All posts filed under: highlight

14 Ways to Make Your Trash Someone Else’s Treasure

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I’d love to be able to tell you that I’m on day 30 of my 100 Day Declutter and that it was all going swimmingly. Truth is by Day 7 I’d already given up. While it was a nice idea – and I’d prepared a huge list of things to declutter in advance – the reality of doing a little every day just didn’t work for me. I’m always one to look for silver linings. I didn’t achieve what I set out to do, but in the process I did put together a list of great ways to turn your trash into someone else’s treasure. Work Clothes: Dress for Success help women get back into the workforce so they can be financially independent. They accept good quality business clothing, shoes, handbags and jewellery that would be suitable for someone to wear to a job interview. They have branches in Northland, Auckland, Hamilton, Rotorua, New Plymouth, Wellington and Christchurch and lots of convenient drop off points. All Types of Clothing: The Clothing Collective is a second …

Me, My HRV and Why Two Out of Three Aint Bad

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For years I’ve banged on at husband about wanting a ventilation system. His counter argument has always been that a) what we really need is a heat pump and b) there’s no point doing anything until we do the ‘Big Renovation’. As the ‘Big Renovation’ is no longer happening the time has come to make a decision one way or the other. Our house doesn’t have the open plan kitchen/dining/living that so many new and renovated houses have. We’re a big family for our small house so for us it’s better to have a kitchen/dining space that is separate from the lounge. It gives me respite from the kids (and them from me I guess) and as we don’t have space for a rumpus room, having these two separate living spaces is a must. This, I’ve always argued, means a heat pump won’t work for us. So husband got a man in to try and talk me round. His recommendation was to install four separate, yet small, heat pumps  – one in the kitchen/dining room, …

hallway, renovation, DIY, photowall

Project One: The Hallway Renovation

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I am many things, but one thing I’m not is a DIYer. This is why after 17 years my home is more ‘student flat’ than ‘House and Garden’. That’s about to change – it’s time for action. Only problem is, I have no idea what I’m doing. I have more experience painting the town red than painting something like a wall or a door. Which is why I’ve decided to start with the hallway. It’s the smallest room so figure it’ll give me the most reward for the least effort. The changes are mostly cosmetic and as it’s the first room people see when they visit, it’ll have the most positive impact. What I want it to look like is this (you can click here for a 3D Panorama view) Here’s a list of the projects I’ll be undertaking: Create a photo wall: not only will it look great and really set the whole tone for a family home, it will also mean I can declutter my lounge bookcase which currently looks like this: Get …

Making a Life or Debt Decision

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I’m a strategist by trade. My professional brain thrives at 30,000 feet.  I can develop concepts. I can see the big picture. And I watch in awe as teams of people bring ideas into reality. And that’s my problem right there. In my personal life, there have been no teams of people swooping in to create the home I want. Lately our family motto seems to have been “why do today what can be put off indefinitely”.  We’ve been busy building our careers, raising three kids and working on a multitude of other excuses. Whatever the reason it’s fair to say my home is more student flat than “House and Garden”. A while back we’d decided to undertake a massive renovation that would have given us the big, beautiful home you see in all those magazines. You could say we were about to make a life or debt decision. We chose life In line with our family motto, we chose to do nothing. Well actually, we chose to do everything – overseas trips, camping holidays, …

Giving Presence, Not Presents

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Sometimes life unfolds a series of small and seemingly unimportant events that end up having a significant impact. I’d just finished a rather long and involved discussion with the children on their upcoming birthdays – all three of which are in February. I felt exhausted – having just got through the toy-fest that is Christmas I now had more presents and parties to organise. I made a cup of tea, flicked open a magazine and found an article about a theory called Stuffocation. Author James Wallman believes we are moving  away from the debt and stress of materialism – where we use stuff to declare status – and moving towards “experientialism” where we focus less on what we have and more on what we do. The book has given me the words to explain the changes that have been happening in our household (which you can read about here) in the last year. That same day I got an invitation from a Facebook friend to a Monster Slide Festival. At that moment I realised I …

Downsizing for Beginners

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It seems like we spend our whole lives upsizing – bigger houses, bigger cars and bigger responsibilities – until one day we realise it’s time to downsize. Perhaps because the kids are gone, or we realise we no longer need, want or can manage that big house and all of the stuff that goes with it. But what about choosing not to upsize in the first place? There’s no denying our houses are getting bigger. The average size of a NZ house in the 1970s was just 107m2. Kids shared bedrooms and everyone shared one bathroom and one living space. Today it’s not uncommon for new houses in this part of the world to be 200-250m2 – that’s a whopping 90m2 per person. Buy stuff. Keep it. Buy more stuff. Keep that, too. Buy more space. If the size of our houses is increasing, then it follows that the amount of stuff we own is also increasing. A study in the US of 32 dual-income, middle class families highlights just how much we clutter our …