Movin' In & Movin' Out

That has been the story of my life this week. RE-ORGANIZATION! I'm on this crazy re-organizing kick. I think I'm distracting myself from the reality that lies ahead, but hey, its kind of a good way to refocus your energy! When I was a teenager, and my Mom would make me mad (I know, I know, how could my dear Mother make anyone mad?), I would go clean my room in a frenzy. Even today, I still find when I'm frustrated or stressed, I want to clean or organize something.

So in my "stress" I've been on a mission this week, which is why I haven't been blogging much.
It all started with buying this pantry last weekend (using money I made from consigning various items, which you can see in this post). Before we had an baker's rack here, which was cute, but it really had zero storage (I sold it for $20 on kijiji). I got this little number from Canadian Tire for $100, and it has opened up a ridiculous amount of storage space!
I was able to sell my old spice rack and storage unit for $10. That allowed me to buy the following spice rack, which is way nicer than the one I sold, plus it came fully stocked with 20 spices! Kijiji again.
Then I was able to use some of the money to buy the following wire shelves. Now, I am in love! These things are brilliant, simple, and totally ingenious. And even better, totally affordable! I paid $6.49 each at Canadian Tire. These ones are made by Sunbeam, but quite a few different companies make them. The thing I like about these ones is how the bars are flat on the top, so cans aren't going to tip over. Check out the brilliantness...
I found these baskets at Zellers for $6 each (they were 40% off), and one of them now houses our winter items (In Alberta you really can't put stuff like that away until June, and you bring it back out of storage by October!). The second large basket has things like tea towels, wash cloths, and the kids bibs inside. The smaller one inside ($4) the pantry houses all of my extra spices.
Once the pantry was dealt with, I had to deal with all of my "new found" cupboards. This opened up 4 cupboards in our kitchen (as well as completely clearing out the shelves in the basement that were previously used for a pantry). So that meant I had to go downstairs into the storage space under the stairs and sort through the, gulp...er, 5 boxes of additional kitchen stuff we had. I know, I know! In our rental house, the kitchen had so much storage, and when we moved here we realized we had to keep things to the bare minimum. So I went through all of that, was able to fill up those extra cupboards pretty quick. I also did a pretty good inventory of what we really need, and what we could obviously live without (it has all been in boxes since we moved in, September 2008).

This also meant I needed to re-organize our hutch/china cabinet to accommodate a few more items. This thing is the bane of Rob's existence. Every time we move, or he has to move it, he mutters something about getting rid of the darn thing. Its very heavy, and although I don't really have much in the way of "china," I still like it, and I think as we get older and get some prettier things, I will appreciate having it. Plus, the bottom two doors currently house Abbi's toys. (*The only problem presented with moving the hutch to a different place is that the light fixture is now right in front of it. So we will have to get a different light fixture. It was previously to the right, and the table was centered in this space).
We also figured out a way to display these mugs we got for our wedding We absolutely love them.
These are a few more things I was able to get done that I had really wanted to do. I have had this picture frame since before we were married. I absolutely love it, but have never used it or been able to find just the right picture for it. So here we are, probably 6 years later, and I finally put it to good use. Of course, using good 'ol white spray paint, I was able to transform the frames (previously it was a weathered look, but not a nice weathered look). The "pictures" are a set of cards that Ruth gave me for Christmas. These cards have adorable pictures for each season, so these are the Spring cards.
These frames were ones I got off of earthcycle. Using the same can of white spray paint I was able to transform some ugly sage green frames into these lovely white little numbers. I used some fabric from Gabe's valance, and framed them up. I think they add a nice contrast to the green walls.
We also have various junk that has needed to go for quite some time, but not having a truck has always presented a problem. So I have been nudging (well, not nudging because we know how much Rob doesn't like that! And if you don't, then you can read about it in this post), Rob to borrow a truck and lets get this stuff out of the way...

So Rob was able to borrow a truck from a guy that he works with (definitely good to know people with trucks!). The first trip was to the Eco Station (recycling depot) with various house junk. As you can see below our backyard was bordering on trailer trashy (or perhaps townhouse trashy?). A few box springs, a mattress, various pieces of lumber, other random junk. I'm sure our neighbors will appreciate our clean up!
And I suppose I better confess my recycling disaster. Our complex doesn't have blue bag recycling facilities (which I think is absolutely ridiculous!). The only alternative is to take them to a mall and sort all the items yourself. At -30, I think not! So I've been throwing all our recycling into bags and I thought I would just take it to our cousin's house every few weeks. Well, here we are, probably with about 20 bags piling up in our basement. Oy.
So trip #2 was off to the mall's recycling depot. I phoned the city to ask what to do with all of my recycling and the lady I spoke with told me to dump them in the bins - unorganized! She said they have to organize it anyway. Um, wow. Why did no one tell me that 8 months ago? Revolutionary stuff!

Abbi was so excited anout the truck, we installed her car seat and she got to go along on both trips. We actually aren't entirely sure if this is legal (child riding in the front seat), but regardless, she thought it was the greatest thing ever!
So now that all of that stuff is taken care of and gone, we've basically gained half of our backyard back, as well as a good portion of our basement! I'm quite grateful to the Hubby who got off work, picked up the truck, and he's just dropping it off now (nearly 4 hours later). What a good man I have!

So I'm quite pleased with all that I have been able to get done (with a little help, of course!). But if you are like me, you know that it never ends. There is always one more thing. My next project...the desk...
Oh, the shame!