[HLS] WK21 - A Home Audit

The Challenge this last week was to conduct a home audit, decide what actions are needed and prioritise them. Deb says once you have your list you can start creating an action plan for your home – schedule in tasks, make any needed phone calls, figure out what steps you need to take! Hire a handyman if needed or swap time or skills with a friend if possible.

I look at this challenge and know it’s something I’m already doing.  Anything I’m not doing is a result of lack of funding.  And believe me when I say I’m constantly looking for ways around it.

I’ll probably be in strife for saying that my biggest hurdle in regards to streamlining the way we live and what we own is my husband.  Yeap, said it.

I recall when we first moved in together I went to trash and treasure and sold a heap of stuff.  He’ll always tell you it’s all his stuff I sold, but that is not entirely true.

Thing is, I can’t stand clutter.  I believe that everything must have a home and if it doesn’t have a home it doesn’t belong in mine.

I also believe that if the kids are not playing with stuff and I think they’ll probably never play with it, it needs to move on.  E.g. We had a huge collection of little people, Lulu barely played with them, Tom barely played with them and Zander was showing no signs of playing with them.  Just because Zander might at some stage was not a good enough reason to clutter my home with stuff, so I sold it on Ebay. 

I have worked my way through each room of the house and looked at what I’d like to do to improve it, not so much in a style sense, more so in a functioning sense.

A couple of examples are:

# Hang a coat rack in the laundry above the clothes baskets.  This will provide a spot for me to hang the kids dressing gowns when they’re damp after swimming.  At the moment they hang over the back of the kitchen chairs for a day or too until they’re dry.

# Install a corner wall shelf in the bedroom, to put the TV on.  At the moment (as in last 2 years) it has simply been sitting on the chest of draws, hanging over the edge, looking untidy and unfinished.

There are bigger projects I’d like to tackle, like getting the boys bunks, remodeling the office, but these are big ticket changes that need to be factored in over a longer period of time.  I understand this and am OK with that, as I don’t have the money tree in the backyard.  And the reality is tackling all of the smaller issues is a step forward in the right direction.

Hubby thinks we’ve outgrown our house, besides my lack of ensuite I think we can survive.  Surely a few little housekeeping changes is financially smarter than an upgrade?

Cheers

Mandy.