project two : : the landing

There's barely much I can accomplish whilst awaiting our vanity-table shopping trip. Meanwhile, I've begun to tackle a new project. I've moved into the landing area just outside my room. This area should be quite a simple task, but there are a couple of considerations I need to make before I begin.

Right now, the area basically consists of a shelf of a random jumble of things and two main piles of clutter of a random mix of things. 

I know these aren't especially good pictures of the clutter, but I hope you can see that there are quite a few containers - which, yes, means, that they could be filled with...anything. And yes, that's a bottle of Cointreau you see amidst the containers on my landing. No, it's not open. The question is, "Why is there alcohol on the landing in the first place?!" This isn't a frat house for goodness sake... That bottle of Cointreau was probably bought for the purpose of putting into a cake/dessert of some sort. Leaving it there hidden amidst what looks like arts and crafts items just doesn't do the poor bottle justice to helping it fulfill its life's purpose!

Bottle of Cointreau, I will help you live out your destiny! 

Looks like I'm going to be spending some time in the kitchen soon...Dark chocolate orange ganache anyone?

Now let's look inside that cupboard..

(hold your breath!)

Did you get shocked too?

(and I'm not talking about a bajillion and one random things stuffed in there)

Why in the world does my family have SO much alcohol?!

Look!

Goodness...None of us are even drinkers.
And if we ever do drink, it's only in very very small amounts and on very special occasions.

I suppose I'm probably to blame for most of these - because of how often I found myself travelling, it became a sort of habit to make a "DFS call" to the family so I could pick up stuff for them if they wanted anything. I suppose alcohol is a generally good buy from DFS. Not that we're alcoholics (which is obvious, considering we just buy and store them in random places), but Grand Marnier, Bacardi and Kahlua are great in desserts. I usually can't resist buying some sort of wine at DFS too. Thinking back, I think the only alcohol my family ever drank from all my purchases was a bottle of Icewine. Mmmm...Icewine. And this is not the only "alcohol stash" we have at home. I know that we have another cupboard somewhere downstairs filled with bottles of random things as well... 0_o

Looks like I've got a huge load of excuses to hold parties...and to bake enough tiramisu to make a neighbourhood (or small country) of friends.

Looking at the items lying around in the landing, it seems that my family needs some sort of arts and crafts area. We're quite a creative bunch, and honestly we do have tons of creative material (One of those huge boxes above the cupboard is filled with rolls upon rolls of ribbons alone). My mum has a thing for dressmaking, and I have a whole stash of cross-stitching and crocheting things that I have to find a place to house. Not to mention that I picked up knitting last year and would really like a place for balls of yarn and needles.I'm not sure exactly how and where I'm going to find space for a creative corner, but I suppose this cupboard might be a good area to hold items for our artsy fixes.

Currently, this cupboard holds a whole horde of things - from kitchen equipment, to entertaining crockery, to artsy things, electrical things, and even random free things that any one of the seven of us could have picked up sometime over the years (and decided it was somehow worth keeping...for some ambiguous purpose).

Well, one way to make space for things is to clear other things away. Working on the girls' room, I've already pulled together a whole pile of things I intend to give away. Looks like the pile is going to get a lot bigger cleaning out this cupboard. Watch out for that post. :)

Tip of the Day

Everything in your home should have a "home" for themselves. A home is basically a place where things belong. Believe it or not, like humans, inanimate objects can actually move out of their home to work as well (like how a glue stick can move over to a table somewhere to serve its purpose to...stick things), but once they're done with work, they should return home to where they belong. Just like how cutlery is usually housed in your cutlery drawer in the kitchen, that random drum or bellydancing skirt should also have a place where it belongs. 

When there's clutter or when things are lying around, it's a simple signal of three possible things i) You haven't thought of a home for the item, ii) If you already do have a home for it, you  probably haven't communicated clearly to other family members about where these things should belong, or iii) You simply don't have enough space for these things.

If you haven't thought of a home for your item, finding one is a simple process. Just think about what makes the most sense in terms of efficiency. Think about how the item is used and where it'd usually move. Plan for as minimal movement as possible and make it as easy for them to return home to where they belong. Your entire house is usually divided into "activity areas" -  dining, sleeping, arts & crafts, relaxing, etc. If an item serves two activities in two different areas of your house, either find a space where it can be easily accessed from both activity areas, place it in the area where it's accessed more, or you might even need to consider getting a duplicate of the item (only in the case where it's highly used in both areas).  

If you already have a home for the item and they're still being misplaced or left around, it's highly likely that i) the current home for the item isn't the most efficient area for it, and you might need to think of a new area, or ii) if the item is being misplaced by others, it's probably a simple communication problem - that people simply don't know where things should go. Once you've communicated clearly, it usually takes a few reminders down the road to get rid of that random pile of misplaced stuff. If you need to think of a new area for the item, consider the current places they've been lying around. These are usually great clues to the best areas in your house that they should be.

For the situation where you simply don't have enough space, the solution is simple - make space. One of the best ways to make space is to get rid of things. It's the simple theory of displacement. You can't pour more water into an already full glass. Unless you can find a way to reorganize or compress the items you already have, getting rid of things is usually the better - and more therapeutic - option.