Can I tell you how shocked, humbled, appreciative and inspired I am by all of your comments on the downsizing post?!  Really, they’re amazing.  And just what I need.  Would you believe me if I told you that I had fear of rejection after putting all that out there?  Well, I did.  I half-expected to get comments about how I wasn’t doing the right thing and that I should consider an attitude change as opposed to a career change. But that didn’t happen.  You all are so kind and encouraging.  I can’t thank you enough.  Ever.  If I could make all of you chocolate no-bake cookies and deliver them to you straight from the pot, I would.  I am so grateful for your support {I know, I’m sounding like a blubbering beauty queen cliché right about now} and it’s just further confirmation to me that I can do this.  THANK YOU.  From the bottom of my design-lovin’ heart.

As you might’ve guessed, things are pretty hectic around here.  Handy Hubby and I are in the process of listing our home.  We are going to try and sell by owner.  We listed and sold our first home {a starter home we had in Illinois…the home we lived in before buying this home to be closer to family} by owner, so we have some experience going that route.  Although, that was 3 years ago when the market was just starting to roll downhill.  We aren’t oblivious to the fact that real estate isn’t exactly flying off the shelves right now.  But two homes have sold relatively quickly on our street within the last 6 months, so we’re hopeful.  It will be a lot work – mostly leg and paper – but we’re prepared to do it.  We know our home will sell just not sure for how much or when.  It should be interesting.

Today I started whittling things down in the pantry.  Prepping and staging your home for a sale is much different than decorating.  Potential buyers are looking to buy the house and all it has to offer…not the stuff in it.  {Not to say we aren’t opposed to bargaining off decor if that’s what would get us a sale.}  It’s necessary to edit decor to show off the best things about the house.  The large, walk-in kitchen pantry has been one of my favorite things about this house.  I can stash all kinds of stuff in there, close the door and no one’s the wiser.  In fact, other than spices and cooking oils, we don’t have any food items in our kitchen cabinets.  And since I knew I needed to start somewhere, I felt like conquering a small room first would get my purging and packing wheels rolling.  Here’s what the pantry looked like before…

And here’s what it looks like now…

…after a little decluttering and reorganizing.  I ended up with 3 piles of stuff that didn’t make the final cut.  Recycle: broken down packaging, expired coupons and old recipes.  Donate: odds & ends we don’t use.  Gift: items I’m hoping a neighbor can use.  Wine, anyone?

My goal was to get most everything up off the floor and onto the shelves.  Cereal, vinegar and toilet paper overstock were the only things that wouldn’t fit onto the shelves.  Then I faced {if you’ve ever worked in retail you know what facing is} all the food items and tucked everything nicely into its respective basket or bin.  Some of you have asked about how I have the pantry organized, so I guess now is as good a time as any!  I try to keep all the heavy and canned goods on the bottom shelf.  That way if I or my kids drop them, they don’t have that much momentum crashing into toes. Plus, they’re some of the healthier things in the pantry that I like my kids to see as a choice. {Desserts, treats and baking supplies are kept higher up…out of kid sight…to keep them from being snuck into.  I’m mean, aren’t I?}

The other food items are categorized into baskets and bins.  There are breakfast, snack, bread, pasta, rice, gluten-free {Handy Hubby has been gluten-free for nearly a year!}, baking and treat baskets right now.  I like using loose bins to organize that way I can tweak things week-to-week as our inventory changes.  I just got groceries yesterday, so this is as full as it gets unless we’re hosting a big get-together.

The perpendicular wall of shelving holds items in the household category….kid art supplies, batteries, flashlights and a few cleaners.  Hopefully, keeping a few bins empty will let potential buyers see how much space there really is in the pantry.

On the third pantry wall {behind the open door} there is a dry erase calendar to track family events and work schedules, a hanging stepladder which conceals some large drawing paper pads and a rack system for storing the broom, vacuum extension hose and a small electric sweeper.

I’ve been spoiled by this large pantry.  There’s no doubt that downsizing our home will probably result in downsizing our pantry too…if we’re lucky enough to get a pantry!  That’s okay.  I’m up for a kitchen organization challenge.  I like sorting things almost as much as I enjoy interior design.  I plan on editing the contents of our kitchen cabinets before we move anyway.  Maybe tomorrow?

Oh!  And I’d like to mention I did all of this while talking to several banks about getting pre-approved for a home loan.  Let’s just say I could hear the bankers’ eyebrows raising over the phone when I told them our plan to downsize from a home that we ‘can afford’ to a home less than half the worth of our current home.

images:  1) Make Your Own Invitations all the rest) Dana Miller for House*Tweaking

Do you remember my 2011 improvement list?  If not, let me jog your memory.

I’ve already made some headway on numbers 2, 4 & 5.  #2 – I’m currently enrolled in and studying the Sheffield School of Interior Design Course.  #4 – I’ve made an effort to only post about what I’m thinking, feeling, doing and loving at the moment.  If I’m not feeling or doing much, I’m giving myself permission to skip a day of blogging here and there.  On the other hand, I’m really trying to work on posts that have some meat to them and are applicable to those of you at home in need of inspiration, instructions, advice or just a good ol’ laugh.  #5 – I’ve always been pretty good at keeping stuff from taking over our house.  But we did declutter our outta-sight-outta-mind-basement recently.  I’d also like to reduce my stress level and debt…which brings me to the entire reason for this post.

