“Life changing?” we will see

May 2, 2015May 3, 2015 | mollyeleen

So I have a little secret. Wait! Nothing like my Sneaky B secret (although she was a secret to us all) this is minor compared to that moment in life. This is a hidden secret.

99 percent of the time our home is picked up and relatively clean. Should you eat off my floors?- No. Could you pop in and I not be mortified? – YES! However if you open a closet I just might die of embarrassment. No really – it’s bad. See-

Did I just post these pictures? Wow. I mean really… the holiday closet if off the charts of crazy. (OMG I really can’t believe I just shared this)

Pause – side note- this is the only closet you can open. Our bar. We turned the random coat closet in the living room into a bar. Fun right!

Back to crazy.

I think about these disaster closets often; thinking “today during sneaky b’s nap I will clean out the office closet.” I get mental prepared, gather garbage bags and boxes. Then I open the door and think of 500 other things that I need to do more, close the door and walk away.

A few days ago I found this book “The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up: the Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing” by Marie Kondo. Okay maybe I should find time to read this and maybe it will work. Maybe this is yet another form of procrastination? Of course it is. But maybe it will be “magic.”

After reading the book let’s just says it’s a little on the crazy side. A lot on the crazy side. I’m not so sure about thanking every item in my closet for the work they have done for me. I already feel I need a straight jacket somedays, this might just put me over the top. Then after thinking about it- maybe it will work. Truly Marie Kondo is famous in Japan. And her clients have had life changing experiences from her method of tidying up. And I do like a new “gimmick” Okay it’s on.

Tomorrow morning I start. NO this is not yet another procrastination. The books says it’s best to start working early in the morning when your energy and your things energy have been rested. So I take on my closet. I will share. We will see how life changing this is… fingers crossed

2 PODS, 2 twenty foot trucks & 2 mini vans!

August 6, 2014 | mollyeleen

I haven’t even had a moment to process Sneaky B’s FPIES diagnoses. For the past seven days I have been packing, carrying, dusting, and cleaning. My mom has sold our childhood home and is moving 8 minutes away from us. I am super excited to have her close! And sad to see the house go.

My mom is a collector. I do tease her about being a hoarder. She has a sign in her office that reads:

Ha! I guess that is true- to a point. But really anyone who lives in the same place for 37 years is bound to have a ton of stuff. For days we packed and carried and organized a huge yard sale. We tossed out the crap. Donated the unsellable. I collected a big pile (okay huge) for our place.

Saturday night we had the last family dinner in the house. A cook-off of sorts. Who could make the best meal from what was in the freezer and pantry. We opened every bottle of wine and “taste tested” them all. We went through boxes from the attic that where my dads, grandfathers and grandmothers. We laughed. It was fantastic!

Sunday so many family and friends came to help out. We loaded the second POD container (the first was loaded before the house went on the market). We loaded the first of the 20′ trucks. We loaded one mini van (most of this is ours). Over the next two days we loaded the next truck and mini van. WOW! That is a ton of stuff!

Through out these seven days I knew the time would come when I had to leave for the very last time. This house is where I grew up. I had slumber parties on the back lawn. Hubby and I got married in the back yard (so did my brother and sister-in-law). My dad was there. It was a tear filled drive down the dirt road the last time leaving the house. I knew it would happen one day, I guess you can never fully prepare.

My mom’s new house is fantastic! It will be fun to help her decorate and remodel the kitchen. Two of my favorite things. First, I guess, comes the unpacking. Ugh. Not sure which is worse the packing or unpacking. “Luckily” for us, we get to do it all over again in 4 weeks. In four weeks, we are moving out of our tiny apartment into a little house. I am so excited…

Sprinklings: the “tunnel”

October 27, 2013 | mollyeleen

So we have a tunnel in our home. Of course it’s not a real tunnel, but Kiddo has always called it her tunnel. It’s the space between the wall and the back of the sofa that was created when we added a sofa table using floating shelves.

When Kiddo was little she would crawl through the tunnel and we would chase her in and out of the tunnel. Now days she likes to go into her tunnel to have a quite moment, when she is sad or she is hiding because she is in trouble. She spends a little bit of time in her tunnel every day.

A few days ago, I decided it was time to vacuum under the sofa, so I moved it and was SHOCKED! HOLY HELL LOOK WHAT SHE DID!

Was she channeling the Lascaux cave painters or something? I am not even sure what to do about this. And so you don’t think I am totally oblivious to what is going on in my own home, this is what it looks like when sitting on the floor facing the tunnel

You can’t see the drawings at all, they start about 3 feet into the “tunnel” and cover the entire back!

