cleaning up the front door shoe pile

two posts today - as it will be very quiet around this blog over the next 3 weeks as i go on prac in a local primary school for my professional placement. (i'm a 3rd year student of a 4 year primary teaching degree)

so anyhoo - today i decided to finally clean up and reorganise the space near our front door where the kids shoes all reside - and most of our hats.

here's a before -

and here's the after.

the box was once filled (packed full) with home and garden decorating magazines. it used to sit just across from the shoe basket (you can see a corner in the bottom right of the 'before' pic)
i've spent the last few weeks finally going through the lot and ripping out all my favourite pages - i'll show you the results of that project another day later.
my neighbour is getting all the leftovers before the whole lot gets recycled - or passed on again - who knows.
the best bit - they're now out of my home!!
yay for decluttering my home!! - it's a painfully slow process - but it's better than nothing.
the girls went throught the shoe basket and put away the shoes that don't come out much - and the most used shoes now reside in the box.
most of the hats have been packed away - as the weather has turned much much colder. (a top of 16 degrees c forcast for tomorrow - eeek!!)
and the dog lead has returned to it's rightful place - in the laundry!!
the basket is getting a good clean and will be reused to hold our throw rugs in the family room.
and that's another of my bathmat pillows i wrote about earlier today.......  :)

i hope to one day soon paint this floor (this floating floor laid by the previous owner is very dark in this confined space) - i want white - i'm still trying to talk mr w. into that one!!  he might go for a light grey...keep your fingers crossed for me. (he often worries about my 'ideas' - but luckily they usually all turn out ok....!!)
and i'm also thinking of repainting the walls - all white - i'm feeling the need to paint the whole house white!!
all in good time i say!!!

so - that's it from here.
i'm off to help teach year 1 tomorrow - wish me luck - i'm really looking forward to it.
hope you all have a great week.

mrs c. xox