Clean and Bright Linen Donations Older linen items such as napkins, doilies and table clothes are some of the regularly donated items when downsizing a home. If they have been sitting in a cupboard and become discoloured, here are a few tried and true tips on how to get them whiter and pretty once again. With a little bit of effort and some good [...]
Taking a Shine to Crystal Glass Relegated to the back of the cupboard or discarded, crystal vases, bowls and glasses have until more recent times been considered ‘old fashioned’. Crystal glass is now being rediscovered. With it's light refracting qualities, interesting designs and a large variety of shapes and sizes, it's both functional and decorative. Crystal pieces can make memorable gifts and versatile display [...]
Too Much Stuff vs Hoarding I often have people, particularly women tell me that their husbands are hoarders, because they have a huge number of things collected in their ‘man shed’, under or in the house itself. They are not usually hoarders at all, they just have too much stuff! Is it too much stuff and is it a problem? First, I’d like to [...]
Downsizing for Retirement Living: How to work out which items of furniture will fit in your new home. When downsizing for retirement living into a smaller home, it’s important to determine which ‘essential’ items of furniture and whiteware you need to move, their measurements and how you plan to position them. Like any other property move, its helpful to have an idea of the [...]
Discussing & Making a Plan for Aging I recently presented to a group meeting on decluttering/downsizing methods and mine in particular, which is tailored to an individual’s goals, along with our consumerism culture and having 'those' important discussions with family about possessions etc. I introduced the 40/70 rule of thumb, which is a great one to consider. The principle is, that when you are [...]
Choka Blocka Washa! Lego en masse Faced with a jumbled-up mountain of dusty and miss-matched Lego, Duplo, matchbox cars and other miniature kids toy donations from a recent house declutter/downsize, I needed a plan. Everything needed a thorough clean and sort into sets, before I could find them new homes. It’s a good thing that sorting, patience and cracking puzzles are some of the [...]
READY TO SELL – QUICK TIPS OF THE WEEK Preparing your older, empty property for sale and want to present it to its best advantage? We thoroughly cleaned a small, older property this week and as part of the job, we used a few easy tricks to make sure that this empty property looks as inviting and appealing as possible before it has it's [...]
BEING PATIENT For older folk like my 86year old mum (pictured), the idea of going shopping or to a café is I imagine abit like how the first astronauts might have felt when they left their rocket to step out onto the moon in 1969 – a heightened sense of anticipation and excitement, but it’s another planet! The saying goes; “Patience is a virtue”. [...]
HOW TO RE-ORGANISE YOUR LINEN CUPBOARD It’s a great time to get stuck into your linen cupboard to pull out anything that is past its best, to re-organise for better use of space and make it easier to find your go-to items. As charity shops can’t take donated items right now, stow these in your garage or use anything old as cleaning rags or [...]
AN EXCELLENT STUFF ARTICLE ABOUT CLOSET CLEANING OUT - March 30, 2020 Life & Style section Isolation to do list: 7 steps to an organised closet 1. Pull everything out 2. Sort into keep, sell and donate piles 3. Mend, de-stain, de-pile and iron 4. Organise by type/colour 5. Undies & socks 6. Squeaky clean shoes 7. Make it smell fresh For fun, try [...]