Updated AGAIN to add
I tried a new Mr Linky so it is fixed

It’s HERE!!! I feel like I’ve waited FOREVER for this day but it’s been only 3 weeks

Welcome to the new readers and thanks for joining in.

If you’re not familiar with the August Declutter Challenge, read about it over on the top of the sidebar —–>>

Don’t get overwhelmed thinking about the whole month – start with ONE THING today.

Okay? It’s not that bad – really, I promise

I’ll go first and then it’s your turn…

I bought this red handbag in 2001 and it has been one of my favourites ever since.

Do you know why?

Because of its texture. I don’t quite know what it’s made of but this bag has a deliciously smooth, cool feel. Lovely!

I’m a very tactile person – that means I like to touch things. If you meet me in real life, don’t be freaked out if I touch things and go, “mmmmm”

I’m letting it go because it’s not quite wide enough for all the things I carry around with me.

Bye-bye, gorgeous red handbag from Truworths.

What did you declutter today?

It starts tomorrow.

Yes, it does!

The GREAT August Declutter Challenge.

Get the cameras ready and start snapping away.

See you tomorrow

We moved into this new-to-us house in November 2005. In January 2006, the new owners of our old house phoned me (about something unrelated) and I asked her how she was enjoying the house (which I LOVED!!!).

She said to me, “Marcia, there’s not enough storage space”

The thing is there was more than enough storage space because even after decluttering stacks of things, we found that the new (bigger) house had far less storage than our old house.

Anywayyyyy, so what do you do?

I’ll confess that I had 3 guys out to give us quotes to put in more kitchen cupboards. Then I realised that I was being crazy to spend all that money – all I needed to do was buy one sideboard unit and declutter ruthlessly.

Declutter regularly —>>
Definitely make time to declutter on a weekly basis. The minute plastic containers look ugly (stained), I move them to another location either as drawer dividers if I need them, or I throw them out!

Make every item do double-duty
Choose desks with drawers and not just a table surface. Or use the space underneath for storing files.
Use a sideboard with lots of storage instead of just a table top.

Go vertical
Put up shelves along the walls. Hang kitchen utensils above the stove instead of in a canister or in a drawer. Use the inside of cupboard doors.

One in, one out
Or better still, one in, two out Use this for everything – t-shirts, mugs, tea towels, magazines, everything!

These are some of the ways I maximise our less-than-stellar storage situation. How do you maximise your storage?

Because the August Declutter Challenge starts on Friday, I thought I’d post about clutter.

Clutter is anything you don’t love or use.

Don’t love
In this category, some things that immediately come to mind are gifts you receive, old furniture you’re keeping around just because

Let’s take it a step further and talk about clothes.

When I declutter my own clothes or talk to clients about theirs, I ask, “does it make you feel WOW?”

If you wear clothes that make you feel like a deflated balloon inside, then they’re clutter and they need to go.

We only wear 20% of our clothes most of the time anyway, so let that 20% make you feel WOW.

Don’t use
What falls into this section?

All those margerine containers, empty bottles, plastic containers you keep thinking you’ll find something to store in or use someday.

Beware of that word someday because it indicates to me that you’re a hoarder.

I’m all for keeping a few containers but that’s just it – a few!

My scale is one of the most well-used things in my kitchen so I use the actual measuring container plus MANY others like the plastic punnets that mushrooms are sold in. We buy mushrooms every week so they start to pile up. Like last week. So last weekend when I was cooking, I measured for all the things I was cooking and when those punnets were dirty, I simply tossed! So now, the punnet situation is looking reasonable again.

Don’t overcomplicate things – run your stuff through the clutter test and if your things fit the bill, DECLUTTER!

Are you joining me on Friday?

Only 3 days to go until the August Declutter Challenge begins!!!

I can’t wait – can you???

If you haven’t read about it yet, please do —–>>> there are some great prizes to be won, but of course, the greatest prize is a decluttered space. I really believe that!

how do you deal with potential conflict?
Last week, Annie and I got talking behind the scenes (on email) about Mexican food. I was drooooling for some and suggested to D that we go to the Spur which we did on Thursday night. I had 2 starters – chicken and cheese quesadillas and some honey and mustard ribs. YUM.

Everything was lovely until the bill came and I saw that they charged me R20 more than they should have for the ribs because I’d ordered them as a side dish not a main dish. So I called the waiter over and asked to see the menu again. Yes, I was right – my eyes weren’t deceiving me.

I simply made the changes to the bill and told the waitress, “this is what it says so I’ve changed it here. And here you go – my credit card”

Dion says he liked the way I just said what was what, and didn’t ask if that was okay.

So how do you deal with potentially touchy situations?

Anywayyyy, back to the topic this week’s menu looks like this:

Monday
M – out with a friend
D – spaghetti bolognaise

Tuesday
My standard stirfried chicken, veggies and rice

Wednesday
Potato bake with mince and kidney beans

Thursday
D – out at a work function
M – the rest of Monday’s spaghetti bolognaise

Friday
Hot dogs and chips

Now, bookmark this blog (Ctrl + D) and remember to come back on Friday to see what I’m decluttering first.

And I’ll have a Mr Linky up so those who are playing along can all link up!

Happy decluttering!

I know I’ve been quiet but I’ve been working on THIS and I’m so glad I can finally share with all of you.

Beth and I will be hosting the August Declutter Challenge for the month of August.

We are each committed to decluttering at least one thing every day and will each be writing a post showing what we’ve decluttered.

The idea came to me after I wrote these posts on taking pictures to honour the sentimental in you but still decluttering.

