Winning the battle, but losing the war

My husband and I moved into our current two bed, two bath, two level apartment during the whirlwind that we call the Summer of 2008. In the span of four months, I changed workplaces once, jobs twice, moved and got married.

Moving day was roughly three weeks before our wedding day. Surrounded by little bottles of bubbles with perfect purple bows, a handful of blank RSVP cards without return addresses and a to-do list longer than my arm, unpacking was not a priority.

Plus, we'd spent the last two years largely living out of boxes - first in a Halifax sublet, then a Halifax apartment, then out of my rural Nova Scotia office (that didn't last long), then on to Toronto where we stayed with friends, got a summer sublet, then a basement one bedroom apartment - so what was a few more weeks? But sadly, it's now been three months.

Post-wedding, totally exhausted, all we wanted to do was sleep. And things continued to get worse. Our spare bedroom - or box room, as it had become - was further swelled by an influx of lovely wedding presents, which also needed unpacking (and thank you notes).

Two months later and we still have a box room. Things aren't getting any worse, but they're not getting any better either. The logical part of my brain says that if I haven't needed the things in those unpacked boxes yet, then I probably don't need them at all, but I would still need to go through them even if I was going to pare down.

The holidays are quickly approaching, and I want to start the New Year off on the right note. We'll likely be away for much of the actual holidays, but there still will be some entertaining and I can't keep shamefully shutting the spare bedroom door - which is also intended to be an office space - to hide the clutter.

And decorating? I don't even know which box contains my Christmas goodies - and it seems both silly and wasteful to start over from scratch just to avoid hunting through the remaining boxes.

It's really time to get organized. I know that once I tackle the room, it will be easier to keep everything else neat too. The problem is just finding the time and the motivation! So, I'm going to start with baby steps on my way to turning my new home from a place to chuck my stuff into a beautiful and efficient space - starting with shopping for a sofa and poking around those boxes.

I'll keep you posted. Wish me luck!