I Hope I Don't Regret This.... Moving the Laundry Room!

Good morning, friend. Welcome to my kitchen. We're sitting at my dining room table. This is my work space right now. What I'm doing this morning, first thing, is I am finalizing all of my candy recipes that we're going to be making for a big candy making extravaganza this week. I need to get this done because Josh needs to run into town today.

And since he's going gonna be running into town, I wanna get all of my recipes figured out and my grocery list so that he can take this grocery list to the store and get the last little things that I need for this big candy making day.

Once I get this done, we're gonna get dinner started in the slow cooker, and then the big project we're gonna do is we're gonna get dinner started in the slow cooker. And then the big project we're gonna do is we're gonna move all of the laundry room linens and things like that from upstairs in what used to be our laundry room downstairs. We need to do some cleaning down there

and we're gonna actually set up the laundry room downstairs and we've got some updates when it comes to the laundry room and what we're gonna be doing and all that stuff. So I've got my five fudges. We're gonna do five Christmas fudges. And now I need to figure out the candies

that I wanna be making that are not fudge. I'm gonna be kind of doing two separate types of candies. And every year, this is a tradition where I do a big Christmas candy box. And then I go around town and I drop them off at my friends' and family's houses.

It's one of my favorite traditions. And normally I do candy and cookies, but this year we're gonna be doing fudges and different candies. So it's gonna be fun. It's gonna be a little bit different

than what I've done in the past. Trying to keep things like interesting and new. And yeah. So let me figure this out and then we will get going on making dinner in the slow cooker.

I think I have my last recipe printed here. Okay. Let's see, how many recipes is that total? We are at two, four, no, I need one more, because I was gonna do five fudges and five candies. And all of these recipes are supposed to be extremely easy.

Some of these recipes I've actually had picked out for a year. I think last year was the first year I did not do Christmas candy cookie boxes, because I had pneumonia, so I didn't get to it. So some of these recipes like this one, the Ritz Cracker Thin Mints, basically you just take a Ritz Cracker, you melt chocolate,

you add peppermint oil to the chocolate, you dip your Ritz Crackers in it, you let it set, and you have a kind of easy version of a Thin Mint, like a Girl Scout Thin Mint. So all the recipes that I've chose are supposed to be super, super easy, like easy microwave peanut brittle.

So I've never made that before, but that should be fun. So I am just going through and getting all my recipes figured out. And then what I probably should have done is actually get dinner started in the slow cooker first because that could be cooking while I'm doing this,

but I'm not sure when Josh is gonna go to the store. He's gotta help me with some of the things today downstairs. And so I just wanted to get the recipe figured out and my grocery list so that at any time, this is done and ready for him. Okay, I gotta find one more recipe.

So what I like to do is I always save recipes that I see on Instagram on my phone. And I have different categories and I have one for Christmas and I think I can probably find... oh yeah this was one I wanted to make. Cookie butter chocolate bark with potato chips. Salty, sweet, crunchy, delicious. So I am going to find this recipe. I am going to be doing all this cooking on Wednesday. Today's Monday. Cookie butter. I always see if I can find

the recipe online on the person's blog because it's so much easier just to print it from their website. I found her blog, and then when I go to cook it, I can link the person's website in the description box of the video, and it's so much easier that way than linking a real cookie, butter, chocolate, bark.

And then I like to save all the recipes in a note so that I can keep track of them. And I like to save all the recipes in a note so that I can keep track of them. And I like to print my recipes because it's just so much easier when I'm in the kitchen if I have a printed recipe. So here are my five fudge recipes.

And here's my one, two, three, four, five. I have a bonus one that I kinda wanna make. So we're gonna have six here. And so now what I need to do, I've got all my recipes saved on my computer. I can close this and I can take an old,

oh, nope, that recipe was printed on both sides. A lot of times what I'll do is I'll take recipes that I've printed in the past. This one was a good recipe too. This recipe, this piece of paper is just kind of like a recycled piece of paper, so I'm gonna fold this in half

and then I'm gonna go through each one of my recipes and I'm gonna write the grocery list for Josh so that when he runs into town, he can get everything I need. Now, one thing I know that I need to do is write the quantities

so he knows how much of each thing to get. Some of these recipes have some of the same ingredients.

So I'm gonna put tally marks next to them have some of the same ingredients.

So I'm gonna put tally marks next to them so that Josh knows like sweetened condensed milk. So far I need two of them, so I'm gonna put two dashes. But as I go through these recipes, if I need to get another one, I'll just put another dash next to it.

Crunch.

