making order out of chaos

even when you are really excited about a move, it is a lot of hard work

no matter what "stuff" you bring with you there are going to be surprises

and organization can be a key thing

these two pieces of organization happen this week --

in the garage there were brooms and mops and dust pans leaning against the wall next to the freezer (which I'm happy to report survived the move and is already in use here at the new house) -- tripping over all those things was making me a little nuts

in this case, since these hang out in the garage, I opted for the free organizing method -- the DH nailed a long 1x2 to the studs on the wall then I could put up as many other nails as I wanted to hang all those cleaning tools

in the kitchen pantry, however, I needed something a bit more than a piece of 1x2 -- picked up a wire rack system like the one my daughter has in her pantry and made a lot more usable space in there

this move came with some expected expenses

these three items for example --

we had expected to replace our mattress and step up into something that is more comfortable for our aging bodies

and we knew from the day we first looked at it that the refrigerator that was in the house would need to be replaced

the new grill is our reward to ourselves for having spent a year without one because we were not willing to buy one and leave it at the old house after the old one stopped working and could not be repaired (no small hardship since we usually grill all year round!)

and then there were those unexpected things 

one of the things that we moved was the recliner that I had been using for about 20 years

turns out we could have just left it behind as the first night it came out of the moving POD one of the supports for the back broke

the new chair, while it is not what I really would like to have, is quite serviceable and goes well with the other chair in the room, so I'm okay with it

and the little adventure of the dishwasher

there was a dishwasher here, which when the home inspector did is work before we bought the house made note that it was not attached to the counter top so when it was opened it fell forward out of the cabinet

of course we insisted that the previous owner take care of that -- which they did -- sort of

after the first long weekend of unpacking and washing dishing is that dishwasher, my daughter observed that it didn't do a really good job, it was noisy, and if you pulled the top rack out too far it came right off the rail and put you in danger of dropping an entire rack of glasses 

I made some noises about having to make do with it for now, etc., etc., and she said to me "Mom, you DESERVE to have nice things"

uh -- well, she has a point

so we ordered the new dishwasher, and when the installer came, he discovered that the "legs" under that old one were nothing more than some little pieces of raw lumber, and just as he started to work on disconnecting it, it started spewing water all over the kitchen!

I think we avoided a lot of hassle by being proactive on this one!

the work in the house continues, there is still much to do, but I'm going to take some time today to work on some art -- I'm feeling a little "out of sorts" and I know the best cure is to make some art!