Despite all my talk about recent acquisitions, I'm actually looking forward to streamlining in the near future. I think our early spring is wreaking havoc on my urge to organize, but I just can't get that to the top of my priority list with everything else going on, so things go in stacks and piles for a bit longer. With The Cupcake now fully mobile, those stacks and piles have to be strategically placed on the mantle, behind the locked door to the attic, or sprawled across the dining room table, which is a constant battle.
I've made a few minor steps forward, getting this armoire (ridiculously cheap and on sale at Sears, where they even loaded it in my car). It went together fairly easily, with the exception of the tracks for the drawer which I put on wrong a few times, and one of the screws for the handles is missing, but after some trial and error we decided to leave them off for the time being - kid proofing doesn't always mean locking! It's more of a deterrent, I'm sure she *could* get the drawer open without them, but she doesn't try so all is well. She does occasionally walk over and jiggle the giant plastic child proof lock on the doors, just to see if it happens to be open, and when I take it off to get something out she goes into ninja mode and is at my side before I can blink. It feels really stable and looks much more expensive, but since we really only need it to protect stuff for a few years, it is just right. I keep my camera and chargers in there, paperwork for coaching, and other things that I need to access regularly but not immediately. My mom's computer lives on top, along with a stack of bibs for the day and usually some mail. I still need to get a better system down, as I tend to swoop up piles of paper and "lose" important mail in the process, but it's a start.
The attic (formerly "craft room") is the worst, it's been a dumping ground since Xmas 2011. I've spent a handful of evenings up there in the past year and a half, but not enough to do more than move a few piles around and make a path. I did clear out a TON of stuff at the JBF sale - nearly all of TC's baby clothes and all of my maternity stuff sold, which was GREAT and made justifying my purchases MUCH easier! The next step is a yard sale, which I usually do pretty well with but which are also a crapload of work. I donated my tent to MNLove, so I'll have to figure out new logistics, tag everything, haul it down, spread it across the lawn, and simultaneously entertain The Cupcake. Hmm.
At the same time, there is always the danger of getting rid of too much - what if I send something out the door for a measly quarter, and find out I need it again down the road? I'll kick myself, especially since I plan to remain poor at best for the next great while. Oh, the great dilemmas I face daily!
Also, remember when I posted all that jibberish about how I was taking control of my closet, and I'd set out these great rules? Yeah, I failed at that pretty darned quick. I believe my very next purchase was a dry-clean only dress (super cute, and I wore it several times, but come on, what was I thinking? It's $15 a wear! That is NOT my lifestyle.), followed by 2 pair of pants that desperately need hems taken up. I had a few JC Penny gift cards, and somehow talked myself into the wrong things. They really are good rules, if only my legs were 3" longer and I could wear dress pants and khakis off the rack! And I bought some cute shirts I thought fit just fine when I tried them on, but my bra straps always end up hanging out, so I'm thinking I should just throw in the towel on them...add them to the piles. Also, I need to remember I spend half my day bending over and running after TC, so my necklines need to act appropriately.
I'm also currently getting excited about finishing a few projects we started in the basement only to sideline myself with more monetary worries. We took out our bar this winter, realizing that it was cute but totally non-practical. We used it for Halloween parties in our old lives, but otherwise who would sit at a bar and stare at the wall? It had turned into a dumping ground, and the room was wasted. We decided to turn it into a playroom and the hubby & my dad set to work doing what I thought would be a simple uninstall...only to find the bar had been built piece by piece in it's location, and was NOT coming out in any other way. I had hoped to be able to sell it to finance some of the mini renovation, but it was totally destroyed. Last weekend I finally went and picked out a new cabinet to put in it's place (we're reinstalling the sink, and staging the whole thing as a bar again, but flat against the wall, more like a serving buffet than a bar you sit around). As feared, there was no carpet underneath what we removed, so we have a giant gaping hole right now, next to a section of stick on faux parquet, and I have to decide whether to replace the flooring for the whole basement now and enjoy it, throw a rug over it and wait till Norm dies and we decrease our chance of ruining new carpet, or just wait till we're going to move. Either way, something has to be done, it's just a matter of when and how much we are willing to put into it. So far I'm not sure. And so it all sits.
Anyone else have spring fever?
1 comment:
Ack, I just handed a bag full of baby clothes to two pregnant women at work. I had such a hard time not ripping it back out of their hands and clinging to each precious piece of clothing that my baby wore. Never mind that I have an equally sized bag sitting at home full of things to keep.
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