All right, that overall to get the recipes and to make the grocery list probably took me, I don't know, maybe 45 minutes. Some of this work I had already done last year. Some of the work I did yesterday. I'm going to separate these recipes based on if they are fudge recipes. One, two, three, four. I'm missing one of my fudge recipes. Easy, ignore peppermint. Did I not print it? I guess I didn't print it.

But I have it saved. We are going to make a maple pecan fudge. And because I had saved it in a note, it was easy for me to find. And I don't know why, I just have to have a printed recipe. It's just so much easier for me. Oh, and I'm also going to need Josh to pick up a ton of nine by nine or eight by eight, I didn't print that recipe, foil pans,

because I don't have enough. And a lot of these recipes, like each one of the fudge recipes calls for a nine by nine foil pan. And I will just line them with parchment paper so that I can reuse them.

I'm gonna say get 10 9x9 inch foil pans. And if I line them with parchment paper I'll be able to make the fudge, get the mold, and then I can take the parchment paper out and then I'll just have the 9x9s the next time I do some freezer meals or something like that. Or if I make a bunch of desserts

and I need to drop them off at people's houses, I can put them in those foil pans. But these are gonna be gifts. All these candies are gonna be gifts for my loved ones and some hot ideas for you that you may have never done for the holiday season. They're all, I think they're all new recipes to me.

Or they are a recipe that I've already made but with a fun twist to it. And so I have pretty boxes to put these candies in. But when I do like a big cooking day where I might make a bunch of desserts just to make desserts with you all

for inspirations for the holidays or whatever it might be. Obviously, Josh and I can't go through it, so I like to package those desserts up or dinners up or whatever it might be. And foil pans work really well because I can just then drop them off

at my loved ones' houses, and I don't have to worry about them giving them back to me. So this computer work is done for the day, which is awesome. We will be making these in a couple days. Grocery list is here. I've got my stack here and I will just close this and let this be. Now let's get going on tonight's dinner. So I'm heading downstairs to kind of give you a little glimpse of

what we're going to be working on today. Josh brought down a big industrial mop. Let me turn some lights on because we did do a deep clean in here with Josh and I, but what I did not do is a final vacuum and mop on these floors.

So we need to do that. You can see our washer and dryer are now down here, but I need to make this space more comfortable and I would like it to feel more kind of cozy down here for it to be a laundry room. So I think Josh is gonna actually bring up our Christmas tree this week.

I have done my first load of laundry. One of our cushions covers needed to be washed last night. So I'm just gonna put that out to dry. So my goal is to do a very thorough vacuum here, down here today, mop it, and then we're going to bring down my laundry room table,

the rug, and all that stuff, and today we're gonna start setting up a nice little laundry room down here. Now you may see this is empty. I am completely out of homemade marinara sauce. We did a marinara taste test and I have this from that.

So we are gonna grab this for tonight's dinner. And I also am gonna be bringing down a bunch of linens from upstairs and we're gonna turn one of these shelves into kind of a linen closet, but not totally a linen closet because we actually, yesterday just realized we're gonna make a linen closet

upstairs, which I'm gonna share with you. And we're gonna put a laundry chute in. So many of you guys recommended a laundry chute, and we are taking you up on that recommendation. But I'm in here because I need to get out, well here, there's probably 200 pounds of tomatoes in here.

I need to do that, but I think I'm gonna wait and do that probably until January. I'm looking for peppers and onions. All these paper bags are all tomatoes. Oh, I thought I had peanuts in my freezer for the peanut brittle we're gonna make this week. I don't have to buy peanuts.

Let's see, there are my peppers. Here's my peppers from the garden from last year. And I really am tempted to pull these diced onions from the freezer, but I have fresh ones. So I need to go through my fresh ones before I start using those frozen ones.

So let's grab some onions as well. I'm just gonna bring up these peanuts so that I can cross them off my grocery list. I'm gonna be making my creamy, I think it's sausage, pepper, and onion slow cooker dinner. And I'm actually gonna use my new Instant Pot.

Josh just bought this for me randomly and I love it. And I've heard my last Instant Pot, I'm keeping my old one, I've had it for eight or nine years. My brother got me that one for Christmas. Josh was using it and he saw this one and thought I could use the newer version.

And my old Instant Pot, I'm gonna keep mostly just as a rice cooker. And then this will be my more like Instant Pot slow cooker. I've heard that this Instant Pot does better slow cooking

than the last one. I never used my old instant pot for slow cooking but I heard the trick

for slow cooking in this instant pot is actually heating the ingredients up before you actually hit slow cook function. So I will link this recipe down below for you. It's so easy. It's one of our favorites. All you have to do is basically a dump and go recipe.

