101 in 1001 Item 44...

Reorganise all of the flat and possibly get some parts decorated

...has been completed!

Thanks mostly to a trip to IKEA (yay!) a lot of help from my dad with new furniture putting together and my mum with organising.

Have had a major declutter and sent loads and loads of books to the charity shop and recycled a load of bits too. I have no idea how many books I got rid of but it took three trips to get them all out to my parents car. And that was after my sister took 1 book home with her and a friend went through the charity shop pile and took 14(!) books home with her.

I've been trying to be a bit brutal and get rid of as much as possible. It's worked well although a few things felt strange. Like through away a whole folder of old notes from uni. I graduated five years ago and I wasn't ever going to look at them again but it was just one of several things that were so important so long ago and now are just gone, no longer wanted or needed.

None of my flat has been decorated. In my bedroom the skanky old blue curtains are down and I just have the blinds up now whcih looks great. I have a new desk which is actually the same as the old one but not broken, a big storage unit by it. Then I had a new draw unit by my bed and have replaced the old bookcase with a big tall Billy one from IKEA. My silver craft unit has been emptied but remains (will find a new use for it) but I've gotten rid of the silver shelf units I had (in a cupboard out of sight right now) and the plastic storage units I had from uni. I could use a new bed really but that will wait.

In the hall I've put a new two draw small unit. I'm thinking paperwork will go in there once it's sorted. Sorting paperwork is liable to be a HUGE job. I will tackle it soon though.

In the lounge I've got a second Billy bookcase the same as the one in my bedroom. That's completely full of books, no room for any more. It was a bit of an afterthought too but I'm glad I got it, it looks great. The one in the bedroom has very little on right now - a lot of my stuff that's been sorted is in storage boxes in the corner of my lounge and needs homes.

The bathroom remains as is although one of the outside walls has gone a little bit nasty so it could do with a bit of paint or something. The kitchen is mostly remaining as is. It does really need a shelf or some such putting up as it lacks storage a bit.

So this item is done enough for me to tick it off but a few more bits remain. I'm happy though because the major concerns are done and that's what I needed the most. It's pretty good timing too because I got the keys to this flat on 16th December 2005 and moved in over that weekend (think I was actually in on the 18th but then the heating was broken so I was at my parents overnight and my first night was the 19th) so this is my 4th anniversary of living here.