Well, I just almost finished a huge-0 project...the dreaded laundry room. When we built this house, we had these basic plans of a 24x50, I added 10 feet in length, and 4 in width, (it's two stories), and put in a laundry room...just drew it up on graph paper, and submitted it with the original plans to an architect, and voila, we had bigger house plans...and a laundry room! That was just amazing...we only had five kids when we moved in, but it didn't take long to fill up that laundry room! It has hanging racks and shelves, and oh dear, with baby after baby and kids galore, the things we shoved into that room! We keep cases of seltzers and gallons of water, the jug of vinegar, cleaning products, the rice, potatoes, onions...extra jars of peanut butter when I buy 14 jars for $1 each...the re-usable grocery bags and the oodles of Target bags, a cooler, the instant pot, the Kitchen Aid, the electric popcorn popper, a coffee maker, the food dehydrator, the meat grinder, the food processor, extra paper towels and toilet paper, toys and treats and birthday gifts I buy and don't know where else to put...the bag of recycle-ables. The food saver, and the sous-vide, a box of little paints, light bulbs...the vacuum cleaners and mops and brooms...(how on earth did we end up with THREE Swifter mops?!). Oh, there are seasonal tablecloths and placemats, and snow pants, and clothes for the grandchildren if they need a change, some cute dresses from when the girls were little, and lots of my clothes.
You can shuffle and organize of that stuff, but it ends up a mess again...so I got radical this time. I don't have sixteen kids in the house anymore, and I don't need enough extra bedding for an army! There were years when every towel, every comforter, was needed and used...we never had enough. I took one of the hanging racks out, and bought another big black shelving unit from Walmart. This meant getting rid of so many things. I am NOT a hoarder, I get serious satisfaction from downsizing and letting go, but sometimes it is hard to get over the mindset: we're going to need this someday. Or, that one of the kids is going to need it. But if they are grown and on their own, they can figure it out. I don't need to save a stack of warm blankets just in case. I kept some of course, but there are like five or six garbage bags full of stuff to donate...because taking my clothes off that rack meant putting them in my closet where they belong, which meant taking lots out of my closet (some of my DREAM clothes finally are being donated...the dresses that are too snug "for now", that I'm tired of waiting to fit into...)...I also cleaned out the hall closed, because there was a mix of the same stuff in there as in the laundry room...
and...IT FEELS FANTASTIC, light, and wonderful. I'm not fully finished, still have a few bins in there to go through, and all the stuff to bring to the thrift store, but wow.
When I had all the kids here through the years, they were always neat and clean and well dressed, but shh, behind the scenes...aka the laundry room, not so much, ha. You can't do everything, you have to pick and choose, and I chose what I chose, and we had tons of fun and went on spontaneous outings....no regrets.
My mother used to tell me to enjoy the craziness, because some day it would be too quiet. She raised the seven of us, and then...it got quiet at her house. I didn't believe that would happen to me. But, it has happened. Camille is doing schoolwork, sometimes the sweet sounds of her violin, and the dogs bark at the mailman, and Paul comes out for more coffee...I spend days going out and about with Kathryn, or having Grace and the kids over, so it's not always quiet...but sometimes, it really is...
Camille and I do have a date today, to go to the library...so bye for now.