Disorganization makes me feel . . . icky (that’s a technical term). I’m just not happy when anything is that messy and unorganized. Clean, organized and functional bring me such peace and harmony, and I even hear little angels singing. That’s how much I love it. So when my cabinets start looking like this:

I’m a miserable mess, and I must clean it out and start fresh so that I can hear my little angels singing again. But while my brain was paralized by the obvious and before SleepDeprivedMomma straigtened me out, I was at a loss.

Now she had me rethinking the whole concept of how my kitchen is set up and I realized that I’d been fighting against myself for years in my kitchen. There IS a logical flow plan to a small (tiny) kitchen that could greatly improve its functionality. So while the Inauguration was on and had pre-empted my recorded soap, The Young and the Restless, the other day, I set out restructuring the whole layout of my cabinets. Oh I was listening to the TV, and I even stopped and watched a little of it

(I’m so lame that I took pictures of our new President and First Lady dancing on my TV with Beyonce in the back singing – a historical moment captured in digital), but mostly I was organizing.

THIS is the very refreshing results. All of this fresh start in my kitchen just in time for Super Bowl Sunday. It’s coming soon people!! Arizona vs. Pittsburgh! I love any excuse to cook tons of food.

Well, he moved back home a year later (long story) with a one-year plan that turned into a three-year plan and I put the pool table in a friend’s garage. It’s been there for 3 1/2 years now. I thought about reviving my Entertainment room, but seriously, the room was really too small for it. So many shots couldn’t be made with a regular pool stick. AND if something happened again and one of my boys had to move back home, the thought of moving that pool table ONE MORE TIME just sent me running for the hills. That sucker is heavy! So for the last six months, the room has just sat with no real purpose. No identity. And it was starting to collect STUFF.

After thinking about it for six months before he moved out and six months after he moved out, I FINALLY decided (Hey! I take my decision-making seriously) and I was ready to put my plan into motion. Only Christmas was consuming so much of my time for awhile and then I had computer failure that almost sent me to the looney bin that it took me awhile to actually begin with my new plan. But the time finally came.

I began with a coat of paint. Well, several coats of paint. This is what it looked like BEFORE.

This is what it looked like after an entire can of primer.

And this is the final product. Welcome to my new office!

Yep! I decided to move my office from my upstairs loft to the spare bedroom downstairs. With all the cooking I do (downstairs) and all the photography I do (downstairs), it only made sense to bring my computer and all my photography equipment and software and cookbooks and everything downstairs.

It’s still a work in progress. The boys moved the desks and I moved everything else downstairs this past weekend. My thighs ached after 268 trips up and down the stairs. After the 217th trip, I was rethinking how many books one person should be allowed to own.

I’ve picked out this loveseat that I want to put against that empty wall and then I’ll bring the TV from upstairs and set it up in my office. I’ve got some things I need to hang on the walls too, so it’s going to take a little more work. Then, the room will be my little oasis. It will be comfortable and cozy and functional. I’ll have everything I love all together in one room (and closer to my second favorite room – the kitchen) and I couldn’t be happier with my decision. . . my fresh start in my new office.

Now what to do with an empty loft. . . .

With the New Year here and in full swing, I’ve already begun my “fresh start”. Either that or the weather is so cold and crappy that I don’t have anything else to do. . . so I ORGANIZE with all intents and purposes of calling it my “fresh start”, meaning boxing up last year’s stuff and creating a new system for the year to come. Only this year, I’ve gone slightly more overboard than usual. I have taken organization to a whole new level.

It started at Christmas when I received these cool new appliances that, although I loved dearly, I had no room for in my postage stamp size kitchen.

Something had to be done. My sister got my motor started while she was here visiting. (She’s worked for Walmart setting new stores for almost twenty years so she’s obsessed with “modularize” shelves, utilizing every square inch of space for marketing purposes (she’s pretty sure that’s a Walmart term only). I was really quite impressed with her skills.) She tore into my laundry room/storage room/pantry and created all kinds of new space for me. It was awesome!

I didn’t think to take a “before” picture.

Then came my birthday five days later and more small appliances:

FUN! So I made a decision. I cleared out my hallway coat closet (it’s right next to my kitchen). I put everything that was in that closet into the spare bedroom closet. Then my boys installed shelves thus transforming it into an extended pantry. LOVE IT!

I’m so excited about all my organization. But it is a job that doesn’t seem to have an end.

