Organizing

Dear Em,
Remember how one of my goals in 2012 was to get the basement cleaned out? Well, that never really happened in 2012...or 2013, but I had great plans for tackling 2014 into submission. I realized when I was in college that you can typically gauge my stress level by looking at my home organization levels. When my home is filled with messes, my stress level is pretty high. I can only take it for so long before going into mass organization mode. This summer was when I went into mass organization mode.

My professional life has been a little challenging. There have been a lot of ups & downs & uncertainties. When parts of my life feel out of control, I take on projects...things I can control. After renovating the family room & entryway & dining area (& a bunch of other home improvement projects I haven't posted yet), my mind was still not at rest.

First, I turned to the basement. I didn't take a before photo. It was too embarrassing. We basically just had piles on top of piles. You couldn't see 90% of the floor. We hadn't used most of the things we stored, because we couldn't even access the majority of it. There were so many things I found that I didn't even know we owned.

I made Keep, Sell, & Donate piles. I bought shelves from BJs. Your uncle Jared built shelving for us (way more shelving than I think any person should have to build in one summer), & I organized everything we were keeping on them. I can't tell you how great it is to know we would finally be able to find things.

Do you see that? You can actually see the floor again!

That would be enough for a lot of people, but I couldn't stop. Soon our family was trying to steer me away from closets, because if I saw a mess I had to organize it. I found shelves that we had already owned but had never put together. I put a shelf in & organized our coat closet. I bought food storage bins from Home Goods & cleaned out our pantry. I removed two garbage bags of things that were expired. I reorganized the office & my bedroom closet & the guest closet. I installed a door hanging untit to organize our cleaning products. I organized until I mostly ran out of things in our house to organize.

Then we had a yard sale. Anything we didn't sell we donated. You were devastated to see so many of your things go, but I felt so much lighter. I was so glad to say goodbye to the things that we hadn't used in years (or even remembered that we owned) & know they were going to homes that would find use for them.

It's an exhilarating feeling to be organized. Now let's just see if we can keep it that way.

I love you so,
Mommy

Beach Ready

Dear Em,
You come from a line of beachbums. You inherited your love of the beach from me, as I did from my mom. Some of my favorite beach moments are our impromptu ones, but now I try to be prepared for even the spontaneous visit (after many car trips from the beach being wet & sandy & you typically in my clothes). I keep a beach bag in my car for such visits.

What's in our beach bag?
- 2 Towels: One adult sized & one for a little love.
- 2 Bathing suits: One for you & one for me.
- Changes of clothes: A terry cloth pullover & pants for you & a pullover with sweatpants for me.
- Sunglasses: I actually keep a pair for you & a pair for me in my purse.
- Sunscreen: This is great for the beach but also other impromptu outdoor adventures.
- Beach Pail & Shovel
- Shell Collector: Your favorite beach activity is to gather shells, & I found a great bag made from recycled sailboat sails that you can use for just that.
- Waterproof Bag: We had been using plastic Ziploc bags but recently found a great bag at a camping store we can store our phones, keys, & cameras in to keep them from getting wet & sandy.
- Your swimmer: This is more for spontaneous trips to the pool than the beach, but it's still helpful to have.

Of course if we know we're hading to the beach, we also throw a whole bag of beach toys, a few beach chairs, & your boogie board in the car before heading out on our beach adventure. But we have just as much fun during our surprise visits when we have nothing but each other & what's in our beach bag.

I love you so, my little beachbum,

Mommy