Cleanin' house

Surprise!

We’re blogging about something other than gluten-free food, Atlanta, or our weekend plans…well sort of.

A couple of weekends ago, Chris and I decided that after a year of some serious living in our sweet little house, it was time to do some major deep cleaning.

After two days of intense cleaning, dumping, and rearranging, we learned one major lesson: we’re NOT waiting another year to do it again. We swept and scrubbed that place from top to bottom. It was embarrassingly filthy. Enough said.

The best thing we did for our house and our sanity was to de-clutter. Our keeping room, or front room in our house had turned into a dumping ground over the past year. We walk in the door, and throw stuff down in there with every intention to move it. Well, that never happens. Here’s what the room looked like before.

Absolute mess.

Here’s what we did:

Threw out a bunch of junk. Stupid stuff you don’t actually need, but maybe you think you’ll want to save it at the time or in the moment. Nope, just becomes junk.

Got rid of the desk. We’re not in school anymore, and it’s a breeding ground for mess.

Put a bunch of stuff in the crawlspace that was supposed to end up there a long time ago, but we’re scared of the crawlspace. We got Jfal to handle that part.

Moved some things around! We eat our meals in our living room since its right off of the kitchen and by the T.V., but we didn’t have room for a table in there…or so we thought. There was a table in the keeping room in a corner just collecting junk and not being used to its full kitchen table capacity. So, we moved two chairs out of the living room (that were getting too much use/getting dirty) into the keeping room, and then moved the table and its two chairs into the living room. Boom. Table for two. We love it!

Lastly, we had a little spray-painting adventure to top it all off. Danny gave us a couple of white rocking chairs from his Nana’s house, so we wanted to spruce them up a bit – bring Nana into 2012. Then Chris found the perfect little cabinet for her room, but it was a not-so-perfect color, and I got an old trunk from Stacey that was in need of a makeover.

I don’t know if we went about this in the most efficient or effective way, but it worked for us, so here it goes:

First, we cleaned everything. We just used an all-purpose cleaner, and sprayed and wiped everything down. The chairs especially needed it.

BEFORE

BEFORE

BEFORE

BEFORE

Next, we used spray paint primer for the two darker colored pieces. We were not sure whether or not we’d even need primer, but we figured it wouldn’t hurt. In the end, I think it was for the best. Chris’s cabinet was pretty much eating the primer.

Then, we went spray crazy until our furniture was totally covered. We ended up going back to Lowe’s twice to get more paint.

Next time, I think we’ll let the paint dry longer outside, and we’ll anticipate more paint!

And for the grand finale…I found this amazing little coffee table at a flea market, and fell in love with its potential. I love that it’s round, and smaller than our last one.

The way I found it...

Progress...

I plan on sanding and re-finishing it, but I’m not sure exactly what I want to do yet. Ain’t it cute?!

We’re really happy with all of our projects, but it’s still a work in progress. We still need to:

1.     Hang pictures

2.     Get placemats

3.     Organize bookshelves

4.     Make a fake mudroom like this.

Eventually…

1.     A new couch for the Living Room

2.     A little couch for the Keeping Room

3.     More art for the walls

4.     New rugs

 Woo hoo!!