To Unpack or Not to Unpack, That is the Question

Picture it: You've just spent 5 hours in various airports and then 2 1/2 more hours in a car to get to your new home. You're exhausted (physically and mentally) and want nothing more than to collapse on your bed. You open the door to your first real home and see this:

I got to my house a day after the moving trucks did and the only things my hubby had actually set up were the bed and the TV (priorities, amiright?). In his defense, though, I told him to not really touch anything until I got there because I've got a perfectionistic/OCD streak in me. I had one week to put the house together before both Jimmy and I left for a month.

Here's where my internal debate started. I could only unpack the necessities and leave everything else in boxes because we are only going to be in this house for a year OR I could put my nose to the grind and really make a standard military base house our home. My inner lazy girl really wanted to go with the first option. But, I realized, we are a military family now and that means there will be lots of moves in our future.

This is the conclusion I came to: No matter how long, or short, a time we may be living in a house I'm going to take the first week or two and really make it our home. Being in the military will take us far away from many things that are familiar to us, but making a house our home will help us bring the familiar with us.

I also know that, in the long run, keeping most of our stuff in boxes would cause me more anxiety than unpacking everything. Knowing me, I would be looking for one very specific item, not be able to find it, and end up going through all of the boxes looking for it and making a stressful mess.

So, after a week of hard work, we left the house looking like this:

It was a huge relief knowing that, when we got home after a long, hard month, we would become home to our new home.

We've been here for a little over three months now and I've been working really hard to put the finishing touches on our home. I feel like the projects will never end, but I've finally reached a place where they don't need to be done right away. I work on about a project a week, but I feel good about how it has all come together (I took these pictures just today and my house is only this clean because Jimmy was gone all day Saturday and I didn't know what else to do with myself)

The headboard was my first house project (the dresser is still on my list)

This has become our "storage room", complete with closest full of boxes

Our office/library is probably one of favorite rooms (also, I don't think that desk will ever be clean enough to actually use)

Shout-out to my parents for these awesome green couches (#allthefreethings)

One day there will be an entryway table here, but who knows when that day will be

Real-life side note: putting a house together is EXPENSIVE! The hubs and I talked about what we needed to buy and decided on a budget together. I kept track of it all on a spreadsheet and tried really hard to stay within the budget (I went over by $10 or so, but really tried to shop deals and such). And, little known fact, when you move and set up a forwarding address through the USPS they will send you a package with a bunch of coupons to places like Lowe's, Overstock.com, wayfair.com, etc. We put these to good use to buy our coffee table. Also, Michaels.com is a great place to buy picture frames and if you sign up for their email list they always have coupons and discount codes. Ross was another place we frequented (luckily our small town has one); we got all three of our rugs from there for only $120.

Moving will always be one of the messiest bits of my life (and I think most peoples lives in general), but I am incredibly grateful that I have a home to live in and stuff to put inside of it. And I learned that I actually find joy in putting rooms together, finding matching decor, re-finishing furniture, etc.

So, the next time you find yourself moving to a new home: take a deep breath, unpack as soon as possible, and remember how incredibly blessed you are to have a place that you can call home.

Stay Messi,

Jessi

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