It would be truly dump and go if I was using my diced onions in the freezer, but

all the sauce smells so good. So I officially have no marinara sauce, homemade or otherwise. I have just crushed tomatoes downstairs now. I need to do that. Turn all those tomatoes into marinara sauce, but I'm not doing that today. So I just threw that sauce in there.

I did unload my dishwasher this morning, so I can put that right in there. So to our marinara sauce, I'm gonna add my one package of, oh it's already starting to bubble, diced peppers. I'm going to turn that off already actually. Off. I don't want that to bubble on me while I'm doing

this. My recipe calls for Italian sausage. I have bratwursts, and that will be delicious in this as well. I'm gonna get this over to my counter over here, light cream and Parmesan cheese, but I'm not gonna add that yet. I'm gonna put this on slow cook.

Let's see, I've never used slow cook on here. Let's do custom. Let's do custom. Let's do high. And let's do, I'm gonna put six hours. I don't think it's gonna take six hours, but we're gonna put it on that.

And I'll check on this as I come upstairs. So dinner's basically almost done. The way I'm gonna serve this tonight for my family is I will cook up some noodles and I will actually cut up these sausages once they're cooked. They're just easier to cut up once they're cooked. I'll probably take some scissors to them, cut them up, and then

we'll have a creamy parmesan-y, peppery, onion-y, sausage-y sauce for them. And then I will cook up broccoli on the side and I will just have the bratwurst and the broccoli because I'm trying to keep my blood sugar low. This recipe only calls for one pound of sausage, which would I think be like four of these links. I probably doubled the sausage

because I'm not gonna be having pasta. I wanted there to be a little extra sausage in here so that I can eat it. If you're new, I am 20, no, 20, I am 30 weeks pregnant. So because I'm pregnant, we are joining another family member here shortly.

We need to turn what used to be our laundry room into a bedroom. This room is technically one of the bedrooms in the house and it was also a dual purpose laundry room. And when we only had one kid, we did not need this as a bedroom, but now we do. So our washer and dryer were right here. Long term, we do plan to build

another laundry room upstairs, but we just could not make that happen with permits, drawing up plans in the time before we needed this space to be a functioning bedroom. So what we are doing is moving the washer and dryer downstairs. Josh and I both grew up in homes, I grew up in a house for 23 years where the washer and dryer were on the floor below the bedrooms. Josh and I's first two houses, the washer and dryer, were down below our bedroom and so we're used to that. Long-term we would like it back up here but we did weigh all the pros and cons whether putting it

downstairs or in the grow room and with just all the pros and cons it made more sense to bring it downstairs. But I listened to you and you all had some great suggestions. We are gonna be putting a laundry chute on the other side of this wall. So we're going to close this space off. We're going to build a wall here so that we have just a square room, but we're going to reclaim that space. And right here we're going to put in a big linen closet that I'll be able to access

from the other side of that wall and we're going to put in a laundry chute right here that we'll be able to access from the other side of this wall so the laundry can be shot right downstairs so we won't have to carry laundry downstairs we will have to obviously carry it upstairs and we're going to put the laundry chute I think about this high so it's gonna be plenty high that it will be way up off the ground. And the contractors are coming sometime this week to start building the linen closet and the laundry chute so what that means is I

need to empty these cabinets. We really need a linen closet because there's no linen closet up here. This closet right here in this bedroom worked as our linen closet. And these cabinets here, this is like our medicine cabinet. This is craft stuff. So this needs to be moved

because we're going to take this down. And this is things like my loops from when I was a dental hygienist. I've got a heating pad, our humidifier, that stuff all needs to be moved and so by building a closet here I'll be able to have a medicine cabinet up here. We just decided on putting this linen closet here this morning. It's funny how construction jobs, you know, you think they're the small

little thing and then as you get into it you think, oh this would make sense. And most of the laundry chute and linen closet idea was because of you all. So I really appreciate you taking time to kind of commenting and giving us suggestions. So this space feels a little bit overwhelming. I'm gonna be moving all of my table decor stuff. These are all my colored napkins. I do have some baby girl clothes in here that I just wanna move.

Like for our linen closet, we'll be able to put our swim towels. We go swimming a lot. And I'm just glad that we're gonna be able to have a space upstairs for them, not in the basement. But I could easily put like my extra placemats

and chargers and things like that downstairs and tablecloths and all that good stuff that I don't need to access that much, we can put downstairs. So Josh is also gonna help me move this table downstairs and he's gonna help me move this rug downstairs today

so that we can try to completely empty this space. So it feels good. I got my computer work done, dinner is basically taken care of, and now we're gonna tackle this project. If you were with Josh and I when we cleaned up down here, we swept, we shop vacced, but we did not do a fine vacuum. I just vacuumed the stairs as I came down. I wanna vacuum with my, like, regular vacuum, not a shop vac.

