Stylish Organisation

After reading this article on stylish organising person Kristina Karlsson a few weeks ago, I knew I had to do something about our office at work. Because it’s just grown with us as we've run our shop over the past almost-seven years, I haven’t really set up many systems. There were a few labelled folders here and there and a lot of piles of paper. I also made the most of being surrounded by shoeboxes by saving the nicest and sturdiest ones to house items that are better filed that way.



I know that you cannot be serene and chic and in control of your life when you can’t find a vital document, or regularly unearth something where you have missed the deadline. In spite of knowing that it took a different tack to get me motivated in organising myself. That motivation, my friends, was style.



Seeing this Swedish expat’s Australian website made me covet her kraft paper range (the top picture in this post, alas it is not my office). Sadly I knew it would add up to a lot buying all her rather highly priced stationery items. Coming from thrifty Scottish stock I made me own version. Shall we call it Fifi K?







(Above) is a picture of our shop-office. It is part-way through my organising frenzy. I had already begun re-doing our filing systems but had been in too much of a hurry to take 'before' photos. Story of my life.



What did I do I hear you ask?



I used the same lever arch ring binders I already had, and made covers for the old labels with chopped up thick brown kraft paper shopping bags that were stashed away, some labels my Dad had given me when he was cleaning out his office and double-sided tape that yes, I already had. I don’t know where the tape came from and didn’t know how I was ever going to use such a big roll, but you never know when something’s going to come in handy (I am part hoarder/part minimalist).



My husband watched with interest this new hobby of mine. Afterwards he said when I had done one box it looked like a shoebox with lame bits stuck on it, but when I had done everything it looked very pulled together and professional. This is high praise indeed to me for I feared I was wasting my time (when I had so many other important things to do).





(Above), the finished product.



I used a simple ‘typewriter’ font and stole Janet’s idea of using no capitals, just because it looks cool, and that is what I’m all about in the office. Nothing else was ever going to get me to do my filing. But look, look behind my laptop (mine's the one on the right), can you see neat and empty-ish baskets? Me too!



I know my getup isn’t nearly as designer as Kikki K’s, but it’s a million times better than what it was and all it cost me was a few (several) hours of my time and a bit of ingenuity. That to me is far more satisfying that just buying a job lot (not that I wouldn’t accept a total Kikki K package if an office makeover tv show came knocking).





When I was thinking how I could pretty up the binders and boxes and make them look uniform, other than brown kraft paper I thought of nice wrapping paper (which some of us fold up and think we’ll use again. Sometimes we do, sometimes it stays in a drawer forever) and also the sheet music I wrapped a gift with here. Both would be thick enough and patterned enough to cover up logos and writing. They would be attractive for a home office and I am already thinking what I can do with my sewing room.



I did spend some money on our new shop office fit out. I bought two items – an inexpensive whiteboard, XL size, and a cork board of the same size. We’ve been meaning to get them for about four years, but clearly now is the time for us to make our move. And they weren’t even on special. I had to strike while the organising iron was hot, forgive me frugal gods.





In the course of reorganising the desks and shelves I also cleaned like there was no tomorrow. I took everything off the desk apart from the printer and cleaned it (and even though the printer stayed put, it was moved around and dusted under, and over). I removed all the storage boxes from under the desk, dusted and vacuumed and then sorted all the cords so they didn’t show on the desk as much. When I put storage boxes back under the desk I decluttered and sorted so there weren’t as many. The top of the desk was spray-and-wiped and everything was put back nice and tidily.



I used a sturdy cardboard box lid to contain all the little things that make a desk look messy, like stapler, address stamp, memo cube, lethal receipt spike, calculator and hole punch etc. They are still easy to get at though. Storage solutions may look pretty, but they have to be practical for everyday use too, or else you won’t use them and things will go back to how they were. I know that from experience.





I am so happy in our newly reorganised office now, and I promise one day when we’re a lot richer, I will shower myself with Kikki K’s goodies for providing the inspiration. If you haven’t already, go read the article. She’s very infectious.

