Cleaning the Clutter

Since we have moved up north I have been going over to my grandmother's house almost everyday, which has led to me helping her de-clutter her house. I have found some wonderfully nostalgic curiosities from my family's past generations.  I absolutely love it! We have a great history, my grandmother was a Chicago city-girl and my grandpa was a farm-boy who served with her brother during WWII  and that's how they met. They raised eleven kids on a ranch in California, my mom was the youngest. Can you imagine the kind of transition that must have been? The first time Grandma ever made bread was the first week she was married, and she did it in a wood burning stove. In Washington, in the winter. It came out so good, my Grandpa loved it and eventually bought a grain grinder so they could go even further in making it from scratch. I love it. And her bread really is amazing. This is just one of many stories I get to hear and see remnants of in boxes and closets as we go through them (the grinder is in the Shop).  

Barbie and her hand-made clothes

The typewriter Grandma used to write monthly update letters

My Grandpa in Pismo before he joined, I have an engagement photo on that pier!

Isn't she fabulous?!

Now she's 89, she doesn't exactly get around like she used to and she shouldn't be considering she is on blood thinners. So, I decided to help her with a very big project, The Shop. This is what it looked like:

My grandmother is on a fixed income, and we don't have much money to spare either, so getting crazy, elaborate storage make-over items was not an option. I was going to have to work with what I had. Fortunately, there were plenty of shelves already in there, they just weren't being utilized. So I went to the grocery store and asked if they had any extra boxes. I bought some packing tape, used some blank mailing labels my grandma had in bulk, and a permanent marker and worked my magic. It took a little while, what with it being 30 degrees and all, but I think in total over the span of a couple of weeks I put in about 15 hours? Maybe a little less. And now it looks like this:

The boxes on that table in front are empty! Yay consolidation!

I used the dresser drawers as extra storage too.