Used as part cabinet, part pantry this big old linen closet stands in my kitchen for several years already. It used to have a big mirror in one door, but that broke unfortunately some while ago.

This is what it looks like with the doors closed:

When you open it, you see some shelves and they are loaded with “stuff” Here is the top:

and the bottom:

dan_e and me went to Ikea again yesterday (yes again) to buy some boxes, plastic plants for the bathroom – we found some awesome lavender plants – and a very clever invention: the shelve on a shelve. W got 3 and I used them in the kitchen closet. Here is what it looks like now.

The top:

See those white plateaus on the shelves? That’s what I meant with “shelve on a shelve”
The middle:

The bottom:

So this was another side track from the FlyLady baby steps. But its ok. I have some good new routines and stick to them. I still read the website and follow the steps, even though I’m not blogging them right now. I will soon.

Yes I am still FLYing, but I got a little side tracked so I stopped sort of with took a brake from the babysteps. Until now that is, I intend to pick them up tomorrow. I  will show you what got me sidetracked though.

I rent my 1 bedroom apartment (approximately 50 square meters)  since March 1997. When I moved in, I painted the walls, the windowsills the ceilings and got me some nice vinyl floor covering. Now, almost 15 years later, I have a wooden floor and my home has seen many colours on the walls. I changed the grouping of my furniture almost every 3 months and got new things and ditched old stuff. In all the rooms but the bath room.

This is how it looked like untill last week:

to the left (yes that’s me in the mirror, standing in the doorway)

 The wash basin

I forgot to make a picture form the “laundry corner” but I found this one with my previous cat Ayla on it. It’s dated December 2007. Need I say more?

Anyway, after a lot of hard work I managed to make it much, much better. Take a look:

I’m planning to get me some plastic plants for the wooden planters on top of the lavender shelves. I am very pleased with the result. There is still one small matter of the washbasin though. There is a hole in it and next week I get a replacement. Meanwhile Charlie checkes out the hole from above:

and from below:

Whilst “Diva Emma” sits on her “throne”

So that’s it. I hope to be blogging about my FLYlady baby steps soon. I did not stop the habits/routines I already acquired during the first 12 days. I keep shining my sink and I keep FLYing.

Yes, every once in a while I get this itch to (re-)organise everything in my home. And now its that time of the year again. Last weekend Dan_e and me hauled my filing cabinet from my down stairs storage room to my living room and we figured out a way to make my hanging folders fit the drawers.

So I started looking on YouTube to find out how others file their papers, re-read my book Getting things done by David Allen and found tons of valuable information.

One of the best tips I found is: Start small. So I did. I transferred my little desk drawer from this:

into this:

And I can’t help myself to open the drawer every hour just to peek in it and smile.

My computer files are also a mess. So I decided to slowly organise those too and I started with my e-books. I use Calibre to sort and organise them, but I also keep a copy from every title I have on my disk drive. I downloaded and implemented ActiveInbox in my Gmail, which resulted in a decrease of 600 unread mails in a few hours. Still got about 750 unread mails to process though. On my desktop I have a calendar, events and a To-Do list thanks to Rainlendar. Last but not least,  I dusted off my Evernote and Remember the milk accounts and plan on using them more often too.

I tried to buy some manilla folders today, to get my filing system started, but had no luck. So I ordered them online and as soon as they arrive, I can start filing.

And no, there is not a sarcastic tone in my voice: I seriously like this. As a little kid I liked “playing office” and mind you: I was never the PA or secretary, I was the big boss. But I was also always busy making little cabinets from matchboxes to store my treasures and office supplies in. Later when I started reading Agatha Christie, the books with Poirot in them were my favourite. Not because of Poirot, but because of Miss Lemon, whom I adored. I wanted to be her. So maybe the “every once in a while” I started this blog with, is a bit of an understatement.

Finally I finished the pincushion, or more likely a mattress

Again all hand sewn by me..

And then I saw this ornament tree on Carin’s blog yesterday I knew I wanted one too

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