What do I do? I talked to her about it. Mainly asking why on earth she would do something like this and her answer: “Because I needed to make it beautiful” After explaining to her, that I do appreciate her need to make things beautiful (like me) but she couldn’t draw of the sofa. It’s unacceptable.

Today, I keep thinking of this moment, was this a moment that shows us her future self? Is she going to grow up to be an artist? Maybe a muralist? I can’t help be a little proud of her (DON’T TELL HER). She knows she wants to be surround by things that make her comfortable and beautiful, how can I be mad about that?

I am still p.o’ed about the back of the sofa. Does anyone have any sofa cleaning tips? I am pretty sure we (Kiddo included) are in for a long day of scrubbing.

Sprinklings of my reality is a 31 days of October challenge…only 4 more to go

Sprinklings: I almost fell off the couch

October 16, 2013October 16, 2013 | mollyeleen

Okay last night we had an amazing moment. For those of you who follow along know what it s like to get Kiddo to keep her room picked up. “I like my room messy” & ” I’m to tired to clean my room, that’s why its your job.” NOT a good thing to say to mommy, but that was the norm.

About a month ago we took drastic measures and removed almost all her toys (read about it). It seemed a bit harsh but I was done with the constant nagging to keep it picked up. I’m not kidding we had to make a path to the bed a few times. Ands its been a huge help. Kiddo plays in her room more and its usually pretty clean. Yes there is usually a pile of dress up (but only two dresses) or maybe some dirty clothes and baby doll or two. But for her – its great.

Then last night when she was supposed to be sleeping (we have major issues in this department) she did something amazing. Kiddo cleaned her room. We didn’t ask her too. She just did it. She even used her toy vacuum to vacuum her carpet.
She was so proud of herself! I couldn’t help but give her a major hug and kisses even though she should have been sleeping.

I am starting to really believe the saying:

Time to donate even more stuff, but this time it’s mommy and daddy’s turn.

Sprinklings of my reality- read them all

Sprinklings: how does that happen?

October 15, 2013October 15, 2013 | mollyeleen

I think I must be channeling June these last few days. I am needing the super perfectly clean and organized world that June always had. But with two children and a crazy few days its an unattainable goal.

While I’m trying to catch up, there are a few mysteries of house keeping that make me bonkers. And I’m wondering if I am alone here or am I needing a straight jacket

1. How come there is often one dish in the dishwasher that doesn’t get clean? I don’t mean one little spec, I mean totally dirty. As if it didn’t even get any water on it. Makes me crazy because now its even harder to clean the dried on food goobers. Gross!

2. How is it possible that one shirt, pair of undies or one sock can go through the entire dryer time and come out as wet as it went in? How does that happen? Its not all twisted either (that does happen sometimes). I don’t understand how this can happen with all the hot air flying around the tossing clothes… doesn’t make any sense.

3. (The most annoying) how can you leave for a few days, leaving the house spotless, and when you get home the house is a freaking disaster? okay honestly it is clean when we walk in but in less than five minutes its a disaster. This makes me totally insane. Not sure why but it really does. I don’t know how it even happens. Maybe because all of our luggage is piled up? But it’s more than just luggage- its almost ad if the luggage has exploded. Arggg!!

I really hope I am not needing a straight jacket here and that at least one of these things happens to you too. Please share with me so I don’t go looking for the nearest asylum.

Sprinklings of my reality is a 31 day challenge, read them all, I know you want to.

Sprinklings: vacuuming with my pearls on

October 14, 2013 | mollyeleen

I like to consider myself a June Cleaver of the 21st century. Not only do I love the vintage vibe but I like to have my home in order all the time. This doesn’t alway happen, but I go bonkers when it’s not done. If there is laundry to be folded and I don’t do it before leaving for the day, I think about it the entire time I am out of the house. That being said, I do a few very un-June things occasionally to get it done. So here we go…. Confession of a June Clever want-to-be….

1. Sometimes when the dishwasher is full of clean dishes, it’s 11 at night and there are just 5 larger dishes that need to be washed; I will put away enough of the clean dishes to fit the few dirties in and start the dishwasher again. That way I can wake up to a clean kitchen.

2. There are days that I will just spray the can of pledge around, that way the house smells clean and therefore I think it’s been dusted.

