Environment

Well, we're finally all settled in to our new townhouse rental. (Yes, we moved again!) I have to say that I am very excited about this new place. Not only are we closer to the places I like to shop, the state forest, and some corn fields, but we are also way closer to that pick-your-own farm. Yipee! This new place is a lot smaller than our last place and you'd think that this would be super stressful, right? Surprisingly, we have really loved it! It has been really challenging trying to find a place for everything, but this has forced us to be ingenuitive in organization and use of space - in other words it has been wonderfully liberating. I feel like I have to be more aware of what we have and whether our things are fulfilling their purpose or just sitting around being junk.

I didn't realize how much having a useful environment to live in would affect me. Our last place had a horribly designed layout. (A kitchen at the front of the house with the sink being the first thing you see when you walk in the door???? Talk about stressful!) There were a few other things too and added altogether really subconsciously stressed me out. The contrast with this new place is like night and day. The size and layout are perfect. I feel so much joy and happiness in a well-ordered home. Half of that equation is the layout of the home, but the other half is entirely on me in organization and cleanliness. It's amazing how much peace a clean home can bring. Well, we just moved in, so we're not quite to the "cleanliness" stage yet. But we're getting there!

P.S. A few of the little organization tricks that I used (and never thought to use before!) were a tiered spice rack - so you can see all the spices (There wasn't enough room in the cupboards, but when you see how many spices I have, that's not a total shocker...)

An old-school spice rack that I removed the door from and repainted.
The spices I buy by the ounce and store in my own spice bottles! (Thank you BB&B!)

a shelf-helper - it's like a mini shelf that divides a cupboard space for extra storage,

and two standing racks to vertically store my cookie sheets, cutting boards, and cooling racks.

Now I don't have to dig through my space-hogging pile of heavy boards to get the one I want! Next on my list to get is a magnetic knife rack that mounts to the wall. Yay! (Can you tell that I was one of those weird children that actually liked cleaning and organizing their room? haha!)