SURPRISE!

What was supposed to be a 7 week wait for internet at our new house turned out to be less than 7 days.  Yipee!

And...we have a house and all of our stuff.  Yipee!

And...just as I expected, we have more space than we know what to do with.  Yipee!

Perspective.  It's all about perspective.  I'll be posting some pictures soon of the ingenious and super efficient kitchen.  And of solutions to no closets.  And of how to divide a huge room into two distinct spaces without sacrificing aesthetics, view, or wasting space.  We'll see how this all goes.   Any suggestions?

For now, my days are spent opening boxes and deciding on the general destination of each item I encounter.  Sometimes that means directly into the "Get Rid Of" box.  Yup.  As expected (again), I have come across some things that make me scratch my head wondering why I ever kept them.  Those things aren't even getting a chance to live here, because if I don't sort through them now while I am physically touching them, they will somehow disappear into the general population, and will likely get moved with us again.  So, once the fate of the item has been decided, its location must be determined.  Some will say touch each thing only once.  But I tend to go with the staging mentality.  I cannot immediately process where everything will go, especially with no real closets.  If it's not something obvious like kids clothing, I merely move it to its correct floor and group it with like items.  Later, when I am able, I will come back to it and find a specific location.  This method helps to keep me from being overwhelmed with a gigantic box of randomness.

Another method to my madness is to focus on one or two rooms.  Again, this means moving things more than once.  I am currently working on my boys' room, and when I began I couldn't even walk into the room.  So, I moved some things out into the extra room and started from scratch.  It made the process much more manageable.

When the movers first came, I had the paralyzing feeling of claustrophobia, and I once again wondered how we would ever emerge from the chaos.  But it's only been a few days and I've seen real progress, which is the best motivation around.