This afternoon husband and I burned several linear feet of late MIL’s papers with account numbers SSNs, medical information.
A few big bags from the house and my drawers are super purged.
My last personal “bin” of young adult things are ready to be looked through this week.
Congrats to all of us!
We moved my son from one apartment to the other last Friday. He didn’t need any kitchen stuff, so it all came home with me. Everything except his toaster oven will be going straight to goodwill. If he needs stuff later, my aunt will do more thrift store shopping, just like she did to get much of what he had.
Sold a grooming table that my dogs outgrew to an apprentice groomer this afternoon.
You all seem to be making great progress. I haven’t done much since my 30ft dumpster purge. Mainly cause it’s so hot and my energy levels are low - I come from work and just want to veg. Partly cause I’m not sure where to focus my attention - it’s still a bit overwhelming. Hoping the fall weather will energize me.
I am trying to convert a hall closet into a pantry. I’ve completely emptied the closet and most of the contents were thrown away. Washed the walls with tsp and need to paint them so we can get the shelving up. The hardest thing right now is choosing the paint. I want a really light gray. There are sooooo many grays for goodness sake. It’s overwhelming. Any recommendations for a pale reflective gray paint? The closet is dark but I dont want white.
My plan is to get rid of the plastic shelves that clutter the little laundry area and are weighed down with cans of food and other stuff and move things into the converted pantry AND get all the other cans of food etc. off the washer and dryer where they appear to be breeding (I can barely get to the knobs to turn the dryer on right now - this seems to be a fairly recent thing - note I have not put any of that stuff on the washer or dryer). It will make that area so much less cluttered. My worry is my H will buy yet more stuff and I’ll have a full pantry and he’ll refill the plastic shelves and cover the washer dryer with more stuff. Well the plastic shelves will be removed as soon as the pantry is finished to try and prevent that.
Send me good vibes to paint my closet this weekend!
@swimcatsmom I have been thinking of you lately, wondering about your progress. I hope you find the perfect gray and get the pantry painted! Take the plastic shelving down or fill with something else immediately after moving the pantry items off of it.
Because of the size and shape of our laundry room the only place we have to put our laundry baskets is on top of the dryer. Would it help you to do that in order to keep other stuff off the dryer? And keep the washer lid open so nothing can go on top of it? Tell the others living with you that it is so the washer can dry out and not get moldy between loads…
Paint always looks darker as you cover more walls and 10 times darker in closets. My suggestion, since it’s only inside the pantry and doesn’t have to match anything else, is to pick the palest gray in the color that you like and then go three shades lighter. They can mix it for you.
Have fun ! Don’t let anything that you don’t love re-enter your fantastic new pantry.
Before DD left for college last week she pulled out 6 formals and semi formals that I’m taking into a cosignment shop where if they sell I receive 60%. Hope to recoup some of the cost of raising a girl! Also taking my kids ACT prep books to the local boys and girls club for their use.
If the consignment shop doesn’t work out, consider donating the dresses to a charity that gives prom dresses to girls who can’t afford to buy one.
Semigloss paint reflects light an is easy to wash. While we use satin on walls we did our garage in semigloss and it is amazing how much more light is reflected and how much brighter it is.
After having a variety of paint colors in our house, we remodeled and, as a result, repainted. I wanted a pale gray and ended up obsessing over shades and hues. What I realized afterwards is that, after honing in on a general shade I liked, the subtle differences actually made no material difference. Because it’ll be inside a pantry, I’d look at swatches, focusing on a lighter shade and just pick one you like–I’d guess you’d naturally gravitate towards one with a blue undertone, a green undertone, a greige, etc. Once the pantry is filled with food, it really won’t matter if you picked one specific shade (within the range you like) over another. We ended up with Kelly Moore San Francisco Fog. We elected to paint the lighter rooms 50% and darker rooms the full 100%. Agree that an eggshell or semi-gloss may help with light and will be easier to keep clean. Good luck!
@swimcatsmom, our design person recommended Sherwyn Williams Repose Grey as a very neutral color for our entire house. SW agreeable grey also looks good to me.
Don’t let perfect be the enemy of good.
1 Like
I’ve used agreeable grey in bedrooms and bathrooms (Sherwin Williams) and love it. I’m sure your choice will look great in your pantry.
@swimcatsmom I was a person who obsessed on 350 shades of gray, in 2 separate houses. Repose gray will have a greenish cast in a low light situation. Agreeable gray is a warmer, more greige gray. I’m totally in agreement that which exact gray you pick won’t matter much after it’s up, especially in a closet.
Thanks all. I agonized some more, thought I had picked one I liked, showed it to 2 work friends and one thought it was green and the other blue! I finally went to the Sherwin Williams store (instead of Lowes) and told the lady there I need a pale gray for a dark closet that didn’t read blue or green or purple or pink, lol. She was really helpful. Asked me a couple of questions about what I was doing and helped me narrow it down to one I hadn’t even looked at (and I probably had enough sample cards to wallpaper the c!oset!) She suggested satin finish as it was a pantry. I painted it over the weekend and love it. The dark closet isn’t near as dark as I thought after 2 coats of paint. I keep going and looking in the closet like a dork I’m so pleased with it. I plan to paint the inside of all the closets that color then do the walls a slightly darker light grey (this is very light).
The shelves will be next weekend. I was pooped after painting it and helping H assemble his new gas grill. Seriously NEVER believe the guy at Lowes when he tells you something is easy to assemble. instead of buying it in a box that would fit in my SUV it would have been quicker and less stressful to drive an hour to our daughter and son-in-law’s, borrow our truck back, drive back to our town, buy the pre assembled one, drive it out to our house then take the truck back, go out to eat with them then return home!
I did fill some bags also! I pulled tons of cans, boxes, bags etc. off the shelves and washer and dryer and organized them by type ready to go in the pantry. There were a lot of really old ones - I’m talking some with use by dates of 2012 (H overbuys and then stuff is hard to find - lots of waste). I told him I didn’t care what he read on the internet I was NOT eating food that was years past its sell by date! So there were a couple bags really old food went in the trash.
@swimcatsmom sounds like great progress. So happy you found your gray!
Our Saturday morning Goodwill run included a computer monitor, huge pair of wellies, several pairs of shoes, random kitchen things.
Swimcatsmom - that is huge progress. Kudos.
I filled a box with clothes and things to go to Goodwill, but darn tortie avatar decided to nest in it! Now the blazer that was on the top is all covered in cat hair and needs serious cleaning! Darn cat.
Loaded the back of the car with junk and hauled it to the dump today! The basement seems to be staying damp (despite the dehumidifier), which means some things are now unusable. S2 is coming home for a visit over his holiday break and I will be enlisting him to haul out lots of big stuff. I’m on a mission.
Went through two boxes of papers from my in-laws estates. Cut it down to 1/2 box. I have two bags of papers all set for the library’s shredding fundraiser in October.