Back to it

First day back to work after 16 days off.  It felt like a month; I think that's a good thing.  I'm excited to get back into my routine so I can be more productive on a daily basis.  However, I feel like I made good progress on certain areas in my home over the past couple of weeks. (I'll post pics later).  I realized that  I organize spaces that are normally unseen - like closets and cabinets.  But the areas that are out in the open are just sort of a free-for-all.  Not sure why that is.  Maybe because I feel like I can control the clutter in these smaller, hidden spaces whereas the kids (and dad) just fly through the open areas and set things down wherever they are.  I got a new storage cube bookshelf with six cubes.  Three of them are just open and the other three have fabric drawers.  I will have to actually fit things in them to know for sure but here are my ideas of what to put in/on them:

1. Fabric drawer of winter accessories such as scarves, hats, and gloves.
2. Shelf of extra soap and laundry detergent-type items
3. Fabric drawer of extra batteries and candles. Maybe I'll put flashlights in there and the crank radio to make a mini-emergency bucket.
4. Shelf of games and binders
5. Fabric drawer of bubbles and other small outdoor-type items
6. Shelf of scrapbook paper with a bucket of tape, scissors, etc...
On top: 1. caddy of cleaning supplies and 2. Hubs' smaller toolbag and new hardware keeper.

We also got new garbage cans over the weekend and they all have lids.  I'm excited about the prospect of the lids and the fact that they all match because it'll look more put-together and you also won't be able to see trash everywhere in our house.  PLUS, it won't enable us to overflow the garbage every week.  Just take it out already, would ya?!  Hopefully that will prevent splatter as well.  I'm reading all these org. blogs and just came across one talking about 31 days to staging your home.  We need to do this for the short sale.  But we need to call the realtor first.  However, Hubs and I discussed living more simply in 2013 as one of our goals, so we are purging (trash or donate) anything we know we don't need as well as anything that hasn't been used in a year.  Once we have the extra clutter out of the way, we'll be able to better identify some areas that need work.  We already know we'll have to repaint certain rooms and repair the two small drywall holes and fix the spiggot.  The only other item I know will have to be addressed is trim.  Replacing and installing trim in a few areas.  Then we can focus on cleaning and staging.  It's really difficult to do all this when you're still living in the home and especially with doing a short sale (prayerfully) and not knowing the timing.  Also, we don't know where we will live which is another stress that I've just put in my rearview for now.  Impressively enough, I have forced myself not to obsess or even think about that for the last week or so.  God has a plan for us and we need to just be still and watch for direction.

Tonight, I have plans to clean out the chemical closet and move it to the garage (or the curb, if I can convince Hubs) and put the new shelf unit in its place.  Since I already have purposes in mind for each shelf/drawer, it should be a pretty seamless process. I'll take before and after pics and post them tomorrow.  Super excited to purge/de-clutter and organize this home and especially excited that my husband is on board and at least semi-dedicated to keep it that way once it's all done.  2013, you are going to change us as a family, I just know it.