Plan of Attack

I'm yearning for change where this house is concerned.

That's not a new thing for me. I regularly daydream about moving out of this little house to a place with a bit more breathing room (and by that I mean closets). I long to have a covered patio or a porch with a swing. A lovely (first floor) laundry room that doesn't make me paranoid about spiders. A garage would be wonderful. A room specifically for homeschooling.

But, throughout all the daydreaming, my rational side reminds me of the harsh truth. Due to finances, we ain't goin' nowhere. At least not for a few more years.

So if I can't remove us from the house, I've got to reform it.

We definitely have a clutter/storage problem. I honestly don't think we have more stuff than other people. But we do have MUCH less space to store stuff. So, my only solution is to simplify. Get rid of stuff and find sensible ways to store things like off season clothes and homeschool records, not to mention ways of dealing with THIS season's clothes and homeschool stuff. I look around and just want to go crazy throwing away. I now understand that glint my mom would get in her eyes when she looked at my incredibly messy and cluttered bedroom.

I'm not an organized person by any means. But at the same time, I hate disorganization. I'm a slob who hates clutter and mess. Obviously, only one side can win. Right now, it's the clutter.

So, I've come up with a plan to make simplifying one room at a time in our house the goal over the next year or so. I don't just want to throw stuff away, I also want to make our home a beautiful place to be, where we can be comfortable and happy. Let's face it, I'm in this house all.the.time. It would be nice if I felt like I could breathe and manage the chaos. So, I'm making a list for each room of things I'd like to do, fix, get rid of and paint. I'll try to remember to take before and after photos too so I can have a sense of accomplishment and post my progress here. We're already planning a big garage sale combined with my mom and sister in the next month or so. Hopefully that will be like the project's kick off.

Granted, I've decided this when I'm 24 weeks pregnant and sleepier than I've ever been in my life. Pregnancy might delay progress for a little while longer, but hopefully blessed nesting will overcome me soon. I'd like to get a couple rooms emptied, organized and spruced before August. We'll see. At least there's a goal, right?