Bin There Dump That

When Luke from Bin There Dump That contacted me in early February of this year to see if there was a project we could work on together, it was a pretty serendipitous opportunity. At the time I was considering taking part in the upcoming One Room Challenge for the first time as a homeowner. In my new-home-ownership excitement, I figured if I was going to partake in the ORC I was going to go all out and do a proper renovation. Not just painting a room. Like, divide and conquer that room, then paint it. It was a very stars aligning moment when I heard from Luke and felt it was too perfect an opportunity on our first renovation project.

After a few emails and tests [I first wanted to test our ceiling tiles for asbestos before confirming we could move ahead with doing any renovating (which tested negative, yay!)], last week I called the Bin There Dump That Eastern Ontario branch and spoke with Destiny, who took me through the ordering process. Bin There Dump That is North America’s largest residential-friendly dumpster company, so it took less than 10 minutes for her to locate and coordinate a 20-yard dumpster to be delivered when we needed one in two days’ time.

Threenager for scale.

It was a very straight-forward process. On Friday morning Jess delivered our 20-yard dumpster. Even though our driveway is unfinished and rough, she put down large wooden planks to protect it. The dumpster itself isn’t touching our driveway at all so if you had a beautiful driveway I can easily see how it would be fully protected, regardless of how much chaos is happening mere inches above it.

This was one of those grown-up type tasks I had blown out of proportion in my head, but felt I successfully graduated from once I had done it. Ordering a dumpster. It was so easy to order and I’m very thankful for how helpful everyone at the Bin There Dump That team has bin (#DadJoke).

DISCLOSURE - While this post is not sponsored, I did receive the service of a dumpster rental during my One Room Challenge free of charge from Bin There Dump That in exchange for a blog post. I only work with brands that I like and of course, think you will too. Thank you for supporting the companies that support The Interior DIYer.

Spring cleaning roundup + top decluttering tips

Without fail, every spring I feel like getting rid of ALL OF THE THINGS. I am once again sharing a list of the tried and tested tidying and decluttering tricks I’ve used for over five years and still use to this day, every day. These are what work for me and keep me decluttered in my brain and in real life, so you’ll find some things may or may not suit you so obviously, adapt things to suit you in whatever way you like.

THE BASICS – my original spring decluttering blog post from 2014 is the best place to start. I wrote about my top five tips for staying motivated while decluttering as it can be overwhelming.

THE BASICS 2.0 – the following year in 2015 I wrote five more tips on decluttering to give you an extra boost if you’re feeling overwhelmed as well as touching on the mental health benefits of decluttering; something that’s really important for me.

THE EARLY BIRD – since writing about it in 2014, I’ve done my 10 minute morning tidy routine every day … until I had Cora. This now works for me in the evening after Cora goes to sleep so when I wake up in the morning we’re ready and I don’t start the day overwhelmed by mess. Either way, 10 minutes of tidying will keep you on top of things and in the long run will save you time and energy.

DAY-TO-DAY – my two tips for staying organised on a day-to-day basis and it’s something I strongly think everyone should practice; using a diary [whether digital or paper] and religiously organising your inbox.

EXTRA READING – I interviewed Sarah Reynolds of Organised Chaos for Image Interiors & Living a few years ago and we got very nerdy about organizing. You can check out the full article here – Cut the Clutter: six steps to a calmer, cleaner, happier home.

DECLUTTER YOUR ONLINE LIFE – a few new tips I can contribute this year is to declutter your online life. Unsubscribe from emails that haunt your inbox, unfollow those accounts that make you feel bad and it’s actually okay to mute some people you know. The less you feel you need to catch up on, the less overwhelming you’ll hopefully feel.

Marie Kondo, eat your heart out.

Spice filled curio cabinet

If you’ve been following my blog for the past few years you may remember that for my 30th birthday my parents bought me a beautiful vintage curio cabinet. After some time I decided to paint it black and hung it up in the corner of the living room in our Islandbridge Apartment in Dublin, but for a very long time I had no idea what to do with it or what to put in it. I mean like two years passed and it was completely empty. I eventually put some jars in it for the sake of putting something in it, but I was eternally haunted by having such a cute cabinet and no idea what to do with it.

When we emigrated last year and moved into our Lower Town Apartment, there was a space in our kitchen that would be absolutely perfect for my curio cabinet. And almost immediately, I knew I wanted to keep all my spices in it. Don’t tell Robert, but I packed and shipped some of my favourite tiny empty glass jars [yes, completely empty jars. I have a problem] to Canada from Ireland. Once I unpacked everything and got myself organised, I hung up the cabinet in our kitchen and decanted all the spices and herbs we use the most into secret little jars and labelled them with black labels and a gold pen.

As soon as I started arranging the jars, I was embarrassingly ecstatic. I love stuff like that; organizing and sorting and having a little project just for me that essentially makes me feel like a witch in the kitchen.

I’ve been wanting to paint over the brown in our kitchen [this shade of brown was in the hallway and is currently in our entire bedroom], but I keep getting stuck on the idea that a room should be complete before I can take photos of it. Which I know does not make sense. Our kitchen will be a work in progress for the next while, but for the moment, I am loving my tiny curio cabinet in lieu of a perfectly curated dream Pinterest pantry.