Storing Rubbish Bags

I feel like I blog about rubbish an awful lot!  But rubbish just seems to breed in my house, and by having routines and systems in place, it helps to keep on top of it...  My 'I Love Rubbish Day' post (which you can read about here) is in the top 10 of my most-read posts - that tells me that it is a fact of daily life and everyone wants to know how to make it easier :)

My tip today is to make sure that you keep spare rubbish bags in the rooms of the 'busiest' bins.  I have already shown you my kitchen storage solution for my scented garbage bags (which you can read about here).

My bathroom is definitely next on the list for the room with the most rubbish.  I only have a small bin in my ensuite, so I find I have to change the rubbish liner at least once a week.  Like with any routine job, we tend to procrastinate doing it if it involves multiple steps.  For me, this used to involve (1) getting a replacement bag (recycled fruit/veg bag) from the kitchen, (2) walking to the ensuite, (3) taking out the old bag, (4) putting in the new bag and (5) walking outside to the wheelie bin to dump the full bag of rubbish.  Too many steps!  Life is busy and we need to simplify!  So, I now keep the spare bags in the ensuite cupboard - seems really logical, but I just didn't think to do it until this year ;)  By eliminating the first 2 steps, the job now takes half the time - around 30 seconds in total!!  And the best part is that I can do it when I think of it... I lost count of the number of times I walked out to get a new bag from the kitchen, got distracted and never made it back with the replacement bag!  Not anymore...

And the storage solution for these bags (that can take over an entire shelf if left to their own devices)??
An empty tissue box!

Organising the Front Entrance with a Shoe Cabinet

The front entrance is a part of the home that really can become messy and cluttered if we don't have a good organisation system in place.  I have tried many things over the years, and most of them I admit have failed miserably.

One essential piece of furniture in our front entryway (it sits just around the corner from the actual entrance) is this great shoe cabinet from Ikea.  You can view it on their website here.

Decorating the Home Entrance

A person's first impression of your home is at the front entrance.   A few months back I decided that I needed a little something to meet and greet us (and our visitors) each time we come in the front door.

This is what I came up with!

A Silver & White Engagement Party

My sister and her fiance recently got engaged.  They decided not to have a big engagement party, rather they opted to have 3 smaller gatherings, with just close family and/or friends on their new deck.  They really wanted to have the party at home to show everyone their renovations, but they knew that having 100 people would be a BIG effort, and then they would have to worry about where to fit everyone and trying to get around to chat with all of the guests.  So, they decided to split the large group into smaller groups, so that they would be able to spend quality time with their closest friends and family AND enjoy their new deck three times as much!  Great idea, I thought!  Their wedding is going to be in March, so they will celebrate with the extended group before we know it anyway :)

So, the first of their parties was 'The Family'.  Even though it was just immediate family, I wanted to make sure that it still had an engagement party feel, despite Nicky's attempts to keep things simple and easy... Good try!  She decided on a Silver and White theme, to match in nicely with their new grey and white exterior walls of the deck.  So, I took it upon myself to decorate - what fun!