A More Mindful Home

One of my goals for 2016 is to embrace the concept of mindfulness more at home. Mindfulness is always something I try to embrace throughout my daily life, but I'm definitely guilty of neglecting to simplify my home. I'm taking part in Sas Petherick's My Mindful Year, so I figured it was the perfect time to rectify this!

Minimise Bedroom Clutter 

Living in London means every square inch of space is precious, so our little bedroom is home to a lot of furniture and possessions. It's not the most conducive space to sleep and relaxation, so I decided to have a big sort out. I boxed up things I didn't really need to have here to send back to my parents, moved my cluttered dressing table to the far side of the room (it was next to my bedside table), and streamlined what was left. I replaced our patterned sheets with plain white bedding (with a super high thread count cause I'm worth it), and tried to clear all the surfaces. The result? Our bedroom is a much calmer space and both Connor and I much prefer it!

Make the Bedroom a Tech-Free Zone 

Whilst I'm not  quite ready to sacrifice the TV (I love my Sunday mornings snuggling in bed watching Parks & Rec), I'm totally ready to ban laptops & have a phone curfew. Connor and I are both guilty of turning our desktop computers off, and then getting into bed with our laptops for another hour. No more! Instead I've designated a specific place for laptops to stay overnight & charge that's out of the bedroom! As for phones, I've instigated a 'no phones in bed' rule that should stop me from obsessively checking Instagram at midnight.

Have a Journalling Routine

Now that I'm no longer doing my 10 Happy Things weekly round up posts here, I wanted to make sure I was still documenting the happy things. This gratitude journal from Kikki K sits on my bedside table with a pen, and I've made it part of my bedtime routine to fill it in each evening with three happy things from the day. It means I'm always ending the day on a positive.

Replace Desk Clutter with Inspiration

I've taken down everything adorning the wall above my desk (fairy lights, postcards and assorted junk), and gotten rid of the jars of washi tape, stacks of notebooks and assorted cables that were cluttering up my desk. Instead, I took inspiration from Caroline's workspace DIY memoboard and turned it into an inspiration station, and added a photo frame from Cheerz with photos of my favourite people.

Embracing Hygge

The concept of Hygge is something that has been present in my life without me knowing for so many years, and it wasn't until reading Rosie's blog post that I realised it had a name. Hygge is a danish word that is pretty much untranslatable. The closest way to describe Hygge is the word for the practice of living simply, and creating a cosy and warm life where every little thing is appreciated. There's a reason the Danes are often regarded as the happiest nation, and it's because they're finding happiness in the little things, something we all need to embrace a little more.

Come Winter, the idea of hygge becomes even more important, creating warmth in your life to fight the cold. After a particularly manic and crappy week, Con and I decided to embrace all things hygge, for a cosy night in.

 I think the best thing about Hygge is that it's open to interpretation, but for us it meant lighting all the candles, turning on fairy lights, and gathering all the pillows and blankets we could find to create a cosy bed nest. We piled pillows high and draped blankets everywhere, and snuggled into the middle of the bed to get away from the cold.

 Of course, no cosy evening in is complete without appropriate snacks, so when Con announced he had ordered pizza, I was practically giddy with excitement. So we snuggled up for a night of pizza and Disney movies, and do you know what? It was the best night I've had in a long time.

Home Details

 After a mammoth tidying and organising session last week I took a few snaps of my newly organised flat, partly so that in a few weeks time when my room is a floordrobe, I can remember what it looked like, and partly to prove to my mum that yes, my flat was in fact, tidy.

Anyway I had all these snaps filling up my memory card and I figured I may as well share them here, that way I can look back at them when I need a little tidying inspiration!

Because I'm a cliched blogger I have a copper basket filled with cacti. Yup. The basket was a bargain Homesense find, and the cacti are all from Ikea, I love the rustic tin plantpots. I have a few other mini cacti scattered about, mostly on my desk, because cacti are the only plants I seem to be capable of keeping alive. 

My dressing table is looking super organised now, I've stripped back what's on the table to a couple of Muji units, and this candle from TKMaxx.

My bed is the cosiest place in the world now, piled high with blankets and pillows, and Floppy, my candyfloss scented teddy bear. I especially love the Believe pillow my mama got me from Next. 

