To keep or not to keep, that is the question

I´m sure most of you, if not all, have thought at some point in your life what you are doing with that item hanging in your closet which you have never even worn. Well, I have that´s for sure and I consider myself quite cold when it comes to giving things away. However, I must admit that there is an important factor called sentimental value. I get it, and I feel it too (for a few things), but what I don´t want to get myself into is having my entire house crammed with things in wardrobes and other valuable storage space because its being taken up by things I don´t even use. I understand that some things like clothes, and souvenirs can be passed on to generations, but I do like to think there is a limit in terms of what is kept and what not. 



I am fortunate enough to be able to store some things in my parents´attic back home. In those boxes (labeled with my name on them), I have packed some things like childhood toys, clothes and books that I too would like to pass onto my children.

My background plays a major part in this attitude I suppose, as I´ve had to learn that not everything can come along with me to new destinations. Don´t get me wrong, this doesn´t mean that wherever I move to equals to an empty flat. It is quite the contrary actually, I have learned to make each new rentalsmy home by adding a few special things to it and making sure it is clutter-free. However, I think that people who have never moved home, feel a stronger connection to material items and can not let go of them, which leads me onto the topic of hoarders. For me it's as simple as this:

Hoarding is a general term for a behavior that leads people or animals to accumulate food or other items during periods of scarcity. Some hoarding in humans may be a form of mental illness, specifically obsessive-compulsive disorder, where the perceived importance of the hoarded items far exceeds their true value.

Often times hoarding affects the sort of clothes, decorative pieces, books and other objects we may keep. I have managed to keep that area under wraps. Paperwork, on the other hand, is something I have only mastered in the last year or so. I just never really knew how long I should keep the bills for or how I should take note that it has been paid for. As a result, all this varied paperwork would pile up in my workspace, taking up valuable space and blocking my creative process. As part of my new year's resolution, I decided I needed to get better at organizing the paperwork at home. My aim was simple: to reduce the amount of paper. I created a spreadsheet with my monthly payments, once the bill was paid and received the bill in paper, I would type in the amount and throw the bill away. Making a note of all your bills this way, will not only save you money but it will visually show you how much you are spending on a monthly basis. Below is a simple table which indicates how long you should keep your paper work for. In other words, a part from maximizing your space, you might even end up maximizing your earnings!

Retention Schedule for paper work:

Keeping valuable souvenirs from childhood, presents from loved ones or outfits you think your children might is of course not “hoarding behavior” because the quantities are smaller and also because the process is more selective. When we find that what we keep, or rather what we do not organize adequately, begins to take up not only our physical space but also our visual space, that is when this sort of intervention is needed. My years in the far East, and the influence of Feng Shui theories has taught me that Clutter-clearing is modern-day alchemy. It is one of the fastest ways to completely transform your life. 

Hope it helps all you space optimizers out there!

Let´s upcycle!

When I started organizing my kitchen, I realized that two cutlery dividers I had previously bought at Ikea did not fit the designated drawer. This obviously irritated me, but I decided to let it go and make use of it somewhere else in my new flat. Since I would probably not use it for cutlery, I remembered the current frenzy of upcycling.

Upcycling, according to Wikipedia is “the process of converting waste materials or useless products into new materials or products of better quality or for better environmental value”. It clearly comes from the word recycle, but since you are upgrading its use. It then becomes upcycling.

A lot of people already do this and Pinterest is the best place to see this. It really fascinates me to see what the results are especially when it´s something I had never even thought of it.

I started to walk around my flat frenetically with the two cutlery dividers thinking of a new use and home for them and it suddenly sprung to me -my jewelry needed to be organized and I knew this was going to be perfect!

Thankfully, I had a free drawer in my bedroom where hopefully they would fit -and they did! I took all my jewelry out of the boxes they came in for the move and started to categorize them. I have a love for bangles and necklaces, so this was definitely going to be my number one priority.

I started off with the bangles and made sure that my most precious ones fit, then went onto chains, pendants and other items.

Something else I´ve seen plenty of times on Pinterest is adapting the use a kitchen roll holder. In this case, if I needed it, I would probably put some of my bangles on it like you can see from the picture below.

Now came another problem. I needed to hang my necklaces or else they would tangle up. I actually remembered I had added a hanger for a door in the guest bedroom and was not using it. I thought it would be a good idea to hang it on my bedroom door and put all my necklaces on it. I decided to color coordinate my necklaces so that it at the time of choosing one to wear it would be easier. This is how it looks...

All of you looking for better ways to maximize space look around your homes and I´m sure you´ll find things that are not being used and that could be upcycled. 

5 Tips on maximizing your kitchen space

As most of you already know, I have recently moved abroad, to Malta. After a month of waiting, all of our stuff arrived. The movers arrived at 08:00am on a sunny morning, blocked the road off and started shipping up our boxes on the lifter. Meanwhile, I was in the flat ticking the box numbers off as they came in and directing them to their new locations. It is true that we were coming from a bigger flat which meant most of things would probably end up slightly more compact. However, there was one area in the new flat that was better designed here in Malta, and which made me realize that my previous flat really didn't maximise the use of it, that area was the kitchen.

When I normally organize a move, I unpack (in order to get rid of all the cardboard) and place the items where they belong to later come back and organize them properly; maximizing its use and space. I placed the kitchen utensils, pots and pans in the drawers and cupboards. I was 100% sure that all I would need to do was come back to them and place them correctly. To my surprise, I had to rearrange it all. My new kitchen comprises of the following drawers and cupboard space:

2x Cutlery drawers

4x Large drawers

4x Top cupboards

2x Lower cupboards (large)

The easy part was organizing the cutlery drawers, as one of them already had an integrated cutlery divider. For the other one, I used two dividers which I had brought with me from my old flat. Then came the hard part- trying to decide where everything should live. Below you will find a few helpful tips which I decided to go with.

5 tips to follow for a well organized kitchen:

1. Remove any unwanted items which are taking a lot of space. Throw away old pots and pans which are not being used.
   
   
2. Categorize the pots and pans and place them in the lower cabinets or drawers closer to the hobs, as they tend to be heavier and need to be close.
   

   

   
   
3. Identify where you will be preparing food and place the cutting boards, knives and kitchen utensils close by for easy reach. Baking trays and plates can easily be stored inside the oven.
   
   
4. Place everyday glassware and crockery in the upper cabinets, but make sure they can easily be reached and are maximizing the space with extra shelving in the interior.
   
   
   

   

   
   
   

   

   
   
5. Store food in a cool place such as a large drawer as it will be easier to look for specific items and extra shelving will not be needed

More on maximizing your spaces at home soon....