If You Try to Move Some Backpacks...

It all started with a mountain of backpacks and papers and jackets in the corner of my kitchen by the back door.   Things had to change.

And because I am a bad blogger, and impatient, I did not think to take a good before picture.  The corner of my kitchen next to my back door was driving me crazy.  I had a little shelf thing with glass shelves tucked under the white shelves on the wall.  A row of hooks were on the wall between the corner and the door.  I had all sorts of baskets with random junk in them all on those glass shelves.  And the hooks were not quite enough to handle the jackets plus backpacks plus dance bags plus lunch bags... go figure.

I was going nuts and trying to think of a better solution.  I called my mom.  I called my sister. 

My biggest problem, was that to do anything about the corner in my kitchen, I would have to tackle the coat closet, and then tackle the linen closet, and then the office (because we are going to convert it back to a bedroom), and then the garage (because there's no room to store things with all the junk that is currently in there).  Then the laundry room needed to be reorganized so that I could use that space for displaced office items...   Plus, to top it off, the family room downstairs was a disaster.  The tv was pulled away from the wall because we were going to put in our wood burning stove there.  There were piles of laundry all over, and garbage everywhere.  

For example, to use this black cabinet (that used to be in the corner of the living room), I had to find a home for the books and decorative items that were in it before.   I was concerned about using it with the glass doors, because you know, it's so much work to open a door to put a paper inside....  But anyways, I just took the top door off, and It works great.  I adjusted the shelves, so there's a space to charge the laptop, and room for extra office supplies.  Plus, there is room for a portable file holder, so I can pretend to be organized!  

You see the snowball effect that happens when I need to fix one area in the house??  It would be easier just to move.  :)  But since that ain't happening, I need to work with what I've got.  But it was completely overwhelming to think about where to start.

Luckily, I have the best sister and mom in the world, and they came over and talked me down a little.  Amy had several suggestions to make the project more manageable, and my mom came and helped me move things around.  So far I'm loving the changes we made.

after

before

We turned the rug on an angle, and it made a big difference to be able to see more of the wood underneath.   The piano moved to the wall between the fireplace and kitchen table.  

after

I moved the hooks to my front door, with this wire tower that will get baskets for gloves and hats and boots.  I'm not 100% about the hooks there, but for now it's ok.

And since I had moved everything from that cabinet, and off of surfaces, I got to rearrange my holiday stuff (nothing drastically different, but a little better)

are these not the cutest trick or treat blocks??  

This has to be one of my favorite figurines that go on the blocks.  My sister makes them by hand...  LOVE!

Here is the cleaned up, rearranged basement.  You can see where the wood stove will go.  Tim is coming to tile it for us soon, so we'll be in business with cozy fires all winter!  So excited.

Anyway, the point of this rambling post is that it is up to me to make my home functional and work for my family.  There are some things about this house that I really do love.  The yard comes to mind (except for right now, when I have 30 bags of leaves waiting to be raked).  And IF I can get myself organized, and disciplined (and teach my children as well), there can be enough space for everything we need.    It's all part of my goal to learn to be content and happy NOW - and not only at some point in the future when things are different.