3. Some days I will get dressed up just to vacuum. Pearls, heels, maybe even a cute dress. (Okay this doesn’t happen to often anymore, but it used to)

4. Sometimes I rewash clothes instead of putting them away. Horrible but true.

5. Most of the time I dust only as high as by tallest friend.

6. When I am going to have company for dinner, I set the table first thing that morning, that way it “looks” like I am organized and ready to go, even thought I may not be.

7. If there is a tupperware container that has been in the fridge a little to long with left overs and it has started to grow a bit, I will toss the entire thing instead of just washing it out.

8. Since Hubby wears a suit jacket everyday, I only iron the collar, cuffs and the center front. Sorry Hubby

9. Never underestimate the power of dim lighting. It’s amazing how much cleaner your home looks in dim lighting. Hence all my lamps have 40 watt bulbs or lower.

10. Never have guests arrive right before sunset (or whenever the sun is hitting your windows). It’s amazing how dirty the windows look when they are in direct sunlight.

I am sure there are many many more, but for now these are my confessions. Do you have any June Cleaver confessions to share? I would love to hear them.

Sprinklings of my reality: read them all here

We are getting so zzzzzzzzzzz

July 21, 2013 | mollyeleen

Alright, here we go, take 20 I think, in attempting to blog. Let me tell you, it’s not that I don’t have a ton to share. Here’s how it goes: Kiddo goes to bed, “dinner” dishes (my poor June Clever self has almost left the building… dinner as of late has been sad…but no one is starving) are done, pull out the laptop, get relatively comfy on the sofa, log in to wordpress, then I’m woken up by Hubby walking in the front door, home from school already… how on earth can it be 945 at night, I didn’t type one word. I keep falling asleep! It’s so annoying but I have to accept it I guess, I am just to busy for my own good. Freelance projects (yay!), summertime fun with Kiddo, normal household chores (most of them), getting ready for Sneaky Baby and being 9+months preggers, it makes sense to be passing out tired around 730. Oye! It’s still annoying, but I guess it’s my world as of now

Okay to the fun stuff! We are basically ready for Sneaky baby to arrive! Her nursery is almost done, just need to hang 3 pictures and put the sheets on the crib. Our room got a little make over too, there is nothing like new bedding I tell you! The office/dining room just needs one shelf hung, although I really really want new dining chairs now (future project- YES!) and Kiddo’s room has been completed for a few weeks now. Drum roll please…Kiddo’s room: (you can see the before here)

Not a lot of change, but dark pink (the only color in the world) and not so “flowery”

Gosh she has way to much stuff! And we donated bags of toys too… note to self Kiddo doesn’t need anything else. The princess silhouettes we made a few weeks ago turned out pretty cute I think.

While we have been cleaning out our little home, I do find it crazy annoying for my nesting self, yet funny at how unbelievably messy cleaning out can be. Case in point…

Not to mention, the stacks and stacks of crap we had hidden in closets. Really, this beautiful pile was over two feet high

And of course, one of the best yet, “O” magazine about de-cluttering pulled out from under the bed. Although cleaning out is exhausting, truly it feels like we are moving, it is so nice to know that there isn’t one thing in this little home that we don’t need. Plus the amount of donations we have made is amazing…car loads (at least 5) off to our local SPCA. Good for the heart I tell ya.

Stay tuned… I will be sharing the other spaces, if I can keep my eyes open, maybe even tomorrow 😉

Improving day 10: I am so happy….

January 10, 2013 | mollyeleen

because today the carpets were cleaned! WOO HOO!

Now wait a minute…isn’t it funny that having your wall to wall carpets cleaned can make one so happy. When did this thinking switch? I know that the kiddo could careless, in fact she is hating it at the moment because she can’t have any snacks in the living room. I am pretty sure that when I was in my 20’s I didn’t care about clean carpets. Well maybe a little bit since I am an Interior Architect, so I am always focused on interior details. I can tell you what restaurants have the worst moulding details if you would like…. can’t help myself I notice these things.

Back to the wonderfulness of clean carpets, it so nice to not see where the mac n’ cheese spilled in the dining room, or where the cat brought in the dead mouse, or where I spilled blue paint. I don’t think anyone stopping by could see these spots, but I sure could. Or all the glitter on the floor in kiddos room, it was pretty and sparkly for a day or two, then it made me bonkers.

So tonight the carpets are perfect. Makes me so happy, as sad as that might me. I think I will ask hubby to make me a bourbon, sit on the lovely clean carpets and contemplate my next diy project. Cheers!

molly b

creating, stitching, designing, thrifting

cleaning