Give everything a good vacuum, and then we're gonna mop. So before I start bringing anything down, I wanna give this area one good clean. So that's my goal. So I'm just gonna start in this corner, since I already did the stairs.

And I hope this vacuum will hold a charge. It says it has 36 minutes left, so that should be plenty of time. And I'm just gonna do a good vacuum down here. I wanna tell you how much I love this vacuum. I love it for two reasons.

One, it's cordless, which is so incredibly nice. And two, my favorite feature about this vacuum, you could probably find another vacuum out there that has the same feature. But if you are looking for a new vacuum, one feature I highly recommend is a light.

I can't tell you how nice that is, especially with having dogs. You see every speck of dust. And when I start vacuuming, I have to finish it because you just see on the ground what needs to be vacuumed. I'm still vacuuming, but I need to vacuum over here.

And these are the black beans and pinto beans that I grew in my garden last year. I am not ready to process these or can them or do anything with them so I want to get them somewhere safe. So I've got this bucket. I'm just going to go ahead and put them in here in these paper bags. And then when I want to cook them or can them, I can get them from in here. And they'll be safe in this tote. I want to get this onions and garlic somewhere. So I'm going to move these paper towels,

get this onion and garlic up off the floor. Okay, that feels better. I've got everything off the floor so I can continue to vacuum. I'm calling Josh right now because I could use his help with a couple things down here. Hey, I think I'm ready for your help down here.

Okay, so he's going to come down and help. So I have now vacuumed the floors twice, which feels good. I do actually want to vacuum one more time before we go ahead and mop, but I need to charge that vacuum. It only had four minutes left. So I think what I'm gonna do in the meantime

is I'm gonna move, well, so we have this one extra shelf. When we put these shelves up, we have this one shelf. That's one thing I need Josh's help with, is to actually put this shelf together. And I can't really decide where I want it.

I think for this space right here, cause I was thinking right here, but I need to buy a rolly cart that has a hanger thing so that when clothes come out of the dryer, I have an area to hang stuff. I just haven't ordered that yet. So I was thinking I would put the shelf there,

but I don't think that's a good idea cause I think I should have that area for hanging up clothes and then we can move this chicken feed. This is some boxes of furniture that need to be put together, so those are just gonna go upstairs.

I think long-term, we're actually gonna store our Christmas tree upstairs. We have a closet up there that would fit in. And just with everything else down here, I don't think I wanna look at my Christmas tree all year long. And the laundry chute has to be right here.

So for right here, what I'm gonna do is get a very big laundry hamper that's on wheels. So when things go through the laundry chute, they can end up in a big old basket here. And then I can just wheel it over here. I was thinking I would put some linens over here.

I don't have as many canned stuff on my shelves as I used to. One, I don't can as many different things. I'm really only canning things that I know we're gonna go through. Like these are all beans and broth.

I have no broth except for two jars on my pantry shelf. That's why it's very empty. And I am very, very, very low on tomato products. I have no marinara sauce. So I know these shelves need to fill up a little bit because I need to put broth and tomato products on it, but I don't think I need three shelves anymore

of canned goods just because I don't can as much as I used to. I'm really, really only focusing on canning stuff that we go through super quickly and I don't have to worry about trying to go through it. So I was thinking I could maybe put my beans down here

as opposed to over here. I have lots of canned beans right now. That's why I did not can any of the beans that I grew in my garden last year because I don't need any canned. I have been going through beans a lot more

because those are one of the carbohydrates that I can eat that don't spike my blood sugar too much. Here's some beef broth. I only have four pints of beef broth and two pints of turkey broth. And that's all the broth I have in my house.

Crazy, I know. No chicken broth right now. Pinto beans. And what I was thinking with this shelf is this could be my table decor shelf.

Let's see.

Pinto beans, pinto beans. Maybe. Josh is down here helping me mop and we've kind of, not mops, he's vacuuming one more time. The vacuum had time to charge. Definitely needed to be cleaned. And while the vacuum is charging,

we kind of went over a game plan and he helped me move some things and I think we've got a game plan. I'm gonna start vacuuming, or mopping while Josh vacuums. Josh, did you wanna show me how to use this kind of mop?

Yeah.

He's done a third vacuum in this corner, so I'm gonna start over here.

It brings me back to the subway days.

That really brings me back to the subway days.

So you go like this.

Okay.

