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The answer is simple: get HUBBY to watch the Little Man.

I spent New Year’s Day getting a butt load of chores out of the way. I sat down and went through all the papers I had accumulated in my desk.  You know the papers I’m talking about; unopened letters, expired bills, persistent reminders about lost superannuation and a multitude of real estate paperwork.

It always surprises me to see how much paper I horde because I’m too lazy to deal with it straight away or put it in the bin. But not this year. This year I’m going to deal with the mail the minute I collect it from the mailbox; if I don’t have time to deal with it it stays in the mailbox.

Once I’d tackled the paperwork I turned my attention to working out our budget (because we’re doing a No Spend January). It went a lot better than I thought. This year I’m going (see that positive thinking) to stay ahead of the bills. I’ve worked out a system where I will put away a set amount each month against every known expense. This means that over a 12 month period I shouldn’t have to dip into our savings to pay for things like council rates, water rates, car insurance, house insurance and car registration.

I was amazed to see that the most expensive thing (excluding our mortgage, but only by a margin) is our electricity and gas bills. I will be seriously investigating fitting the house with some power saving measures. (I wonder if I could knit a wind turbine… I’m sure there will be a tutorial on Pinterest… )

(I also took the opportunity to clean up my internet banking. I was blown away by how many dormant account details we have from making one off bank transfers and alike. Now we just have the important accounts left.)

With the budget out of the way I decided I would spend a little bit of time getting the kitchen a little more organised. Nothing major just a bit of a tweak. By the time I’d done all of that we’d had lunch and the afternoon had turned to evening.

The boys went for a little nap and left me to my own devices… what’s a gnome to do? Simple; tackle the guest bedroom.

I’m sure I’m not alone in this pet hate; the guest room is wasted space. Our guest bedroom is lucky to get guests in it once a year (that might change now we have the grandkid draw card…) but there it is taking up valuable real estate. Drives me bonkers.

With our guests gone the room had reverted back to a dumping ground while we rushed to get the house presentable for our New Year’s Eve entertaining.

Here’s what I was dealing with:

…the storm before the calm…

(In another new year resolution I’m going to be sharing a lot more of the before in our life. I’m always too embarrassed to share how feral our house gets at times, but this year I’m going to embrace the mess and come out of the closet!)

I thought long and hard about moving the bed to the garage but came to the conclusion that I couldn’t guarantee that (no matter how well I sealed it in a protective plastic bag) it wouldn’t get damaged.  So I resigned myself to the fact that it would be staying in the room.

…ta-da…

Lucky this room is heaps bigger than I originally thought it was.  I managed to get the bed (in a different position) made and set up to be a quasi-day bed.

I also managed to get one of our trestle tables up and in a position that allows me to open the cupboard and door to the room. This will be my sewing and cutting table (although I suspect I will be sneaking out to use the dining table… I will ever so miss our 8 seater dining table.)

I was able to stack the tubs of fabric at the end of the table, this will help me see what I’ve got on hand and also keep me a little more organized.

There’s a built-in cupboard in the room that was also helping me horde gear so I thought I would tackle it as well.

..it’s where I keep all the clothes that no longer fit...

I had been stashing the clothing I no longer wear (or couldn’t fit into our wardrobe) into this cupboard. I took to the hangers with a vengeance. I managed to make room in our wardrobe (which is next on the to-do list) for the clothing I wanted to keep and so moved it out. I did bag two thirds of the wardrobe to send to good will.  I managed to find somewhere for the spare books to live and put the over flow from the nursery back in there (another item on the to-do list).

It’s amazing how much room you have to play with when you get rid of the things you don’t use.

(For those interested, that’s my paper/gift bag collection. For some reason I can’t bring myself to recycle them. I just keep collecting them and then using them for random things.)

So now I have my own little Mum Cave. Given that I have a long list of crafty things that I want to make this year I will need the Mum Cave in tip top order.  I’m so happy that I got this done.  Every time I walk past the room (which is a lot) I can’t help but look in there and smile.

I had such a productive day and I loved it.  I even managed to do it without getting out of my pajamas! (The Little Man made me get out of them at 9pm when he peed through his nappy and on to my leg!) Now I just need to tackle the rest of my to-do list!

Don’t forget, I’m currently running a Scrap Vomit Squares Swap and you can get in on the scrap vomitty goodness. Want to know more: click here!