With the turn of the weather, I've been burning more seasonal Bath and Bodyworks candles again. I love this Jar of Matches, it's useful and it looks cute.

I'm really into copper details right now, I'm head over heels for the H&M Home Copper Box, I'm storing my day to day jewellery in, I wish I'd picked up two! I also bagged the marble plate it's sat on in the sale. Another blogger cliche right there.

I had an old dishwasher tablet box holding all my tealights, not very glamorous at all. I've moved them all into this glass jar, and they look much better. Plus that copper lid is gorgeous.

Even my drawers had a going over, I reorganised all my clothes in a way that it's now much easier to find everything! It's definitely much easier to have everything on it's side instead of in piles, I can actually see my clothes now!

I had all my sunglasses in boxes taking up space in my drawers, so now I've popped them all into this Muji unit, and it's much better!

And that's that! Let's all cross our fingers it stays tidy for a while...

Wardrobe Organisation

The year after I moved out of my parents house and into halls, they had fitted wardrobes made for my bedroom, and having not spent much time back home in a while, two years later they were still rammed with an unorganised mess of clothes. This year, however, I've been home for most of the summer, and had no excuse not to tackle the disorganised horror, especially since I needed to make room for all my clothes I bought home from London too.

Two days and three giant bin bags later, and the transformation was complete, and I am SO much happier with my wardrobe set up. I took a lot of inspiration from Un-Fancy, Carrie and The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up, and whilst I'm never going to be a minimalist wardrobe sorta gal, the results are much better.

I decided to chuck out anything that was tired, I hadn't worn in ages, or didn't 100% love. Turned out I was keeping a lot of things just because I felt bad chucking it, but really it was all just clutter.

My wardrobe is split into three distinct sections. This left panel has split level hanging space, and it's where the bulk of my clothes live. A lot of people (cough, Marie Kondo) advise against hanging your clothes, but for me it's the easiest way to keep my clothes organised and crease free, and make sure I'm wearing everything, not just what's at the top of the pile. 

On the top rail I've got jumpers and shirts, thicker stuff is on big white Ikea hangers, and the rest are on these super thin black hangers, you can hang so much stuff up if you use these! At the end of the top rail I have a thicker wooden hanger that I keep all my big necklaces on, so I can grab them to wear with plain tees. You'll notice that longer items of clothing are on the left, whilst shorter pieces are on the right, for some reason that gradient is much more pleasing on the eye!

On the lower rail I keep trousers and skirts, as well as a few scarves on one of these hangers. There was a lot of space left over so on the floor there I have a big storage box, where I keep all my hair styling tools.

 The mid section was harder to get under control, as it's a lot more sectional, made up of shelves and drawers as opposed to hanging space. The shelves are really deep, and I was struggling to find a way to be able to reach what was at the back when they were crammed full of clothes.

The top shelf is Connors and a mess, so I've left that out of the photos! Below that I split the next shelf into three sections, on the left tank tops, on the right workout gear, and in the middle a basket with all my bikinis in. Much more minimal but much easier to keep organised. 

The shelf below that holds all my clean linen and towels, whilst the next shelf down has the teddy bears I can't bear to part with.

The last shelf is home to heels, and pyjamas. An odd mix but it sort of works. 

Looking at that picture of my underwear drawer makes me so happy, it's so organised! I folded all my knickers in the Konmari recommended style, and rolled my socks similarly (socks without friends are in the middle waiting to be paired). I've also now got enough room to have a whole drawer for my bras, and they're much happier all laid out. 

 The final section has full length hanging space and a shelf above too. The shelf is where I keep all my handbags, there's no good way to store bags, but this way I can see them all easily. On the rail I keep bulky jackets, hoodies, and fancy dresses! The rail looks a little sparse in this picture since a lot of my jackets were in my car, and some of my dresses were at the dry cleaners, but it's looking a little more full now!

There is a big shelf at the top of my wardrobe spanning the entire length, and that's where I'm storing skiwear, beachwear, and some magazines I want to keep! I need to find some boxes that fit the space nicely because at the moment everything's just stacked haphazardly! 

And that's the lot! I'm hoping it'll be much easier to keep things organised now! 