Instead of like, not like this or or whatever you just go back and forth, okay

Awesome. I guess if there's sticky spots then you scrub

Awesome this mop is the mop that Josh uses when he cleans out our garage. And I had never used it before, and I'm really glad we have it because this mop worked great for down here. The mop that I use upstairs in our kitchen, well, Josh and I have different cleaning supplies.

So Josh has a vacuum slash mop thing that he likes to use when he does the floors. And I have, it's like super fancy and he really, really enjoys it. And if that is what he enjoys to mop, awesome. I just have this really simple.

It's kind of a Swiffer style mop, but I don't it's not a Swiffer. It doesn't have the disposable pads. It has like a Velcro. I have two pads that I can throw in the wash and then I am able to refill the dispenser. I think it was like 18 bucks and I love that little mop thing that I use and I don't think that would have worked very well down here. I think we needed

this more heavy duty mop. I had only ever mopped down here I think one other time, maybe two other times since we moved in and it needed this like industrial-grade mop because you all see the potatoes and onions and all the produce that comes in down here that brings in dirt and it needed a good scrub. I actually thought it was dirtier than it was initially because there are different colorations in this floor but after mopping this floor I realized that

some of the brown on the floor is actually just the concrete color and so the water definitely showed how much dirt I picked up when I was done mopping but it wasn't as bad as I actually thought it was going to be so that was good. And we have been living with this washer and dryer down here now for about a week and a half and it's actually going fairly well.

I mean, again, in an ideal world, I loved having my washer and dryer upstairs next to the bedrooms, but it has not been as big of an inconvenience as I thought it would be. And it's, you know, a sacrifice that I'm super happy about because it means that we're making space for our new little baby girl that will be here in the winter. So, even though it's not ideal, it's worth the sacrifice. And again, one day we do plan to put the washer and dryer again upstairs, but in the amount of time we had and the space we have in our current house right now,

it just wasn't realistic with all the considerations that Josh and I put into it to find a space for it upstairs at this point. But long-term, we do have plans to bring it back upstairs. So I am just giving everything a good scrub. I probably will not be curing my potatoes

and my veggies down here next year if our washer and dryer are still down here. I will probably do that in the grow room and put some blackout lights, or blackout curtains in the grow room and put some blackout lights or blackout curtains in the grow room. And we did consider, you know, me starting all my vegetables down here and me putting

the washer and dryer in the grow room. That was definitely a consideration. But with all the different pros and cons Josh and I like weighed, this made more sense. And so this is what we went with. And I'm happy to report that it's been working really well so far. It's actually been kind of nice because when the washer and dryer were upstairs I would see the dirty laundry or the clean laundry that needed to be folded all the time. Versus now it's kind of out of sight, out of mind, it's downstairs. I don't have to look at it.

I mean, obviously I know there's laundry that needs to be done at all times, but I don't have to see it all the time, which has actually been kind of nice. All right, so everything has been mopped and it has now dried out.

It's been about an hour since we were working down here together. We just took about an hour lunch break as a family. I wanted this area to completely dry. I'm gonna bring this bag upstairs. Come to use it to bring stuff down here.

I'm thinking, so over here we have our chicken feed. I'm thinking I'm gonna get two of those stainless steel garbage cans and I'm gonna put the chicken feed in those garbage cans, so they're not just in paper bags. Never had a problem with rodents or anything, but I think that would be,

one, it would look nicer just to have them in something, and it would be a protection against pests. I do like to keep a couple extra bags of feed on hand so that I'm not buying it every few weeks or so. I used to only have to go through one of those bags every six to eight weeks when we only had a few chickens, but now that we have more,

we go through a bag about every three to four weeks. And now, since everything is organized and kind of cleaned down here, it feels so much better. I've got this whole shelf here that we can put stuff on. Josh and I decided I don't think I need another shelf because we are gonna be building

that linen closet upstairs, which is a great relief. I did put the Christmas tree for now over here in this corner. Josh is gonna carry that up probably in a week or so when we're gonna set it up, but then long-term it won't be down here.

That's my Christmas and birthday and wrapping type present stuff there. So I think what we're gonna do now is go into the actual laundry room now and I'm gonna start bringing stuff down and I'm gonna actually have Josh come help me

bring down the table and the rug. And I think he's gonna do all the carrying of stuff down these stairs. I was thinking that it would be good to get some temporary, or not temporary, but to put some of those rug things on the stairs, because they're just wooden stairs.

But I'm gonna have to look online and see what I can find. I just had that idea today. So I've got, this is my laundry detergent. I'm gonna go ahead and just fill that up. So I have two empty bags here. I can just throw away.

My garbage can has now been brought downstairs.

Oh no.

