The Big Clean Out Project

I don't know if you have ever looked around your home, and all you have seen were messes and undone projects and things that needed doing.  I do this daily and for the last few months have been completely overwhelmed by them.  I have decided to take action, and instead of just being overwhelmed, start changing it, little by little. You will be (in the nearish future) be seeing some truly terrifying bordering/should be on an episode of hoarders "before" pictures from my home for this project.  I simply ask that you don't judge, and realize that if I can do it with my disaster zones, so can you.

When I was younger I used to love this movie (that most of you have probably never heard of) called "The Richest Cat In The World" in short it is about a talking cat, who inherits $5 million dollars and helps this boy learn to read.  The cat gets catnapped by jealous relatives who were expecting to cash in on the inheritance, in hopes of them receiving it instead.  I haven't seen it in years but one quote that stuck with me was this: "Inch by inch life is a cinch!  Yard by yard it's very, very hard!

So in that spirit, one (small inch like) step at a time, I am going to clean out my home and commit to completing, and sharing with you, 4 projects EACH MONTH.  I'm excited because these can be ANY projects you want!  If your space is more organized, than simply rearrange something.  We can each change something, even something small to make our homes better, more organized and more effective.  I'd love for you to join me in, The Big Clean Out Project!

On the last day of each month, we will be having a link up party so we can share and encourage each other!  The Big Clean Out Project 1st link party will be on August 31st, so get moving on your projects!

This month I am planning to:
1. Clean out the lower cabinets under my "bonus" counter
2. Clean out the upper cabinets above my "bonus" counter
3. Boxes from childhood in the garage
4. Kitchen Utensil Drawer (the kids have been messing with it, and it is a disaster!)

Number one and two are both in anticipation of me creating a "command center" on the extra counter I have between my kitchen and dining room.  Number three is because my parents dumped several boxes from my home into our garage a few months back, and I haven't touched them, we need the storage space in the garage so I need to at least go through them and figure out what is in them!

What projects will you do this month?  Big or small, each is a step towards a better home!

The struggle

 Have you looked at homes, and ever gotten home envy?  They look amazing, spotless, and welcoming all at the same time.  When looking for ideas for my home, I often look at these "perfect" homes and get some major home envy.  I desperately want my home to feel inviting, I want my home to look like those ones do.  I mean, who wouldn't want their home to look like these pictures:

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Sadly, if you have been reading my blog, you have seen how my living room ACTUALLY looks, most of the time, due to my destructive amazing son.

I know that part of it is the stage of life, where we are letting practical overrule design (ie having a huge white and red plastic toy box in our living room).  Honestly my sweet boy's room is too small for him to really play in, and we spend the majority of our time in the living room so it makes sense to have the majority of his toys out her.  I miss the days when they were smaller, and fit into my cute little basket on the bottom of the book shelf.

I don't want you to miss the all important heart of this post, because here it is...

I need to be content

I'm going to say that again.  I need to be content with...

...where we are in our stage of life
...our current limitations for decorating (time, financial, practical)
...my amazing home, that is a home because we live there, not because of how it looks.

I know that this is a "for now" content, and that these things are going to change, then I can use my discontent as motivation to change, when I have the proper tools to do it.  For now, this is where we are, this is what I have to work with.  Honestly, I love our family and wouldn't change it for anything.  Right now, I need to be thankful that we have furniture (even if it is mostly hand-me downs), thankful that we have a roof over our head, thankful for what we have, and not discouraged by what we don't.

I want to encourage you in that today readers.  Be thankful for what you do have, not discouraged by what you don't.

If anyone has any suggestions, I'd be happy to hear them.

Cheers!
Ashley

Perfectly imperfect

I had a huge "Ahha" moment the other day and since it is homemaking related, I would like to share it with you. I am a perfectionist. When I say this, I do not say it lightly. It is a serious problem, it has prevented me from doing so many things and tasks around the house, simply because I don't have time to do them right or "perfect". It has taken me awhile to realize this, but even if something isn't perfect (according to my standards), but it is completed, it still blesses my family and makes a difference.

For example, if I cook dinner, it has to be perfect. The table has to be set just right, the dishes need to be cleaned, there needs to be more than just a meal. I let all of this get in the way of me cooking for my family more often. I love cooking, I hate all of the "extras" I place on it to make it "perfect".

Another example, I never thought we could get our bedroom under control. I knew that even if we did, it would not be decorated the way I wanted, we would still have mismatching furniture and it wouldn't be the bedroom of perfection that I saw in my head. However, now that it is clean, even in its imperfections, it is amazing at the difference it has made. We feel better getting up in the morning and not seeing huge piles of crap. We can actually relax on a Saturday morning without our clutter staring us in the face.

 I came up with a paper solution, that is functional and structured. It is working, and while I would love to add some more personal touches, I know that right now, I don't have time. It is still working and blessing our family, even in its imperfection (again, according to me).

My encouragement to you is this, figure out what you are not doing because you can't do it "perfectly" and just create a temporary fix that will work for now. You will be surprised at how perfect your imperfect solution really is. I want to bless my family with a home that is clean and functional, they don't care if it is perfect. They just want to be able to sit and eat, find clothing easily, have a home etc.

 Don't let your perfectionism rob your family of a functional home!

I'm still working on this, but knowing you have a problem is half the battle. Hopefully it will be better as I continue working on it.

Cheers!
Ashley

Wow what a crazy month!

I'm back (sorta) blogging world.  My poor 14 month old son woke up from his morning nap on 2/5 with 102.8 degree fever.  The poor kid was miserable, then the coughing started.  By Sunday morning we took him to the ER only to discover that he had RSV and pneumonia.  The didn't keep him, but gave him a shoot of antibiotics and a prescription for oral ones and told us to follow up with our Pediatrician on Monday.  I have to say that I LOVE his doctor.  She saw him EVERY day this last week with the goal being keeping him out of the hospital.  5 shots and 5 days later, his fever finally broke, and you wouldn't even know the kid was sick  I am so thankful that he is better because this week basically did not exist in my world.  Not to mention I had a HUGE presentation/training I ran yesterday, that I had to plan/prep for while he was sick. It was an absolutely crazy week, so now, I have come up for air I can't believe this month is nearly half over.

Lets do a mid-way month check on my 3 goals for this month:

#1 Cook 6 meals from scratch for my family
 Umm ya, 0/6 done so far.  We have been using our typical freezer and box meals this month and been eating out far to much. YIKES!

#2 Complete one creative project
I was going to make this cute book for my hubby for V-day, but seeing as how that is tomorrow and I have yet to start, I think I will need to come up with another plan.  YIKES!

#3 Re-organize/de-cluter one space in my home (see this challenge)
My master bedroom de-clutter has yet to start. I am in SOOOO over my head on this one, basically I have 12 days to de-clutter and 3 to decorate.  YIKES!

So lets see if I can make what at first seemed like 3 simple goals happen in the next two weeks.  I hope that your month is going better than mine.

Cheers!
Ashley

Saturday Confessions

I love being the mom of an active amazing toddler.  However, my living room can go from decent to disaster in about .5 minutes.  Here is what it looked like after just one morning of my rambunctious toddler playing around our home.

He pulled nearly all of his toys out of of his toy box, emptied his snack and ground them into the carpet.  it took not very long for my living room to turn into this.  It really doesn't take that long to pick up, but it always happens, and it seems that every time I get it picked up, he decides he liked it better the other way.  That's ok though, I still love him, and it's all part of being the mommy of an amazing toddler.