Finally Done!

It took a long time--five weeks--to get my apartment packed, cleaned and painted. But we finally finished last Saturday! Hurray!

For five weeks, four days a week, my mom and I drove to my apartment and packed boxes. We also sorted and discarded things. I can't even tell you how much stuff we threw out or put aside for a yard sale. Most of the stuff we kept for a sale is in my parents' pole barn. We just didn't have the space to put it in the storage we rented.

Next week, I will go through the inspection with the landlord to determine what damages I'll have to pay. I'm pretty certain there won't be many, as I lived there for over two years, so most damage should be considered normal wear and tear.

I wish I could say we didn't have anything else to do, but there is still a lot of work to do. Not at the apartment, but at the house. We have to do some consolidating and weed out the things we don't need here. We also have to find a spot for all the new things that have been moved.

I'm very lucky, because Jim is wonderful. I just could not imagine living with anyone as considerate and loving as he is. He's simply been amazing. Last weekend, he moved some of his clothes out of the bedroom and into his office to give me more space for my things. He also hired someone to do some yard work so he can have a storage shed put in the yard. He's decided to move his tools out of the utility room so I can have more room for my kitchen things. How many men are willing to go to that extent to make their girlfriend feel like she belongs???? My guess is not many.

For the next two weeks he's going to Detroit for work--he'll be home on the weekend--and I'll be trying to put the house in order whilst he's gone. The sooner I can find a home for everything, the sooner this will feel like a relaxing home for both of us, and that's what I want to do for him. He gives me sooooo much, so I want to do something nice for him.

Soooooo...Does anyone have any storage ideas for a house that isn't even 810 square feet? I need to make everything fit!!!

Moved Out of My Apartment

Yesterday we finished packing and moved the final items from my apartment. It's official, Jim and I are now living together in his house, which I am slowly starting to think of as my house more and more. Most of my things were moved into a storage space we rented, but the remaining items have been brought to the house, and there are boxes everywhere.

Now we're at the point where we have to figure out where to put everything. Jim's house is about 50 square feet smaller than my apartment was. That means that not only do we have to make two households fit into one, we have to make them fit into the smaller of the two! That means getting creative with the storage ideas.

We're also having to thin out a lot of items...getting rid of duplicate items, eliminating unused items, and keeping only the things we need or absolutely love.

We're not able to incorporated everything we love into our small house. Unfortunately, some items have to be stored. One of those items is my china cabinet. Some of you might remember it from my other blog. It looked so good in my apartment, but it is just too large for the small space we're living in now. However, I did finally get my lovely coffee table in the living room, along with a chair my mom gave me.

Oh! in case you're wondering. I did solve the problem of Jim's blue recliner. Amazingly, on one of my trips to Goodwill, I found two matching blue drum shades that were in perfect condition to put on his two table lamps. They just happen to match his blue recliner almost perfectly and bring in the blue color that was missing from the room. (Still not thrilled with the idea of a recliner being in the living room, but a girl has to make compromises.)

The next room I'm going to work on is the kitchen. Jim is going to be gone for a couple of weeks, coming home only on the weekend in between, and I'm going to take advantage of that time to make some much needed changes to the kitchen. Jim agreed to buy the paint for the kitchen, and I'll start with that, but I have a few other ideas I want to do too. Hopefully he'll like them when he gets home!

Well, I should get to doing a little more unpacking. The living room and kitchen are currently cluttered with boxes, and it's driving me nuts!!!