I just put that in my OxyClean. Well, I guess I'm gonna mix these together back and forth a couple times. And now I have a mixture of oxyclean and laundry detergent. Oops I do have these labeled too. That's okay. So I think I need to call Josh and let him know that I'm ready for his help at this point. I don't think I'm gonna get to all of these cupboards today, but I wanna at least get most of this and this

and all the laundry stuff downstairs so that we can actually have a functioning laundry space. I think the best thing to do would be to actually empty this table so that he can actually just start taking it down. This laundry room has been amazing,

but I'm kind of excited that it's gonna turn into a bedroom. That's a good thing, that's progress. Okay, I'm gonna use these bags to put stuff in to carry down. Things like this is our first aid kit. I'm so excited to now have a linen closet upstairs because I can put this and that. I was gonna have to put it downstairs and now I won't have to. So thank you for the idea. I really appreciate everyone who takes time to give suggestions.

It's very, very helpful because we read them and a lot of times we take them into consideration. I'm just trying to get this clear so as soon as Josh gets in here he can take this apart. I'll have him carry these down for me. I'm going to vacuum this. So I was thinking if you could carry down these for me and that laundry hamper and then

the table and the rug. I'll meet you down there when you carry the table and rug down so we know where to put it. These can just go on the washer and it feels really good down there with everything mopped. I'm gonna start emptying this. As I go through this closet there are a few things I know that can be donated so I'm gonna have one of my bags that I'm

filling for donation. But all of the bath stuff I'm gonna go ahead and keep up here since we're gonna be building a linen closet up here. I'm not gonna bring that stuff downstairs like I was earlier. I could use one of these actually. My original plan was to have to bring all of this stuff downstairs, but now I'm not going to. I'm just bringing the tablecloth stuff. So beach towels, extra

blankets, extra sheets, extra pillows, my pre-pregnancy jeans, those will all go in the linen closet up here once that's built, which will probably be a week or two before that's built. So that is a huge relief because I would really like to keep these types of things upstairs because I obviously grab these way more than I'm going to need to grab red or green or black cloth downstairs. These can go in there. And these and this. So he's going to bring the whole table down and then we'll figure out

exactly where we're going to put it. And while he's working on that, I'm going to start putting this stuff over here. I have inner party stuff in two other locations, which I do plan to bring down here. I don't know what order, I don't think I'm gonna get to bring all that stuff down here today though.

Like all my candle stuff I wanna bring down here so it's all in one spot and I can see it. And it'll be much easier to plan a tablescape when I can see everything that I have. I am loving having all my table decor stuff down here in one place.

This has been so nice. Not that I've used it, actually. And I probably am not going to use it until February when I do a Galentine's Day and a, well, I don't know. I'm assuming either Galentine's Day or the grandparents Valentine's Day dinner that I do is going to be the next dinner party I have at my house.

But I used to have my dinner party stuff in three different spots and just having it in one spot, it's just been so nice. So I'm actually really glad that I had the time today to bring all of this stuff into one spot. Okay, I got this amount that I brought down done,

which is everything from that linen closet, and I'll show you what I've done, which is everything from that linen closet, and I'll show you what I've done. I have my table runners, table cloths here, napkins. These are my bread towels. So if I make bread and I wanna put a towel in a bread basket, I keep these down here so I don't get them messy from kitchen use.

Chargers, I have one more big set of chargers upstairs that I'm gonna put right here, placemats. And I think this is a napkin holder. I don't know where this is gonna go, but I'm gonna put a bunch of my candlesticks right here. I might be able to stack some things a little differently,

but so far, I'm really excited about how this is looking and how this is going to function for me. By having everything in one place, I will be able to come down here, shop this for a dinner party. I have a ton of dishes that I've started to collect, and I'm thinking we have one more shelf that Josh was going to set up for a linen closet over there.

I might have him put that right here and then I could have my dishes right here so that I could not just shop linens and placemats and things like that, but I could also shop my dishes. We'll see.

I just thought of that right now, so I'm not exactly sure. I just know that I can't condense this anymore because when I can a ton of tomatoes, that'll go here and then I'll probably end up putting a bunch of broth up here. So I need to make sure I leave that shelf space for canned goods

when I actually get to that project. It's actually taking Josh quite a bit longer than he anticipated to take apart that project. It's actually taking Josh quite a bit longer than he anticipated to take apart that table. So I'm gonna go ahead and just start filling up more of the table decor stuff and he can carry it down for me.