Have you EVER? What a disaster! I’m still perplexed as to how to organize this little cabinet. It gets a lot of use as I toss things around in there every single day. I need to devise something that will help me keep it neater and encourage peace and harmony with the rest of my organized spaces.

Any ideas?

Anyway, the whole point of my walk down Memory Lane is that in the length of time I’ve lived here, I’ve literally run like a mad woman between work, school events, chauferring, errands, dinners, breakfasts, lunches, family functions, etc. (you know the drill) and insuring that the life my boys knew BEFORE the divorce was NOT going to change enough for them to feel the pain.

Although I thought myself SEMI-successful in my goal at the time, there were a few things (*note: sarcasm) that I let fall to the wayside. And MY own personal space was what fell. . . My bathroom more specifically. (Hell, I was the only one in it, so who cared) I kept the rest of the house presentable enough that if I had a ten minute notice that someone was coming by that I’d have it in “company” shape. Everything was okay. . . . except my bathroom closet, my bathroom cabinets, and my bathroom drawers. These drawers resembled a preverbial “junk drawer”. Good grief! I should have taken pictures.

With the kids grown and gone now, I’ve slowly been making the whole house my own. I started downstairs painting, putting in new floors, rearranging things, cleaning closets and such. Then I moved to my office in my loft and did the same thing. Finally, I attacked my bathroom – the last room in the house. I thought it was going to be the least of my worries. Good God people!! The stuff I pulled out of that tiny space was absolutely stunning.

It got me to wondering. . . Am I the only one that shoves stuff in their closets, cabinets and drawers thinking “I may need that one day” or “I’ll use that later”? I ask because I was appalled at myself at what all I pulled out of there.

A box full of contact cleaning solutions. (I haven’t WORN contacts since 2003 when I had lasik!)

Who knew that cleaning out your bathroom could be so. . . . cleansing? To throw out all that crap that I held onto for so many years. . . well, it was cleansing. . . both physically and mentally.

The clean and organized and uncluttered look feels so much more like ME – happy and comfortable. The new happy, comfortable me that I’ve become. Did I just not ever have time to figure out who I was before? OR did it take going through all those years to make me. . . well, me?

What do you have lurking in your bathroom nether regions? Please tell me that I’m not the only clutter freak out there!!

]]> http://yellowjeepblonde.com/organized-the-new-me/feed/ 9 http://yellowjeepblonde.com/what-i-did-on-my-summer-vacation/ http://yellowjeepblonde.com/what-i-did-on-my-summer-vacation/#comments Tue, 29 Jul 2008 01:24:20 +0000 Donna http://yellowjeepblonde.com/what-i-did-on-my-summer-vacation/ I CLEANED!  While I don’t think that everyone should spend their summer vacation cleaning OR do I think that it is the most fun I could have had with my first ever week long vacation, I can honestly say that I’m very happy with the end result.

The weather certainly cooperated with my “timed vacation” – since it was over 100 degrees the first couple of days, then it rained its A$$ off the rest of the week – crazy thunderstorms.  Had I planned a “real” vacation, I’d have been thoroughly disappointed in the weather.  But since I had planned such a structured UN-FUN vacation, the rain was actually a welcomed nuisance.  Otherwise, the sun would have distracted me and I would have had to have justified myself ignoring my “boring” plans by saying, “Well, you ARE on vacation.”  And that would have been THAT, aka. nothing accomplished.

I DID finally make it to the pool Friday afternoon.  The pool guy, who knew I was going to be on vacation all week, joked me about the weather I’d had for my glorious week off.  But alas, I fooled even Mother Nature.  We did indeed need the rain AND I did indeed need to clean the Hell out of my house.

With Chris finally moving out, there was a LOT to go through because apparently my son is the S. L. O. W. E. S. T. mover on the planet.  Me – I prep for several weeks in advance and then move the whole house and set up in one exhausting day (or two).  Not him.  No – he took his sweet little baby time.  Thought I suspect it was a diabolical scheme on his part as I ended up packing MOST of his crap just so he would come and get it the Hell out of my house.

But CAN I tell you. . . . how EXHAUSTED I was?  How old I felt?  In my head, I’m still 25 years old and can accomplish just about anything on my To-Do List.  But in sad reality, I am really 47 years old and by golly, it apparently makes a difference.  I was up and down ladders, squatting endlessly while I washed and SCRUBBED every door and every cabinet in my house, moved almost every stick of furniture, cleaned out, under and behind everything ________ and my body H.U.R.T.

