50 Days In: Where We Stand

I have moved a lot in the last 6 years...like, a lot.  In that time, I have lived in one dorm and now five apartments.  I know the drill.  But somehow, every single time, I forget what a disaster the new place turns into after I've moved in my seemingly endless piles of stuff.

Every time I move, I think it will be a piece of cake to just put everything away as we move in.  Bring a box in, unpack it and move onto the next box.  It never happens that way.  What really happens is bring in a box, dump in on the closest piece of clear floor and move onto the next box.  This leaves my beautiful, brand new, clean apartment completely cluttered from the get go.

I wish I could be here to tell you the magic secret for a chaos free move, but I'm still searching for that secret myself.  Instead, I'm here to show you my mess of an apartment, so for those of you who may be in the middle of a move, you can see you are definitely not alone in the chaos.  I am about to show you what my apartment looked like 50 days after we began moving in, or two days after we finished moving in every last box of our stuff (why is there so much stuff??).

When you enter our front door, there is a short little hallway leading to a foyer area.  Throughout the move, this was one of our main drop spots, and so it quickly became a disaster area.  Melissa and I would have definitely been able to rock a game of hop scotch after trying to maneuver around the endless boxes and piles that ended up here.

Eventually we plan to make this a cute little entrance area, with a drop spot for things like keys and purses.  I am also playing around with the idea of adding in a command center somewhere on the left wall.

Looking over the railing from our entryway is our living room.  Since this living room is slightly smaller than our previous, we decided to ditch the two arm chairs we used to have and just stick with the couch for this space.  We had been planning on replacing the living room seating for a whileanyways, so we weren't too sad to give up on the arm chairs (and even less disappointed that we didn't have to move them!).

We also added two new pieces of furniture to our living room.  We decided to replace the 20 year old IKEA cabinet that used to sit under our TV with this Expedit unit.  We decided against mounting our TV on the wall this time, because I always felt as if it was randomly floating on the wall and never quit looked right in the old apartment.  We hope to eventually flank the TV stand with two Billy bookcases, to make our own DIY built-ins of sort.

We also added a new sofa table into the mix with this living room.  I have forever loved the look of a floating sofa with a sofa table behind it, but our apartment floorplans never really worked with that layout.  I am super excited I finally get to play around with this look, and can't wait to fill this table with all sorts of organizing goodness!

Besides playing around with furniture, we also have a bunch of other things on our to do list for this room.  Mostly we'd like to add some art or pictures on the wall, get some curtains up and style all the bookcases and surfaces.  But first we will definitely be focusing on clearing the clutter!

With your back to the living room, our dining room is in front of you on the left.  One of my biggest desires in a floorplan was having a designated dining space.  Something about the combined living/dining rooms in most apartments just really irks me.  We haven't really decided on a final layout for this room yet, but I'm definitely loving having the table sitting in the middle of the room.

I would love to add some sort of bar cart or side table under the window, but we haven't really settled on anything concrete yet.  We also need to get some curtains and art for this room, to bring in some color and personality.

In the other corner our the first level is our kitchen.  The kitchen has entrances both from the dining room and living room.  I am just loving all the extra floor and cabinet space in here (especially coming from the shoe box of our last kitchen).  We really haven't done any sort of organization in the cabinets yet, but I can't wait to dig in and sort/label the heck out of them.

We did run out and buy a shelving unit for even more storage in the kitchen.  Right now it's pretty much holding any random kitchen item that doesn't have a home yet.  The long term plan for this guy will be housing all our small appliances, as well as a ton of bins and baskets to corral kitchen things that would usually go in drawers (we only have two drawers in this kitchen).

Ok now on to the upstairs.  When you go upstairs, there is a hallway with doors at the end, on the left and on the right.  The door on the right leads to the bathroom.  Again we haven't done much with the bathroom besides hang the shower curtain, but thankfully the clutter is a little less prevalent in this room.

On the right wall of our bathroom is the ginormo (technical term) linen closet.  Seriously, there's even an extra foot or two that goes back to the left.  This may actually be the most organized space in the apartment so far.  But even this still isn't finished.  I'm planning on adding in a ton of bins and labels to make this space super organized and as functional as it can possibly be.

The door at the end of the hall leads to our office.  Since this room is not necessary for daily living, it has definitely become the dumping grounds for everything that doesn't have a home yet.  Please don't judge me.

Since Melissa and I are planning to share this space, we basically split  in right down the middle.  The right side of the window is where the imaginary line sort of begins.  To the right is my designated area, to the left is Melissa's.  This way we also each get a corner and a nice large wall to wrap around into.  This will probably make more sense once we clear out all the junk and set the furniture up in its permanent layout.

We are also blessed with a wall full of closets in this room.  For now all they hold are my dresses, but eventually these will both be clothes free, and I'm hoping to add in a bunch of cabinets or drawers along the bottom to use for additional office storage.

First thing on the old to do list was definitely to make it possible to walk into this room.  I am happy to report that we now have about 50% more working floor space, although we area still storing all of our picture frames, mirrors and other wall hangings that haven't gotten hung up yet in here.  One thing at a time though.

Finally, the door on the left of the hall leads to the master bedroom.  This is perhaps the clearest room, but that has only made it feel less lived in and like home to me.  I think until we start hanging things on the wall, it will just feel stark and empty to me.

We have set up my vanity under the window, but I'm still decided whether or not I like it there.  I love the fact that it's tucked away in its own little nook, but with the space above being a window, there is no place for the large mirror I've always had hanging above it.  So we'll see if this really ends up being my vanity's permanent home.

Perhaps my favorite part of our new apartment is our brand spanking new bed.  My honest opinion is if you really want to test the strength of a relationship, sleep in a full sized bed for three years.  Seriously, I dare you.  We decided with the move to just go ahead and buy a queen bed, and let me tell you, we haven't looked back for a second.  It is so freaking huge!  We went with this frame, and absolutely love the classic yet modern look of it.

The new bedding we bought has also begun to form our color scheme for the new room.  Previously our room had been bright hot pink, due to the fact that all our furniture and decor came from my high school bedroom.  We decided that with the new apartment, it was time for a grown up master bedroom.  This also means we will be repainting my vanity and dresser, as well as getting new curtains.  Right now we're definitely loving the grey and light blue, and want the room to be soothing and peaceful.  I am so excited to see where it ends up.

On the wall opposite the window is the walk in closet.  Like the office, we split the closet in half, with me on the left and Melissa on the right.  To get things moved in, we basically just shoved everything where it would fit, with no real organizational thought.  Again, can't say how excited I am to really dig into this closet to design and organize it into my dream space.

And there you have it.  The complete first tour of our new place!  I know it's a mess right now, but all I can see is the potential and all the ideas I have in my head for each one of these spaces.  I can't wait to go through each room and share with you as I organize and transform them.

Who else is mid-post-move-chaos?  Anyone else as excited as I am to get their hands on a disorganized space and turn it into something amazing?  Can anyone beat me for the number of times moved in the last 6 years?