{Trolley Bags}

If you know me personally you will probably know that I'm a 'bit' of an Aldi shopper. In fact, I think that people who are Aldi fans love telling people about it. Imagine if a vegan doing Cross-fit also shopped at Aldi lol ;)

I joke about my Aldi obsession but I love how it has saved my family so much money and their range has improved a lot over the years. 

One of the main complication people have with Aldi, I find, is remembering to pack all the bags. 

However, I just received a gift that has made loading the trolley a WHOLE lot easier! 

Trolley Bags are a great invention that take the 'enviro-bag' concept to a new level. 

Such a simple concept right? It's so well thought out. 

Here are some photos of the bags in action: 

For me (and my love of order and organisation) the wonderful bonus is that the 4 bags have neatly corresponded with the way I have written my shopping list for years. In four columns:

Groceries / Fruit & Veg / Cold & Frozen / Cleaning & Personal 

They are only $34.95 for a set and it is a great way to organise your shopping. The link is available {here}. 

You should seriously have these bags in your car boot, Aldi shopper or not. You'll love the way it makes it easier to load. 

Lauren x 

{Keeping it Real and [mostly] Neat}

I spoke yesterday, about the pressures of parenting in today's society and the differences between now and when our parents were raised.
There are definitely pressures on us, some thrust upon us by friends or strangers but mostly the expectations put on us are by our own worst enemy - ourselves!
Life is never perfect, and lets be honest, not many of us have the time to have the whole house clean and spotless, a healthy balanced meal on the table, a workout done and any time for ourselves every day!

Lets face it, how many of us look and talk like this beautiful 50's pinup girl for domesticity? Not me!
But here are a few tips that help me keep it real and neat and tidy amidst the (sometimes) crazy everyday-ness of life. I have about a 90% success rate, so this isn't about perfection, but progress.

1. Each morning I make an effort to make our bed. Even though my husband laughs at the 11 pillows on our bed, we both feel like it creates a relaxed sanctuary feel and a soothing place to be. It doesn't need to cost a lot to dress up your bed. I updated our linen a year ago in sales at target and Kmart. Even if the en suite has stuff everywhere, it just helps me to feel that I am on top of the housework when our bedroom is tidy. Plus, it's setting an example to my kids whose beds I expect to be made also. Train them young, train them well I say.

2. I try to finish each day with a clean kitchen. This is the room that I start my next day in, so I find that if this isn't done, my next day starts "behind the eight ball".

3. During the day I use my baskets which I have spoken about before {see more here} and this helps with some of the clutter as the day goes on. 

 

4. Each night, I try to do at least one or two hings that will help set me up to win the next day. This usually means packing lunches and having it in the fridge ready for the next day. It could be however (and sometimes as well as lunches if I'm extra organised) anything that takes some pressure out of your tomorrow:
- hanging out some washing 
- ironing a shirt 
- stacking the dishwasher 
- putting dinner in the slow cooker bowl and then into the fridge ready for next evening
- putting a load of washing on to wash while you sleep.   
I have even occasionally started putting the boys cereal in their bowls covered by a napkin ready for the next morning. My 6 year old goes to the fridge where I put a milk jug (smaller and easier to pour) in the fridge, then they serve themselves. Great for their independence and my sometimes my sanity on school mornings. WIN-WIN!

5. It's okay to have a 'dump zone' for small things. It must have a limit though. A place where you keep an overflow of 'stuff' can be handy as long as you get back to it later. If people are expected over and I don't have time to clean the whole house, I usually use under my stairs or the laundry. Make sure you get to it later or it will not become the exception and the rule instead.

Q: What are your tricks? What are your go to daily tasks that make it easier to keep on top of housework? 

Lauren x

{Confessions of a Handbag Pt 2}

Sometime ago, I wrote about reclaiming my handbag. Part one {read here}was all about how I had made some zippered pouches to organise my handbag.


The first step was a cute kids fabric that contains my kids stuff that lives in my bag. Now that we are out of baby stages of life, it's mostly 'distraction items' as you can see in part 1 (link above).

