Buried Alive. Hoard much?

{Above: This is our walk-in-robe....photo taken before we moved in 3 months ago....it's now somehow FULL!! Is storage a good thing? Or a curse?}

There was quite a few reasons why we sold up our last family home & moved on. But one of them was that we had severely outgrown the 3bedroom, 1 bathroom house and the storage {or lack of} was starting to take it's toll on me. I know that sounds superficial & ignorant considering we live in a world where the homeless rates are at an all time high, but for me....living in my world....it was getting hard to house our growing family, 2 cats and 2 businesses in a house that had only 1 tiny linen cupboard & no shed. Almost everything we had was on display, or crammed into a draw/wardrobe. I had to be clever with toy storage, but even then, I started to feel like we were getting buried alive in our own belongings! The walls felt like they were closing in on me. 

And to be honest, by nature, I think I'm quite drawn to the notion of hoarding! As a kid, I made shoe-boxes called MEMORY BOXES and I would cram them with 'special things' like feathers & shells & photos & toys & lists & bubble gum wrappers. And as soon as that box was full...I'd create another. I hated parting with toys or clothes that no longer fit, and I was convivnced that I should hold on to EVERYTHING....as one day it'll be useful again!!!!

Chris isn't a hoarder. Luckily....coz as I said...our previous home lacked in excess storage. If I wasn't with him & lived in that house alone, you would probably see me on a recent episode of Buried Alive!

For the past few years, every 6 months, Chris would get a huge skip bin delivered to our front yard & encourage me to fill it. And....do you know what? We did....everytime!! And then it was trigger a decluttering spree in me.....and I'd start filling bags of kitchenware, clothing, books, toys & stationery to donate to charity, and then fill bags of baby clothes to hand down to family & friends. I'd get inspired to clean out drawers & cupboards & handbags. Over time, the hoarder in me was drilled out and I became quite ruthless with what stays & what goes. {Although.....We still have 2 boxes under the stairs full of my childhood toys, diaries, school books etc....Sssshh!} I only keep Ella & Ryder's very special outfits, and the rest gets passed on...every season! Toys.....every couple of months, I aim to fill a garbage bag with Ella & we donate them to the local Kindy or Charity Shop. I sell off bigger items like baby bassinets, baby baths & old dinner sets at the local markets or on Ebay. And in a way, it feels quite liberating & VERY refreshing to cull,  declutter & rearrange!

BUT!!!! We're now in a house that is rich in storage. And when I say rich....I mean it's the Bill Gates equivalent of storage success. And as much as I love it....it also scares me! What if I fill all of this storage?? Then we're in trouble...haa!! When we were moving in and I was finding a place for everything, I promised myself that I would NOT fill every storage hole, just for the sake of filling it. I would still cull & keep things simple and minimal! However, 3 months on....and I'm already noticing full drawers, overflowing cupboards & piles of 'stuff' hidden away. In Ella's robe, I have 2 full drawers of clothes that no longer fit her....so why have I still got them?? Because I can! Because those 2 drawers will sit there empty anyway!!! Ahhhhh see...too much storage, has it's cons!

Just writing this is making me want to get in there now and start cleaning out!!!! In fact, I WILL clean out both kid's robes tomorrow...hold me to it!

Do you have any tips on sensible storage? And how to live clutter-free?

Are you a hoarder? Or a minimalist?

Moving House. A New Home.

It's late...and I'm tired.....but I wanted to get this post done! And something about our new place is inspiring me. Inspiring me to get more done, chase those dreams and push that little bit further. So, I ditched my glass of red wine for a hot mocha, lit a caramel scented candle & have cozied up in my new workspace within the lounge room of our new house.....which I'm very close to calling our new HOME!

A house but not quite yet a home.....because to me, a home is not just bricks & mortar {or even shiny new appliances & kickass walk in robes} but it's a place that confines a family. A place made of memories & love. A place where tears have been shed, arguments have been had & accidents have occurred......but more importantly a place where the walls are filled with photos & prints, where toys are on show, where laughs & play can be heard, where a messy kitchen can be seen & an aura of joy empowers the room like perfume. We've been here a week {a week today} and I'm very close to saying "Hell yeah....this is our home!"

The last few weeks have been a whirlwind. We made the grueling decision to sell our place & move on....we needed to clear up finances, make a fresh start & we desperately needed more space to accommodate our growing family & businesses. Our house was listed on the Sale Market on a Tuesday & 4 days later....we had a signed contract for sale! We already had a 'new home' to move to, so the relief of the house sale was god-sent.

