January 18, 2013
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What I did on my Christmas vacation
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!
Comments (9)
I need to do some of that. My closet is tiny, but very scary. I think I’ll tackle it after I finish clearing off my desk and making it useable.
It always feels SO GOOD to accomplish things like that! Yesterday I cleaned out all my kitchen cupboards. It was a very small thing compared to what you have gotten done, but it is nice to be able to open them up and see everything nicely organized. Because we are missionaries, we have lots of stuff given to us. I try to use it, but honestly, there are some things I just could not do anything with. I was guiltily hanging on to them, but finally decided to toss them! It felt great, and I have more room now for stuff we actually will eat!
Everything looks so nice! Congratulations!
It is amazing how stuff can just sneak up and overwhelm our lives. Good for you! Now I’ve got to tackle some spaces… Thanks for the inspiration!
It looks great. It such a good feeling to get those chores accomplished.
@saintvi - sounds like a great plan…go for it!
@DanishDoll - i also have trouble parting with perfectly good stuff–especially if some sweet soul has given the item(s) to us, but if i can find a better home for those things than mine when they are not getting used, and appreciated, then somehow, it is okay to let the things go. some stuff was in such terrible shape that it just HAD to go straight into the trash, though…
@ata_grandma - thank you…it has been SO nice to have at least these area of my home more attractive and functional. the challenge will be keeping them that way as i wade through the rest of the house!
@murisopsis - happy to be the source of someone else inspiration for a change…that has not happened in a while! one of my biz network buddies that writes an organizing blog said that this should be done once a year, but i’m thinking it will take most of the year to get this done. perhaps once it is complete, a yearly “tune up” will prevent things from getting too overwhelming
@dingdongdingbat - absolutely LOVING that feeling and just felt like sharing with everyone before having to deal with (ewwwww!!!!) gathering data to do our taxes…
eww…you said that nasty “T” word…ummm…congradulations on finding all that there space in your home…after all this time I’m still finding things that need better homes…you are doing great tho…
@Donkey_Guy_10 -