Excitement Brewing

We got news this week that the house we'd put a short sale offer in on, might go to us. If we want it, we have to absolutely scramble and try to have all our paperwork done by 3/10. Yikes! Mostly that is closing the loan, escrow, building inspection, etc... so that it can be done. These short sales are weird... we definitely feel like we risk the whole deal if everything is not done the day the bank selling the house has specified. Additionally, we are trying to be sure BOTH banks owed money have approved the short sale price and to sell it at this (they have to forgive parts of the current owner's debt in order for it to go through). If that is not the case, then it might not be a go after all. We're blessed in that we don't have to have this house sold in order to do this, and that will allow us to move out, and do some projects here that need to be done in order to sell this house at the best $$$ possible.

In the meanwhile, I am even picking up the speed even more in cleaning. The goodwill will have to open a new store next week to hold all that I am going to be taking there! No matter what happens with the other house, it will be so nice to have breathing room in this one. Laura

Have you ever seen my laundry room?

Everyone's house has a catch-all room, right? (ours maybe has many of these, LOL). The laundry room, in our house, is probably the worst of these. You wouldn't believe the stuff that has been living in there! This weekend, I finally got brave enough to attack that mess. Here is a photo of it "almost" done. It's not quite there, but so much better that I had to share. I know, for anyone who didn't see the "before" you might not understand how much better this is, but trust me, it is. In addition, we took an entire carload of donations to the Goodwill! Yippee! Even the garbage man got a huge pile this week.

Decluttering with Mo

Yesterday Mo, and her two kids came over. While the kids hung out (OK, two teen girls who I hope and pray will become friends -- they are both sweeties, mine and hers... and two little boys who already look so forward to seeing each other every chance then can) we worked in the family room. The corner, where all the movies, video games, etc... get stashed is now clear, clean, and organized, and it WILL stay that way! Also we tackled the coat closet, and attacked the mess on the top shelf when I've always kept our printed photos (some day, some way, they will end up in scrapbooks). There was so much junk up there! Now part of a black trash bag is full of garbage, and another is full of goodwill items. My goal today is to TRY and fill up the rest of those bags (and more?) so they can leave. With a house this full of junk, there is no use getting rid of only half-full bags.

Happy Valentine's Day!! Laura

A SLOW week (in terms of cleaning out)

This past week, even the weekend, has been insanely busy, which means I've had a really slow week in terms of getting things uncluttered. Grrrr... I REALLY want to get this STUFF handled, but don't seem to be making too much headway. I did clean out the master bathroom cabinets (wow, two trash bags and one goodwill bag full... WHO honestly has that much junk in their bathrooms... us, for one. Ugh!), but that has been it for the last few days. Please hope for me that this "dry spell" gets moving again! Today won't be the day, because I'm off to the Childrens Hospital for much of the afternoon to get Ana's cast removed. That in itself will be cool, though.

Laura

The weekdays... productive? Yeah right!

I keep wondering what I do all day, as I'm not getting much clearing out done. The weekdays just start and finish all in the same minute, it seems. Today was supposed to be a productive one but needs of a small girlie in my house made it tough for me to get much done. Tomorrow,I'll only have little bursts of time in which I can declutter, but I pray I will be able to do that. The very people, my precious family, are the ones I want to bless with a cleaner and more organized home, yet, it is their needs that sometimes make it difficult for me to get to my work at decluttering! Tomorrow, I have Bible Study, then a couple of hours.... then I'll be taking Ana to get some of her immunizations caught up (didn't realize we were missing any!) per an urgent letter from school. Then, home for a couple of hours, and on the run again for the evening.

Maybe I should spend my time at stoplights organizing the car? (sort of joking...)

Laura

Sunday, A Day of Rest...

God has been so good the last two Sundays. Both weeks, I have been a roll on Saturday and thinking (even though I set out with the plans I would not) that I would do more clearing out on Sunday. Well, both weeks, HE has made sure I wouldn't! Last week, my good friend Nancy from Oklahoma showed up. For some reason, I thought her plane was coming around dinnertime, but she was here in the early afternoon. That provided us shopping time, and visiting time... it was fun and relaxing! This week, it was the Superbowl. Our good friend and her daughter came, and that was much more enjoyable than clearing out stuff. God is good, and He makes sure we rest!

Hoping for a productive week, one that honors God too. He already started me off the right way.

Laura

Cristians Room and Glass Cabinets

Both yesterday and today were days for working on Cristian's room. A lot is gone! Although, I didn't take any pictures. I was too tired from cleaning! I guess, I actually started it Thursday, because we took a tall kitchen bag stuffed with clothes to the Goodwill that day. I worke at weeding out toys on Friday, and Mo helped me when I thought I was done - - still filled more bags to go! I think all in all there were about 3-4 black lawn trash bags that left (some garbage and some Goodwill), and I know there are 3 FULL tall kitchen bags in the back of the van to go tomorrow morning to be donated after church. Additionally, another 2 almost full black lawn trash bag went to the neighbor's, and there is one that isn't quite full, but is getting there, in my bathroom (it wasn't full, so I decided to work on my bathroom drawers to get it there - - still working, as the drawers are done but tomorrow I'll get to the "under the cabinet" space).

I hope I'm getting better habits. As I fold wash, and even as I put it away, I'm trying to pull one more thing out of each drawer to go. !!!!! Even hand-me-downs we got this week, I sorted before putting them away either in drawers or the "grow in" pile. We are so blessed with hand-me-downs, and Tori looks forward to the bags coming. Still, I realize if we won't use it, it probably makes sense to gift it to someone else rather than storing it and then passing it on. A bag of really nice dancewear went to a friend (Tori isn't dancing at present) . Shared blessings!

Living in clutter is serious business, and it is outright seriously depressing. Having it leave is an uplift! I realize, truly, that we've only scratched the surface on this stuff, but I will push on.


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I, by the way, AM very serious about the "bigger barns" thing. I WILL NOT move anything I don't intend to have as an integral part of our lives!

Remember my post about the glass cabinet doors, last weekend? Well, we looked at a "bigger barn" that has ALL glass upper cabinet doors. Now, isn't that ironic? If we should move to a kitchen like that, I want to be READY!

Laura