Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Back on Track!



So last Monday I was ready to rip my hair out. I was fortunately spurred into action by the example of a sleepy pug dog. I thought I'd follow up with an update.
My awesome sister, Rebecca , equipped with fierce mad skillz, came by and helped me get the lead out. One afternoon with her, and it was all gravy. Supplied with an awesome playlist by the Master Mixer Gweny, the three of us were a bunch of busy bees and busted out some serious cleaning/ orgainization. As a result this week is looking much brighter. (Thanks, Rebecca.)
I can report that this Monday, I left for the Muse concert in Nashville (awesome, by the way.) with a squeaky clean conscience, because although I left my hubby and five kitties to fend for themselves overnight, I left them in an equally squeaky clean apartment.
And there was joy.
Because our old computer crashed I don't have any before pictures to show, which is probably a good thing. But here are a few after pictures. I really consider these progress pictures because I don't think I'll ever be really done. After all, no matter how clean your sink is, there will always be more dishes, so to speak.
The Maintainance section of The Great Simplify Project will never be over. Drawers and Giant Tupperware are all well and good, but they'll amount to nothing if we don't put stuff in 'em.
Yeah, I really meant it when I said this place is tiny. The space we've opened up is amazing. Visitors have been astounded...it's kind of funny to see. There used to be a giant table in the middle of this room. It was very unwelcoming and did not get a lot of use. It was basically a drop off point for our stuff when we came in the house. We moved the table out and moved our desk, and bookcases in. Now the room actually has a purpsose and gets used. I call it the library. Bill calls it the mancave (I'm not sure which it the manliest part, the Twilight Themed Rag Wreath or Phantom of the Opera Figurine.) because it also houses our Star Wars stuff and the Giant Gerard Butler 300 banner that we've altered to be an advert for Orbit Gum. (for a good, clean feeling...no matter what!)
Our book collection, having been ruthlessly pared down, now features only the best of the best. Books on our two shelves are now stacked only one deep and stay in place. Formerly they were stacked three deep and covered the top and were stuffed in between. A few favorite photos and trinkets have found a home here as well.
Our kitchen is now quite dainty with the addition of some of my grandma's things. These soup cups were my favorite thing in her house besides my actual grandparents. Most are in the cupboard awaiting chilly days and hot homemade soup. A few were put on display.
Our spice collection, mortar and pestle have a free standing shelf all to themselves .
Supplementing our extreme lack of counter space is a butcher block from grandma's.
This is the actual piece de resistance of the Great Simplify Project. An actual bedroom. What this is is a nook off of the side of the apartment. It's very small and the only thing that ever fit in here was our bed. We had two twin mattresses we had pushed together. It took up the whole area. We got grandma's bed, which is a bit smaller, but my sister had the brilliant idea of turning it in a different direction. Now we have room in here for a dresser and an end table and a small area rug. It's quite cozy. When Gweny walked in she stopped in her tracks and said "whoa!", we're expecting a lot of that from future guests!
The headboard of our old bed became a DVD organizer! We have a zillion and they used to just hang out in a stack on the floor. We had put them on top of a bookcase, but they were stacked three deep and way too high so movies were hard to find and always falling over. Now, everything is neat and accessible.
This is where we've opened up the most space. This was the living/crafting/computer/gaming/reading/ instruments area and believe you me there wasn't room to swing a cat! (Not that we tried.)
Putting the computer and books in the other room opened things up a lot. Adding the crafting table in the corner helped as well.
A favorite orgainizational tool in this room actualy came from my grampa's tool shed. These drawer organizers are both handmade...the one on the left is made of wooden cheese boxes! It's a real treasure.



...and a great way to store findings and supplies!

I consider us finished in the grand-scheme-of-things sense, but I still have some tweaking. For instance, my other brilliant sister, Jennifer, suggested making fabric panels to hide stuff stored underneath the crafting table...a great idea that will improve the over all look to the organized room!

It's wonderful having all this space to breathe. We feel like we got an all new apartment . We actually kind of feel like dopes that we didn't think to do this before. We've been living here 5 years and never thought to toy with furniture placement.
We're feeling a nice flow in here now. It feels less chaotic. There's more light and air.
I'm glad I was done in time for spring.

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