Life on a little urban homestead in the making, with ideas for self-sufficiency, Permaculture, DIYing, organic gardening, food preservation, Chicken keeping, cookery, crafts, thrifting and more...

May 16, 2015

Clutter Control and Backsplash Re-Dos, Shedding The Shed, Lots of Rain! Thrifting Score!!!


From De-Clutter Your Life Lots there!


Clutter Control and Back Splash Re-Dos-
I've been seeing a lot of de-cluttering blog posts lately. Maybe it's a spring thing? I de-clutter various areas each year. I'll be working on my kitchen counter, dining table and small bathroom counter in the next week. My one daughter told me last week that I didn't need to re-do my kitchen back splash since she couldn't see it anyway, I laughed. Exactly, too much stuff! Ditto the kitchen table, with Costco jumbo vitamin bottles, prescription bottles, etc. I ordered one of these since I couldn't find any locally- 6 Section Pill Organizer I have 1 that works great for my p.m. stuff. I'll put everything away for the a.m. stuff and all the bottles will be off the table.

I'll also consolidate the teas and coffees into some kind of a tea/coffee drawer like this-


Nice idea from Tea Coffee Station

Love this, from Hazeleyessue.blogspot
 love the print Keep Calm and Drink Tea...

Dave and I also visited about replacing the current kitchen laminate counter with a solid counter top. After more thinking about it I decided to just do a new back splash, new white sink and keep the counter for now. I don't hate my counter but I do HATE the ugly metal edging, that traps food and icky stuff-



Visualize less stuff and nice white back splash!

I will be re-painting the kitchen, with 10 years of grunge, chips, dings, etc. We got our current Kohler cast iron sink used at Habitat 10 years ago and it's pretty scratched. We'll save a lot of $$$ this way, it will look much nicer and functional. So it's time! Here's my current back splash idea, after 100's of hours of research online-


Flat white from Homedepot.com

It's a PVC ceiling tin look type of material. Not too bad price-wise, durable, easy to install and bright! I think it will go well with the tan counters and yellow paint.

My little bathroom laminate counter is in good shape but I hate the metal edging there too, so I'm doing a small glass back splash this summer, something like this-

From Houzz.com

Bye Bye

Shedding the Shed-
We have things in our home, 2-car garage and shed. After storing our kids things during college, most of it is finally gone. That leaves us with the space in the garage to move our shed/house things in to. While I was down with the flu last weekend Dave was emptying out our shed and we'll tear it down next Memorial Day weekend, 3 days off for both of us. We talked a lot about what we really need- camping gear etc,. versus what we don't?  Then we talked about where to put what? The current shed is over 10 years old and rotting in parts. Time to go, since it's too big anyway now.We won't need to build a micro shed like we thought, since we relocated a lot to the garage. In a smaller urban setting lie our we don't need a big shed like some folks might. Later, if we need to, we can build a smaller one.

Dave's $2.50 thrift store tool rack, now in the garage!

We may use the left over demo materials for some yard art.  It will also allow for more garden space and add to the chicken run area maybe! We may do a straw bale garden there, since the soil is in poor shape. Good place to experiment!



Lots of Rain!
We've had a lot of much-needed rain, almost 1/2" just yesterday, in the last week. Everything is so lush and GREEN! More today and next week!!!

girls out on worm patrol



Green green and green :)

neighbor kitty Posey came for a visit

Posey enjoying the sun on top of the compost bin



Thrifting Score!!!
I hit it right at Goodwill this week. I found-

3 brand new Target prints, 12" wide, for $2.99 each, nice for some new wall art, all coordinated. 
2 bamboo boxes marked the Container Store for my new tea drawer, $2.99 instead on the $7.00 on the bottom. For my new tea drawer! 
1 wire basket .69, also for my new tea drawer! 
A wood thick angular frame for $2.99

All for less than $20.00
A good trip indeed...

Thanks for the well wishes for my flu bug, I'm feeling much better!!!

5 comments:

Leigh said...

Love the photos of Posey, LOL

I blame the 2nd law of thermodynamics for all my clutter - all things go from order to disorder, so it isn't my fault! ;) It does seem like decluttering is a spring thing. Maybe it hearkens back to the old spring cleaning concept, or maybe because being cooped up all winter with all our clutter contributes to cabin fever and we've got to do something!

Excellent thrift finds, BTW. You do have an eye for the best.

Pioneer Woman at Heart said...

I didn't know you were sick. I must have missed that post. Glad you are feeling better. It's raining here a lot too, so I'm cleaning up the indoors as well.

Unknown said...

Thanks yes it's cleaning time....

Mama Pea said...

Question: The rocks bordering your lovely flower garden right next to the chicken run . . . do you have to use a weed whacker (weed whip) to get the grass/weeds that grow up and between the rocks? I love the way the rocks look as a border, but you can't mow right up to them when mowing the lawn, right?

Unknown said...

Yes we have to weed whack it! Dave also did a bit of hand weeding last week. Weed whacking works well, about every other week, depending on the weather. We do actually mow up to them, no problem...

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...