Small Project and a Printable

Wow!  I am tired!  The house is slowly getting there, bit by bit.  I'm loving watching everything come together, though I still feel overwhelmed by the amount of work to do.  I have to keep reminding myself that step one is to declutter and pack up all the non essentials and get the house organized for showing.  Step 2 will come later. I keep getting ahead of myself in my head, and that does nothing to help my stress level.

Today, my mission is just the main area.  Getting it tidied up.  I think it is really going to go a long way to helping me feel more in control once I get the living room and kitchen/dining area all put to rights.  Wanna see what our dining area has been like for the past week?

Behold the chaos of renos, packing, cleaning ... UGH!

I told you I'd keep it real for you!  lol  Yeah, the table has been acting as catch all, desk, temporary home for items to get packed, and well... a general mess.  The kids have been loving this because it means dinner time is a picnic in the living room.  Not ideal, but I will say this, it's had the effect of turning dinner time into family fun time.  This Mommy, however, is ready to start eating at the table again.  To do that, I had to tackle a few other areas too.  I needed to repurpose the desk from here:  and that meant moving more things around.  I'm REALLY going to have to rethink where to put the printer.  I can't pack it yet, because our Teen still has to have access to it, and I know I'll have things that I need to print.  I'm toying with some ideas.  And the book shelf that was holding all my craft supplies is getting a new home in the boys room, possibly.

To deal with the MESS!  I started by putting things back where they belong, or finding new temporary homes for them.  The bathroom stuff got put back into the bathroom, even though I still need to paint in there, I decided that it was best to get each room functioning again.  I can clear it out again when I'm ready to paint.  The tools got rounded up and I put them in the addition, I'm sure I will need them all again soon.  The rest was just damage control.  I moved out everything that wasn't needed at the moment, (like the empty boxes) and packed the items that were waiting to be packed.  All in all, it was an easy project, and I feel TEN times better for having it done.  It didn't take long, I sort of puttered through it.  I needed to take a day to just take my time.  I'm burning out pretty quickly, and that won't help in any way, shape, or form.  And here is what I am left with!

Yep!  Now I am a happy Mommy again!  The table is cleared off, the floor is not only clutter free, but mopped clean.  As you can see I packed up some of the office stuff to make room for the microwave.  I'm still undecided on whether it's going to stay or if I'm going to move the whole lot out to shed.  We hardly use the microwave, but I will wait and see on that one.  I do need to address the sad excuse for a window treatment.  It was one of those, "Quick, I need something for the windows!" fixes.  Since the dining area is in the kitchen, I'm thinking that I might make something to match the kitchen window.  Perhaps a cafe style treatment, or something . . . I don't know.

Next up for tonight is the living room.  I have two book shelves that need new homes, and some more packing to do.  Little projects.  And while I'm thinking about it, I'll add taking before pictures to my to do list, lol

Aside from moving stuff, it's life as usual here.  Which can be really hard to keep going with normal stuff, when there are sooo many projects waiting for me.  Staying organized with my time is really important as I talked about yesterday.  One of the things I use help me out, is a meal plan.

Weekly Meal Planner

I just fill it out every Saturday night, and I'm set for the week.  I don't think about meals, just check the list and set out what I need.  It's been such a HUGE help.  If you would like a copy of your own, just click the link under the picture!  :-)

Now I'm off to try to figure out the book shelf issue, and get dinner started!  I hope you all had a great week, and I wish you a wonderful weekend!!!