Operation De-Clutter!

Since my life is taken a much needed change in direction and having started to read the amazing blog Reading My Tea Leaves I've been looking around our small apartment and noticing we have a lot of crap.  Crap we don't even need or use for that matter.  While our apartment is twice the size of Erin's from Tea Leaves, I feel we have no excuse for the clutter.  I can't take the crap any longer.

So far so good.

In the past I have attempted to deal with the clutter and it only seems that having guests over is the only way to get me off my behind and get rid of the crap.  Or at least hide it till the guests leave.  This is not how I want my apartment to look or feel.

The other day my friend Nicole told me this quote by William Morris "Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful."  This is my new apartment motto.  We have too much stuff and a lot of it, isn't useful and the few things that are truly beautiful are being hidden by all the crap.  Armed with Mr. Morris's quote I am taking a stand against the clutter.

I have already tackled the bathroom cupboard and my kitchen.  Both of these attacks on the clutter and crap have been successful.  My goal is one pocket o clutter a day and so far that has been easy to manage, but I'll be honest I've been doing the easy stuff first.  There is one such pocket of clutter I am dreading.  The rocking chair corner is all my clutter.  I don't even think Simon has anything over there.  I am dreading this and may leave it for last.

The dreaded rocking chair corner, the catch all for sewing projects and fabric .

I already feel better about the few bits I've completed and it is motivating me to do more.  In my mind I have a picture of what our apartment should look like and it is well on its way to being that.

New Shelves

Simon and I live in a tiny apartment with no storage.  We have been slowly, but surly fixing this with shelves and the use of vertical space.  These puppies are the newest addition to the homestead.  A bit bare right now, but soon all of my plants will be on the lower shelf and the drop ceiling and weight are the limit on the top shelf.

We purchased some simple boxes from Ikea for me to start storing my sewing stuff in.  These two hold my patterns, all of my sewing notions and my growing collection of thread.  I might need some more of these if I start to get serious about sewing.

The small section where the shelves overlap is where I have stuck my buddha and my small plants.

I accidentally started growing garlic and he is just so damn cute I kept him.  He's starting to grow roots.

Because of our space issue a lot of things in our apartment have to do double duty.  I sew at the kitchen table, our entertainment center also holds my stash of yarn and fabric, and things like that.  Because I don't have the luxury of having a craft room, I'm trying to figure out how to store my project and sewing machine in a better way.

Any suggestions as to how to maximize space, keep my sewing/knitting stuff in order, while keeping my Husband sane?  

In A Funk

It's not a sewing funk or even a knitting funk it's just a funk.  Yesterday I could blame the weather, but today it's sunny, cold, but sunny out and I can not justify sitting around and watching Netflix till it's time to go to work.  Our apartment looks like a bomb went off there is just stuff everywhere and I think this is what I am going to attack today till work.
Operation: Clean out all the crap we accumulated that we don't need (or at least get started and make a dent).
I am going to need a lot of coffee for this one.