As I was laying in bed unable to sleep for the pain I was feeling from head to toe, this is the conversation I had in my head. . .

Me – “Wow, this is what it’s like to get old?”

Head – “Yeah, sucks, huh?”

Me – “You betcha!”

Head – “So if you were never IN shape, how can you be OUT of shape now just because you’re older?”

Me – Shut up! (I was talking to my head) ____________ “As a standard, you’re typically strong when you’re young and you get weaker as you age, right?”

Head – “Right, so what’s your point?”

Me – wondering “But what happens when you were weak when you were younger?  What happens when you get older? Do you just disintegrate?”

Head - ”When you’re weak when you’re younger and you get older, you feel like you do NOW.”

Me – “NIIIIIIICE.  I blame it on menopause.”

While I’ve never been athletic or strong or physically fit, I’ve always held my own.  But I tell you, the last few years have sucked A$$.  What strength and stamina I had has GONE out the window.  Ten years ago, I’d have had this house spotless in half the time. . . . . and with half the aches and pains.

But have I mentioned how great my house looks now? 

Since I’m learning Photoshop, I don’t have many Before pictures to post because I feel that arrows and comments pointing out obvious stuff is essential, so I’ll work on the Before pictures.  For now, I take pride in what my house looks like so far.  Although there are still changes to be made, this is what it looks like so far.

 

 

These are my kitchen/dining room/living room now.   They all run together in one combined space.

And hold your seats. . . . this is what my downstairs bathroom looked like for the last three years.

Yes, that’s a ferret cage hogging the whole room.   I’m just happy you can’t smell these photos.  Let’s just say that EVERYTHING in the room needed to be washed.  EVERYTHING.

Now – THIS is my new bathroom. 

TADA!!!!!!!  It’s so pretty! Oh so pretty! It makes me feel like singing.

There’s more to come – things I LEARNED on my Summer Vacation.

 

]]> http://yellowjeepblonde.com/what-i-did-on-my-summer-vacation/feed/ 4 http://yellowjeepblonde.com/movin-out/ http://yellowjeepblonde.com/movin-out/#comments Thu, 17 Jul 2008 18:37:34 +0000 Donna http://yellowjeepblonde.com/movin-out/

This is me with my oldest baby. This picture is a couple of years old.  I think I need to get a more recent one before . . . get this. . . . drumroll please. . . He moves OUT!  FINALLY.   He’s movin’ out tomorrow!!!  **happy dance**

I know I’m not sounding like the greatest mom on the planet with that remark, but you gotta understand. . . he’s my oldest AND he’ll be 24 years old in three weeks.  I think it’s time.  He knows I love him more than Paris Hilton loves herself.  BUT – I want my house back.  He’d actually moved out several years ago.  He was gone for one year (a roommate bailed on him leaving him with the exorbatent rent) and then he moved back home with an infamous “One Year Plan”.  That was almost three years ago.  He moved back into my condo with an entire apartment full of furniture and STUFF.  This STUFF has been crammed into every nook and cranny of my house and I. AM. OVER. IT.  I can’t WAIT to get my house back!

I’ve already started making a list.  I’ve got a sheet of paper for every room in my house with a list of what I want to do to it.  One column has a list of items I need to purchase for that room – everything from switch plates to furniture.  And one column for what needs to be done to that room.  That includes everything from just plain cleaning it within an inch of its life to replacing the floors.  I am totally redecorating!  I’m taking next week off work to tackle these lists and I’ll probably work harder than I do during a typical workweek – well. . . . unless the sun is shining.  Then I might have a problem.  The sun will want to drag me outside.  The sun is funny like that.  It teases and lures me whispering sunshine and rainbows in my ear.  I’ll have to fight temptation. . . cuz I’ve got work to do.

I should take before and after pictures.  I just thought about that.  I’ll have to start tonight with the before pictures.  You know, so you can see what I’ve been dealing with.  I warn you now – it ain’t pretty.  So if you’re sensitive, you might want to skip the pictures. 

I’ll be doing all of this cleaning and stuff while my baby will be setting up his new apartment.  Bless his heart!  He is going to be just fine.  His apartment is right across the breezeway from his best friends, so that should be fun for him.  And he can leave his crap all over his apartment if he wants.

Good luck baby!!  Mama loves you!!

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