Next Project.

We still have our few last fixes in the kitchen to do, but thankfully, we've moved on to our next pre-baby renovation project, this time, more minor.

Our plan is to turn the office into Ellie's big girl bedroom and leave the nursery as is for Lambeau when he arrives. I'd like to have Ellie sleeping in her new room sometime in February, and it looks like we're on our way. Last night we sold our breakfast nook on craigslist, after a few weeks of flakey people emailing about it and then never showing up to see it. I gave the guy who bought it $50 off if he promised to show up at the correct time, and he did! Everyone wins. That was the biggest step in cleaning out that room.

Then of course, I went into crazy nesting mode at 7:30pm and started to tidy up in there. The office has long been a dumping ground - the filing cabinets are full of movies and video games that we haven't watched or played in years (a lot are still in their wrappers, actually.) Two of the filing cabinets actually have our files in them, but we can move them back into our old cabinet. The other seven of the nine bottom drawers are just filled with JUNK. And right now (possibly because I'm nesting) it feels like our whole house is filled with JUNK. I keep wishing I had an empty closet someplace, and then remember that the key is not saving everything, but getting rid of everything that isn't of sentimental value. No use holding on to a bunch of clutter just so that it can sit in a container some place. I also realize that in three years, all of the giant baby gear that's inhabiting my garage will have gone to the consignment store, and that will help. No matter how small that stuff looks in the box, once you put the play mat or the jumparoo together, it never goes back to it's original small and easily stored size.

Ellie and I stopped by Target today, where thankfully a lot of their organizing items were on sale. I bought a big sterilite tub, and anything from the office cabinets that doesn't fit in there is going to have to go. Thankfully, tomorrow a local charity is doing pick ups if you leave your donations at the end of your driveway! But in order to store the tub, I have to clean out a big swath of my closet. By the time Lambeau comes, I feel like we'll have dug through every nook and cranny of this house and cleaned and organized. It's a nice thought, though a little daunting when I'm huffing and puffing on my hands and knees, trying to drag stuff out from under the bed and from dirty corners of the garage. Tim is equally as displeased, because he is my hauling and storing man servant, responsible for shoving all large items into the rafters.