So, if you have an immaculate and beautifully decorated house..

[emsyj]

...how much 'stuff' do you own and where do you keep it???

I desperately want to make my house naice, but I am overwhelmed and it just doesn't seem possible. I have some money to throw at it - i.e. we need a new bathroom and can afford to have this work done, but I can't just get someone in and say 'sort out the whole house top to bottom' - I need to get it clean and tidy and then sort out decorating.

Are you ruthless with throwing stuff out?? Do I need to be? All hints and tips on how to have a house like a show home gratefully received...

People say it is besutiful and quirky. I don't know if that's true. I have a lot of storage but live in a tiny house. Wicker baskets, expedit, cream ottomans hold a lot of toys etc.

I have thinned out bookcases and have one side of books,, pretty photo frames and colour coordinated boxes (store leads,DVDs)

I am ruthless at decluttering now.. Join the minimalism thread. That helped me a lot. I threw out lots of tea towels, donated plates etc. mugs I didn't love, cutlery I didn't use. I allowed three memory boxes (I have sentimental stuff lie, my hold communion veil, school uniform) so I am not one for throwing everything out. But towels etc... Work out how many you need and dump

Make photobooks. Photograph children's art work and keep one or two but rid the rest.

Then I love candles, fresh flowers every fortnight (lillies or gladioli)

In the nursery I have painted it white . Wooden floors, striped roman blind in blue and white, white cot, white expedit. Then added a wicker chair I sprayed and cot nursery cushions in zara. Funky antique lamp on a distressed white chest of drawers with a wicker basket for nappies and wipes. A gold tissue box holder. Retro first aid tin.

Keep things simple and buy one statement piece for room. Like a queen Ann chair.

We took a week off work and de cluttered room by room into sell, donate and chuck piles. I sell a lot via a local Facebook page.

A lick of paint makes a world of difference.

Agree re photos. We have ones we really like put on canvas.

Also I tend to choose one thing per room and decorate the rest around that. For example in the living room I put up some beautiful hand-printed wallpaper and decorated around that.

Although my house could never be called Immaculately Beautiful

I have thought about taking time off work but I would have to do it on my own as DH hasn't got any holiday left this year. He has a voluntary job on the side that requires time and so I would be left sorting on my own, which would be okay if there wasn't loads of heavy lifting and I didn't need to sort mountains of his shite also!

I signed up to FLYlady but never did any of the stuff. I think I just want a miracle.

It was a bit neglected when we bought it as it had been done up when the seller bought it and then not touched for 12 years. Since buying we have replaced all the carpets other than our bedroom, knocked down and rebuilt the (detached!) garage, had the parquet downstairs sanded and varnished, extended the back and fitted a new kitchen. But none of it is really properly finished, no single room looks nice and there are jobs to do everywhere. For example, the kitchen is new but there is no door on the room as we knocked through a doorway that had been bricked up plus the parquet in the hall that was moved/damaged when they knocked the door through is STILL loose nearly 2 years later. I hate it and it makes me miserable coming home, plus it's so messy I can't invite anyone round unless I have about 3 weeks' notice to clean. I just want it to be nice, nicely decorated and clean. It feels totally out of my control. Our front doorstep is rotten, a big piece has fallen out of it. It looks fucking awful and we have money to fix this stuff!!! I ask DH to get the guy to come and fix it (we even know someone who can do it) and he says yeah yeah but it never happens. Am so so so miserable with it all.

I'd take dh out of the question and ring the person who can do the work. It is selfish of him not to do anything about it when you are so unhappy

I have done that with some stuff but I am losing the will to do everything myself. I suppose I might have to tho!

We did actually start a job spreadsheet but the sruff on the list still needs doing - I suppose I just have to accept that I have to do it myself or make peace with it not being done.

The removal of a tumbledown asbestos garage and build of a largeish single detached garage (rendered, sloping tilked roof)

TILED roof... was about £6k.

Friends describe my house as 'minimal', which makes me laugh, as I regularly donate bags of stuff to the charity shop. However, I think because I regularly declutter, nothing ever builds up. I am also very tidy, naturally. Decoration-wise, I like quite simple, light and pared down interiors, which probably helps with the 'minimal-looking' thing.

I firmly believe that every part of a house, cupboards, loft, garage, wardrobes etc, need to be emptied and sorted out at least once a year. That way you don't find something you didn't know you still had, lurking at the bottom of a cupboard. I know what I have and where it is.

Well me and DH have a very similar style, we love modern minimal with a oriental flare. We are really harsh if we don't use it then it gets thrown away and we pick quality over quantity.

So we invest in nice things but everything has it's place and we won't buy something if we can't place it. It helps having a area for ugly stuff like an attic or renting a storage area.

Every purchase is considered really :)

This dropped off my watch list but just caught up on 'I Started'!

Not much progress but I have done some tidying upstairs and have finally got a chest of drawers for DD1's new bedroom, so next Saturday DH is taking the kids to the park so that I can sort through their mountains of clothes and make a charity shop pile and bag up the stuff that DD1 has finished with ready for when DD2 grows into it. I am also going to get rid of some of the baby toys, my aim is to ditch a bin bag full of stuff each week.