It's been nearly 3 years since I've walked into a completely empty space that needs to be filled with our belongings. I have a love and hate relationship with that moment. It's a beautiful thing to be looking at a completely blank canvas. But at the same time, it's overwhelming.
The upstairs of our house is something like 1,064sq. We finished about 900-950sq in our new basement, meaning that we nearly doubled our living space. However, in that 900sq, we also had a lot of storage. Since we've been married, we've had the luxury of a lot of basement storage, which means that we haven't exactly thrown things away. We have about 4 mis-matched end tables. Lots of rubbermaid totes. Posters in frames. An extra table. An extra couch. An extra bed. Luggage. Shelves with paint. Shelves of extra dishes. Boxes of extra non-perishables when we've bought in bulk or accidentally gotten doubles.
So, while we have a "blank space" it also means getting a lot of odds and ends to either look presentable, go to attic storage, or go to the curb. Since we were in a rush to clear everything out, nothing got cataloged or sorted the way I usually do when we move. So I'm not sureally sure what's in my attic other than the big things I can remember. It's no fun trying to mentally sort it all out.
Typically, I move fast. And by that, I mean the process of moving. My dorm room was unpacked and set in 30 mins or less, my first apartment in a few hours, my first apartment on my own in an evening...when Andrew and I moved together, across half a state with 3 cars full and a stuffed moving truck - arrived at 5pm on Saturday and I was unpacked and my house was ready to go by Sunday night. It's all about the planning.
Our lack of planning and organization for this has been out of character to say the least. And it's taking more time to get things together, which is making me antsy.
However, of the mental checklist I posted last week, already a lot has been accomplished. Tasks yet to do are bolded.
Entry way:
Hang mirror (*is at my parents' house - need to pick up this weekend)
Hang hooks below
Set up bench and a couple of throw pillows for a mock hall tree
Pantry:
Put together shelves for all extra dishes, extra food, tools, and crafts.
All other stuff (holiday decorations, toys, children's books for our unborn child) goes in the closet off of the bedroom area.
Hang curtain
*Buy/make more shelves
Bathroom:
Hang all hardware
Hang picture
Straighten shelf
Bring down towels
*Get a shelving unit for inside closet
Family room:
Put together table and bring down chairs (extra chairs in closet off the bedroom area). Contstruct shelf in the family room closet and put away games.
Put rolling rack in family room closet.
Move extra coats from upstairs closet to rack.
Bring bookshelves downstairs and set up along exterior wall.
Hook up stereo, organize CDs, set up DVDs.
Construct TV stand and hook up TV.
Find suitable side tables from our collection of small tables - donate a couple that are no longer in use.
Bring downstairs rocking chair, re-cover couch, add new throw pillows (yay!).
Hang up framed poster that used to be in living room and framed art from our current study.
Hang curtains.
Bedroom:
Hang posters that we recently had framed.
Put up curtain rod and curtains over egress window.
Put up room divider rod and canvas curtains.
Install curtain hook thing.
Set up bed
Hang headboard
It's coming along. The big things that are left are to organize closets and the pantry, which is in line with setting up the kitchen...it's the big task that no one wants to do.
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