Tales From a “GREEN” Minivan

This morning I met with Professional Organizer, Elaine Shannon from Organizing Plus! for my first consultation.  The morning went great, she left me some DVD’s to watch (they can also be seen on her website http://organizingconnection.com/ ) and we toured my house room by room and devised a plan to work for our family’s lifestyle.

This meeting could not have come at a better time as we’ve been thinking about selling our house.  Last week I met with a real estate agent and I actually pulled and all-nighter and stayed up cleaning and partially decluttering.  I tweeted on Twitter periodically throughout the night whilst my followers overseas were just getting started with their work days. Then at 6:42am I received a new email that I had a new follower.  It’s always exciting when someone new follows you and immediately I checked out her Bio in her Twitter profile.  It was like Elaine was sent to me from a higher power.  I’ve been struggling for too long and was she the sign I needed.

I direct messaged her and said that her “Follow” could not have come at a better time.  She was a little confused by this and I explained that I was meeting with a real estate agent later in the day and that I would most likely be needing her services in the near future.  We messaged back and forth and then I finally called her a few days later, and she “got me” right away over the phone and we set up a time to meet!

After my meeting with the real estate agent (we’re still undecided about moving) we decided that a huge priority and something that we will greatly benefit from whether we stay or go will be replacing the dreaded dusty rose wall to wall carpets in the second story of our house with hardwood floors. Within days I had someone at the house measuring and we had a contract signed and the floors will be installed in 2 weeks!

Obviously this doesn’t give me a lot of time, but honestly I work so much better under pressure, especially if I have to have it done for someone else.  This is why I decided that hiring a professional organizer gives me that accountability and forces me to complete the tasks to report back to someone else.  I also secretly like the praise as well!

Here’s what I need to get completed before we go away late next week (yes I planned it this way, so we could be away while the floors are being installed).

1. Sign for Dumpster

2. Drop off unwanted items at the Boys & Girls Club (Elaine suggested them)

3. Remove all furniture from the second story and store in living room (except beds)

4. Remove all Carpets, underlay and staples/tacks

5.  Paint Ciaran’s room

6. Have stairs painted and stairway walls painted (already contracted some students to do this)

7. Remove all moldings,  chart and number them so it will be easier to reinstall them after the floors are in

8.  Lastly dismantle the beds and bring downstairs. Our last night before vacation we’ll camp out.

I also have 3 meetings and 2 school field trips that I’m supposed to attend next week!

Yikes! When you put it all in list form it seems like a lot. Luckily I have us 90% packed for our trip, but I do have some work deadlines that need to be completed prior to going away, so I think I’m going to have some late nights! I’ll post some photos soon!

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 9th, 2009 at 10:05 pm and is filed under Home Organization, Home Renos. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.