Nesting

Yep. There really is something to it. For some reason, I come home exhausted from work, but still feel like cleaning the house and organizing. I've had my hand in a few projects in the last couple of months. We completely cleaned out the kitchen by taking everything out of every drawer and cabinet - even the ones above the refrigerator that no one ever gets into! If you know me very well, you know that I tend to "save" things. I don't think I'm nearly as bad a pack-rat as a lot of people I know, but Casey seems to think I'm pretty awful. When commercials come on for Peter Walsh's show It's Enough Already (about severe hoarding) he always says "your show is on!" Haha!


So, after clearing out the kitchen cabinets and drawers I had two boxes of things to sell and donate. I also have a much handier "utility drawer" as I like to call it…you know, the drawer that has a flashlight, 2 screwdrivers (one flathead and one Phillips), a measuring tape, scotch tape, scissors, matches, batteries, etc. It is now organized and I know where to go when I quickly need one of these things. Everyone needs an organized catch-all drawer, but it's only good if it doesn't "catch" too much - and ours had been catching too much before we cleaned it out. We also now have a lightbulb basket in the laundry room because those were just clogging up the utility drawer like crazy!


Also on my list to do was to finish cleaning out Sawyer's closet and combining it with the guest bedroom closet. Sawyer's closet is organized and cleaned out, and all of the junk from that room went straight into the guest bedroom closet. We, I guess I mean I (since all the junk seems to be mine), had to do a lot of cleaning out to make this happen. We bought a 4-shelf wire rack from Office Depot to help organize all the stuff we had. At the top of the closet I have all of my extra dishes and a few decorative items that aren't out all of the time, as well as several boxes of pictures that I need to scan and put into photo albums. At the bottom of the closet we have our DVD stand, my scrapbooking stuff, our new wakeboard, my wedding dress, and other random things like that. It still needs to be cleaned out a little more, but now it is at least manageable!


The last thing on my list was cleaning out the garage! We have done this several times since we've moved into our house. In the beginning it was filled with junk and only my car was able to be parked in the garage. Last year we fixed that and de-cluttered enough to park both cars in the garage! Now it is pretty much completely clutter free, except for a few small shelves that could stand to be reorganized, but for the most part it is perfect! It's exciting to know that our garage is so organized. I know that this not the case for a lot of people and it certainly wasn't the case at my house growing up!


Casey even got into the attic and placed new boards down so that there is more room to store stuff! He was proud of his project. Besides the obvious holiday decor, there are boxes of his college and seminary books in the attic. Those were some of the things of his that had to be moved out of Sawyer's room (it use to be the office). A lot of the books went to Half Price Books, but the ones he couldn't part with went into the attic in hopes of an office someday either at the church or at our next house. 


If you're wondering about our master closet - it's perfected about 6 times a year when I make Casey help me sweep through, and we get rid of clothes and shoes. This last time we also went through all of our dresser and chest drawers. Our master bed and bath are probably the least cluttered rooms in our home…well, actually so is the living room, formal living room, and dining room. I guess it's always the spare closets and kitchen that I pack full of stuff, but not anymore! My days of clutter are over! *Side note: I hear it is hard to get rid of your baby's things…so I'm hope I'm strong enough to keep her room and things clutter-free as well.


Also as a part of my nesting I've found myself constantly doing the following tasks: taking out the trash, doing the dishes, vacuuming, touch-up painting random marks on the walls, and rearranging things in the nursery. I know that sounds like stuff I should be doing anyway, but I've just been doing it a lot more…and more often than it "needs" to be done. I think I am just getting to where I want it neat and tidy all the time…which isn't a bad thing in my opinion. :)


I guess it's true that having a baby really does make you "nest" and want to have your home in order before he or she gets there! I hope that when the time comes, and I rush off to the hospital (if I indeed do have to rush) that all is in order at home because I think it will just make for a much better and less-stressful homecoming.


Well, it's Friday and it's also disciple now weekend at c|Life so I have a busy weekend ahead! It's going to be fun though and I am excited! :)

Happy weekend!