How to Stay Organized Amidst Chaos

Chaos comes can look very different depending on your circumstance.  

Maybe it's having a bbq, dining room table and rolled up rug to straddle in your kitchen while you try to cook.

Or a china cabinet and extra doors in your mudroom.

Or, maybe it's the crazy that comes during the first week of school.  Regardless of what your chaos looks like, there are ways to stay organized through it all.

ONE

Plan ahead.
Sometimes chaos strikes unannounced, but often we can see it coming.  When I knew that our floors were going to get redone and furniture was going to be stacked in my kitchen, I made sure to scope out the needs for the month and I took care of as much as I could ahead of time.  I shopped for gifts that needed to be bought.  I wrapped them.  I got all the school supplies purchased and stowed in backpacks so we wouldn't have to worry about that on top of scaling furniture.  

Do what you can ahead of time.

TWO

Maintain some sense of order and routine where you can.
Just because my den looks like this,

and the rest of the main floor is empty,

does not mean that we can't keep the rest of the house normal.  We still make our beds.  We still do our laundry.  I require the children to help with chores and clean up their toys just like always.  Keeping some sane areas in the house when other parts are nutty helps to keep us feeling normal.

THREE

Don't waste your time.

Even though there has been a layer of dust EVERYWHERE in my home since we had our floors done, we have to have them redone due to some problems the first time.  It's gross in here, but taking the time to clean would have been crazy knowing that I'd just have to do it all over again once the flooring guy returns.  

FOUR

Let it go.

Sometimes we get so tied to having everything just so.  The whole definition of chaos is that some stuff is gonna be outta place!  (Not that we don't always have a bbq in the dining room)  It's okay.  It's not forever.  Just relax and let it go.

SAY SORRY

When things at home are crazy sometimes we get crazy too.  The other day during a stressful morning I had to tell my son, "I'm gonna start crying in about 30 seconds.  It's not your fault, I'm just frustrated and I'm sorry."  Nobody's perfect.  If you lose it, say you're sorry.

So thankful they always forgive me!

Renovation Bliss

I feel giddy. 

There are points in a long renovation where something incredible happens and you actually get to see part of your long term vision take shape.

That happened in the wee hours of this morning.

The wall in our living room...

Before

is gone.

After

And now the living room is big and bright and I am just so excited!

Here's the view from the other side.

Before

After

Way to go Dino!  

Renovation Updates

Happy August!  

When I said I'd be gone awhile I hadn't really meant for all of July.  

Oops.

The blog renovation is taking a bit longer than anticipated but hopefully I can share my new look with you this Fall.

In the meantime, catch up on what's happening around the house!

As you will remember, our basement went from this:

The Flood

to this: 

The Lift

to this:

The Addition

We've enjoyed our brand new basement immensely!

We took a break from the renovations over the Winter, but when I arrived home from out of town this week my living room looked like this,

and Dino told me to clear everything out of the main floor (except the kitchen).

So now here we are without a living room,

or dining room.

With a lot of noise and dust.

But very excited!

And maybe just a smidge nervous about how that entire wall is gonna come down.

Stay tuned!