And then if I have time, I can organize it. So this is what this area looks like. I've just collected too much stuff that it's so hard to keep things organized in here. And you can see, I even have like a pile of napkins in here. So I'm going to, since I'm just waiting for Josh to start carrying a bunch of this stuff downstairs,

or I'll get it in baskets and then Josh can carry it downstairs. This needs to go in my wrapping paper stuff. I think I'll keep my candles up here because I like to burn candles in my kitchen all the time and I'd rather not have to go down there

to get the candles. So I will keep stuff in here, but not everything. I'm going to try and get this out of the way. Josh has called me and said he's ready for my help down there. I got this emptied. Basically, I need to vacuum this up.

I'm gonna keep my half-used or started-used candles up here because these are the ones I'm gonna burn just when I'm in the kitchen. When I have dinner parties, I like to set fresh candles out. So I'll keep these up here for easy access. I'm gonna keep, I can't decide if I'm gonna keep these up here, but I have this for Josh to carry down,

that for Josh to carry down, that's way too heavy for me right now, and this for Josh to carry down. Where do you think, like right here?

I think so.

As soon as it's not pulled up.

It's a very inexpensive rug.

Yeah.

This'll look nice down here though.

Huh?

Yeah, I was thinking that same thing. Do we want it this way? I think we want it this way.

You want the table facing this way?

I think so. Can you push it a little bit more toward you? Like...

Yeah. Oh yeah, that's not heavy at all.

There we go. I am so happy with how this looks. Now that I kind of have this like laundry room section over here, I think I am gonna move that chicken feed just somewhere else just so this whole section over here is laundry and not chicken stuff. And I am gonna get a bar so I can put hangy stuff over here.

There's a plug over here so I can have my iron plugged in over here. And I'm super happy with how it looks. We do, like I mentioned earlier, have plans to eventually move the washer and dryer back upstairs. But for now, I'm so grateful to have this space

and to be able to clean it and have it nice and just a good functioning space for me. So I'm gonna get my first official load other than washing one of our couch cushion covers. I'm gonna get this going. Actually might wait to turn that on.

Josh is gonna bring down all that stuff for me. That can actually just go right over here. This is my miscellaneous gloves, aprons, and socks. Now, what I'm gonna actually ask my mom to do is these, because they're gonna be sitting on the washer and dryer,

now I'm gonna make, just with some fabric, like a cushion to go on top of this, and these will sit on top of there. And I might, I don't know exactly what I'm gonna do, because those were up on a shelf. And this, I'm not sure where I'm gonna put this right now. Maybe it'll just live on this table for now.

Since I have a little bit more organizing I'm gonna do down here, I'm gonna wait to turn that on until I'm done do down here. I'm gonna wait to turn that on until I'm done organizing down here. Josh is going to take care of this mop bucket for me after he brings down the rest of my stuff. Just right here is fine.

Thank you. I normally have a dinner party at my house about once a month, but December has been full of holidays and I don't even think I had one in November. I'm not sure. And we are having a baby girl sometime in January probably or maybe February. You never know how those things

go. And I was just thinking earlier when I was talking to you that Valentine's Day, our grandparents Valentine's Day, would be the next dinner party. But now I'm not sure about that because I will be newly postpartum. So we'll see. I'm not sure when the next dinner party will be. I love having dinner parties. It's one of my favorite things.

I used to do it when Josh and I first got married and then we started remodeling our house and that took a good three years and our house was always under construction because Josh and I did 90% of the work ourselves and so I kind of got out of the habit and then I was just getting back into the habit when 2020 happened and you all know what happened in 2020. And so this whole last about two and a half years,

I've really been diving into dinner parties and decorating and setting up.

And it's been so fun.

It's definitely my hobby. And collecting different table wares has been super fun, whether I find some new things or I thrift them. I just really am enjoy that hobby. And I'm grateful that you've been kind of coming along with me on this journey.

This is just some wax that came off the candle holders. And so I'm really excited to get back into it, but it's probably gonna be February before we have the next dinner party. All right, well, that was not on the list to get all this stuff down here,

but this is what I was envisioning. Brass candlesticks, black candlesticks, gold votives, brown votives, wicker votives, flowers, my colored candles, and my white candles and my black candles, beeswax candles, napkin rings,

chargers, napkins, placemats, tablecloths. Absolutely fantastic. Is that room upstairs completely done? Did I get the white cabinets emptied? No. Am I gonna get to them today?

No, but I will probably get to them tomorrow. Tomorrow's a family day. We're going to the pool. And so I'll probably try to get at least the medicine cabinet cleaned out tomorrow. And it feels really good to have down here functioning.

I'm gonna go ahead and get this turned on. And I'm gonna get some pasta cooked and we're gonna finish dinner. It might be an early night for dinner or an early dinner, but we've kind of been working on and off all day. So I think we will appreciate an early dinner.

Josh, I was gonna get dinner going right now. Are you hungry for dinner?

