Go Now To Your Dwelling Place

Overhaul

Have you ever changed up your whole house based on something small?  I seem to be moving in that direction over these past couple of days.  It all started because the lampshade I was swooning over at Target (and who's with me on loving everything in the Threshold collection) was marked down from $40 to $4.98.  $4.98 people!! Can you believe it?!?! 

Ok, truth be told, we just got back from vacation at the cottage we rent every year on Cape Cod and that house always inspires me to scale back on the accessories and brighten things up. 

 

Coming back from this house, everything in my house feels so dark and cluttered. Then The Nester did her 30 days without accessories challenge, and though I don't know if I could ever go accessory free, I do feel like our house could benifit from some cleaner surfaces.

Since this guy came home from South Korea last spring...

Our life has been beyond challenging (as I am sure it is for any family when they bring a new member home!) and although I have completed a number of house projects - they were more about maintenance and survival that they were about creating the kind of enviornment I want to come home to. 

So if that lampshade sparked that change - then hip hip hooray - $5 well spent!!

 

Tackling the Paper Mountain

Tonight was one of those boring but necessary necessary nights here at the Dwelling Place.  It was one of those nights when the paperwork started to look like this.

 
You know it happens....don't tell me it doesn't....and if it doesn't tell me how to make it stop.  The mail and all other sundry papers find their way to my desk in the family room and before you can blink an eye, it turns into something that takes on a life of it's own.  Catalogs, Magazines, statements, cards, moving announcements, stuff that you meant to file, they all find their way into this group.

That's when the tough decisions need to be made.

What to save, what to keep.

When it happens to me, I need to be ruthless, so even though there are a slew of blogs out there that help you tackle your own personal paper mountain, I'm going to share my method.

I gather it all up, recycle bin and shreader by my side.  I make 3 piles. To file, to be attended to, and to toss.  I spread it all out on the family room floor....yes the floor, because it has more room than the table.  Then I get to work until it's all and every last piece has found a home.

Tonight we were sucessful. 

I know this isn't the usual topic that I tackle here, but the paper that comes into your home is most certainly a part of your home.

So now I need to know...how to you deal with your paper?

"Pause"

Do you ever feel like you need to push the pause button on your life sometimes?  You’re going at 150 mph, making things happen, getting things done, and then suddenly you take a look around and everything is upside down in your immediate environment?

Well, that’s how I felt on Sunday.  I took a look around my house and it was covered in dust.   I know...I know...it’s the time of year...it’s the angle of the sun...blah, blah, blah. Well, you guys I hate dust...ever since I was a little girl....I used to scream my head off and run away in terror if confronted by a dust bunny (totally serious, not kidding, ask my parents)! 

 
 Ahhh...my own personal nightmare!

Besides, the house was also torn apart from doing 37 projects at once, there was a mountain of laundry, and even though there was food in my fridge, none of it went together enough to make a meal.  My office was in no better shape.  Normally, this is the one place that I am freakishly tidy, but it too was stacked with papers and nothing was in its place.  For me this physical chaos creates mental chaos.

I’m all for having a home that looks and feels lived in, but really I know when "the creep" is setting in.  So I gave myself a "pause".  Everything stopped - phone calls, projects, inter-webbing, email, visiting, you know, all of those everyday things. Only the basic essentials of survival were allowed! I was not going to move forward with one more of those things until my universe was in order. 

(Although truth be told, I did give myself a pass to watch Modern Family on Wednesday completely uninterrupted. I didn’t even fold laundry!  That show is hi-larious!!!)

I did it, I tackled that mountain of laundry, did a Peapod order (a real life saver for me), paid the bills, and everything is where it is supposed to be!  So yesterday I decided to take my life off of “pause" and enjoyed a quality "girl’s night" with my peeps - Shout out to the peeps!!  The mental chaos was cleared and for a minute I just stood in the driveway breathing in the cold spring air.

I know it will all happen again in a couple of weeks, but when it does I will be ready with my attack plan!

So, what do you do?  Do you put the pause button on or do you just power through?

PS. My Chalk Paint came yesterday!

PPS. So excited!!

PPPS. Fingers crossed you will all get to see a project with it on Monday!