So are you in on the challenge?

Here are the “rules”

1. The idea is to declutter at least one item a day for the entire month. If you can’t commit to an entire month, then commit to at least 7 days of decluttering.
2. Then every Friday starting 8th August everyone who’s participated for the previous 7 days writes a post on their own blog with their pictures and links that post to the Mr Linky on my blog to get their entry in. You don’t have to write a post a day although you can if you want to. Just trying to make it easy for you guys.
3. Beth is donating a Simplicity ecourse every week and I’m giving away a Household Organising File and a Christmas Planner every week. So there are 3 chances to win something clutter-free to reward you for decluttering your home.
4. You may only link up if you’ve done 7 days of decluttering and written a post with the 7 items. So the more you declutter, the more chances you have to win. It’s win-win-win (less clutter) whether you win a prize or not.
5. And then, at the end of the month, I’ll put up another Mr Linky and one person who has done 31 days of decluttering will win one of my bestselling Organise your Home ecourses. Besides of course, being crowned the Decluttering Queen Another declutterer will also win a $25 gift certificate from Stacks and Stacks – woohoo!

I hope I’ve covered everything. But please ask me questions in the comments and I’ll answer them there too.

Otherwise, ARE YOU IN?

Get those cameras ready and start snapping away!

P.S. You’re very welcome to grab the button and put it on your own blogs too so we can have lots of people participating!

White Horse Inn – Kinsale, County Cork, Ireland

This was one of those genuine Irish pubs. We walked in and that guy wearing white in the top right corner was sitting with a guitar, singing a drinking song (I don’t drink, so I can’t tell you which one).

This section is very “pub” but when you walk through to the restaurant area, it was beautifully furnished and quite “glam”. We took pictures but the lighting wasn’t right so the pics are VERY dark.

Now here’s the thing – you know I’m obsessed with the price of food – we had a supper of two chicken stirfries and lamb sausage, a cheesecake, tea and a cappucino, and the bill came to 55 Euro (R680/US$92). And that was in Kinsale which is a tiny, tiny place (cheap compared to Dublin)

So why should you menu plan? I wrote an article on it called How to Menu Plan and save you time and money – go have a read

Well, this week’s menu looks like this:

Monday
Stirfried chicken, veggies and noodles (mine comes to probably R20 a portion/ $2.60 )

Tuesday
Spaghetti bolognaise

Wednesday
Tomato and vienna casserole, carrots and rice

Thursday
Eating out

Friday
Burgers and chips

Just for fun – what’s your favourite, QUICK meal to cook?

I’ll go first – mine is stirfried chicken and noodles, otherwise anything with pasta (if I say so myself, I make good pasta )

Your turn

Organizing your home office can be easy and fun when you use things around your house, like shoe organisers.

I’ve been re-organising things so let me show you how I use them in my own home office.

If you’re in South Africa, I bought this one in the kids section at Mr Price Home Zone for R39,99 ($5). They come in purple, pink and blue. The beauty of this style is that there are another 12 pockets on the other side

First, I took some squares of jotter paper from my desk and folded them in half. I wrote down all the items I wanted to keep in the pockets and hung the labels from the pockets.

I’m just planning at this stage because I don’t know if I am 100% happy with where everything is. Then I started putting the items in the pockets. I then found that I had to move the labels around so that the heavier items didn’t make the whole organiser sway to one side.

When I was happy with the order and configuration of the labels, I stapled them to the material. I use the flat staples so that I can slip the staples out easily without ripping the fabric.

And there you have it – a beautifully organised system for all the bits and bobs that so often untidy your home office.

Have you used a shoe storage organiser in your home office? Share in the comments.

This is also my Works for me Wednesday post.

P.S. Join me for the Virtual Organising Seminar and let’s get that home office organised!

I’m trying to sneak in a few pictures that are even REMOTELY connected to food every week on my MPM post. Did you notice?

This is real, authentic, Scottish shortbread that Suzanne ordered at a coffee shop in Loch Lomond, near Stirling in Scotland. I had to take a pic because it was so pretty. Can you see the dusting of icing sugar on the top? She said it tasted as good as it looked (I didn’t have a piece because I was saving myself for some cake).

Dion says we girls were flirting with him but I am quick to correct him and say, “hello! that was Suzanne!” The coffee shop was conveniently empty when we arrived so he spent a good 30 – 45 minutes just chatting to us – lovely to hear the Scottish accent.

Last week’s talk
I can’t even believe it was just a week ago when I was speaking to those ladies and amazingly, there were a couple of men there too.

The setting was GORGEOUS (Mangwanani Spa at the Indaba Hotel) and the groups were nice and interactive, just like I like it. Lots of questions which means they were listening

And they ALL signed up to my newsletter afterwards

Last week I am so glad I ate well on the Monday because that is all I ate the entire week until I got home from the hospital. Dion ate ready meals so he was constantly hungry – I keep telling him those things don’t fill you and are expensive to boot, so he finally gets what I’ve been saying

So this week…

Monday
Honey and mustard chicken with brown rice. The chicken’s cooked with carrots and onions so that’s the veg.

Tuesday
Dion’s night

Wednesday
Dion to movies, Marcia – chicken biryani from freezer

Thursday
The curry, rice and pumpkin from the freezer. It’s been there for 3 weeks now

Friday
Out to supper at our friends’ house

It’s the last few days to register for the Virtual Organising Seminar happening this Thursday. Check it out now.

Visit Laura for more menus and have a WONDERFUL week!