Finally, I'm off my duff

I'm going to do it...

I am going to taint this blog with ugly "work in progress" photos again.

I have really tried to avoid this because those "before" pictures are just so darn nasty and just ruin this "happy place" of mine with its disgustingness.

But, I am pretty proud of myself so...it is worth it.

For the last few weeks I have been...um...well, overwhelmed to say the least. After the initial rush of cleaning and unpacking essentials, I was so exhausted, that I decided to "put off" doing the UNESSENTIAL things. Nothing wrong with that, per se, except I put it off indefinitely. What's worse, I have spent the last few weeks angry, disgruntled, and overwhelmly frustrated that the house (weeks later) STILL isn't orderly and FINISHED. Why would I expect it to be so, if I am not working toward that, you ask? Well. Because I am foolish.

I would look around at the boxes (that have been tucked and shoved where they will be less noticed) and see all the work still left to do, but it would get me so TIRED that I never would begin to tackle them. I'd look the other way. Busy myself with something, ANYTHING and then...go to bed mentally exhausted from living in a house that isn't how I want it to be.

I could see the hard work. I could feel the pain of exhaustion, the heaviness of book boxes. I could smell the sweat, the dust in my nostrils. And it just wasn't pleasant. But eventually...(yesterday) I pulled myself up by the bootstraps and slapped myself across the face and said "SELF. Stop being a lazy idiot and just get it all done ALREADY!"

And then I set to work.

Operation Closet (turns out we DO have one in the upstairs!) was a-go.

Here is what it looked like, though not as bad as what it originally was...you may not have survived a glimpse of it back then...

Matt hauled most of the heavy stuff to the barns and we filled it with those pesky boxes I didn't want to see any more.

So, first things first. I hauled out all the boxes (and they were heavy buggars!)

Then, I vacuumed the thick layer of dust and cobwebs.

After that, I washed the ceiling, walls, and shelves. Then, swept and mopped the floor.

This is the result of that work. I know, it would have been AWESOME to respackle and paint this BEFORE unloading our stuff into it, but there comes a point when some things just have to be put on hold. The walls are prime example of one of those times.

Then, the unpacking and reloading of it.

Turns out, the closet is bigger than I had anticipated.

On the right we have our huge selection of games (yes, we are THOSE kind of people...)
On the left and in the bins, we have some recent food stores (yes, we are squirrels!),
in the middle, a few afghans
and the top, bathroom essentials (yes, I am a CVS'er).

As you can see, there is lots more room for stockage. ;-)