that night. No emergency trips to the store for ingredients you don’t have, or ad hoc dinners out due to lack of supplies.
  2. Save Money – By only buying what you plan to eat and resisting impulse purchases, you will save money. There is no doubt.  You also reduce costs by not throwing away unused foodstuffs.
  3. Save Effort – Being disorganised requires more effort than being organised (in the long-run), you know what you are eating and when, you can prep in advance and it requires less decision-making on a daily basis.
  4. Reduce Waste – It is estimated that in the UK 8.3m tonnes of food each year gets thrown away by households. This equates to almost £700 a year of food waste for an average family. By reducing this waste in real terms the CO2 impact would be the equivalent of taking 1 in 4 cars the road. (* source www.lovefoodhatewaste.com)

Six Simple Steps to Meal Planning

  1. The first step has nothing to do with food. Set aside 30 minutes with the family to establish everyone’s diary for the forthcoming week. I do this on a Thursday evening. I know who needs lunches and dinners and whether we are eating out at all.
  2. Write out a daily meal plan based on everyone’s diary, I plan Saturday-Saturday as I receive my groceries Saturday morning. Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner and Snacks are planned for. The first couple of times you do this it may be time-consuming, but as you start to replicate meals it gets easier. To reduce time and effort further you could draw up a monthly menu, and rotate 4 weeks worth of meals.
  3. Throughout the week note down anything that needs replenishing as you use it up.  This will be add-on items, such as herbs, oils and household items.
  4. Only plan for 6 days worth of meals! Seriously this works. Regardless of how good a planner you are, things happen, and you may need to use food up the day before your new batch of groceries. This also gives you an opportunity to get you culinary creative thinking cap on. If you do clear all food ‘treat’ yourself to a take away or a dinner out – you deserve it!
  5. Before you do your meal plan/grocery shop for the next week (online or otherwise) empty your food/perishables cupboard and do an inventory. Get into a routine. Strip it down and clean it, look to use things up or freeze, note down what you already have and base a meal around those items if they will still be edible. As you only keep a week’s worth of food in at any one time, waste should reduce, you will need less storage and cleaning will be simpler.
  6. Never shop without a list (based on your planned meals) or when you are hungry. I do my grocery shop online, as this eradicates any impulse purchases and also means I do not have to step foot physically in a supermarket (I’d rather be doing something else). If you don’t shop online, the principle is the same, do not deviate from the list regardless of what is on offer, or what new delights they have in store. Do not go into the clothing, toy, magazine section unless you want to add approx.20% to your food bill.
(Today’s post was inspired by Rachel tweeting she had placed her first UK online shop after the big move)