Part 2:
I have one large pink bag. This is all MY stuff and I can also fit my phone & iPad in here and therefore can lift this ONE pouch out and change handbags at a moments notice and do so very easily.


The small one usually lives inside the larger bag, to make it easier.


The larger bag has a whole lot of stuff from Panadol, pens, band aids, a notepad, safety pins, usually my iPad, tic tacs etc...
The little red pouch at front centre holds all my shopping trolley tokens. I always keep a spare arm band in there for shopping trips to turn my phone into a toddler taming device :




The smaller bag is my girly bag. General essentials from my moxie tins, lip glosses, elastics, bobby pins, mirror and nail file.


Is your handbag organised? Or does it look like a shamozzled mess of randomness that could possibly produce a science experiment?
Mine was bordering on the latter before these bags...it's great knowing where everything is meant to be and being able to find stuff at a seconds notice.

Lauren x

{Jewellery Storage}

One thing I have been after for a while in my master room is a full length mirror. It can be quite tricky hopping up on bathtubs and stools to get a full length view of an outfit. Don't look at me like that - I know we have all (hopefully) done that!
Another problem I have had is keeping my ever growing accessories collection under control. Necklaces get tangled, earrings lost, rings dropped. 

Not exactly earth shatteringly important problems on a global scale. I know. First world problems. But the following product solved both of them in one slimline, stylish and relatively affordable package. 

Introducing my newest addition to my room - the secret storage mirror. I know right! I got it from the shop that never closes and always threatens to - Homeart. It set me back $99, and so far has been worth every cent!

Lauren x

{Spring Cleaning : ZONE 1 Master Wardrobes}

Well spring has finally sprung!
For those that know me, the fact that I loathe clutter and love organising MAY surprise you ;)
Last night I finally sat down at midnight after (what was meant to be) simply putting away the folding. However my crazy wardrobe inspired me to cull, cut and cleanse!

For the next few weeks, I am choosing 1-2 areas of the house each week and spring cleaning the house!

ZONE 1: Master Wardrobe
Spend some time going through the clothes in your wardrobe and get ready to make a donation to your local vinnies/ salvos.
Get rid of
-any winter clothes you didn't wear last season.
-any summer clothes you haven't warn in a year
-anything with holes
-those 'inspiration jeans' that are 3 sizes to small and you are keeping in hope (we all do it!)
-colours / styles that don't suit your body shape or your age...time to be really honest here or get a best friend to help you 'evaluate' lol
If you have a few items that are 'sentimental' and you can't part with them, can you keep them? My answer is KNOW YOUR LIMITS.
*If you want to keep your whole wardrobe from highschool to remind you of your highschool body : NO! Move on and maybe keep your jersey or A uniform etc..., but get it out of the wardrobe & put it in a 'memory box' or similar.
Make sure sentimental / inspirational pieces are few and are proportional to your wardrobe size also.

So, are you a hoarder? Do you spring clean? If you are like me and love the clean out, hate it or somewhere in between, take the challenge and choose 1 or 2 areas a week to organise yourself. You may just find extra space and time in your world!!! ;)

Lauren x

{Stuff the Baskets : Organising Your Life}

If you live in a 2 story house like I do you may have this problem. During a day of housework, I find things that belong in the respective studies / bedrooms upstairs, but doing 100 trips back and forth doesn't seem efficient. So I usually dedicate a step per person and pile things up. Then things usually trickle back upstairs but it is just plain messy!

So I've been on the hunt for a solution and found these baskets at Kmart for $10. The idea is at the end of the day when we are cleaning up, the bits place all their things downstairs in their basket and then take it with them to put away before bed.




These just look gorgeous and are a pretty solution to a messy problem. Plus, of there is something in your basket, it's easy to tell its yours, regardless of your a young child or a grown man I mean person lol!




Lauren x

{Confessions of a Handbag: Reclaimimng My Bag Pt 1}

Recently I was at a women's event at church and we played the handbag game. You know the one where someone calls out a list of items 'typicaly' found in a handbag and the woman with the most items wins a prize? 

Wake-up Call!

Had the list comprised of the following I would have won. HANDS DOWN!!!

