Resolutions

The holidays are like a clutterphobe's worst nightmare. You're (hopefully) spending more and more time at home instead of at work, you've just acquired a whole bunch of cluttery knickknacks from well-meaning loved ones, and if you dwell in the Southern Hemisphere like me, it's oppressively hot. (pant, pant)

These magic ingredients can lead to an awful lot of messy. I am not ashamed to share the fact that my tiny flat could be photographed as a warning to future generations. In fact, I am going to use it for just that purpose. In the coming weeks, I am going to put something of a serious effort into getting a handle on my mess.

So, in the spirit of full disclosure, here is a picture of my disgraceful laundry/bathroom, from several months ago.


Points of notice include half an exercise bike, a cupcake stand (cupcakes included), a broken air conditioning unit, and more clothing than I would ever think possible. The room doesn't look much better these days, and I'll tell you why. Bottle necks.

Recently I got very excited by the prospect of starting over, and began the arduous process of packing things into boxes ahead of our much needed move. This started out very conscientious. Layer box with scrunched newspaper, wrap item in clean white paper, place, layer with more newspaper. But eventually it descended into me piling a whole bunch of unsorted, unwrapped crap into a series of boxes labeled "to sort", "be gone" and "give back".

Turns out, the big move is much further away than originally estimated, and so now I have a series of sloppily-stacked towers made from cardboard boxes, overflowing with junk. This ridiculous storage system has spread over each room in the flat, and I assure you, there are not many rooms to go around.

Here's the big ol' tower of doom boxes.



And don't get me started on my kitchen.



So it's kinda obvious I need a bit of help. I can perform four very cramped paces in my kitchen between the fridge before I hit the stove, and even that involves a very complicated swivel-half-turn-and-poise to avoid THIS MOST RIDICULOUS SOFA.



Not to mention the fact that the bathroom/laundry space is more like an urban nightmare than a room for relaxing rejuvenation or the pleasing monotony of washing clothes. But without a car, a great deal of spare cash, or even much motivation, where's the quick and easy? You know the q and e, you see them all the time on reality television makeover shows.

It doesn't take a genius to work out that this is going to take time and research and, most importantly, a great deal of motivation. So! I am not one for these things, and it's almost the 4th of January anyway, but here is as close as I'm ever going to get to a new year's resolution:

I hereby vow to make a real attempt at dealing with my tiny flat.

It's not much, but it's a start. And speaking of which, how's this for starters?

Stenstorp kitchen island, $599 at Ikea

Antonius desktop, legs, uprights, & drying rack, roughly $108 from Ikea

And of course, the all important task that prevents all that mess from piling up quite so fast: ruthlessness. I try to keep my possessions within the Big Three: beautiful, useful, or loved. If it's not one of the three (ideally it's all three), it's got to go. But sometimes stuff just seems to breed back there, in your cupboards and stacked in bookshelves and within the piles of spare linen. This article on Lifehacker might help with that.

Wish me luck! I will keep you all posted on how my 'resolution' goes in the coming weeks. Best case scenario, I spent a few extra months in this too-tiny flat but with a bit more space than I had. Worst case scenario, it drives me mad for those few months until we finally get our act together and find a bigger place to live, which I suppose is a pretty tolerable "worst".

Happy New Year!