I am.

I was just thinking I might get a snack or something.

Okay. It's four o'clock. We're gonna get dinner going here. I did wash my hands after all that work. Josh is gonna carry up and down a couple more things for me cause I think I'm done going up and down stairs right now. And I could not get,

this is a pot of water for our water. See, this is where I like to light candles here. I just enjoy having candles lit, especially this time of year. I don't really do this much in the summer, but this time of year.

So I don't mind using half burnt candles in here. But when I set a pretty table for a dinner party, I like to use brand new candles. And then I don't wanna waste those candles, so I'll save those, keep those up here to replenish my kitchen candles.

That's probably good. We haven't had pasta in a while, so I'm sure Josh is gonna be glad to have pasta. I don't wanna turn this on yet because my cord's right here, but I wanna show you,

I couldn't get the slow cooker function to seem like it was actually functioning. So I put it on pressure for 10 minutes and it's just been on keep warm for over an hour. I'm going to move this cord over here. Open this and see what this looks like.

Okay, that looks really good. So now we're going to make this creamy and cheesy. So I'm going to add some heavy cream and then we'll just make this creamy and cheesy. So I'm gonna add some heavy cream and then we'll just put cheese on our own.

That smells so good. Oh good.

What is it? It is the creamy, what is this called? Creamy sausage and peppers with pasta.

As soon as I came in the door.

You could smell it?

Probably because you just took the top off.

I did, yes. I do think I like cooking in the, just a regular slow cooker better. I wanted to try using the slow cook function on this Instapot, but it was worth a try.

Yeah.

Josh, I have a thing of mascarpone cheese in the refrigerator from some cooking projects. I think that would go well in here. You wanna hand that to me and I'll just add that to this. A good way to use it up. So normally I'd put Parmesan cheese in this.

Oh, I forgot to turn this on. We'll just put Parmesan cheese on the top and for the cheese, it's in the drawer at the bottom. I'm just gonna use the last little bit of this in here. It's about half, half full. I just added a little cornstarch to this to thicken it up a little bit.

Now I'm gonna take some clean kitchen scissors and I'm just gonna go through and slice up these bratwurst. Nope, I'm pushing buttons with my belly. And I just put the saute function on so that we can activate the cornstarch

by heating this up a little bit quicker. This is what this area is looking like. So I still need to vacuum that out because it has a bunch of pieces of candle bits in there. And then I think I'm gonna leave those in here. I don't know, maybe I'll bring them down.

But I'm gonna keep these candles up here because those are the ones I'm gonna pull from all the time. Got some garbage I need to take care of. So in here, the last few things I have to do before I call it a night is I'm gonna put that cleaning stuff up high.

That white garbage can, I think I'm gonna bring downstairs and put next to the dryer so that I can have two garbage cans down there, a big one for bigger things of garbage, that little one just for dryer vent,

what is that called? Lint, dryer lint. These need to be taken care of, but that's not gonna happen today, which is fine. This is all contractor stuff. They're gonna deal with that

when they put in the laundry chute and the linen closet. We're gonna keep the water lines here and the electrical here, because eventually on the other side of this wall, we will make that into a laundry room. Year or two, we will do that, but not today or tomorrow.

So we're gonna keep the water lines, the plumber's already closed all those off so that, you know, they're safe, but eventually we will use those water lines again. This is a bunch of maternity clothes and some other clothes from when we went to New Orleans

that I've yet to take care of. So I still need to take care of that and then more cleaner I need to put up. We're gonna have to find a new place for Josh's electric mop and his mop shop that ours mop vacuum and his vacuum and I probably will have to move this stuff when they work on that closet. We are gonna get some new doors for this closet because these closet doors are very hard to open and close, these accordion doors. So they are going to put in some french doors just because they're going to be so much easier

to open and close. But I'm so excited about the progress we made today, feels so good. I am so grateful for your guys' input on the laundry chute and the linen closet, using that space, because those two things are gonna make having the laundry downstairs easier. Ideally, it would be up here, but I would rather fill my bedrooms with my babies

than with laundry. So, yeah, so I'm happy with having my washer and dryer downstairs. I'm grateful for that space, that I'm able to have it down there. And again, Josh and I did go back and forth so many times,

pros and cons, either putting it in our garage, putting it in the grow room, or putting it downstairs, cost and so many other factors. It just seemed like the best choice to put it downstairs. So that's what we did. So thank you for being here. Thank you for being you. Let me pop some videos here. You can go enjoy between now and the next upload. I hope you're Let me pop some videos here. You can go enjoy between now and the next upload. I hope you're having a fantastic day and I can't wait to see you next time. Bye, friend.