Gaining more energy

I started an outdoor fitness group last night. This unusual behaviour was prompted by a customer who is also a fitness trainer (he used to train me when I went to the gym, quite a few years ago). He now runs his own outdoor fitness company and invited me to join a ten-week programme, for free. He's such a great guy and said 'just come along, join in'. The class started a two minute walk from work, I had no excuses! So I did.

There were eleven other people in the group and we did all sorts of mad things. It took me almost 16 minutes to run up a mountain (as you do). I had to walk/run most of the way, but I still got there. It brought home to me just how unfit I am. Walking and yoga, as much as I love them, don't get your heart rate up.

I had a little bit of a headache at the top of the mountain, and had visions of me all burnt out and shaky like after a full-on aerobics workout, but I will just take it easy and know my limits.

The class is twice a week so I will be off again on Thursday. I'm so happy that I was offered the opportunity to try this class as I would never have gone looking for it on my own. It reminded me how much I enjoy running and exerting myself. It's such a pleasure to exercise outside too. I just can't get excited about being inside a gym, walking nowhere on a treadmill.

After my shower when I arrived home I was like a jellyfish. It felt so good. I slept the sleep of the dead too.

I've been feeling a bit lately like something is missing - and it is high energy. I've been so 'busy' wafting around being serene that I've not been that productive. I need to get busier at the shop and finish all my work projects and I need to be more organised with my time at home.

I've been keeping on top of things at home but my main stressor which I want to resolve is our small home-office. Usually it is reasonably tidy with my sewing machine and overlocker, a bookshelf with my French Chic folders, knitting and embroidery supplies, wrapping paper, ribbons and cards etc.

Then recently my grandmother-in-law went into a rest home (at 98, good effort!) and her home which she had lived in for seventy years was cleaned out. Because I am the only one in the family who is even faintly crafty, I have inherited all her knitting yarn, tapestry wool, vintage sewing and knitting patterns, fabrics, buttons and fascinating old sewing equipment.

It is all wonderful stuff, I feel so blessed to have it, and I have been sorting through it, putting like things together. Next I have to merge it with my 'stuff' and declutter at the same time. The poor little office is rather full right now.

One of my days off I want to pull everything out of the office (which could take over the entire living room it is attached to) and then put back in order, editing as I go. I will have to start this first thing in the morning if I want to finish by dinner time.

But for now, looking at fitting two more exercise classes into my schedule each week is testing my time management skills (and meal planning since we get home an hour later than normal). I am making sure being busy forces me to be more organised and motivated, rather than feeling awash, like I have been lately.

Hermes Sale

If you are a lover of the French Chic way of life as I am, you will likely have enjoyed reading Stephanie's former blogs Bonjour Madame and C'est Si Bon when they were around. Stephanie always had fun, chic and thought-provoking topics she posted on, and is an extremely inspirational declutterer. Such focus! And if you can remember the pictures of her petite home sparingly decorated with French style antique furniture... Le swoon.

Recently Stephanie wrote a fantastic guest post on My French Corner about the editing of her scarf collection. She talks about putting almost her entire scarf collection on eBay. But for a few weeks before that (as in now), she has started a temporary blog, Editing My Closet, to sell them to anyone in the US who is interested.

You simply must take a look, even if just to window-shop. Stephanie has many beautiful pieces. Enjoy!

Editing My Closet

A Place of Order and Beauty

Today I had a productive day at home. On my day off I mostly choose not to drop my husband into work so I don’t have to pick him up again. I am then free to focus completely on being at home, whether it is cleaning, pottering, decluttering and tidying or crafting, reading and relaxing.

I did my usual homemaking tasks such as vacuuming the carpet, hand-mopping the hard floors (we have three small areas), running and emptying the dishwasher, dusting, laundry, making the bed and preparing dinner.

I also like to concentrate on one additional area in depth. Today it was the kitchen. I have additional kitchen items like the slowcooker and sandwich press in our tiny home office, because they don’t fit in the kitchen cupboards and I don’t want them out on the bench.

