Progress, sweet Progess

Whew! DH & I are exhausted! We've been unpacking boxes in our pod since early this morning. We've unpacked over 15 boxes, taken 2 loads to the Salvation Army, and thrown away 3 trash cans full of stuff!!! Woo HOO!!!!! It feels good. We have at least 15 boxes left before we'll take everything out of the garage and begin to rearrange things so that we can actually park a car in the garage during the upcoming rainy season!! Our new home has MUCH less storage... no floored attic for storage and no basement. We had over 800 sq ft of basement plus a completely floored attic in our old house. Needless to say, we have lost a lot of storage space. With a 7 member family, it's easy to accumulate a good bit of stuff. Today has been spent weeding out those things that are no longer necessities and re-purposing them for other uses, giving them away, or simply throwing them away. Our hands are dry and crackly, but it sure does feel good!

When you walk in the back door, the aroma of red beans and rice greets you. It really does smell delicious! I have made DH's daddy's recipe in his memory for the Superbowl tomorrow. WHO DAT!

Our Garage

The BEFORE picture of our garage. Wow. We have made some progress!


Everything was out of the garage and in our driveway. It looked like we were moving all over again. I don't know how some of our friends do this as often as they do! WHEW. Of course it has been fun to sell things on Craigslist.


One corner of the garage. Now you can actually get to our hot water heater!

That same corner



We lost a huge playroom from our old house. We have a play area in our new family room and this is where we are storing many of our toys and art supplies!


Progress can be slow and steady. But remember, slow and steady wins the race, right? We are banking on the tortoise's philosophy here at our house. With the constant needs of 5 children, we can't dedicate the time to our garage that we would like to. However, we carved out Saturday to remove every box and unpack what we could and then re-pack and organize the garage. To say that we are exhausted is an understatement! My whole body hurts. With a date night that night & a birthday party & church the next day, our timing may have been a little off!:) However, we are so thankful at all that we accomplished.

Those of you who have not been in our garage may not know that it was floor to ceiling boxes in no specific order. We were (and still are!) missing many things. Of course our books had babies and there are at least 30 boxes of books we didn't know we had, but other than that, we know what is still at large.

We wanted to unpack as many boxes as we could. DH's goal was 15 boxes and I believe we unpacked 25. We had to have the garage put back together by 5pm and we began around 9am. We worked and worked and worked and the children tried to help while Hurricane H took things apart! We unearthed a pine table that my father gave us for crafts in the garage. We found our missing remotes and telephone. We were able to make room for our refrigerator doors to open! We organized the boxes we couldn't unpack so that like items are together. We are so excited! ONe day we'll unpack the rest so that our cars will fit.

For now, we are grateful for the progress and are preparing the Henley Hotel for our GUESTS!!! WOO HOO

When you feel overwhelmed...

Carpools, work, time for exercise, meetings, volunteer work, lunch with friends can quickly become overwhelming. Next time you're overwhelmed, think of this:





This is our garage... still very full... with many things still needing a home. Believe it or not, I work on it every day. I even sold 17 boxes yesterday. It's just that I am never alone. Miss H & I are together 24/7, which I do love, but I rarely have time to work on the garage. Our house is set up like we've lived here a long time, though I still haven't found our tupperware and the children's dishes. I don't want to bring items in unless there is a place for them. I have actually listed some things on Craigslist, and that will help thin the piles a little bit! Once we go through everything, we'll have a big garage sale. I envision having the sides of the garage set up so that you can easily find the card tables & chairs or a can of paint, etc. I have also had to clean out what the previous owners left behind.

Mind you, this is supposed to make you laugh more than anything. There are people whose lives are truly overwhelming as they fight for their life or care for someone who is sick. That was us a year ago, and this is nothing compared to that! :) Others have spouses in the military and live as a single parent. So, while I can't breathe whenever I am reminded of what awaits in the garage, it is NOTHING in the big scheme of things! Just have fun laughing at all of our JUNK! You know what I'll be doing this weekend!