Life . . . that’s what happened!
Our lives are so fast paced now, sometimes just the smallest event can disrupt our whole routine. Sometimes for an hour or two, a week, or in my case, a couple of months. . . nearly six to be exact.
Occasionally my health requires that I take a step back and re-charge my batteries. This normally two week break took nine. Medication changes etc. slowed everything down.
We also had renovations planned to begin in mid to late January. My beautiful husband decided that we should escape for the Christmas period to have a nice break before the chaos of the 2016 and the renos started. Hawaii was beautiful. Ten days visiting various islands, lying on beaches, being waited on hand and foot and forgetting everything else. Bliss! We returned in time for New Year and spent an extremely quiet evening at home.
As our renovations planned were for the upstairs of our home and the laundry and powder room downstairs, we needed to have everything packed into boxes and placed downstairs in the lounge, dining and rumpus room areas. During this process I came to the dreadful realisation that we actually have waaayyy too much stuff. Even though it was sorted and organised the reality was quite a shock. The plan was to do a complete clean-out prior to packing.
A week into packing we got a visit at home from our very distressed 27 year old daughter. The relationship she was in had crumbled and so the chaos ensued. It appeared that to make a completely clean break she would need to move out of her home. Without going into all the details, we suddenly had another three bedroom house to pack up. Our daughter ended up needing some respite herself and so the task was left to Mum and Dad. Although a small home, our daughter certainly had a lot of things.
Her home is now packed and the contents fill up our garage. Just an exit-rental clean to organise and the lease can be finished. This all delayed my husband and I finishing the packing up of our home.
Added to this, both my husband and myself had returned to work. My clients, so far this year, have been real estate jobs. Getting their homes de-cluttered and styled to go on the market for sale. This all means of course . . . more packing.
Back to our reno, with no bathrooms or a functioning laundry, we also needed to find alternative accommodation. Enter our beautiful friends who have allowed us to take their guest room with our younger daughter now happily living in their caravan under the car port. I will mention that she is in 7th Heaven having her own space. With our friends only having one bathroom we thought we would hire a portable ensuite so we didn’t completely invade their space. It’s fantastic! A shower, vanity and toilet. When Googling “mobile bathroom” I didn’t expect to find anything. I had no idea that such a thing existed. For any of you wanting to renovate your bathrooms, this makes a great and cheaper alternative to moving out.
So now we finally find ourselves relatively caught up with everything. I have taken this week of to recover from all the madness.
A lot of people, and clients that I meet comment that “Oh, your home must be so organised and tidy”. I wanted you all to know that even I can fall into the trap of becoming unorganised, chaotic and be in the possession of too much “stuff”. Just one little event can cause things to unravel quickly and one day you find yourself barely keeping your head above water. My plan for when the renovations are finished and we return home I am going to take baby steps and follow the advice that I give clients. Just one day at a time, one box at a time to restoring order and calm in my home.