Tidy Desk, Tidy Mind

 I've had a real get shit done week this week, and I attribute it in part to the fact that on I took everything off my desk, and downsized a little.

There was so much clutter and unnecessary crap on my desk, it's taken me a long time to realise you don't have to have 40294 post it notes and paperclips to hand all the time. The world won't stop if you have to get them out of a drawer. 

I figured this was the perfect time to show you my little desk set up, because I'm sure it won't stay this tidy for long. I didn't realise how much pink there is going on until I was uploading these photos!

The desk itself is from Ikea, it's seriously basic and dirt cheap, the shelf on top for my screen actually cost more than the desk itself. When we moved into our flat it didn't have any desks, and since we weren't sure how long we'd be staying we just bought cheap ones, so it was no disaster if they didn't get used in our next place. Although I actually have ended up loving this desk, it's simple and you can't go wrong with simple. 

Underneath I have a little draw unit from Ikea (which I didn't photograph because right now it's rammed with junk. That's a job for a Sunday night with a glass of wine) and my computer tower. I've mentioned this before but my boyfriend actually built my computer for me, it's actually a Mac Pro, and it's my favourite thing in the world. It's got a 2tb hardrive, which comes in handy because I have SO many photos. It's not quite as pretty as an iMac, but it's much more powerful, so it was worth the sacrifice! I have a MacBook Air too for on the go, but I don't really ever use that at my desk!

I've stripped everything else back to basics. I've got a handful of my favourite pens in a little glass from Ikea, as well as my Donut Post Its and Washi Tape, I kept those out partly because they look pretty and partly because I use them so often! I've got my Ikea desk lamp (it's supposed to be a bedside lamp I think, but it's perfect for my desk because it's really powerful and doesn't take up much space) on top of a little stack of books. Most of my books are on my bookshelf, but I like to flick through these ones fairly regularly so I like to have them to hand. I also have my current perfume love on there, I always start my day at my desk and I'm useless at remembering to put on perfume so I thought I'd keep it here to remind me!

On the other side of the screen I've got a little cactus and my snowglobe from Disneyland in LA, cause everyone needs a happy memory on their desk!

There's not much under my desk, just my speakers, and a little stash of notebooks I use for schoolwork and blogging! I also have a little cord tidy that holds on to my camera cable, so I don't have to fish it out from behind the desk too. My iPhone cable is normally there too, but I just broke the one I keep in my computer, so I need to find another one!

 Above my desk I have a few prints, postcards and my wall calendar from Rifle Paper Co, where I write any important dates and deadlines.

And that's about it! I feel so much more productive with a tidy desk!

The Fridge Complication

13 year old Jaye had a favourite game. This game was played late at night when sleep was elusive, and the horrors of attending an all girls school would soon rear their ugly head. This game involved planning the exact contents of my future fridge, the fridge that I would have as soon as I moved out. The fridge that I would lovingly stock each week with what I thought were the perfect foods for my perfect life. The fridge would ideally be a Smeg, because in this fantasy money was no object.

Perfect fridge looked a little something like this;

• A bottle of champagne and a carton of peach juice, so I can drink peach bellinis whenever the mood strikes me.
• Strawberries. Because every fridge needs strawberries. 
• Expensive mature cheddar, because there is little in this world better than a good mature cheddar. 
• Bottled water. Because dream Jaye could afford that.
• And bottles of Gatorade. Because 13 year old Jaye watched too much MTV Cribbs.
• All the ingredients required for a perfect Caesar salad (extra parmesan, hold the anchovies).
• Three bars of Galaxy chocolate. One normal, one caramel and one cookie crumble. Even though I don't like cold chocolate.
• Steak. Because steak is the best.
• An abundance of fresh exotic fruit, preferably mangoes, watermelon, passion fruit and pomegranate.

The reality is that ain't nobody got time to lovingly curate the contents of the fridge, and ain't nobody got the funds either. Current fridge looks more like this.

• Half a bottle of Jacobs Creek white wine that happened to be on offer in Tesco. 
• Half a bag of spinach.
• Lots of minced beef. Because the only meals I can cook well involve minced beef.
• Some tomato puree that's leeking all over the tray inside the front door.
• A Brita water filter because the water in London tastes terrible and I drink too much to be able to afford bottled water. 
• Three limes of indiscriminate freshness. 
• Half a pack of honey roast ham.
• A cucumber. 
• Some left over stir fry from three nights ago.

