The Great Purge of 2013

We are getting closer and closer to moving into our new house. I can scarcely believe it! Right now, all the work is scheduled to be complete at the end of the first week in August, but we're scheduling the closing on our permanent loan for a couple weeks later to leave some contingency time in case something goes wrong. A mid-August move-in date would mean seven months from start to finish (the original estimate from the builder was six to eight months).

 

We are getting close to locking in a 4.5% interest rate on a 30-year fixed mortgage. We've turned in all the paperwork; we're just waiting to hear that it's finalized. Right now, we have an 85% loan to value construction loan, which we will need to convert to an 80% loan to value permanent loan. That's why we have to bring such a significant amont of money to the closing. The bank recently informed me that they will reappraise the house, and if the value has gone up, then we might not need to bring all that money to closing. Normally, I would go ahead and put down the money we have and take out a smaller loan, but the extra money would be incredibly helpful in the next few months.

 

We had trouble getting the whole project to appraise as high as we needed it to back in October, but I'm hoping the Austin housing market boom will help us more this time around. We just found out that a house right down the street from us (a renovated 1960s or '70s ranch that's only 200 more square feet and on a much, much smaller lot that's not on a cul-de-sac and doesn't back up to a creek) went under contract for $5,000 more than the total cost of our house + land. We'll see what happens.

 

Also, we just forked over a huge chunk of change to purchase all of our appliances (since our project didn't appraise for as high as we needed it to, we had to pay for things like the appliances and a fence out of pocket). I've been watching the prices for the past seven months and researching how to get the best deals. We bought mid-range appliances, mostly from Lowe's (although we splurged on the biggest washing machine we could afford in order to significantly reduce the number of loads we have to do every week). We waited for the Fourth of July sale, looked for price matching, and applied for a Lowe's card to score another 5% off. We also mailed in all the applicable rebates.

 

Long story short, we're moving soon! And now that I'm on maternity leave, I'm much more motivated to purge and organize our house. I had every intention of doing it before Tate's arrival, but I could never muster the motivation. Now it's here!

 

The trick, I think, will be to break it down into the tiniest of tasks, so that I can tackle things here and there rather than get overwhelmed. I never know how long Tate is going to nap or look at a mobile, so the shorter the task, the better. If I can do more than one task during a chunk of time, great. If not, oh well.

 

So here's what I'm thinking:

1. Organize under the master bathroom sink
2. Organize the cabinet above the sink in the master bathroom
3. Organizae the cabinet next to the shower in the master bathroom
4. Purge the bookshelf in the master bedroom
5. Purge the bedside bookshelf in the master bedroom
6. Clean under the bed in the master bedroom
7. Organize the contents of the bedside table in the master bedroom
8. Organize the closet floor
9. Purge old clothes
10. Organize the top shelf of the closet
11. Organize the hall closet
12. Update filing system
13. Organize the second bathroom
14. Organize the right side of Henry's closet
15. Organize the left side of Henry's closet
16. Organize the left side of the third bedroom closet
17. Label all the craft bins
18. Organize the right side of the third bedroom closet
19. Organize the card catalog
20. Purge the bookshelf in the living room
21. Purge the bookshelf in the front room
22. Organize the pantry
23. Organize above the refrigerator
24. Organize the medicine cabinet
25. Order a new spice rack
26. Organize the spices
27. Organize under the kitchen sink
28. Organize the tupperware cabinet
29. Organize the desk in the front room
30. Shred remaining documents and empty the shredder
31. Organize the laundry area of the garage
32. Organize the shelves in the garage
33. Organize the boxes on the floor
34. Deliver donations
35. Clean out the refrigerator
36. Clean out the freezer
37. Take photos of the dining room table and couch to sell/give away on Craiglist
38. Write Craigslist ads
39. Shampoo the carpets
40. Fix the cabinets
41. Procure moving boxes
42. Procure packing tape
43. Purchase closet organization systems
44. Get closet organization systems installed
45. Paint the wall of the kitchen island

That means we only have to accomplish one small thing a day! Breaking everything down into such discrete, tiny tasks makes it feel much more manageable. I know I'll be happier if we purge everything that we no longer want and organize our remaining belongings before packing everything up and moving it to the new house.

 

So my daily to-do list will look like meeting Tate's every need, showering, blogging, and accomplishing one small task in preparation for moving!

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