The holidays sneaked up on me and there is very little “documentation” (though very fond memories!) of the Christmas eve turkey dinner at sis-in-law’s, gift opening at daughter’s home on Christmas morning or the lovely dinner we all shared later that day. The week between Christmas and New Years, daughter and son-in-law signed on for the monumentally intense task of reorganizing our kitchen storage along with transforming our laundry room and spare bedroom from over-sized closets back into rooms to serve their original purposes.

Work is progressing at a much slower pace now that daughter has gone back to work and many of my usually scheduled events have resumed, but so far, this is what we have gotten done:

• Four car (or truck) loads of stuff went to Goodwill
• Our city trash can got filled to the top three times in two weeks
• The recycle bin was filled to the top twice in two weeks
• One giant garbage sack of stuffed animals, several coats and a sleeping bag went to the assistance program at church where I volunteer. 

The storage areas of our kitchen are now a lot more user-friendly and after I finish culling my recipe files, it is going to be such a joy to create meals there! I was too overwhelmed with the enormity of the tasks we were attempting to take “before” pictures, but I am proud to be able to share some of the “after” ones.

Here is the laundry room with new faucet that son-in-law installed:

Our spare room closet now houses all the indoor Christmas decorations, art and craft supplies and we can now accommodate a guest, too:

On my own, I managed to organize/downsize some of the the cabinets in our bathroom, but there is a lot left to do. Our garage, dining room and each of our office areas are all still really begging for some serious attention, but I wanted to celebrate the victories already attained before I dive back in again. WooHOO!