The Interior DIYer
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Desk update

I’d like to say I’ve spent the past week doing something really fabulous or important, but instead I’ve been scanning roughly 13 years worth of paperwork. I borrowed my brother’s scanner and as boring as it sounds, I scanned and recycled 90% of our bank statements, payslips, Revenue letters and Irish Water bills [I scanned them just for the craic] and it’s been such a mental and actual clear-out in our apartment. I went crazy the first morning at my desk and scanned about 200 documents while Robert and Cora were out for a walk. It was my kind of other-people-would-find-it-boring heaven. 

Since I’ve spent so much time at my desk lately, I took some pictures of it as I don’t think I’ve photographed it since we got our nearly new mahogany desk. I’ve gotten some new desk stuff over the past while but never got around to sharing any of it, so I figured today was a good time. 

For Christmas 3 [or more!] years ago, Robert got a Big Lebowski Kit solely for the rug mouse pad that came with it which is so perfect for our desk. It really tied the room together, did it not. Then roughly 2 years ago I picked up a nihilist’s screen cloth [because Lebowski theme] along with a load of other stuff one day in Dust [I wish I visited their shop so much more when it was open. Welp]. They no longer stock these screen cloths and I tried looking for one online but it turns out if you google anything nihilist, you’re going to find some weird stuff. I use the cloth a lot, especially since getting a touch-screen laptop for my birthday last year. My old laptop didn’t work unless it was constantly plugged in, it sounded like it was about to take off and it was always searingly hot. Robert convinced me to get a new one, “you’ll probably be relaxing a lot in your last month [of pregnancy] and when the baby arrives.” LOL on both accounts because that didn’t happen. But I do use my new laptop a lot and its matte black and rose gold-esqueness is completely okay with me. 

I love Paperchase diaries but not necessarily their covers, so my diary got contact-papered again this year. I haven’t bought much of anything recently, but one small thing I did impulse buy the other week was this pen from Sostrene Grene for -wait for it- €0.83. It’s a surprisingly good pen for that price and has a really cute crown and pearl detail. I keep it along with my diary in my handbag all the time and as boring and possibly snooty as it sounds, I love taking them out and writing down appointments, events and silly milestones. 

Mental health

Spring cleaning and decluttering roundup

This time of year inevitably comes with an urge to scrub and get rid of all of the things. Or at least it does for me. I’ve written about decluttering and downsizing a good few times, so this is a roundup of my favourite blogposts that [for me] have worked until this day to keep me organised and less hoardery. I figured I’d share it ahead of this month’s bank holiday weekend in case you need something to do to burn off a few chocolate calories or just want a valid excuse to hide in a storage cupboard for a few hours …

THE BASICS – my original spring decluttering blog post from 2014 is the best place to start. I write about my top 5 tips for staying motivated while decluttering and following through with your plans.

THE BASICS 2.0 – the following year in 2015 I wrote 5 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.


THE EARLY BIRD – since writing about it in 2014, I’ve done my 10 minute morning tidy routine every day since. You may prefer to do it at night before you go to sleep [that’s what she said], but either way, 10 minutes of tidying a day will keep you on top of things and in the long run with save you time and energy. Admittedly, now that Cora is here and keeping me on my toes, our apartment isn’t as tidy as I’d like. But I’m learning to try to be less hard on myself but I still do manage to keep most of our apartment tidy, otherwise it will get out of control.

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 an agenda and organising your email inbox. To this day I religiously use both every day and find them a huge help.

EXTRA READING – a few years ago I interviewed Sarah Reynolds of Organised Chaos for Image Interiors & Living and we got way too excited about organising and how being tidy and organised can help improve your mental health. You can check out the full article here – Cut the Clutter: six steps to a calmer, cleaner, happier home.

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Storage cupboard spruce up

If a good storage or organisational before and after blog post doesn’t float your boat, I totally understand you scrolling past this one because this is going to do nothing for you. It is however something I’ve gotten ridiculous levels of enjoyment from, so I really wanted to share it. As of yesterday I finished giving our hallway storage an upgrade and so felt inclined to share. It didn’t cost me anything extra to update our cupboards [as I used leftover paint and supplies I already had] – it just took some time and considered planning. And ridiculous levels of nesting hormones. 

We have a number of storage cupboards in the hallway of our rental. Over the past two months I’ve slowly updated our coat and immersion cupboards [we have a third cupboard, but I’m saving updating that for a rainy maternity day]. Yes, they’re storage cupboards and no one really cares what they look like on the inside, but I do. I do. And I know. I know the horror of what lies behind those doors every time I walked past them. Those cupboards caused my nesting hormones to be personified [or animalised?] as a wild bear trying to get out of a shirt and tie. It was time. I wanted pretty storage cupboards so I got down and made them happen.

COAT CUPBOARD
Early last year when I repainted the doors and skirting boards in our hallway, the only place I didn’t paint was the inside of cupboard doors [because they aren’t immediately seen]. De-yellowing and repainting the inside of the door and trim was at the top of my list. I then repainted the inside of the cupboard with leftover basic white paint, I tidied and donated some coats as well tackled the storage on the back of the door. At the time, everything was hanging from those three hooks on the back of the door – our bags, my bike bag, shopping bags, a bag of canvas bags and a plastic bag chute thingy. I decided to cut down and use the few hooks we had for things we use every day [umbrellas and bags]. We also added a medium sized freezer to the cupboard which will be perfect for lots of emergency / pre-made meals for over the next few months. And years. Until baby is 18, basically. 

p.s. See that Hudson’s Bay Company coat? I found it in our local charity shop for €5 last year [for those not familiar with HBC, their point (aka, stripe) blankets and coats are serious triple figures]. I’ve never worn it but I’m never, ever getting rid of it. Ever. Even if there’s a fire.

IMMERSION CUPBOARD 
The original puke-green [actual technical Pantone shade] of the immersion foam alongside the yellowed door and trim really appealed to my eyeballs. I Googled it and Google said it was fine to paint this type of hardened insulation foam, so I grabbed a tub of leftover grey paint and added two coats. I also repainted the door and surrounding trim white, the door hook grey, inside the cupboard basic white and finally got around to hanging everything up properly. Our plastic and canvas bag storage was demoted to the immersion door along with a bag of Dyson attachments. 

I know this is barely pretty enough to be blogging about, but there’s something my sick mind finds therapeutic about making a neglected storage area pretty, functional and as much a part of our home as the rest of it.