Everyone seems to focus on organizing and decluttering at the start of every year. Unfortunately, most of the tips I read online and in magazines are not for a family of six living in a 1970s home. One “expert” tip from this month’s BH&G kept me laughing for a while. It gave guidelines for towels and sheets to stock down a full linen closet. Here’s what we would need to accommodate our family and two guests:

- 20 Towels
- 20 wash cloths
- 12 sets of sheets

Maybe we can build an addition specifically dedicated to storage. It would include the world’s first ever walk-in linen closet (although, these days, it probably has been done).

Lining shelves with adorable, brightly colored canvas bins with carefully etched labels is not a practical option in our house. Instead, each kid has a massive Step 2 or Little Tikes toy box. Our humble master closet looks like this:

I lost my mind when we bought this house. I went from a sentimental pack rat to someone who can’t sit through an entire movie without feeling the urge to get up and organize something. I tackle a certain cabinet, closet, or drawer about once a month to stay on top of clutter before it gets out of hand. I scan almost everything and pay all of the bills online to reduce paper clutter, and I sort through the mail every day. And yes, the photos of our house reflect the way it looks every day.

There is some good that comes with keeping our “stuff” down to a minimum. I sort through everyone’s clothes at the end of each season and donate everything they have outgrown. That is a much better feeling than trying to orchestrate a yard sale or selling lots on eBay. I also love that, while I don’t have a closet full of a million matched towels, we do have luxury towels that I found on clearance shelves in home stores.

I wish you all a wonderful New Year! Enjoy it, and don’t spend too much time decluttering!

The downstairs bathroom is complete. We decided to choose a wall color that would
match the flooring, and a dark brown for the trim that would give a natural wood appearance. I chose a semi-gloss for the walls (as always), but a flat paint for the trim. This worked very well. I painted the frame of a wall hanging and a cabinet we had on top of the toilet to match the trim, purchased a new shower curtain and a candle with holder. It all was very time consuming (especially when it came to the painter’s tape), but we are happy with the results and it was an inexpensive
improvement.

After walls were painted:

Before:

After:

I am exhausted. Even if there was anything left to paint, I wouldn’t do it!
I even re-painted the master bath ceiling tonight so Micah wouldn’t have to.
That was not a fun job, but it had to be done! Yesterday was a big house cleaning
day, and I had to do some odd jobs like put a new plug on one of the track light sets
downstairs, sweep the garage and organize to start making room for Micah’s car.
There were a lot of large items I had to throw out. Winter will be here before we know it, and I’m not sure if I am excited about that!

Now that Fall is here, it’s time to start doing a few more projects. Most of them involve just fixing up what exists instead of replacing or doing any costly repairs.

I am about to start painting Will’s room. It was beige when we moved in, and we haven’t touched it yet. After that, I am finally going to paint the doors and doorways upstairs in a few days. It shouldn’t take long, but I’ve procrastinated. Lastly, Micah is going to paint the master bathroom ceiling because it’s starting to look bad!

I want to fix up the hardwood floors in our bedroom because they are not well-kept at all. This is because there was wall-to-wallcarpeting there when we moved in, which I removed. The other floors were refinished, and Micah is going to use Minwax on those to keep them looking fresh. We don’t have a sander, and buying a good one would be a big purchase right now. So, my dad is going to let us borrow his when my family visits again. He managed to fix up some areas in his floors, so I know he will be able to show us how to do the same. It’s great knowing someone who knows all of these things. I just wish my parents lived closer to us. We still have so much to learn!

That’s about it for now. I moved our bedroom furniture around recently, and it really opened up the room. It actually looks like a large bedroom now. Our nightstand drawer collapsed, and I couldn’t find a replacement that matched our furniture. Instead, I put a small accent table with a table cloth in the corner next to the bed for our alarm clock. Instead of throwing out the night stand, I removed the drawer, cleaned it up, and used it as a TV stand with the VCR/DVD player neatly wired inside. We’ve had that $40.00 nightstand since we got married! A couple of years ago, when the “wood” surface started to chip away, I painted it a deep red color that almost matches the darker cherry wood of my jewelry table. So, it’s been recycled before! OK, time to paint!

Well, we have officially lived here for one year. In some ways, time has passed quickly. The amount of work involved with home ownership was about what we expected, but it will be very busy soon. Spring is here! I am almost 36 weeks pregnant, so I have a few more weeks of limitations. I sneaked out to the garage after Micah left today, planning to sweep the floor. It turned into more work as I started organizing. The goal was to arrange things so that both cars could fit inside, and I accomplished that! The photo section is now updated. The garage has never been this clean and organized. Let’s hope we can keep it that way!

I’m sure there will be more updates in the near future, as the warm weather approaches.

My Dad was kind enough to tackle our attic this weekend. I was afraid to go near it, and Micah was clueless. There was no floor – just clouds of thick insulation. We didn’t know where to begin. Previous owners had thrown all sorts of things up there so they could crawl across, and all of it became our problem to clean!

It took about 7 hours, 2 face masks and a whole lot of sneezing, but he was able to build a plywood floor for us! It looks like we paid a professional to do it.

We have so much storage space now! I can’t wait to go through all of our storage items, sort them into rubbermaid containers, and put them away.

We also fixed a few odds and ends around the house, like our dryer hose (it kept falling off the vent). I also helped wire cable through the attic and into our bedroom. We used a wall plate to make it look very neat and hid the wires well. I’m so glad we have cable in there now!

My Dad also showed us how to fix a crack in the front steps. We used small rocks to fill in the gap and caulked it. Then, he used hydraulic cement to seal everything off and make it look neat. It’s a big improvement! We didn’t get to finish painting the house, but we’ll use a paint sprayer in a couple of weeks to get the sides of the house. Micah has been working on the back, a little at a time.