spring cleaning

Since we decided to give up on the home search for now, Chris pretty much mandated that we make the apartment more livable. This is slightly funny to me, because I’ve always wanted to do this, and it always seemed like I was the only one cleaning… In any case, I’m glad we’re doing it, and it’s really working.

Last weekend was all about our office. We cleaned it out, moved bookcases to a nook in the bedroom, tore down & pitched our old desks, and bought new, streamlined, matching desks from IKEA. The new desks are side by side on one wall, completely freeing one side of the room. I love it!!!

This weekend was all about the living spaces. This means living room, dining room, and kitchen. Ugh! So the kitchen is as good as it’s going to get for now – passable to have guests over, but I still need to clean the floor and maybe clean out the fridge. Also we really need to have someone come out an address the ant situation which has suddenly blossomed. The dining room is as good as it will get until we have more room for wedding gifts. Some are just still in boxes on the floor, and quite frankly I have no other place to put them. But I did clean out the hutch a little bit and pitched things I knew I’d never use. This is a huge step – this pitching things.

We moved all the furniture in the living room and vacuumed with our new amazing Dyson vacuum. It reminds me of a beautiful katamari ball in vacuum form – I think it would suck up the world if it could. Then we moved the piano over to a small wall and moved the tv where the piano was. I’m still getting used to it, but it actually opens up the space quite a bit. We don’t really have much more room, but it seems like we have more room. Which works for us.

Next weekend Chris has deemed “bedroom” weekend. I don’t even want to think about it. It’s kind of our catch-all for things we have no place for but don’t want anyone coming over to see. I’m going to have to go through every piece of clothing in my closet and purge, every item in my closet and say “do I really need this?” And then theres…

Ok I’ll admit it. I have a stuffed animal problem. They’re not in the bedroom or on the bed or anything, but they are in our closet. I can’t seem to give them away – most of them are ones I’ve actually gotten either in the past 5 years or the truly special ones from childhood. And I love them to death… but they’re just sitting in my closet. Agh, it kills me. I just don’t know what to do. Some of them I will never ever give away (like the Raggedy Ann doll my mom made, or Mutt the dog, or Chester Sebastian Bear), but what about the others? The others that I got throughout college? What about Teddy that sings a lullaby? Carrie gave him to me when I was little. What about the ones Mom keeps giving us at Christmas????

My mom has a lot of shit. I like a lot of it, and she loves all of it, but there’s a ton of it. And these days she buys us shit too… like the stuffed Santa Clause from the Polar Express. Adorable and cute to sit out at Christmas, but at the same time I don’t really have room to set it out at Christmas, and it’s just not really our style? And not just stuffed animals… I’ve got so many decorations it’s not even funny. A lot of them are cutesy or country, etc. And… let’s face it, that’s not really our style. It’s weird, because I like decorating for different holidays and seasons, and if my mom ever stopped doing it in her house I think I would cry, but I just don’t want to do it to the same extent she does. I don’t have the energy or drive. And there’s just so much shit!!!

Ugh, so anyway. I’m trying not to be a hoarder, and I’m trying to not have as much stuff out and around, but there will always be the stuff that Mom gives me that I’ll have to put somewhere. Maybe I’ll have room once we have a house… in a year…

(indecision)