Now we all know that Rome wasn’t built in a day and that since all of the extra clutter that makes it way into our lives didn’t all get there in one day, it is going to take quite a bit more time to fully banish it. And then you will have the eternal battle to wage against it returning when you aren’t looking. Things like that have a way of sneaking their way back in.
This weekend Hubby and I started our epic battle against the clutter in the kitchen and laundry room. Ok, we started in the laundry room but since some of the stacked boxes (most of the stacked boxes) in the corner of the laundry room were “new” dishes, we had to spill out into the kitchen as well. Just to clarify “new” – these are dishes that I got for Christmas before Hubby and I started dating because they said that they were going to discontinue the pattern. These are the same dishes that my mom has, my uncle has, my grandmother has, my grandmother’s sister has (my great-aunt)…are you getting the picture yet? My family uses these dishes. They were still new in the box even though I had them for years – hence the “new”.
The dishes are a pattern called Blue Danube and are white with a blue pattern on them. If I had though ahead I would have taken a picture of them, but I didn’t so now you will just have to wait. Ooh – suspenseful. In stark contrast to my lovely dishes with place setting for 12 (even though there is no room in our house for a dinner party for 12) we had been using the dishes that were left behind by Hubby’s roommate from before we started dating. I know, really mature of us, right? I have a weird mental block against allowing myself to use my own good things – like my good pots and pans, knives, plates; the list could go on and on. And before you say anything, yes, I’m sure that I would benefit from therapy.
So in order to move the antique buffet in the laundry room from the short wall to the long wall next to the washer and dryer we had to unpack the dishes. In order to be able to put them away, we had to get rid of the old ones. Are you with me so far?
We boxed up the old dishes in the boxes that the new ones had been in and have set them aside to donate to the Salvation Army. We shop there a lot for all sorts of things because you truly never know what you are going to find there and wanted to take this opportunity to donate to this great organization. Another two bonuses of donation is the tax write off and that it is not going to a landfill.
So once the dishes were sorted our cabinet looked something like this:
Isn’t it great? Such pretty little stacks of dishes! I was seriously excited to see them there and kept grinning and exclaiming “our pretty plates!” How grown up of me. I know, I know, I should have done a before shot and I promise to get better at doing that.
While Hubby got cracking on our kitchen cabinet that housed the explosion of food storage containers, I tackled the cabinets in the laundry room and the newly aligned buffet. I pulled out things that we had apparently moved from the duplex to our new house in the buffet, along with things that had been shoved into the cabinets for lack of any other place to put them. And now, the after pictures of the laundry room:
So much better, right? Now the goal is to keep things that are already in there this nice and add more storage and organization solutions as well to continue to improve it. Oh, and to decorate it. I’m pretty slow to pull the trigger on new decorating but there is a method to my madness.Until next time!
Love,
Meg
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