So, the time has come, now that I've been in my house for almost four years (I know, right??) to actually unpack some stuff that I shoved into one of my closets approximately 3.5 years ago when I hosted Easter not long after I moved in.
Last year I accidentally set a precedent to host Christmas Eve, and as the daughter of the family matriarch (sorry Mom… it's true!), I guess I have to Suck It Up™ and continue on with new family traditions. At my house. In my stuff. *sob*
Anyway, so last year it took me all of December to shovel out my house, and this year I'm determined not to spend all month cleaning out my collected detritus. I truly, deeply, abhor housekeeping (except for laundry, I kind of love doing laundry), so for me to undertake the following projects is a sign of how much I don't want to spend time doing things in December.
Here's the deal. In the master suite (haha… but it kind of is one) there is a section of the room that has two closets – a regular sized one and a big one that meet, more or less, at a right angle. The regular sized closet is full of plastic storage bins, my dresses and paint cans. This closet is opposite the vanity, aka Clothes Receptacle Dumping Ground. I would actually like to use the vanity as a vanity since I have real designer makeup now and a huge nail polish collection that needs a real home aside from the den coffee table.
PROJECTS TO COMPLETE BEFORE CHRISTMAS OMG:
- Clear out second closet completely, bins, dresses, paint, foam bed thing, everything. Actually unpack bins and put things away and/or get rid of stuff.
- Move filing cabinet from big closet to second closet
- Install shelving into second closet so it can be a linen closet (which I don't have – my linens live piled in a cardboard box, as they have since 2009. Oops. For someone who has a generous amount of sheet sets and towels, this is vaguely embarrassing.
- Get massive Star Wars collection out of the den and into the big closet, where the filing cabinet was. My Star Wars crap is stored in two very large bins under the bar section of my kitchen counter (on the den side). I want to get at least one bar stool to place there instead.
- Clean out old clothes/shoes, stored clothes at bottom of the big closet, and donate to the Richmond Rescue Mission.
- Move shoe bin of shoes I actually wear to big closet instead of under vanity.
- See if I can get purple luggage set into either big or second closet OR store outside in the shed.
- Move paint to shed.
- Clear off vanity of clothes thrown on it and chair, move makeup train case to vanity from bathroom and maybe get a Melmer from Michael's to hold the nail polishes. Also get a 5x magnifying mirror for the space and move some of the other makeup crap from the bathroom to the vanity.
- Clear out vanity drawers (I don't think there's too much stuff in them)
- Cull books and donate to WC Library foundation for fundraisers
- Straighten up living room and get cow horns up on the wall (not sure how to attach, need to check 3M products if they have a narrow hook to hang it – can't really use a nail because the area where I want to hang it is right behind the stove vent and power outlets above the microwave in the kitchen)
- Move old computers and Harry Potter Legos from the living room into now-organized closets. Harry Potter Legos might go into the craft room closet, but that is another disaster for another day.
- Unpack new dishes and pots and get them into rotation – clean out old dishes and pots and donate to the foster kid program (for kids who age out of the foster care system and don't really have anything to start out with – a program I hugely support! I think these kids are often forgotten about in the grand scheme of society.)
- Move sconces from foyer to flank college diploma over bookshelf. I ordered a large print to hang in the foyer that I've been wanting. (We're coming up on the end of 2012: Year of Doing/Buying Whatever I Want… gotta get some final stuff in! heh)
- Replace pinch pleat curtain hooks – the hooks have disintegrated and I need to reinstall new hooks along the rod and rehang the curtains. I'm pretty peeved about this because I feel like I JUST replaced the one set, but what are you going to do? The hooks are plastic and don't cost very much.
Generally speaking I would just do one room at a time but all of the above kind of interelate – except for maybe the book cull and sconce moving. Everything that needs to be done all starts at the second closet! Boo! The time has come.
Since I do hate, oh so very much, pretty much everything about housekeeping, I'm hoping that the above projects will keep me organized for the foreseeable future, so I can keep the house straightened up on a regular basis. Having a dedicated place for linens will be delightful! I haven't had a linen closet in years.
You'd never know it, but this year the house has been much more organized and less covered in papers than it was last year (somewhere my dad is shaking his head in disdain) – I can tell, and since I'm the one who lives there, mine is the only opinion that matters. Seriously though, I have been a lot better about keeping the junk mail off of every flat surface. (I throw it in a pile by the back door, which then gets thrown in the recycle bin.)
I'm not really a minimalist when it comes to home decoration – I love STUFF (boy do I) but at the same time, I'm also not really attached to any of my STUFF. In fact, as the years go by and I acquire more STUFF, the less STUFF I feel like I have a real connection to. (Probably because my affection is spread around).
I do love those terrible cow horns though; they add a certain je ne sai quois to the whole thing. And by je ne sai quois I mean awesome. Heh.
(I am the person who has a hot pink flocked deer statue in her living room. Taste is not exactly an issue around here.)
I ordered the above linked art print, and I want to get my Ed Emberley (!) print "Monster Parade" framed. I want to do a floating frame (can't have the print touch the glass) and the print has rounded corners so I don't really know how that would work. I guess I could, you know, actually take it down to the frame shop and get a bid. *rolls eyes at self*
I got started on the bins the other night and have been finding interesting things in them (sketchbooks from years past with crying Batmans, zombies, etc., my handgun safety booklet, a CD I thought was long vanished, decorative papers…). I am definitely making progress on my project – and I found the size shelving I want to install in the closet on the Lowe's website. I may get organized sooner than I was expecting!
Anyway, so that's what's going on with the house. My dream someday is to have a weekly housekeeper. Yes, it's one of those things that I would gladly pay someone else to do (much like yardwork, which I do pay someone to do occasionally [my cousin]).
***
When I bought my place in December 2008 (I moved in over New Years of 2009), I always figured I'd just be there for three or four years before moving on to someplace else. Well, I've worked with homeowners associations for six years now just about, and I know that I do NOT want to live in a condo. I don't know what I want to do or where I want to live. But I CAN tell you that I'm perfectly happy where I am for now, and I have no intention of moving any time soon. So that three or four years may turn into six or seven or eight years.
I may not live in the richest, best neighborhood, or own the richest, best house, but when I see what's happening around the country, and I look at what are, essentially, the riches surrounding me (dudes! I have a laundry room and satellite cable and I can park right next to my house. I'm not attached to any neighbors. I have central air and heating), I have no complaints. So what I am doing right now, is making my house my home, because I live there, and I will for awhile.
And I'm grateful for that.