I took the week off work between Christmas and New Years because I’ve been feeling very burnt out and really needed some time off. A full week of NO work and NO online schooling sounded like heaven. My plans were to do some home projects I’ve been putting off, read a book or two, watch a movie or two, and keep up with my Peloton workouts.
We also knocked out a few doctor’s appointments – dentist appointments for me and Jack, and then a dermatologist appointment for me and a pediatrician appointment for Jack. I mean, we are LIVING LIFE over here. But really, when you have time off as a working parent, you need to get as much done as possible!
Week Off Project 1: Organizing the linen closet
Our linen closet is a catch-all for everything from extra items, towels, light bulbs and paper products. As we go through life, it gets more and more messy… until I finally take a couple hours to rip it apart. For my first project of the week, I went through all our medicine and threw out all the expired products and re-arranged everything so that it fit without attacking you when you opened the door. I also used some boxes that I saved from the recycle bin to better organize everything for free. This whole project probably took an hour or so.
Week Off Project 2: Organizing office crafts/art miscellaneous
Here’s another spot in my house that needed some attention. This organizer shelf contains a ton of different art/craft project supplies, extra office supplies, books and candles. I had thrifted some decorative boxes a while ago, so I spent some time sorting through everything, putting it into boxes with like items, and labeling everything. The entire square full of extra notebooks is a good reminder that I don’t need to buy anymore this year.
Week Off Project 3: Take down and rehang my gallery wall
I had a gallery wall in our living room that had been driving me nutty for years. There were too many frames and they often would be knocked off center… so everything just looked crooked to me all the time. I took every single frame down off the wall, filled the nail holes and then picked just a few frames to go back up. I was also planning to repaint the filled holes… until I found that the touch up paint was fully expired – it was clumpy and discolored and totally useless. Luckily the new frames covered most of the filled holes and the others are barely noticeable. So I’ll have to be okay with it until I decide to repaint the entire living room.
You can click through here to see the before, during and after:
Also, I found this photo hanging kit at Home Depot that keeps each photo frame perfectly straight and it’s a life changer! It’s the PicGenie123 kit and they are super easy to install and then keep everything from moving once they are up on the wall. I love, love, love them and will definitely be using these elsewhere in the house!
Week Off Project 4: Organizing the stockroom
Yup, more organizing. This time I attacked our stockroom areas in our laundry room. This is the overflow area for food that won’t fit in our pantry. Once again, as life happens this area gets super messy as we just throw stuff on there when putting the groceries away. I took about 20 minutes and pulled everything off and rearranged everything. Now, I can see exactly what I have and won’t accidentally buy 2 more packs of cookies when I still have 3 on the shelf.
I’m so glad I finally had the time and energy to attack these organizing projects. Not only did it make me feel good to check some projects off my list. But I feel like I get to start 2021 with a clean(er) slate!
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