Buh-bye, Monkey!

I finished my kitchen (cue the triumphant olympic-esque music).

Almost all of my free time over the past week has been spent on getting this project finished--you may have noticed my lack of posting. I have three or four posts bouncing around my head and even a few more started, but I had to prioritize the kitchen because I wanted to get that crossed of the list.

I wasn't intending this post to be about the kitchen, but as I installed the final knob and vacuumed the floor that's been covered by three layers of protective cardboard since May 4, I realized that my whole life has been revolving around this project. Even when I wasn't working on it, it was still there, crowding out all other thoughts in my brain, forcing itself to the front of the line.

And this little project wasn't limited to the kitchen. It had taken over almost every physical room in my house. And even though I wasn't using my bedroom as a staging area for power tools or anything, I even felt the effects in there. There are currently piles of clothes and shoes to be organized and put away, and there are loads of laundry waiting to be washed. I've been a little worried lately, as I have kept letting the piles grow and felt no motivation to do anything about them. In my mind, I kept saying, once the kitchen's done, once the kitchen's done, but I wasn't sure if it really was the kitchen, or if I was becoming a lazy sloth who likes to live in filth. I was enabling myself because somehow it made sense that with the kitchen in disarray, living in squalor was perfectly acceptable.

But as I finished the project today and started peeling up the layers of cardboard, I felt the old me coming back to life. I started cleaning and organizing, and reclaiming my life and my house room by room.

Finishing that project not only gave me unbelievable satisfaction (I can't stop looking at all my pictures), but also a huge sense of relief. I hadn't realized just how tightly that monkey had been riding on my back for the past three-and-a-half months, but it had essentially dug its claws in and hadn't let go. I've kicked him to the curb (along with a big TV that has been sitting out in front of my house for a week) and am looking forward to rejoining life, monkey-free.