Adventures in Adulting: Long shopping trips and Organization
So on Saturday, I convinced Baros to take a long walk down to the shopping center with me. It was about an hour walk but it was a beautiful day and we needed some supplies.
I had 3 goals in mind when we set out, 2 necessary and 1 optional.
Get a shelf to put above the fridge to create some kind of organization for the piles that live up there.
Get a shelving unit to put in our bedroom for sheets, towels and other clothing items that have no home.
Go to Michael's and get craft supplies for 2 or 3 projects. Both are currently surprises sooooo you'll just have to wait to see the final products. I'm excited to get some crafting in.
I am very pleased to say that after 4 stores we got everything we needed and then some.
Beautiful silicon tongs
First stop was Home Goods. We didn't find the shelving that we needed but we did find some tongs
which are covered in silicone so we don't scratch our new nonstick pans. I love those pans and don't want them ruined so it was definitely a good thing we found some non-metal tongs.
Next Stop was Michael's... which is always an adventure with me. I want EVERYTHING in there. But I stopped myself from looking at everything. Since I had specific projects in mind, we honed in on those projects and Baros helped me figure out a cool way to execute them. Being creative with him is wonderful because he's great at bouncing back ideas and adding to them. He never makes me feel like my ideas are crazy even when my plans are slightly outlandish. Instead, he helps me figure out the best way to get things done and brainstorms with me.
Then we popped into Bed, Bath and Beyond where we found the shelf for above the refrigerator. Actually, it's built to go under the kitchen sink but we decided to adapt it to our needs. When we got home, Baros put it together and then I organized all of our supplies. It looks so much better. I wish I had thought to take a before picture but rest assure, it was soooo messy. Everything currently living on the shelf was living piled up. There were things we didn't even know we had up there, including a bag of seaweed packets that had expired.... Out of sight, out of mind. It's a lot of the reason I wanted a shelf up there. I was worried about what else might expire, like fruits or veggies. With this we can see everything up there!! Everything has a neat place to live. At some point I'll tackle the actual cabinets and see if I can organize them better too. But this was a great start.
Look at how neat everything is... It was just one pile of nonsense before
At this point we took a food break because we'd been walking and shopping for hours. We almost went home instead but we decided to get the last item checked off. No need to wait and put off the organization any longer.
Semi-filled with sheets and towels... still needs to be organized
We ran into Target with one major item in mind: drawers to put our sheets and towels (which just
kind of lived wherever we could fit them until now). Of course, I immediately got distracted and picked up a shirt (I put it back right before leaving... this was not a clothing mission after all!)
It was surprisingly difficult to find the right plastic drawers. In Bed, Bath and Beyond, we found an option but it would have cost around $80 to execute and we weren't willing to spend that much on plastic. Finally in Target we found a drawer set, also in plastic, big enough for all of our stuff, but still small enough that it wouldn't eat up the room and it was about half what we would have spent in Bed, Bath and Beyond. I'm still not the biggest fan of the plastic but it'll have to do for the moment (at least for the next few years until we move and then we'll see how it holds up).
Still looking a mess... but that's next on the program
Our beautiful hamper
It opens so beautifully
Then we also bought one extra item that probably wasn't 100% necessary.
We found a beautiful wicker hamper that we couldn't resist. Until now, we've been using a collapsible hamper that's been breaking for a while now. We've been meaning to replace it, but, you know, life got in the way. We were originally going to just get another collapsible one for convenience but all of them were tiny. The wicker one was more than we were thinking of spending, but it's so pretty and also beautifully made. It has two removable bags so we can separate our laundry right away by lights and darks and I can carry one while Baros can carry the other. Alternatively, We can do one bag and leave the other to fill up! And we won't have to drag everything downstairs to the basement.
Those were our two big purchases. Other than that I just got my conditioner and hair color.
We spent a lot of money on our shopping run but it was well worth it to organize our tiny apartment better.
As soon as we got home, we set everything up and did our laundry (which should have been done earlier in the week... but whatever it's done now). I feel very accomplished. Look at all this adulting!! Our space is really starting to come together after over a year of living here!
