Ah, here are some of the fruits of my labor over the past few days. I should have a before picture, I know, but it was just so horrible I was ashamed to show anyone how messy this house was. I still have a long way to go, but I have about a month or so until my summer break is here. Hopefully, I can keep up the momentum. Even small steps like getting our kitchen pantry in order (pictured above) can take so long to accomplish. It reminds me of those logic tests you have to take in school some times: “You have 10 boxes of cereal each 8×10 inches in diameter and 12 bottles of salad dressing, 2 x size, 4 y size, and the rest z size, and you have 1 shelf axbxc in size. How do you fit all of this crap on that one shelf?”

Then you find wacky stuff as I mentioned before. In the kitchen, I found about 5 pot lids with no describable mates. Why do we have these lids if we have no bottoms to the lids?

Other than the pantry and a few closets and cabinets, the other major milestone I accomplished was finding a place for my husband’s beer making equipment. I bought him a little beer kit a few Christmases ago, and though it took him some time to finally make the beer, once he got into it he discovered that he really likes it. This hobby combines his enjoyment of cooking with his mad-scientist side. He is now a card-carrying member of the Mr. Beer of the month club, and for the longest time all this beer stuff was all over the kitchen. I took advantage of a brief camping trip he made, and voila, when he returned showed him his new cabinet cleared out for all of his beer stuff. We are both very happy it all has a home now.