Well now, what have you been doing lately?  I have been sorting and decluttering on a huge scale.

I am not quite ready to let go of Summer – it’s hanging on in there, teasing us with a sunny day here and there, still letting us eat outside now and again.  I still haven’t finished planting and have loads to do, but the decking is no further forward so I can’t get on with it.

Baby Chandelier is still having picnics on the lawn and wearing summer dresses and all my roses are still producing loads of beautiful blooms and buds.  There are lots of other flowers still looking pretty and washing is still very much being hung out – it doesn’t dry fully anymore though and my aga now seems to be permanently draped in washing.

I keep looking at my hydrangeas daily and promising myself that in the next few days I will make an end of Summer wreath for the door – Hmmm, they are turning brown a lot quicker than I thought so don’t hold me to it!

I’ve pulled out the entire contents of my Summerhouse – no mean feat – and totally decluttered, sorted and reorganised it ready to start painting and creating for my Autumn and Christmas events and although I desperately need to get my workshop dates emailed to everyone, and I need to confirm all my other dates, I just can’t seem to bring myself to do it until I have a bit more order.

So no-one was more shocked than me when I found myself lighting the first fire of the season today!

As you know I have been doing an enormous amount of sorting and decluttering absolutely everywhere in the house.  For those serial renovators and refurbishers like myself, you will understand what I mean when I say that you ‘keep everything until the house is finished’ – particularly furniture.  It somehow seems to turn into your mantra and actually makes life so much harder to work around all your ‘stuff’.  However, as is often the case, you need to knock walls down and finish rooms before some decisions can be made and, as I have learnt from experience, sometimes you totally plan a room to the last detail and something beyond your control will happen.  For example wires that can’t be moved for serious reasons or drains discovered or numerous other problems that mean your plans have to change and with that, possibly your designs and your furniture!  Although most problems can be resolved, there is usually a cost involved – often lots of money – so it is always a weigh up between hassle, cost and your ‘vision’!

This does of course mean that the ‘hoarder next door’ within you, tends to surface and as I said above, cause you a lot more work.  How many of you have moved constant piles of stuff from room to room to room.  All I can say is, if you can afford it, rent some storage.  You will definitely finish the build quicker – saving you money – your stuff will be as clean and lovely as the day you stored it and your soul with thank you for it – have you ever had to clean every piece of an entire electric train set covered in 500 years of thick black dust, or sat and cried when the sandblasters have been in and despite your valiant attempts to pack up your house, it totally looks like a beach with dust and sand absolutely everywhere?  I could go on and on with building horror stories, having had far more than my fair share but I do however appreciate, more than most, that spare money and renovating definitely do not go hand in hand!!!

Anyway, as we are in the final phase 3 of this refurbishment – in terms of furniture decisions etc., – I am now on a bit of a mission to  get rid of anything that clutters up the lovely spaces we are creating.  So this week it has been papers – papers beyond belief and books and toys as baby Chandelier is no longer a baby (just the baby of the family) and having lived in what very much looked and felt like a storage facility for such a long time, it is very liberating and I am finally feeling like “I can breathe”.  I am very much a tidy house, tidy mind kind of girl – I know, I know, I should never have married a builder and carpenter – but I did, and I am an extremely patient person and I do so love the end result when we finish a job (yes actually, it does happen eventually!)

So, furniture is coming and going like there is no tomorrow and my head is spinning just a little and my brain is spinning a lot but it is exciting.  I am painting furniture every day and it is all starting to look a little bit cosy and clear and bare!  Yes, bare but I must embrace that bare is good – no more storage clutter.  It probably does not look even remotely bare to anyone else!  So with cosy very much in my mind, a very dark and rainy day and a lot of paper sorting going on, that is why I lit my first fire of the season today and sat on my fluffy rug feeling warm cosy and just a teensy bit Autumnal – we’ll just ignore the fact that the woodburning stove doors are hanging off and have no glass in them because it just needs a ‘little refurbishment’…..Hmmm, now we need to do the same upstairs……….

Happy sorting!

Much Love

Sarah xxx