I share my thoughts along with Sen McCarthy of DIYnewb.ie, Darren Heaney of Old Victorian New, Eimear Hutchinson of The Two Darlings and Saoirse Findlay of @shinnyscaf on simple and impactful DIY updates everyone can make to their homes.
It’s a fantastic little feature including a wide variety of projects and ideas for every room in a house. Thank you again TheJournal.ie for including me with such a talented group of people!
Pretty much the moment I shared the stairs I made for our Lower Town Dollhouse last week, I received 20 messages in shrill voices wanting to know M O A R about the tiny little cat portrait seen at the bottom of the stairs.
I took a few photos while I was making it, so I figured it might be something 4 people might be interested in seeing so here it is!
It was really straight forward; I painted a tiny kitty portrait on some thin, white cardboard, then painted around the portrait using gold paint and cut out the tiny oval. I had some tiny random coloured jewels [that I bought from Dollarama to use on my nails sometimes] that I painted in the same gold and glued them into place.
Then I over-thought how I’d mount the tiny portrait to the wall; do I use a tiny nail? Do I braid some string and secure it to the back of the portrait? Or do I create a tiny picture rail to hang it from? But then I committed to the idea of gluing it in place. If Cora grows out tiny kitty portraits then I’ll just shiv it off the wall. One less thing to over-think!
Without fail, every spring I feel like getting rid of ALL OF THE THINGS. I am once again sharing a list of the tried and tested tidying and decluttering tricks I’ve used for over five years and still use to this day, every day. These are what work for me and keep me decluttered in my brain and in real life, so you’ll find some things may or may not suit you so obviously, adapt things to suit you in whatever way you like.
THE BASICS – my original spring decluttering blog post from 2014 is the best place to start. I wrote about my top five tips for staying motivated while decluttering as it can be overwhelming.
THE BASICS 2.0 – the following year in 2015 I wrote five more tips on decluttering to give you an extra boost if you’re feeling overwhelmed as well as touching on the mental health benefits of decluttering; something that’s really important for me.
THE EARLY BIRD – since writing about it in 2014, I’ve done my 10 minute morning tidy routine every day … until I had Cora. This now works for me in the evening after Cora goes to sleep so when I wake up in the morning we’re ready and I don’t start the day overwhelmed by mess. Either way, 10 minutes of tidying will keep you on top of things and in the long run will save you time and energy.
DAY-TO-DAY – my two tips for staying organised on a day-to-day basis and it’s something I strongly think everyone should practice; using a diary [whether digital or paper] and religiously organising your inbox.
DECLUTTER YOUR ONLINE LIFE – a few new tips I can contribute this year is to declutter your online life. Unsubscribe from emails that haunt your inbox, unfollow those accounts that make you feel bad and it’s actually okay to mute some people you know. The less you feel you need to catch up on, the less overwhelming you’ll hopefully feel.