I was playing Anthea Turner’s Perfect Housewife dvd non-stop in the background. Anthea would never stand for that, I thought. So I emptied out our kitchen cupboards (it didn’t take long, we have a tiny kitchen), wiped and dried the shelves and then put most things back, including, wonder of wonders, the slowcooker and sandwich press. Of course they fitted, with room to spare.

Inspired, I also did the pantry, tidying it as I put things back after cleaning the shelves. I found food I thought we had run out of (including three packs of long pasta when I didn’t think we had one). And our pantry isn’t that big. It showed me that you really have to do these things on a regular basis.

If you haven’t viewed Anthea Turner’s programme you’re in for a treat. She lives in a beautiful Surrey mansion (well, before the credit crunch in England, she had to move to a smaller mansion afterwards) and takes homemaking to an art form. I picked up plenty of tips as I watched (or should I say re-watched for the 60th time).

Something I really like that she said was to treat the running of your home like a small business, ‘because it is your business’. She also said the running of the home was not dissimilar to the running of a boutique hotel.

I listened to some podcasts of Anthea while I was working too (had to pause the dvd for those).

And here are Anthea’s top 10 tips from the same website.

1. You can’t run a home that’s a mess, so first of all you have to de-clutter it. If it’s not beautiful, useful or seriously sentimental - IT GOES. Charity shop or bin (you decide what’s best).

2. There’s no getting away from it, you have to clean - often and frequent is my tip.

3. When cleaning always start by dusting first, once everything’s cleaned down then hoover and wipe floors.

4. Make your house a home. Consider your house from an aesthetic point of view, does it make you feel good. If not what can you add to it to make it more appealing.

5. Run your home like a business and treat it with the same seriousness. Think about how you could run your home more efficiently, certain days for food shopping, budgets etc.

6. Storage is very important, for instance - don’t have winter coats on the coat rack during summer, store them away, think about shrink wrapping them if necessary.

7. Teamwork is also really important, when your children get to a certain age they can help with household chores, putting dirty washing away, cleaning and tidying away their toys etc.

8. Avoid Wastage. If you cut up a lemon and have a dishwasher put the left over half into the dishwasher. It adds a little ting and sparkle in your wash.

9. Get organised. Purchase a diary you can pin on your kitchen wall and put every event and birthday into this diary.

10. Finances, keep them up to date - if you have bills to pay keep everything in one place or buy a folder to keep them in.

I also decluttered quite a few items – I went through my candle cupboard. We burn them every night so get through a fair few, but having consolidated my candle collection I won’t need to purchase any for quite a while. I decluttered about half of my candle holders.

When I buy or are given a scented candle, often the glass is really pretty too. After the candle is used I put them in the freezer to shrink the last bit of wax and pop that out, then put the glass into the dishwasher. Apart from putting tealights or new candles in them, I use them in the bathroom drawer for cotton makeup squares, my towelling headband etc, and in my makeup area for brushes, pencils, mascara and tweezers (which are hung on the side to protect the point).

Still, I had a lot more than I wanted. So I chose my favourites and donated the rest.

A few more items went in the Red Cross Shop pile – decorative items that while are quite pretty, I just don’t use. An example is the cream coloured semi-precious agate stone (the shape and size of a chicken egg) on a small brass stand. Every time I see it I am reminded of the woman I used to work with who gave it to me. She was mostly quite nasty and condescending, and out of the blue she gave this to me as a gift. I don’t really want to be reminded of her.

Another good thing about my day of homemaking – it’s a good workout. I feel really nicely tired/relaxed. Anthea thinks so too - ‘You don’t need to go to the gym, just put on a pinny’.

Victoria Magazine

The Universe has blessed me with its infinite riches today. Walking back to work from my yoga class I went past the Hospice charity shop. Outside I spied a Victoria magazine. That, my friends, was just the tip of the iceberg.

I normally don’t carry money to my yoga class, but today I tucked $20 in my bag. For $1 each, I purchased thirteen copies, all in perfect condition and from the last few years. They are the new publication of Victoria, which I considered subscribing to, but it was very expensive to New Zealand and I decided against it.

