With kitchen, living room, dishes and laundry all being maintained by my routines... I've been wanting to start tackling more things. Not only add new routines, but also spots in the house that need help. Like the hallway since it became a dumping ground when we started redoing the main bathroom and when the girls cleaned their room and we moved the beds around. Another one is the stack of boxes from Mom's house. They were the stuff she'd packed up when she started moving out of our home while I was in college and packed up my room without me.. so some of it I hadn't seen since 1989. Wow. Anyway, I also need to go through all the winter clothes I had in tubs and crates, so we can figure out what to keep or give away, then pack up summer stuff.
So, this afternoon I was feeling down about lots of things (one of which was the UT Vols losing to the Florida Gators AGAIN.) So, I decided I'd do the hallway. I was just sick of seeing it. One of the biggest problems it had was that we'd put the big blue cabinet in the hallway. It's our linen closet and was pretty convenient there, but it took up a LOT of room. It's a really wide hallway, but the cabinet made you kind of feel like you had to squeeze past it. We have two friends who come over and visit quite often. One is a pretty is a pretty is guy, over 6'5 and maybe over 400 lbs and he really does have to squeeze past it to get to the bathroom. The other one has Parkinsons and it seems to be getting worse, and some days he just couldn't make it down the hallway. That is unacceptable! So, it had to change!
I decided the blue cabinet had to go back to the main bathroom which is where we'd had it when we first moved in. There was already a tall lingerie dresser in there which I'd been using as a second linen cabinet for the girls, when the big blue one had been in the master bedroom. Well, they really never used the dresser. They just came to me and asked for sheets, or I washed them the same day and they used the same ones again. So, it was mostly empty, and since Rhiannon needs more storage for all her hipster clothes, I decided to put the dresser in her room. She actually had the perfect spot for it. So, then I moved the blue cabinet to the main bathroom and it looks great there! Its a dark blue, and I'd recently painted the bathroom a light beachy blue so it looks really good. Plus it has beadboard on the door, and I'm going to put bead board up on the lower half of the walls in there, so Perfect!
Once that was gone, there were tubs of trash, give away stuff, cans of paint, and enough dog hair to make a new dog. I sorted through everything and threw away a big box of stuff, and a tub of give away toys. I tossed 2 empty paint cans and put away the rest. There were also two big planks of wood with hanging hooks on them that Christopher had gotten from work. I don't know what department they would have been in. They're pretty huge and are red with gold hooks. If they were screwed into studs, they'd be great for hanging coats and backpacks, but I've been waiting on (and asking) Christopher to drill new holes in them and install them in studs for MONTHS. So, now I need to decide if I'm going to just do it all myself, or just give both of them away. We already have a small white coathook thing on the wall near the sideboard, but it's too short to be in two studs, so I worry about heavy backpacks on it. Maybe I do need to just go ahead and do it... If I do, I'll get pics of the whole process, since it will need painting as well. The red and gold do NOT go with my hallway - well I don't think so anyway. We'll see.
After sweeping and putting away a box of Christmas stuff that was up under the sideboard, the hallway is finally done... well til I decide what to do with the hooks anyway. hmmm
***UPDATE*** I did it! At 3am, I measured and drilled holes for the screws in the wood plank the hooks are on, then installed them on the hallway wall. I took the old one down and put it in the giveaway tub, and then moved a wall clock that had a dead battery and put a new battery in it and put it next to the the mirror and hooks to hide the wall damage from the old hooks until I can touch them up with paint.
I took pics and also some of the main bathroom. I'll do another post tomorrow with them.