Clutter-ectomy!

I hope everyone's holidays were wonderful, and that you will have memories to last till next year.  Unless you just ate too much food and were glad to see the relatives go home.

I had to work my day job through the holidays but things were low key around here, so no one missed me.  My days off came two days after xmas and it has been a vacation!  Well, not the sun tan and iced tea kind, but any time off is a holiday for me.

I have given my house a "clutter-ectomy"!  I have been cleaning out drawers, cupboards, closets, and shelves.  I have several boxes of stuff for donation, and organized the rest of it in to plastic bins, drawers and cubby holes.  I rearranged one small room just for the craft supplies and tools I use indoors.

In the dining room I cleared out the space under the counter where the recycle bins, deck chair cushions and other clutter used to be.  I added the portable cabinets you see in the photo and can store things inside - out of sight!

 

On the counter I placed two matching shelf units for books.  The huge wall mirror takes up a ridiculous amount of space, but it will stay for now - makes the room look bigger anyway.  I can still use the counter top where you see my bread machine, and eventually I will place the toaster oven, blender and juicer there.

While it's not a remodel project, it was a major reorganization and I will not show you before pictures of the clutter and dark rug that were there, but it was a feat.
The best part of this project was that it cost me nothing - nada.  I already had the cabinets and shelving.  I just needed a little elbow grease and a lot of inspiration!

What after holiday projects are you working on?

More Space!

Anybody ever read that book, "My Petition for More Space"?  This is how I was feeling as I methodically planned for a larger garden area. 

So I expanded the fenced yard in an effort to increase the food production for next year.
I give you ~ the new entrance!

 Basically this is the same funky structure I was using before, but now adorned with the bamboo.  Behind this area is the new garden space, previously the parking space.  I opted to walk farther to the house in order to grow more food!

In the beginning it looked like this.

Your basic driveway.
The next step was to set the boundary and put in some posts.

After removing the old fencing and moving it in to the new space I was quite pleased with the added space!

Here's a view from the house (below).

Of course there is much work to be done between now and next years growing season.  I will install raised beds and possibly a small greenhouse.  That border bed of flowers will be moved to open up the space.

So, once again, here is the main entrance.