Stripped down and bare...

We've officially begun the stripping down and de-cluttering process.  My mom arrived, bearing "gifts" of garbage bags, sponges, rags and rubber gloves.  I immediately snapped out of my temporary paralysis and got to work.  We filled bags of junk, boxes of the good stuff as the first of many days

of cleaning and sorting began...

The bathroom is completely naked - stripped of all color and waiting for a fresh coat of paint....

The kitchen hutch has been stripped and de-cluttered...china packed away.

and my kitchen counters are more bare naked than they've ever been.  Funny, because according to this picture, they're still a little cluttered.  I guess I have to wean myself slowly!

{mom...you don't understand...I HAD to put the silverware box back on the counter!  I paced across the room twice for a spoon....just NOT going to happen!  I promise you can take something else off tomorrow!}

Thanks to my main man, Mr. Clean, 90% of the scuff marks that made themselves at home on my walls have disappeared.  I'm not sure how he does it or what he hides inside those erasers, but WHATever it is, it's working for me.  Might even save on some paint costs.  I'm pretty sure there is some kind of spell in those magic things, too...something about them makes you WANT to clean.  You can hardly stop yourself from going room to room, daring it to take off another stubborn spot! 

That's IS magic if it makes me WANT to clean.

In answer to some of your questions, we DO have a moving destination.  After some deliberation, it's been decided that we should take over the home that my sister and I grew up in.  It's a little weird and exciting all at the same time.  Lots of work to be done on both this end and that one...but I think when it's all said and done, it will all be a good transition. 

Sort of like coming "HOME" again....even though it hasn't really been home to me for about 22 years!

{“Home is a place you grow up wanting to leave, and grow old wanting to get back to” }

John Ed Pearce