Cleaning up my yard and doing some serious closet organization

Cleaning up my house and yard. Reaching full on adult hood because a huge empty closet totally made me thrilled! OMG I was beginning to think I would never get here lol! Last update I posted I had only one last pile of crap my ex left for me around my old “tack shack” which is now my new wood shed. Well, I finally got it all hauled off and thrown away! Ugh my poor back is SO sore, why is it that everything I do turns me into a pack mule?!

As I promised in my last post about the house I AM LEARNING TO PACE MYSELF. I tackled the shelves in the back of the horse shed so that it is truly empty now and, of course, all of the crap around my old tack shack (my new wood shed.)

I did not take the shelves far lol! Those 2x12s were HEAVY. I left them here by the shed and reused most of them when I built my outhouse.

This was all almost to the day my divorce went through 6 months ago and I am so delighted to no longer have misery living with me that every single moment still feels like such a treat, even if it is cleaning!

I did the work alone on a gorgeous Saturday and, after I finished up, I laid down in my yard for an hour in the shade 🙂 When I looked up, this was my view.

Moving to INSIDE the house I suddenly acquired a huge empty closet!

(It dawned on me that my giant chest freezer was literally taking up space. I had unplugged it this winter to save on my electric bill, as well as to save on the cost of potential appliance repairs, and then never thought about it again until a couple weeks ago. Had I planned to use it again someday? NOPE!)

You guys, look at my giant empty closet, I couldn’t believe it! (I literally designed the closet FOR the freezer so its nearly three feet deep.) Minus how beat up the walls are it was literally the prettiest thing I’ve seen in awhile… Wowser, you know you’re an adult when cleaning out and then acquiring an closet makes you this excited…

So, first thing I wanted to do was rip it out!

I know, I know, I know, closets are worth their weight in gold but because I designed the entire renovation of this home (and literally built every single closet myself) I already have more storage than I know what to do with.

(SERIOUSLY. Both bedrooms down here have great closets, I have two closets in my entry and, not to mention, a laundry closet and a huge closet under my staircase. Upstairs I have literally FOUR closets – one of which I’m not using at all and another that I’m almost not using at all.)

However, I have shelved my enthusiasm for ditching this closet and moved it to the future (perhaps this coming winter) so, in the meantime, this empty closet will be housing some things that are currently taking up space elsewhere. Cleaning out the other closets to be able to move some things here was just awesome.

Case and point: my guest bedroom closet is jammed full from its days when it was acting as my office closet. For now I knew that dresser could find a home in the now-empty hall closet but what about that tall book shelf…

My brain worked on it for a week before it occurred to me it would be great in the center of my entry closet for shoes. I cut the rod to exactly fill up the space on either side and BOOM: this is so much better then what I had been doing!

(My closet doors in my entry had an accident (I ran into one of them and broke it cause I can’t have nice things…) and are currently in my workshop waiting for to me fix them lol)

All of my Xmas ornaments, tree, wrapping paper etc. finally came together in one spot upstairs in a closet in my master bedroom. Will it all stay there? Not sure… But, for now, this works just fine!

That also freed up some space in my workshop where that stuff (along with my old stereo) have been just hanging out. Now my workshop only has in it what belongs there and I can really move on to cleaning and completing it!

I put up a rod for hanging in my guest bedroom closet and moved my modem up to the top shelf. (Yes I will be covering those wires with a strip to keep them safe.) Why is my modem in my guest bedroom closet?

Well when I was designing this room as my office it only made sense for this closet to act as a storage space as well as a great spot for my modem and printer… Not so much anymore. My printer got moved to my entryway where my new office space is.

Yay for a real guest bedroom closet where guests can actually unpack and hang some things! I folded a couple of blankets to keep on the top shelf for chilly nights.

My enormous hall closet is now housing my English saddle (it had been in my entry closet for lack of a better spot) and my favorite old dresser for the time being.

I have a lot of plans for for cleaning out my kitchen area that is actually going to open up a great spot for said dresser in the future and THEN I can tackle maybe taking out this closet entirely!

I know that will create this odd “room” out here but I really like the idea of opening this area up. It will also make it A LOT easier to bring furniture through here to get it into my workshop for refinishing later.

It will be a TON of work :/ (isn’t everything!?) I will need to completely redo the ceilings in full sheets of beadboard and spend a lot more time with tape and sheet rock mud to fix how banged up those inside walls are. And paint and new trim, of course! Oh and even more cleaning!

PHEW! I don’t know about you guys but getting things put away, organizing and “fixing” my spaces is totally one of my favorite things lol.

Oh and (meanwhile) I have been helping my best friend Rachie and her husband Shane renovate their entire kitchen and that before and after I will totally be sharing here on the blog whenever its complete! AND I finished building my outhouse!! Yay!

Hope your spring/summer has been absolutely awesome! Remember to pace yourself and set some time for not only rest but also a little fun too 😉

MY NEW MOTTO FOR LIFE: BLOCK HIS NUMBER AND HAVE A GREAT SUMMER HONEY!