Best laid plans...

I had unrealistic high hopes of working on the backsplash this weekend, and it just didn't happen.  I'm not necessarily upset about it, just a little worried that we are going to keep finding reasons (however valid) to put it off for the foreseeable future.  I really just need to set aside a full weekend and stick with it.

Easier said than done.

But, although we didn't accomplish one of our big projects, we did have time to take on a few smaller ones.  Yesterday, B moved a lot of pictures from our computer to the external hard drive while I went through another 40 or so boxes from the basement and the garage.  I know what you are thinking....what could be left to unpack if you have been living there for 7 months....but we have just accumulated so much STUFF over the years!  To be fair, a lot of the boxes were 75% newspaper and bubble wrap and 25% items, but it's still crazy!!  The worst part is that we still have about 30 more boxes to go.  Argh!!!  But looking on the bright side, I have started a huge pile of yard sale and donation stuff, so we are weeding out while we unpack and put things away.

This is the inside of our garage....or what will eventually be our garage once we finish clearing out the rest of these boxes!!  This is the first time I've seen the floor since we moved in.  I suppose that means we're making progress, right?

I am a huge proponent of a simple and uncluttered world.  I haven't been able to truly live like that since my studio apartment a few years back (when I lived ALONE without someone else's STUFF messing things up...hehe only kidding honey)....but a girl can dream.  And we are really not too far from that either.  In fact, while I was knee-deep in boxes yesterday, I actually came up with a game to help me decide what to keep and what to throw away.  I suppose it's not really a game, but calling it that made it more fun!!  So....I would open up a box and as soon as I pulled something out, I would have 10 seconds to decide where I would put it in the house or what I would use it for.  If the 10 seconds passed and I had no real use for it, then off to goodwill or the yard sale pile it went! 

  

Here are some of the boxes that we rifled through yesterday.  The sad part is....that the empty ones went right back into the garage to be recycled.  At the end of the day, I know that we made progress, but it's hard to see the forest through the trees.....or however the saying goes.

Normally I would go through this process while I'm packing up things to move out, but we didn't have a lot of time to pack in December and with both of our parents helping, it was easier to delegate everyone to a task than it was to micro-manage and walk around grabbing items for a yard sale down the road.  Efficiency was the name of the game at that point. 

So here were are in our "unpack or purge" phase and I'm loving it.  I feel like the house is actually starting to fill up with the things that we need or the things that we love.  Organization is one of my favorite things to do, so this process is probably the most rewarding for me....besides the renovations, of course.  I can't wait until we are all settled in and have a place for everything and everything in its place......not too much longer!!

After unpacking everything, the kitchen is back to normal.  Still no backsplash.  Instead, I added some pretty flowers from Whole Foods.  Definitely not the same thing, but it definitely adds a little life to the room.  I think they are gladiolas or magnolias.  I'm so bad at flower names.  All I know if that they were $4....enough said!!!

Now that I'm thinking about our to-do list....and looking at this picture....I realize that we also have to work on installing the magnets on the inside of the cabinet doors.  A majority of the cabinets don't really need it, but as you can see from the picture above, some of them do (mainly the upper doors to the left of the sink).  It's really not a huge deal in the grand scheme of things, but its definitely something that needs to be done sooner rather than later.  I guess that's the price you pay for refinishing older cabinets.  In the end, though, its a pretty small price. 

I'll keep you posted on the kitchen as we make more progress.