I have a small number (less than a dozen) of ‘old’ Victorias (including a few of the French issues) which I’ve re-read regularly over the years. They always give me a feeling of peace, relaxation and serenity, and make me feel more creative.

My Auntie S has a similar sensibility to me, and was a subscriber of the ‘old’ Victoria right from the early days. She’s promised me she will never declutter her beloved copies without offering them to me first, and recently said she had put my name on the box so that I will inherit them one day!

Putting my new treasures in date order I found there was two double-ups. I think they will be finding their way to my Auntie.

Are you a fan of Victoria? I’m not a big Victoriana-style fan and sometimes (the older issues) were a bit frilly for me, but overall this magazine has dreamy and divine photo shoots and lovely, quaint writing. Reading a copy of Victoria whilst lying on the bed is one of my favourite ways to wind down on an early night. Perhaps with a chamomile or mint tea.

I can’t wait to treat myself to my ‘new’ copies.

And my plan is to declutter at least 13 magazine when I get home, possibly even doubling the number to 26. That may be a good way to declutter in between ‘actual’ declutterings. One in, two out. Not too onerous.

A Peaceful Bedroom

I did a mini-makeover on our bedroom a couple of nights ago. After reading about bedroom feng shui I was itching to change things around a little and have a good clean. Here’s what I did:

- Moved the bed here and there (so I could get under it), and vacuumed just about every loop of carpet in the room, and the corners and edges. That always ‘feels’ nice afterwards.
- Moved some containers of books which were behind the door to another room.
- Removed a few things from under the bed so there are now three containers at the foot end (containing hair dryer and GHDs etc, scarves and bags).
- Pinned up a canopy of natural coloured fabric above our bed.
- Put away the browsing/boudoir books that were stacked on my bedside table. Now only my current reading book is there. My browsing books are all on our main book shelf in the living room.

Our bedroom is pretty much as I want it, given the constraints of the room and the fact we live in a rental property. I’m so thankful the entire house is painted a soft off-white, including the ceilings and beams. It gives a very fresh look so we have a good blank canvas.

Anyone who knows even a tiny bit about feng shui knows beams are not good news, and especially beams above the bed. We also have a slanted ceiling on two sides in both bedrooms. Slanted ceilings and beams are not good separately let alone together.

The slanted ceilings 'press' down on you as you sleep and the beams ‘chop’ into you. I decided to create a canopy over our bed which still doesn’t make the situation ideal, but helps out somewhat.

I may have a look at getting some white, filmy, cotton muslin instead if it doesn't cost too much. I think this would look lovely and airy draped across most of the width of the ceiling. I could almost pretend I was India Hicks living her idyllic island life.

Being the shrewish wife that I am, I made my husband drag home the stepladder from work and then found I could achieve what I wanted to by standing on the bed. Thankfully he stowed the stepladder in our car the next morning without saying a word.

With excess possessions removed, a good spring-cleaning and the billowy canopy our bedroom feels new and fresh, and like the retreat from the world that it should be.

The Home Office Declutter

In the weekend paper, my horoscope said this: 'Venus - your ruling planet - is in Virgo for five more days so use that time to clean, de-clutter and tie up loose ends. When the small things are taken care of, the bigger things will fall into place'. I have never seen a horoscope involving decluttering before. I haven't decluttered at all since my partial wardrobe declutter, so didn't think any more of it.

Yesterday morning, I got up at 6am, as I do. I get up about an hour earlier than I need to so I have time to have a cup of tea and read before getting ready for work. The Universe had other plans for me though, for I found the timer/countdown function on my cellphone and opened the door to... the home office/sewing room.

This hardworking, petite room is where items are placed while I decide what to do with them when decluttering. It's where my magazines are piled up (there are a lot less now after my magazine declutter part 1 and part 2). It's where my sewing machine and overlocker reside, as well as my small stashes of fabric and yarn, embroidery threads, knitting needles, crochet hooks, lace and elastic. It's where I keep all the pages I have pulled out of magazines, and articles printed off blogs and websites. It's where I put gifts from relatives that I don't know what to do with.

