a mommy. a teacher. a wife.: paint

Okay, I am not here to discuss the Corona Virus. I want to focus on mood lifting, therapeutic things we can do while laying low and praying this virus vanishes! I actually just put the baby down for a nap, shut off the news, put my phone aside, opened the deck door and sat down with my MacBook. Since I have been home on maternity leave, my mind is already FILLED with ideas and projects to keep me busy so I figured, why not share them!

Olivia (my 4 month old) and I have a nice routine going on these days. Part of our late afternoon involves running errands... UPS, Target, Homegoods, Lowes, Dunkin', Walmart, Marshalls... ya know, the basic stores in my town. My husband and I sat down last night and made the decision to not bring the baby anywhere... and then also decided to limit going out in public altogether.

So, here we are. Home. Now, for those of you who have never read my blog before I focused ONLY on home decor but I have decided to extend my blogging focus... mom stuff, educational stuff (I am a teacher!) and of course, home stuff. I renamed my blog already and am taking advantage of this time at home to plan SO many new posts. So, please follow along! I find this to be one of the most cathartic things in the WORLD and am always amazed that people read and enjoy my posts.

Now, let's get down to the good stuff! How do we keep busy for the next few weeks?

1. Organize (ANY LITTLE THING!) Here are some visual ideas.

Pantry, junk drawer, coat closet, bedroom closets, any drawer, under the kitchen sink, bathroom toiletries... the list goes on! I'd like to add that you don't need to spend $1.3 million dollars at The Container Store. My bins and containers are from Walmart and Target. If you can't get to the store, Amazon has cheap options.

I am sure our fridges are stocked! Clean them and organize them! I don't have any fancy containers in my fridge but I definitely keep it somewhat organized.

One day this week, I will for sure get in here and sanitize, purge and organize!

2. Clean- Not your regular cleaning. Deep clean. Pull out the couches, move area rugs, rent a steam cleaner (I borrowed my parents steam cleaner and cleaned the sofa in the family room a few weeks ago- DIS-GUST-ING and Ohhhh so rewarding!), vacuum behind your bed and dresser (scary!). Clean heat/AC vents, dust trim and molding, pull out the washer, dryer and fridge. Trust me. This will take hours of your life. You might love it (like me) and you might hate it (like most) but I bet you'll feel good once it's done. Really!

Laundry rooms are sooooo dusty! Get in there, move your appliances and clean!

3. Purge- Get rid of all your crap. I have been doing a little every week and dayyyyum, it feels good.

Our kitchen utensil drawer had SO MUCH unnecessary stuff. Literally, it was OVER flowing with crap. I emptied the entire drawer and made two piles. Keep and toss.

When purging, you can either throw it all away (sad), donate (amazing!) or sell it if it's in good shape (ohhh yea!) I use Let Go and Facebook Marketplace to sell. Have made good cash selling, too!

Clothes, shoes, belts... get rid of things you don't wear anymore! Buh-bye.

4. Cook and bake! Who knows... you might love it!

5. Self Care- relax, read, mani/pedi, nap... ya know!

6. GO OUTSIDE- I went outside to weed and do a spring clean up in our flower beds and it felt AMAZING! I generally don't LOVE weeding and stuff but for whatever reason, this felt so great. This is a perfect example of how an activity that you normally might not love to do can still make you FEEL good.

7. Laundry? I know, I know... but honestly, it feels SO GOOD to be caught up on laundry. SO GOOD! I hate nothing more than folding laundry but it's much less painful to fold 1 load a day verses folding 8 loads on a precious Saturday morning. Barf.

8. Technology clean up- This one is sooo time consuming and I need to do it desperately! Emails, photos, texts... they take up so much space. I have WAY too many photos on my camera roll and some of them are ridiculous. Do I really need a picture of my manicure from 2015? That's a hard NO! Then my phone pics get "iCloud-ed" to my Mac and then I have these ridiculous photos in 2 places when they shouldn't even be in ONE. So, technology clean up!

Don't do 50 things a day, either. Spread them out. I have learned to slow down a little and take in moments of my day vs. being a lunatic and doing hundreds of chores all within 5 hours.

Hope this list helps! Feel free to add more ideas in the comments section. Stop by for MUCH more home, mama and educational content coming soon!! Thanks for reading and supporting.

DRUM ROLL PLEASE! After 5 years, I have finally painted the kitchen. Why the long wait? Well, the walls were a deep wine color. And kitchens have so many nooks, so much taping and prep work... I just couldn't even process how I would tackle such a project. Until last Monday, when (you guessed it) I buckled up like a big girl and just did it.

Click here for the old kitchen color.

I'll keep this short and sweet.

It was my very first painting project.
It was HARD. (If you follow me on Instagram and haven't seen my "Kitchen Painting" story, please watch it. It's hilarious and I say "Painting is hard" like 87 times!)
It took me 11 hours to complete!
I used a primer first (even though I didn't want to but I'm glad I did)
I used Benjamin Moore Regal Select in the color Linen White (Matte)
Tools I totally recommend using: