Happy Birthday to me!

so my 24th birthday was yesterday and i always find myself reflecting on life and where I'm at in life on my birthday. I don't know many other 24 year olds out there married with 2 kids but that's where I'm at and i love it. I'm very much a results based person, so when i look at what i have 'achieved' thus far i would quietly like to say I'm proud of myself.

I will have to say I focus a lot more on home & family. I've always been a family type of person, but after being away from my husband and my home for 5 weeks (i was overseas with my parents visiting family, had a wedding to attend, etc.) I came back with a much more defined focus on what I want for my family & my home.

I may have mentioned in a previous post that my house isn't the prettiest house on the block, it may actually be in the bottom 3 on the street in my opinion. So I've directed a lot of my attention & energy into making it a home i love. We don't plan on moving any time soon, this location is just too convenient for my husbands uni and the children's preschool & soon to be primary school, so i thought it makes sense to turn this house into a home that we all love to be in.

I also have to admit that the only income we are receiving as of now is social security which is enough to pay bills, rent, buy food, pay for preschool & petrol for the car and not much else. This isn't me complaining, I'm just stating facts.

So the challenge is to create a 'home' for basically nothing, and i know I'm not the only out there attempting this, and i know many people have achieved this. Two major things, which basically cost nothing to do but in my opinion is a great place to start 'creating a home' are DE CLUTTER and DEEP CLEAN.

i thought i could do the two simultaneously but it got too complicated so i thought it would make sense to de-clutter first and get rid of crap you don't need or like so there are less things to deal with when deep cleaning. I was so surprised at how much crap i was surrounded by and getting rid of it all was such a relief and made me fall in love with things that i had forgotten i had.

I went through me & my husbands wardrobes and got rid of a lot of clothes we didn't need or wear anymore, most went to the salvation army, some went to eBay. I went through my shoe collection and donated a few pairs to SA. We had some sub-woofers sitting in our room which my husband always wanted to keep but we sold those on eBay so easily & got quite a bit for them. We had such OUT DATED electronics such as computers and gaming systems which we donated to a computer recycling company & the gaming system, we could trade in for cash. we even had an old VCR sitting around which didn't even work! We got rid of our hideous and humongous (i know its not a word...) computer table which i have had since high school. I found heaters and fans that didn't even work anymore just sitting around. All i can say is we had a lot of crap lying around and it feels good to have it gone.

De-cluttering never ends in my opinion. Its a constant battle with keeping junk out and re-evaluating what you have and comparing that to what you need.

onto DEEP CLEANING. I would have to say deep cleaning is tiring and kinda gross but the feeling of knowing your space is truly clean is worth the time and elbow grease. My house has a lot of trouble spots when it comes to cleaning. After living in this house for just over a year, my kitchen hasnt been deep cleaned EVER i think. I spent a good day really cleaning it, getting rid of all that built up grease, all those crumbs & spilt 100s & 1000s everywhere, going through the cupboards and getting rid of anything that i didnt use or was broken, going up into the corners to get rid of all the spider webs, going ontop of the cupboards & almost vomiting at the build up of dirt & grease. To think at how dirty my kitchen was and to think that this is where i cook the food to feed my family, i feel much better knowing how clean my kitchen is now.

Another trouble spot is the bathroom. Theres not much ventilation in there so im having issues with mould and the flooring happens to be that weird outdoor carpet type material... yes i know, WHAT?!? carpet in a bathroom doesnt make any sense to me but we've learnt to deal with it. Vacuuming in the bathroom doesnt feel as bad as it use to.

ok so PHEW... i think this post needs to come to a rest and i will continue on with my mission of 'home creation' in my next post.