Hoarders Annonymous

The other night I went across the street to visit a neighbor and when I walked back and gazed into our home where all the lights were on and blinds were open, it looked like an episode of hoarders.

I do not make light of the affliction of hoarding. In fact, I think I have a mild case. Trouble is we've been piecemeal-ing pieces of furniture together to house our bunches of stuff - almost none of which has doors. So you can pretty much see everything we own. From the street. So something had to be done.

Day 1: I set off the next morning with the kiddos and a friend to IKEA, with instructions from the fella not to make any purchases without his two cents. This mission was purely reconnaissance. He and I returned that night to make decisions and purchases. We closed the place down and headed home to start assembly. Upon opening the first flat box I realized we got home with the wrong pieces. 

DAY 2: The fella and I dropped the boys off at school and headed to a different furniture store with Hazel. We perused the sectional couches then went to IKEA to ponder our options. We got the correct pieces of the kitchen storage cabinets we goofed up the day before and purchased a honkin' Besta - an entertainment system which would also have great storage for media, the printer and other office stuff. Behind closed doors. YAY.

We also chose a lovely compact sectional and a rug from the other place.

What I forgot to mention that day 2 was Friday, and on Saturday Hazel and I were to catch an 8:00 a.m. flight to North Carolina. Details...details...

Day 2 timeline:
9:00 a.m. - drop boys off
9:30 a.m. - 1:45 p.m. - shop
2:00 p.m. - home, started assembling.
5:00 p.m. - haul all the old stuff down to the basement
6:00 p.m. - keep assembling
2:00 a.m. - finish assembly, start putting stuff away (fella goes to bed)
4:30 a.m. - it is finished!
4:30 a.m. - take a shower. pack.
5:00 a.m. - head hits pillow. fella's alarm clock goes off. agree to sleep til 6:00.
6:00 a.m. - wake up and go to airport
Zoiks.

But we really like it. There's space and organization and the things we need are still within arms reach but not in plain sight. There is still a little work to do - I plan on recovering the printed cushions and adding some artwork.

 Looks like a grown up's living room, right?

 Storage with doors! Revolutionary!

We certainly did not cure our hoarding tendencies. In fact, the hoard was not diminished at all, just hidden. There wasn't time for both culling the hoard and fixing the new stuff. We'll get to the hoard culling some other time. For now...

we like it! That last photo is just for fun. At Eli's request Hazel is dressed as a pumpkin fairy this morning. Why not?