My mom came again today. And again she was amazing. For the first time I actually think we might make it to the finish line.
I have gotten rid of SO MUCH STUFF. On my first visit to Goodwill I had make five trips back to the car to unload it all. Today I took two more bike loads there. I’ve dropped off a car load of stuff to the PTA room at my daughter’s school. Tomorrow I’m taking some stuff to my classroom. All the stuff that has been hiding in boxes, or closets, or behind furniture is getting the boot (a few select items, like my yoga and exercise map are staying). Clothes and shoes that have not been worn in a while are out too. Tons of books and toys are being donated. We really are purging a lot of stuff.
I know we could get rid of more, but I do think we’re making good progress.
Of course my husband threw out his back this morning. He was supposed to help tomorrow (my mom took the kids tonight!) but now he’ll just be a lump on the couch. This is frustrating, but I’m hoping it will mean I can get rid of more of his stuff without him even going through it. Guilt might just work in my favor for once. 😉
I’ve gotten two sets of all new sheets for each bed (thank you AmazonBasics!) and comforters for my kids’ beds (they sleep with weighted blankets that will be stored). I bought sets of the Costco Hospitality bath towels, hand towels and washcloths – they are in the washing machine now. I have a lock to make the key available (to someone with the code) on the gate. I think I have everything I need.
I’ve made some small improvements around the house, and I’m really excited about all of them, which makes me wonder why I needed to AirBnB my house to do this stuff. Most of it is little, and were on my “to do” list for a while, so I’m not doing them specifically because we’re having guests, it’s more like I’m FINALLY doing them because we’re having guests. I put up a little shelf above my son’s bunk bed (for his lamp), and attached some small lamps to the mantel above our bed (this is such a small detail but it makes me so happy). I got rid of the broken lamp behind the couch (and may try to replace it, as I’ve been wanting to do for over a year), and bought a new orchid for my room.
The thing I’m most excited about is the indoor lint kit I finally bought for the dryer. For six years I’ve done laundry in a space covered by a fine (or not so fine, depending on when I last cleaned it) layer of lint because the indoor lint kit they originally installed with the dryer was a broken piece of crap and lint dust would fly around the garage every time I used the dryer. I didn’t know if there were a better alternative, and for some reason I never tried to find out. Earlier this week I finally googled “indoor lint kit” and found a reasonably priced one on Amazon. It came today and I installed it and I am SO EXCITED to not have a laundry space covered in lint. Why did it take me so long to remedy a problem what was so easy to fix?!
Part of why I committed to AirBnBing my house is because I wanted to love it again, and I knew that loving it again would require some seriously work. I also knew that I wouldn’t do that work for myself; I needed an external impetus to make real changes in my living space. I’m so glad to finally have the motivation I needed to make those changes. The money we’ll be making also helps me spend the money needed to improve the problem areas.
The reality is, this is a nice little house. It’s not too big, but we use the space well. I really hope people like staying here. But no matter what they think of it, I know I’m going to love coming home to a clean, clutter-free house.
YIPPEE FOR YOU!!!!!!!!!! Again going up against the overwhelming and winning! Super proud of the two of you!!!
Hope your children are seeing and applauding the changes even if participation in them isn’t yet possible.
Did you mean to have a given name attached to X’s school?
Fabulous accomplishments!!!! It can be amazingly hard to get the tiny things done that make a difference that we think will take longer than they actually do. And then we start a ‘simple fast thing’ and ‘Oh MY! The whole world collapses on our heads’.
When will you take first trip? Believe it is the family reunion trip, including that wonderful swimming hole you had a picture of a few years back.
Super excited about your summer!
I did not mean to use her actual name! Thanks for pointing that out! And thanks for all the support, now and always. It really does mean the world to me.
My house always looks so much better after getting things ready for guests. It’s great to have that motivation!
I always used to go into a frenzy of housecleaning, purging & organizing whenever my mother was coming to visit… my dh would ask, “Why are you so afraid of what your mother is going to think?” I said, “It’s not that I’m afraid… it’s just that, if I’m not going to clean when my mother visits, when is it going to get done??” lol These posts are also reminding me of our own purging/sprucing up prior to putting our house on the market & moving. We carted well over 60 cartons (I lost track after a while) of books & other stuff to the Salvation Army ourselves over a couple of months, & we had 1-800-GOTJUNK come twice before we moved… in one case, they filled the truck, had to go to their central depot to unload it & come back for more. (Yikes!) And yes, I found myself wondering (especially after we had our kitchen cupboards restained, new handles, etc.) why we hadn’t done all this stuff years earlier so we’d had longer to enjoy it ourselves? Anyway, glad you are feeling some satisfaction with all of your hard work!