A bit of play and an organized linen closet

I've had a headache for two weeks straight now. I wake up each day aching for a Tylenol and I go to sleep each night hoping that it will be gone by the morning. But it never does. Stress headaches are tricky like that. It's like your body is just maliciously reminding you that you're stressed out, just in case you forgot for a moment.

They say that job loss is considered to be one of the top stressors in life (others including death of a loved one and divorce). I had no idea what that felt like until now. Yes...it's stressful. But it's not the end of the world, I keep telling myself. Just a bit of a big unexpected shift in our lives. 

We're feeling it though. We're living it. We're fighting it. 

I remember last summer I wrote a post about switching your thinking from I "have to" to "I GET to". Ironically, I used an example of having to get up for work every day. 

Months ago I wrote:

"For others, it might be that you get to wake up early, pack a lunch and get ready for work every day--can you imagine the amount of people who would literally do anything to have a job that they have to get up for each day?"

Damn it. We're living out my own words right now.

(Sorry mom and dad...damn it. I know. I know).

So, as Terry continues to spend hours each day diligently searching for and applying to jobs, I have been trying to keep life moving for us as well. You know what I do when I'm stressed out? Clean, organize and play. Not necessarily in that order. 

So we've been playing a lot. 

 A little fake baking is always a hit in this house. I just fill up some little bowls with flour, sugar, egg shells (and of course water, to make it feel like real baking) and she goes to town making her own little creation.

Stirring with a turkey baster?...Don't we all? 

And a little real baking too of course...

(Apparently her babies had some dry skin and needed a bit of moisturizer).

And a day trip to an indoor play gym with Jen and Jeff and all of the kids was a huge hit.

Along with a trip to the museum with some friends the other week...

(gotta love being a teacher and getting into these kinds of places for free!).

And a trip to the sugar bush with the whole gang was a blast.

And organizing? ..yes...it always makes me feel so much better.

I figure, if we have no say over Terry's job situation at the moment, at least we can have a say over what our linen closet looks like. Ridiculous, I know. But a clean house means a clear mind. And in this case, a clean linen closet simply thrills me.

It's the little things that make me so darn happy. 

So after working away at this little project, I finally finished it up this week. 

From the HUGE disaster that it once was...a major dumping ground (what is even IN there??!)...I can't believe I'm even showing you this--honestly, what a mess.

 But look! This is what it looks like now.

I used the same method as to how I organized our kitchen cupboards last year.
This is how I did it: 

I put Carter down for a nap, and Mya and I got to work making a huge mess. 

If there's one thing I've learned, it's that you have to make a big mess to get organized.

I organized all of our products into different piles on the floor (ie. hair products, body products, etc). I purged A LOT. Got rid of anything that we didn't use regularly and I donated a lot of our bedding and sheets. Each bed in our house now has only two sets of summer sheets and two sets of winter sheets.

Then I used baskets and bins that we already had in our house, made little labels, stuck them on with packing tape and placed each item back into the closet.

A little ribbon wrapped around facecloths keeps them all together and adds a bit of (completely necessary) sparkle...

And sheets folded and placed in pillow cases keeps all of your linens organized and neat (thank you for the idea Martha Stewart!)

In the midst of some instability right now, it's so darn calming. Thank you linen closet. Thank you.