I can just imagine the bollocking 13 year old Jaye would give me if she could see me now. Probably something along the lines of 'why do you have a hundred lipsticks and no champagne you stupid cow'.

I'm kind of inclined to agree with her. I've gotten into the habit of viewing food shopping as a necessary evil, rather than selecting the fuel to nourish my body. 

So for March I'm setting myself the goal of creating a fridge that 13 year old me would be proud of. I think I can sacrifice a few lipsticks for a better fridge contents.

Image from Pinterest.

The Little Life Clear Out

I've been trying to take little steps to declutter my everyday life, everything just feels a little busy right now? I'm just making little steps to try and make everything seem a bit more minimal, nothing dramatic, but just stuff that will help make my day to day life a little easier.

First off, unsubscribing from junk emails. This takes a lot longer than you'd think. I'm trying to do them as they come in, rather than just deleting them, and I feel like I'm getting nowhere! However, I feel like this is one of those tasks where when I get there, it'll be so worth it. I get so many emails trying to convince me to buy stuff and really, I don't need anything. Or any persuading to buy stuff!

Clearing out Twitter and Instagram followings. When I started my accounts I think I just mass followed everyone I came across and three years down the line I'm regretting that. This is another one of those work in progress tasks, because I feel awful unfollowing people, but I'm just not interested in their posts! I waste a lot of time on social media too, so the less people I follow, the less I'll have to look at! 

Wardrobe sort outs! I came to the realisation that I literally have about three outfits that I wear on rotation with different accessories, but my wardrobe is bursting at the seams. I find I hold on to clothing a lot for sentimental reasons, but realistically, I just don't wear any of it. 

In a similar vein, my desk has gone from being super pinterestable to a total clutter zone. My task for today is to find a way of storing all my shit so that it's not just out everywhere! I may need to spend a little time on pinterest! 

Do you have any tips on decluttering your day to day life?

Getting Organised for the Week Ahead

Right now I'm juggling two blogs, a YouTube channel, a dissertation and I'm also trying to put together an entire magazine from scratch, so to say my to do list is large is a bit of an understatement.

I've now got a bit of a Monday morning routine for managing the lot. I fill up my teapot with my current favourite blend (right now I'm all about Teapigs Spiced Winter Tea), stick on the latest episode of GIRLS (even though that show has gone pretty downhill, and being the granny that I am, I cringe at all the crass sex references), and sit down with a pile of stationery that would make Paperchase look a little sparse. I give myself an hour to put everything down on paper.

I start with a big pad of A4 lined paper (the flowery one on the left, it's from Paperchase) and I write down everything that I can think of that I have to do in the week. No big tasks, I break it all down into little steps, I write down deadlines if there are any, and I colour code the lot. Doing this is pretty daunting, but I at least know what I'm dealing with. I then take my beloved Erin Condren life planner, write in any classes I have and any events or plans, so I know what time I have free to devote to tackling the to do list! I like to have a bit of fun with my planner, with pretty stickers and a slightly disgusting amount of washi tape because it makes me more likely to stick to the plan!

I've got this cute desktop planner from Emma Bridgewater that I use to divide all the tasks up by day, I keep this on my desk kinda like a looming reminder of my impending doom. I try to stick to it as much as possible for fear of tasks spilling into the next day. Also, it's really satisfying when I get to cross them out with my giant red pen (which I definitely didn't just buy to feel like a teacher).

As far as blog stuff goes, I'm currently working out of two Rifle Paper Company notebooks (swoon), where I list everything, notes on posts, details on work I'm doing with different brands, what photos to take, that kinda stuff. I have a big excel document where I plan out what post goes on what day, but all of the important stuff is in these books.

It all works for me, and I actually relish my hour with a pot of tea and a stack of books on a Monday morning! It's a nice gentle way to start the week!

New In: Home Things

 Finding new bits for my flat in London is one of my new favourite pasttimes, I'm enjoying trying to make it feel more homely, which is no mean feat considering we can't paint or hang anything on the walls. I've picked up a few new flat bits over the last month that are definitely helping though!

