the one where i talk about my house with only minimal sighing

We have done a whole lot of unorganized and rushed moving in the past few years. We moved into my parents house for awhile right after we got married because I was very unexpectedly pregnant and it was a bit of a rough pregnancy that put me on medical leave from my job. We had no savings to be able to fill in the gaps. Luckily, as we considered our options, my parents graciously let us move into their house and take over two rooms. We got out of our apartment quickly and moved most of our stuff into a storage unit. It was all very haphazard. It is difficult to pack while freaking out about a hundred things and not really having any ab muscles.

We moved out of my parents' house into our current residence quickly as well. This time we moved with a six month old baby and with K working two jobs. All unpacking fell on me. My main goal was to get stuff out of boxes. We have two ginormous bookshelves in the front of the house that are still a big mess because I just got stuff out of boxes and onto the shelves, intending to go through and organize everything later. It still hasn't happened.

This house is three bedrooms and we are very fortunate to live here in a lot of ways. In some other ways, it is a giant pain in the ass. The house had not been well maintained for who knows how long and we are still struggling with a small bug problem that will hopefully and finally be taken care of by the time we bring home our second baby. The floors are hardwood but abused hardwood. I vacuum and mop often but there are water stains, paint, and marks from carpet being in here at some point and then ripped up. We painted the whole inside of the house before moving in and had a friend help us. He did not do a great job but we had no time to fix it and let the house air out before moving in, so it is what it is. We had a plumbing issue a few months ago and somewhere in there, the toilet in the hall bathroom isn't working anymore. We have central air but have to turn it off during the hottest part of the day because it simply can't keep up. The garage is packed from floor to ceiling with stuff that isn't ours and I believe contributes to the bug problem. But, it's cheap and it's our home for the time being. I have a renewed interest in really making the best of it.

On Saturday, my parents kept S while K and I emptied out his room, cleaned it from top to bottom, and put in slightly different furniture. The changing table and crib are out, the little dresser and tall skinny bookshelf are back, and the toddler bed is new. We got a new area rug for him (of the solar system, on which he excitedly points out all the stars to me every time we go in his room together) and will get some curtains soon. We were able to move a bunch of toys into the room from the living room and as soon as I am able to go through the rest of the stuff in the living room, even more will be transferred. S LOVES his room. He like running around in it, playing, jumping on the bed, fake snoring on the bed, playing with me... He likes everything in his room except bed time and nap time.

I am so glad to have an entire room of the house in good shape. It is clean, it will be easy to maintain that cleanliness, I will be able to move even more stuff in there soon, and my son really likes it. It feels good in there. It smells nice and clean. It feels like it has a real purpose and intentional. I am excited to decorate it a little bit more and proud of all of our efforts to make it a nice place for S to be.

Now, for the rest of the house. The third room was going to be an office but turned kind of into a junk room. Know how a lot of people have a junk drawer? This is like a junk room. We have to get rid of some of the furniture in there and clean the room and get the crib and changing table set up in there. We'll need curtains and space for baby clothes and gear. The bookshelves in the living room need to be cleared off, contents sorted through, and then all put back together but in a usable and organized way this time. And our bedroom needs to be cleaned out. There's a pile of stuff for a garage sale and the closet has some boxes in it that we need to go through.

It's all a bit daunting because I really want to be done by November since the baby is due in December. But, when I go into S's room, I feel like I can do it. We did that in one day and I have months to get everything else done. It'll be a little easier after S gets over hating nap and bed time, but I am ridiculously hopeful we'll get to that point soon. Maybe by the end of the week? I hope that's not a crazy thought.

Thankful for so much in my house, including the reminder that the next time we move it needs to be more organized and intentional.

I can do this.