@evelynandtheodore

Out With the Old....

So, there's about one week until move in, and about a week and a half since move-out. And I have been living in a mess. A big, huge pile of boxes and clothing, and blankets. When I left the apartment, I left nothing behind. The only things that remained were those that belonged to Chelsea, which wasn't a lot. It looked pretty naked and sad:



Meanwhile, my storage unit was packed to the max... between 2 couches, a loft bed, a kitchen table, chairs, elliptical, dresser, etc, I didn't have much room for boxes. This is a 10'x15' unit. A one car garage. And I have it filled, so you'd think that's all I've got, right? Nope....

The rest went to my parents' house with me for the 2.5 weeks I'd have to live there. I had another bed, another dresser, a couple of cube units, another bookcase, 2 TVs, and more boxes. Oh, and a lot of large picture frames that I didn't want to get broken in the storage unit. So here is how my room at my parents' house looked like at first:



Holy. Crap. There was so much crap stuff. And ok, not all of it is mine, there is still about half of it that is my parents'. But there isn't really anywhere for it to go, so it gets included in the "so much stuff" discussion. We got it kind of in order, but there is still far too much stuff that I own that I just do not need. 








It's time for a major purge. Unfortunately, a lot of the stuff I need to get rid of is shoved way far back in the back left of that packed-to-the-brim storage unit. So I cannot wait to get moved in to start sifting through my stuff so I can start donating and throwing it away.

I have a lot of chotchkies. It's almost an addiction. My friend Krystal makes fun of me for it, I make fun of me for it, but somehow, I almost always end up with more. But, I also know that I have a lot of them that either a) I will never display again, b) don't match any of my other chotchkies, or c) I only like, but don't love.

I really love white ceramics. I have a ton of them, mostly the oriental rum/sake guys that you can get at nice restaurants. Aaron's mom gave me one the first year we were together after we had all gone out on New Year's Eve, and I loved it. He looks like he's having a party, his big belly hanging out, arms up in the air, grin on his face. The rest of them have come from garage sales and Goodwill. I have this lady, too, thanks to a guy who was running a garage sale and just gave her to me when she didn't have a price sticker (to give you an idea of what exactly I'm talking about).
Do I need these? No, but do I love them? Yes. So they're staying. In turn, so are the other white ceramics I bought to go with them, like the $0.30 lotus bowl, which is a great drop zone for earrings and hair ties and bobby pins.
I love these things because they're detailed, but they're also very clean and simple. There's just something about the look of white ceramics that I love.

But I also love the rustic-industrial look lately. I like the natural look of wood, with metal, and some splashes of color. I think that I'm going to fail miserably at trying to mix these styles together, but we'll see what I can do. 

I have a lot of the wood and metal products that Target has been carrying lately (like this shelf, mail holder, cubby, and these hanging mason jars.... and yes, I still have an addiction to Target but I'm very well behaved), some splashes of teal/Tiffany/and turquoise blues (including an untouched tablecloth that I can't wait to finally open), and I'm hoping to start getting back into planting, so we'll have some green around, too.




So I'm hoping that when I go through my cleaning/donating purge, everything just starts to fall together, and it becomes very clear as to what I need to get rid of. I have an idea of how I want the apartment to look, even when I take into consideration the couple of things that Aaron has for the walls/shelves.

Maybe some other chotchkie addict will find my abandoned things at a Goodwill, and they will be the perfect addition to their collection of junk. But right now, a lot of them are no longer perfect for mine, and may never be. If it does not hold sentimental value (like the horses I have that belonged to my great-grandma, and filled her bedroom walls for many years), or I do not love it, it will leave.

This blog is supposed to be about new beginnings. What better way to begin new than with a new apartment, less stuff, and a clean decorating slate? 



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