Relax?

Yeah, I know. Funny right?

It's kinda true though.

Hubs and I have lived in our house for almost 6 years. Everything was unpacked within 1 year, but that doesn't mean we were settled. We kinda were, but there's always those little things that just don't have a place and adding a dog and two kids since we moved in required a bit of reorganization. Actually, it's a continual process of reorganizing. Hence, the relaxation lately.

I pulled everything out of every kitchen cupboard, drawer (except the junk drawer so far) and then put it all away in a way that made sense. Some things were donated, some things were put right back away, many thing were moved so they were with like items. It just feels nice to open the cupboard and have all the soup in one place and the junk food in another place. It makes it easier to make better food choices too.

Hubs helped with this bunches of course. We (okay, I) made a list of everything we wanted to get done between when Hubs got some time off for Thanksgiving and when he returned to work after Christmas. We're not all the way through the list, but most of the way. Every bedroom upstairs is organized and pretty to look at. My craft closet is slightly chaotic still, but I'll fix that when I put away the Christmas decorations this next week. Upstairs, is organized. Downstairs, many toys were stored away, the kitchen (as mentioned above) was organized and is now tidy.

Even the Harry Potter closet (the closet under the stairs) is tidy. It's also where the extra seats for my car are stored, but now it's tidy! In the kitchen, the junk food shelf is a mess (because we have way too much in it after the holidays), but it's also now 1 shelf in 1 cupboard. I can handle that. The junk drawer in the kitchen is an accepted way of life in my opinion. It would be wonderful to not have it either, but it's really convenient to have the spare keys, pens, stamps and gift certificates all in one place. Don't ask why that's convenient, but it is. :)

Downstairs, that's all that's still not the way I'd like it to be. There's a couple more days before Hubs goes back to work too so that might get dented and improved.

Upstairs, we have the "junk room" that we're steadily making progress on. The HUGE bookshelf is super helpful!! We're just chipping away at it and being much more discerning about what actually belongs in our house. Many things are going to the "regift" pile and the "garage sale" pile. That's growing exponentially! I should probably do a preview day for friends and family before we do a big public sale.

It just feels really nice to have our house finally coming together as a clean slate (literally!) that we can now decorate if we choose. There's only things hung on the walls in kid bedrooms and the powder room. No other rooms in the house. It feels weird to not have our wedding pictures around us or pictures of our kids on the walls.

So the list on the fridge is almost done. The yard clean up is on the backburner due to weather, but one more dry day above freezing and that'll get fixed I think. It just feels nice to have life tidy.

So even with the holidays and all the crazy that comes with it, I'm feeling fairly relaxed. It's nice for a change.