Snow Day for Jill

This morning we received a small amount of snow, but it was enough for John's basketball game to be cancelled.  It didn't take long for John to talk Lawrence into taking him and Sarah (and Owen Weis) to Perfect North for the day.  This left me with an entire day to myself.  This can actually be sort of unnerving to me.  It is complete bliss, yet I'm so used to having something to do that any unstructured time makes me feel like one of today's kids who is involved in a million activities and doesn't know how to entertain himself.

As always at the first of the year, I feel a supreme need to "nest" and organize, so I decided today was the perfect day to tackle all the clutter in our kitchen.  I keep things fairly neat on the "outside", but one look in my cabinets and drawers and one would be appalled.  I literally spent the entire day (well, almost the entire day, I did take a nap and go to Bed, Bath & Beyond and Hobby Lobby) cleaning out all the junk we've accumulated over the last year.  Here are my Befores and Afters (just like HGTV!):

Before of my cookbook shelf...this area has become a catch all for matches, candles, nails, etc.  A mess!

Ahhh, nice and clean with JUST cookbooks (for now)

Super icky...underneath my sink...moldy, gross, and the shelf had caved in so bottles were constantly tipping over!

Ta da!  I cut a piece of chalkboard that was out in the garage and made a new shelf.  Tossed out all the empty bottles, and we're nice and tidy!

Our counter stools were a serious hazard to anyone who sat in them.   About to fall apart!

New stools...that you can actually sit in.  These took a while to assemble (I know, the fact that I had to assemble them means they aren't too high quality), but were worth the effort.

This cabinet sits near our table and has become a home for phone books, markers, paper, play-doh.  The door barely shuts at this point!

Homework zen...just the right amount of paper and school supplies, plus only current phonebooks and directories.

OK, so this cabinet has a story behind it (actually, above it).  The junk drawer above this cabinet broke LAST YEAR and everything just fell out of it.  And yep, I left it all there for a year!

Our lunch boxes now have their own home again (oh, and I fixed the drawer).

OK, this area makes me crazy.  Our "charging station" is a "clutter station."  

Oh, THERE's my phone!  Now I can see it.

So I'm going to bed tonight feeling pretty good about myself (of course I'm ignoring the fact that I let these areas get this bad to begin with).  Oh well.  I'll be retired and an empty nester one day, and my house will be neat, and I know I'll miss the mess.  Hard to believe right now, but I think it's true.