- a soggy apple core from the car trip that night (or the day before if I am being 100% honest)

- some loose sultanas

- a pair of my sons shoes (that don't even fit him any more)

- a speciman jar with some sort of gel (to numb the throat - from my son's hospital visit the week before....I know right!)

- a few soggy receipts from said apple core above

- phone case with credit cards and license (the only amount of 'normalcy' I found in there)

Ever since that night I have been on a mission to "RECLAIM MY HANDBAG". My youngest boy is now almost 3 and I don't need any of the typical 'baby' items any more and so - it is time!

{The Old Shirt Gets A New Life}

They say that necessity is the mother of invention right?!
Whoever 'they' are ;)

Problem:
Let me preface the problem by saying this. Before I got married I jokingly (ok seriously) said that "if you think your marrying someone who'll iron all your shirts and any other piece of linen lying around, you are sadly mistaken....I hate ironing and probably won't iron. Ever." Thank goodness He was trained well by my mother in law and actually can iron. He just hates it also. I digress.

Back to the problem:
He gets his shirts dry cleaned weekly and I am convinced this adds life to the shirts and our marriage also! But the pile of shirts on the floor was driving me bonkers! I needed a storage solution.

The answer:

{Carthardic Organising & Introducing the Snack Bar}

Today I had one of those days where I felt like I would have earned a bonus because I met and exceeded my 'KPI's" (in my dreams).

Thanks to the movie 'CARS 2', I managed to tick off three things that have been on my to-do list since Christmas. I managed to re-organise and clean the fridges (the only time having two fridges is a nightmare - double the work), the freezers, and clean out my plastics cupboard.

"Before" - It's not hard with two boys who like to get and put away things for it to get to this state (I can't stand this!)


How many plastic cups does one family of four need? Major culling happened!!

"After" (*sighs* ...... ahhhh much better!)

Then I decided to cut up carrot sticks for morning tea. Before I knew it I had washed and cut up enough fresh produce to create a "snack bar". Not only does it satisfy the organiser in me, it also doubles as some great incidental word association and learning for my boys (WIN/WIN!).

After the cleaning but before the snack bar. In the right hand fridge door, I decided to put some of the copious bottles to use and create a water bar too. Constant water ready to go and that's all my boys drank all day!

Snack Bar includes: Fruit Salad, Watermelon slices, Mini pears, grapes, celery sticks, carrot sticks, red yellow and green capsicum, snow peas, cheese cubes and little pots of hommus.

The right hand fridge after the snack bar was installed....couldn't get rid of the glare, sorry!

Not only did I find that it helped our boys to eat healthy today, it has helped us too.


Enjoy;
Lauren x

{Spring Clean Time}

Well, It has been a while since my last post. I have been knocked about with a sickness for the last two weeks and have had to had to have some tests done and a few visits to hospital. I am okay, but am SO grateful for my freezer meals I had created earlier (they have saved me on more than one occasion).

Amidst the sickness, I have been starting some serious spring cleaning. As we moved into our new house last December (and did the usual skip bin before the move) the spring clean is obviously going to be different to that of a house a few years old.

Have done
* The boys clothes (clear out sizes that are too small)
* Organise Medicine cabinet (chuck expired ones out and re-organise into 4 tubs a.kids medicines b. adult medicines c. bandages, dressings and medicine cups and d. sun care and repellant)
* Clean the windows of the house
* Clean out dvd's and video game discs into a disc organiser bag (all in one place and easy to take into the car for our car dvd player)
* Organise the clutter in the laundry and clean appliances.


I cleaned my washine machine by putting 2 cups of white vinegar into the machine. Put it on a hot wash with a soak setting. I did this overnight so it was cheaper. Voila!


There are other things on my list and I want to do them in the next week or two. I just choose one or two a day and get stuck into it.

To Do
* Clean out plastics cupboard and re-organise
* Go through mine and hubby's wardrobe.
* Go through toys and clear out/ donate any old/ unused toys


I would love to hear if you are a spring cleaner or not and how you do it and any tips you want to share.

Lauren x