We’re looking into downsizing!

As in downsizing our home and mortgage.  Quite a bit.  And, yes, that will require selling our current home.  Boo, I know.  But let me explain.

I started this blog a little over a year ago primarily to purge all of the design and home decor ideas that were whirling around in my head.  Along the way, I re-realized my love of writing.  It’s totally therapy for me.  What better way to combine two of my faves, right?  Interior design + writing = decor blog.  A little further along the way, I started getting some recognition that I had originally never sought.  It gave me a boost of confidence in my amateur design skills and eventually {after I tried for a long time to dismiss it} opened my eyes to the fact that I was {am} very dissatisfied in my current career field.  I’m a part-time pharmacist by day and wannabe designer at night, during kids’ naps and on the weekends.  I’ve considered the possibility that I’m having an early midlife crisis.  In fact, I’ve chalked up many a thought about a career in design to my female hormones.  But, really, the thought has turned into a yearning.  I feel it.  This is what I want to do.  And I’m very afraid just saying it.  Why?  Because I have a perfectly stable, part-time, bringing-home-the-bacon kind of job right now.  But my heart isn’t in it.  Don’t get me wrong.  I’m so thankful that nearly a decade in retail pharmacy has provided well for my family and allowed me to stay home 4-5 days of the week with my two young sons.  I work hard when I’m at work just because that’s the work ethic my dad instilled in me.  But, again, my heart isn’t in it.  If it weren’t for my co-workers who crack me up and keep me going day in and day out, I’d surely detest it.  And if it weren’t for our debt {school loans and mortgage}, I would probably have quit by now.  Ew.  QUIT.  That’s such a loser word.  At least, that’s what I’ve been taught.

In the middle of a nervous {nearly} breakdown several weeks ago {that’s not looking so good for #3, is it?}, I confessed to Handy Hubby that I couldn’t keep doing this.  I think I scared him.  I scared me that’s for sure.  I went into the pharmacy field because that’s what I was supposed to do.  It was a reputable career.  I was a smart girl.  I’d make good money.  I’d live happily ever after.  Wrong.

“Never get so busy making a living

that you forget to make a life.”

-Anonymous

Boy, did I ever get busy.  So, after an honest heart-to-heart with my amazingly understanding Handy Hubby, we started crunching numbers.  Because that’s what engineers and pharmacists do.  We discovered that if we sell our current home, put the equity into a significantly smaller home loan but continue to make the same amount of payment that we are currently paying, we could very realistically pay off a smaller home in 4-5 years.  Of course, I would continue to work as a pharmacist during that time.  But that sounds a lot better to me than 15 years!  Which is how long I’d have to work to pay off our current home.  So, that’s the plan.  We’re putting our home {yes, the house that we’ve lovingly tweaked into our home} on the market.  It’s all very bittersweet.  We absolutely adore our neighbors.  And by neighbors I mean everyone on our street.  We love our neighborhood.

Since we plan on selling our home, that means we have to buy another one.  A cheap one.  We’re open to just about anything. {After all, my hubby is handy.} Foreclosures, estate sales, fixer-uppers, older homes, smaller homes.  We’ll make it work to live the life we want to live.  A little phrase that popped into my head out of nowhere one day continues to inspire me…We’re not looking for the house of our dreams rather the house that will allow us to live our dreams. Dreams being  1) a career in interior design for me  2) a home that we can own outright before we’re 40 years old  3) the ability to save for our sons’ college education and our retirement.  Can you believe the sacrifice Handy Hubby will be making for all this?  He’s wonderful.  He just wants me to be happy.  I will say though that there are probably a few husbands out there who would love for their overspending spouses to say one day…”I want to buy a cheaper house so we can pay it off in a few years and I can maybe quit this job that sucks the life out of me and do something I really want to do.”  I mean, it’s sure better than saying I want more house, right?  But, no, really Handy Hubby is awesome.  I’m not gonna lie.  We did butt heads.  He has a fear.  He’s afraid that I’ll quit my day job before we pay off this elusive smaller house.  But I’m here to proclaim in front of everyone, “Handy Hubby, I will NOT quit my day job until our mortgage is paid off.”  I’m not saying I won’t want to.  But I’m not that big of a financial risk taker.

I would like to go on the defensive here for just a second.  I’d like for you to know that moving my family to a new house and possibly new city isn’t for blog hype.  We’re doing it because it’s what we think is best for our family and the goals we want to achieve.  You’ve probably noticed that several big time bloggers {Young House Love, Bower Power, Design Mom} have pulled the ol’ house switcheroo recently.  It must be in the water.  I’m definitely not doing it to compete with or copy them.  Not that lil’ ol’ me could compete with them anyway.  Heck, they all moved/are moving to larger and/or more expensive homes.  We’re doing the complete opposite.

So what does all of this mean for House*Tweaking?  Well, even though we may be moving, House*Tweaking isn’t going anywhere.  I’ll continue to write about projects we’re taking on {staging and prepping here we come!} and keep you posted on any cheap house hunting news. Once we’re in our new {well, probably old} budget home, there’s sure to be some tweaking going on.  Probably more so since the homes at our price point are anything but flawless.  I’ll have to get extra creative!  I’ll throw in decor ideas and inspiration along the way…to keep you {and me} from getting bored.

So, what do you think of this news?  I’m incredibly frightened and excited at the same time.

image:  Dana Miller for House*Tweaking