The poor, dear room. It deserves better.

Finally taking the 15-minute decluttering advice, I set my timer and got to work. I started putting away items that had been left out homeless, restacking the pile of mending which had fallen everywhere (and vowed to mend one item per night until it was done) and sat down to file pieces of paper.

I am lucky enough to have been given a wooden filing cabinet from my sister-in-law and it now has drop-files labelled with exciting (to me) names like French Chic, Personal Style, Home Style, Gentle Living (my favourite title), Homekeeping (which includes decluttering) and many more, including recipe categories like Baking, Slow Cooking and Sauces/Dressings. Once I have filed everything I can go through each file and thin it out.

The fifteen minutes was up before I knew it and I had already accomplished a lot. The room looked much better. I really wanted to keep going but only had ten more minutes before I needed to be in the shower (I have chunks of time for doing certain things in the morning, as I'm sure you do. I'm in real trouble when one chunk of time runs into the next one. It then all turns to custard at 9am when we have to leave the house). So of course I set my timer for 10 minutes and got back to it.

Today I couldn't wait to get up and do a little bit more home office decluttering, and set my timer for 30 minutes and set to filing. The rule is I'm only allowed to read the article as long as it takes for me to figure out what file it should go into. Otherwise I'd just be reading everything. It all looks so interesting.

It's so much fun looking through things you have kept, especially when they're in 'like' categories. You can really see themes that are important to you. And when they're all thinned out they can go into clear-files for each category. It's like having a magazine especially written for you, and with no advertisements. Who wouldn't love that.

I'm already looking forward to tomorrow morning's instalment. My husband looked at me with 'that look' (the incredulous one) when he heard I had been dawn-decluttering-by-timer. Each to his own I say.

The Great Wardrobe Declutter

Today I started. And it wasn't as hard as I thought. I didn't need to try anything on as I already knew what I didn't want to keep. I found myself waking up last night thinking 'I'm going to get rid of that denim jacket', so really, I was decluttering in my sleep.

I started with clothing I had previously removed from the wardrobe in my bedroom. I cleared everything out of the office/sewing room wardrobe which was put there to 'think about' months ago when I first read La Bella Figura. I kept a handful of items, the rest went into a (decent-sized) suitcase for donation.

There were pieces I was tempted to keep but then remembered I never wore and didn't want to. A denim jacket which wasn't big enough in the shoulders so always sat funny, another jacket where the sleeves were too short. Tops that were scratchy, not comfortable. Out, out, out. It was so easy and unemotional I thought I mustn't be doing it right.

I also made a decision to declutter all skirts. None have escaped so far. I love how feminine skirts are, but in them I just feel frumpy. Dresses are different for some reason. I love the few dresses I have which I wear on special occasions. But in skirts, perhaps it's my body shape, I'm either too corporate or just plain dumpy.

It was very freeing to skip past the skirts without even a thought. Janet from The Gardener's Cottage made me think about this with her comment a few days ago noting 'right now hanging in my closet are 3 summer skirts that i never wear. why is it that i keep them?'. Thanks Janet for the nudge.

What kept me on track was thinking of my tiny Paris apartment (the one of my dreams, you know it, the breezy, sparse apartment with filmy curtains at the windows). Would Sabine, my ideal French girl have all of this unworn clothing clogging up her home?

And it's not like I'm wasting it, someone else will wear it if it's at their house, not mine. It's easier to live with it hidden away than to declutter it, but like most things in life, the easy way is not the best way.

I thought I would start out with the 'satellite' wardrobes before tackling the main one, work into it if you like. Stephanie from C'est Si Bon wisely began with cosmetics (starting with clothing is quite a tall order). But really, the main wardrobe I don't think will be so hard either. I've run out of time today (late afternoon is the start of relaxing, reading and dinner time) but I didn't think I would get it all done in one day. I'm not that good.

