Kitchen Chaos....

With the completion of many house projects, I had the grand idea of hanging shelves in our pantry to replace the large, deep shelving unit we currently have housed there.

This really was a LOGICAL decision.

The current unit is very deep resulting in items getting 'lost' or forgotten; disheveled placement of dried goods; boxes and bags just 'tossed in' rather than 'neatly placed'; ie: IT'S A MESS!!!

My goal:  hang shelves on the 3 main walls allowing for just as much, if not more, shelf space - just less depth to each shelf.  {Techno is certain I'm losing space, but with the current set up being the disaster it's been, I'm ok with that.  Neatness and organization trump space size.}

Having just completed the craft nook reveal, I decided this pantry re-org would be a snap.

I attacked the task with gusto.

EVERYTHING came out of the space.

This, as you could imagine, resulted in the kitchen table, chairs, floor surrounding the table to overflow with boxes and bags of food.

That was ok. It would be temporary.  Just a couple of days.

Once emptied, I decided it REALLY needed to be thoroughly cleaned. Vacuumed. Walls scrubbed.  Windows washed.

Check.  Check. And check.

It looked nice.

But..... I knew I eventually wanted to PAINT this room.  What better time to paint then when it's freshly washed and EMPTY!

Grand plan.

Found the paint, brushes, containers for paint and voila - I was on my way.

The walls were finished in no time.  One evening and one morning - D-O-N-E!!!

What I neglected to factor in, however, was the time it would take to complete the TRIM!  The dreadful trim.

It's now been almost two weeks and the trim has the first coat of paint.  I'm procrastinating putting on the second coat.  I kinda forgot just how much I despise painting trim.  It didn't help that I chose to paint the trim BLACK so every little mistake SCREAMS at me.

The worst part?

That old adage that the kitchen is the center of the home?  That if the kitchen is clean, the rest of the house will follow suit?  Well...... IT'S...... ALL....... TRUE!  Especially if you reverse it -- if the kitchen is a mess, the remaining rooms will be a disaster too.

The whole house is falling apart.  The kids have begun leaving their desks a mess after school. The living room is strewn about with papers, shoes, even boxes of food that have meandered into that room from the kitchen.  Vacuuming?  I think the kids have forgotten what that word means.  Dusting?  What's that?

I guess since mom was preoccupied with painting and the kitchen was a wreck, the family decided there was no reason cleaning the rest of the house.  Might as well let it match the chaos in the kitchen.

At least we're consistent.  LOL!

The difficult part for me?  The constant mess causes me physical stress.

To counter that, I keep reminding myself..... this is for a time.  It'll all be worth it when the pantry is complete.

Rome wasn't built in a day - neither will my pantry be painted in a day.  :-/