I found the whole process very tiring & stressful. Packing our whole life into boxes was not only exhausting, but also very emotional. Fun to find things we'd forgotton we had buried up in the ceiling {like my old school books & toys & scrapbooks FULL of stories I'd written as a child} also liberating to cull out the crap & clutter {we filled a skip bin} but also scary to see memories & special objects line the cardboard crates. Our life all stacked up!

Last week I bottled up a lot of sentimental emotion. The house we were selling & leaving was not our first home....as we owned a townhouse before we were married. But this house, was our first real HOME! We bought it the year after we were married, with the hope that it would be a family home....a place where children lived. And that it was! Chris spent weeks renovating it & making it perfect before he & I moved in. We really loved that place! And over the past 6 years, that house was more than our home! Those walls surrounding the 3 bedrooms & 1 bathroom were reaping memories....both good & bad. So much growth happened in that home. We bought our 2 babies home from hospital to that home. A lot of first milestones occurred in that cozy loungeroom.....first rolls, first smiles, first steps. It was our haven, our safe place, our home! It's hard to leave all that behind! But it's also so exciting to move on, open new doors & write new chapters. Wise people say not to live in the past. So I won't. But I will cherish & remember.....and look forward :)

Moving day.....we woke to heavy rain! But, the show must go on......

Our whole life fit into that truck! Pretty cool to watch!

Amongst the chaos of boxes & pulled apart furniture {and rain}, we had a family who rallied together to help us move our life; 15minutes up the highway :)

Thank goodness for family {oh gosh, I'm grateful for family!!!} {And to Spencer & Heidi, Mum & Dad.....who knows where we would be now if it wasn't for you guys! You know what I'm talking about.....and from the bottom of our hearts....THANK YOU!}

In life, we have people who are not family by birth or marriage; but by choice or love. Over the road from us, lived an older couple. Stewert; a lovely retired man; spent his days standing in his open garage, reading the paper, smoking his cigarettes & pottering around. In a way, him & his wife; Gloria, became our family too. They watched us grow from a young married couple, to a family of 4. They watched us hit hard times & blessed times. And having Stew watching over our house all day, everyday was reassuring. We already miss him:

Taken the day before we left! We miss Stew & Gloria already! I hope the people who bought our house cherish these neighbours like we did!

And.....now, we're here in this new place. And more space.....boy oh boy, we got it! Spare rooms we don't even have enough furniture to fill yet, storage galore, rooms big enough to dance in & a kitchen that has put pressure on me to be used....LOTS :)

There are a lot of cosmetic, materialistic features about this house that excite me.....like the fact that it's brand new, never lived in before....so the walls are white, the carpets are fresh, everything feels clean & easy. Like the built-in coffee machine, the fireplace, the pool, the walk in robe that would have Carrie Bradshaw jealous & the space....oh the space! And all of these things are GREAT......but do you know what? The things that really invigorating me the most right now about this place......is the view from the back decks; long stretches of sky & a dense Australian bushland:

And the natural light that comes streaming into every room of the house {something we didn't have a lot of in the last place}......

And the fresh air that whooshes in. We have not needed the air-con at all yet.....the breeze & open plan living has been a refreshing & healthy change for us. I love it!

On top of all of that....it's also convenient! We now live about 400m from Ella's school [KINDY] , just minutes from her ballet school & my school {when I return to work one day}. It's easy!

I like this house. I feel at home, and now that the boxes are unpacked, the appliances are being used, the sheets have been slept in and memories are being made, it's definitely beginning to be HOME! Our home! I'd like to think we're going to be here long term. For Ella & Ryder to be studying their high school exams in these exact rooms, and bringing home friends for sleep overs. The home that they come back to for Mum's cooked meals & special family get togethers, and for Dad to fix their cars :) The place that we enjoy many birthdays & Christmases & meals around the table in. But, who knows......a new chapter, a new home may await us in the future again, and that excites me.....but until then, I like it here....I want to stay put :)

Adding this post to Maxabella's GRATEFUL linky.....as I'm beaming with lots of grateful right now!

And heading off to bed....as Mr R will be waking for a night feed soon I'm sure!

A big cheers to new homes, new memories & blessed opportunities!

Goodnight!

P.S. Not sure what's going on with my photos tonight.....they are very much out of proportion...ah well, too late to care haaa ;o)