Confessions of a messy housekeeper

I have to start out by saying I am busy - no really I am! I'm not saying this is a good excuse by any means, but its very difficult to find enough hours in the day. I find that if something gets left out, it's going to be cleaning and/or projects around the house. I always tell myself that it's late and I can do the dishes tomorrow! Then suddenly the counters are full of dirty dishes (mind you, I have a very small kitchen so this does not take long). We also start up projects around the house that tend to get left unfinished for weeks. I will never truly be a tidy person. Even if I can make myself keep things clean (that is my goal after all), it will never come naturally to me. I have this vision in my mind of a completely spotless house with everything totally organized. Wouldn't that be amazing?

I sometimes have trouble sleeping at night and I try to focus my mind on something so that I don't keep thinking about not falling asleep. The exercise I've used recently is to imagine myself walking in through my front door and I try to visualize every bit of my house exactly as I wish it could (realistically) be. The more I do this the more I wish our home was nicer! And so I've made a goal that every night I will do something in the way of cleaning or decorating my home! As I do this I will post my progress. I've decided to start with my kitchen.

This is what it looked like before we moved in

 

And this is what it looks like currently

It's all very...white. Putting in the wood floors helped (as the old floors were also white, though it's hard to see in the pictures) but everything else is still white! I wish we could replace the counter tops (thank goodness we replaced the door and drawer pulls) but unfortunately money does not allow at this time. I haven't done much in my kitchen because, well... I just didn't know what to do! Those curved shelves at the end of the counter and cupboard are akward and nothing seems to look good there. And don't even ask about the curtains - I hung something up some fabric just for privacy and never got around to finishing it off. My first project is the back wall, and as you can see in the newer pictures I've already gotten started (but don't worry, the wall will not be black! That is just a stage in the middle). I've been working on that wall for over a week now and I'm almost finished, so I'll be posting that project in just a couple days. So excited!