First off, during my last Tesco shop I stumbled across this Tesco Graperfruit + Lime Leaf Awake Candle, which oh my god smells totally amazing. It's in a cute plain clay jar with the word 'Awake' embossed on the front, so it looks really minimal and cute in the flat, but the smell is what I'm obsessed with, it's so clean and refreshing, perfect for keeping on my desk for early mornings! It's around the same size as a Diptyque candle, and it was a steal at £6.

I finally picked up a lamp for my desk, we don't get a ton of light in our flat, so I wanted a lamp to help brighten up the area when I'm working late. It's a simple glass pillar that was a bargain £4.50 in Ikea, it's not the most exciting looking, but it's small and it's discreet, and my god is it bright. Total bargain! Also for my desk I found this cute Orla-Kiely-esque tin in Home Sense (I think it's meant to be a coffee tin), and it's perfect for keeping all the odds and sods I have on my desk, things like batteries and stamps, spare cables and post its! It makes everything much more tidy and organised!

I've been struggling with the pillows on my bed recently, I keep waking up with a trapped nerve in my neck, so I decided to replace the lot, and after looking at loads of pillows, I settled for the Ikea Akag Firm Pillows, they were only £4 each, but they are so supportive and incredibly comfortable, I'm so pleased I got around to it! Although now I want to get out of bed even less...

I've picked up a couple of small plates recently, the dark grey one is from H&M Home (link here) and the blue and white one is from Ikea. I've got candles on them at the moment, but I basically bought them to use as props for my blog photos, just to mix things up a bit!

And lastly, I've started to collect a few different postcards to put on the wall above my desk, most recently the bright yellow Hello Sunshine one, which was 60p in Paperchase. It's a cute, inexpensive way to make the place feel more homely, when you can't hang anything up!

Next on my list is a full sized mirror!

Being a Tourist at Home

 It's not often that we spend time really exploring the areas in which we live. I for one am very guilty of getting caught up in the details of the day, and not truly appreciating what's around me. I came back to Bournemouth last week and for the first day, my awesome friend Daphne joined me. Daphne and I have a strange sort of friendship, forged by bonding over tea, lipstick and all things American. We haven't been friends for all that long, but we have become really close really quick! Anyway, whilst she's in the UK she's on a mission of sorts to explore as much as she can, so I figured why not take the opportunity to be a tourist in my own home? 

We started the morning bright and early with a makeup session much longer than necessary, and headed out to explore. We ended up in Christchurch which is a little village basically at the other end of my road, somewhere I love because it's still got a lot of traditional English heritage and features. We explored the quay (where Daphne attempted to make friends with a Swan against my warnings that they aren't as nice as they look), wondered round the ruins of the old castle, saw the ducking stool that ironically wasnt used on witches, but rather women with 'loose tongues', sat in the stocks and of course ate a lot.

 I got Daphne to snap some outfit pictures for me too, while we were in the ruins, I love the look of the old walls as a background! I love this outfit right now, it's so comfy! The top is just an oversized grey Primark tee (super soft and comfy, and won't show your food baby!) and the necklace is Primark too, I am obsessed with necklaces with triangles, so when I saw this last month for £3 I had to have it! The leggings are from Monki, and are the most 'out there' article of clothing I own. I chucked on my Nike 7.0 Free Run Trainers, they're seriously comfortable and we walked really far! My bag is new from Zara, it's the Mini City Bag with Zip Details in the colour 'Jeans' and I adore it. I wear so much black and white, it's nice to add a pop of colour with a bag! Please excuse my chipped mani, I know, I'm an awful excuse for a blogger. I love wearing my hair like this right now, I just let my hair dry naturally overnight, drop a few curls in amongst my natural curls with my GHD's, and then just brush it out with my fingers. I just love the laidback look it has! 

 We also played the typical blogger card and had pancakes for lunch (hey, I was on holiday, okay!) in one of my favourite little cafe's, Cheese and Alfies. All the food is freshly made and delicious, and the cafe is filled with cute art and battered second hand books. And doesn't Daphne take an attractive photo?!

I think this has made me realise I really need to appreciate what's around me a lot more! It's been a long time since I've done anything like this and it was such good fun! I need to start making the most of what's around me, even in London!