I did get quite a lot done today though, here is my list of Sunday Accomplishments:

Made chicken stock
Vacuumed the house
Changed the sheets on our bed
Did two loads of washing and hung on the line
Washed and ironed cloth dinner napkins
Tidied and picked up the house
Decluttered wardrobes in guest bedroom and sewing room/office
Washed makeup brushes
Renovated a pair of yoga pants that had a really annoying bunchy waistband

The next parts of The Great Wardrobe Declutter are:

Main wardrobe in our bedroom
Shoes
Makeup
Scarves
Jewellery

And so it begins...

I'm in the mood for a rest. I think I have a big decluttering episode coming up and I want to be in top shape for it. You know how you can feel it coming on? When Stephanie at C'est Si Bon was madly decluttering I loved reading the posts and revelations, but I knew it wasn't my time yet. Now it's my time.

I want to start with my wardrobe as it's really been bothering me. In a comment in my last post I said I was waiting until I was skinnier to do this, but really, that day may never come. I might decide to be the weight I am and eat as healthy as I can and do my yoga and walking to tone up.

Because of 'waiting until I'm skinnier', I feel like things are on hold. And if I have decided not to diet, the decluttering will never commence. I have decluttered my wardrobe and drawers before, but 'stuff' creeps back in, and then there is the clothing I have kept, undecided about. So I'm back to square one.

I have a suitcase under the guest bed with out of season clothing and 'undecideds'. My goal is to have all my clothing, for every day of the year in my main wardrobe and drawers. So that suitcase will be empty and possibly even donated. We have more suitcases than we need. A few special occasion pieces and jackets I will keep in another wardrobe.

Where I live definitely has four seasons, but they are not as pronounced as other places. We don't get snow, and it doesn't get ridiculously hot. I live in a temperate sub-tropical climate, so I can really wear most of my clothing year-round. So having every piece of clothing I own will be useful, as I layer lighter pieces when it's colder.

I can only declutter my own clothing. My husband has some clothes he never wears but doesn't want to get rid of. Perhaps I will inspire him with my actions. But really, the bulk of it is mine.

I also want to declutter my makeup and be honest with myself and decide what makeup types (cream blush) and colours (green or blue eyeshadow) I don't wear. Anything that I will definitely use will be staying, I can't be quite as ruthless as Stephanie who decluttered all but one lipstick and all but one fragrance but I can be inspired by her to pare down.

I am getting down in fragrance numbers and it will be a happy day when I do only have a few to choose from, not a dozen. I love having a couple of fragrance choices, but it becomes stressful to muse 'I should wear this one, it's older' because they don't last forever. Do you think my ideal French girl Sabine thinks that thought as she spritzes herself with No. 5?

Other personal care items I will group like together. I visited three different skincare factory shops when my mum was here. I bought items I need (a body brush), items we use every night (candles), and items I use every day (honey-vanilla soaps and lovely scented body lotions). I will be storing the soap and body lotions with my other soaps and body lotions.

Yes, I know it sounds like I have a few, and I have. I don't mind so much though, as they are used up. It's things that don't get used up that stress me out (I have to decide what to do with them, where to store them...). My Nana used to ask for consumable gifts as she said she had enough 'stuff', and I have been too. I'm hoping to discourage knick-knacks and ornaments.

I always enjoy going 'shopping' in my bathroom cupboard when I have used the last of something. And because I buy them here and there on special I've never paid full-price (and they are nicer quality than supermarket ones).

The trick is to only buy things you will use (the lavender talcum powder I bought on a previous factory shop trip is still languishing) and keep an eye on your 'stock levels'.

I must admit, my soap levels are quite high now, but (I know I sound like I'm trying to justify myself here!) while I love using soap, I don't love supermarket soap which strips your skin. So if I can purchase soap made with good ingredients (and that smells divine) for not much more than supermarket prices by buying irregularly and in bulk, I will.

Part of my decluttering will involve tidying and organising also, which I am really looking forward to. I have been throwing things in any old place lately.

Sabine would never do this. Her Paris apartment is breezy, sparse, feminine, fragrant, carefully edited, welcoming, calm and a true haven to come home to.