Reclaimied: Dinning Room

The great thing about the question posed by Reclaiming The Home (Ravelry group):

"How did you reclaim your home today?"

is that it is so FREEING! I am so encouraged! I can reclaim something as big as a level in the house or a room in the house or something as small as the top of the refrigerator or a drawer in the kitchen. Just reclaiming something so small can make you feel so GOOD!

And the freeing part is that I can choose what I want to reclaim and who cares if it is just the pen drawer in my desk! :) I reclaimed it and it is now nice and neat and pretty to look at. IT MAKES ME FEEL GOOD and it encourages me to do more.

Remembering that this can be small REALLY helps me. I started off just wanting to reclaim the dining room table. Our dining room is part of a great room (minus the kitchen). I have always felt that BOTH rooms HAD to be cleaned at the same time. But remembering that reclaiming can be small, I was able to do just the dining room and make it look so NICE AND PRETTY!!

I use a quilt rack to hang our tablecloths on. It is a fun way to display them, know what I have AND a great way to keep the wrinkles out!! :) Since we have two dining tables, I took all the ones that did not fit the dining room table and EE folded those and put those in the bench of the other table in the kitchen. Then we cleaned off the floor and vacuumed it. (It had never occurred to me I could vacuum just one room - I know, silly me.) I took everything that did not belong in the dining room and put it where it belonged. I am no longer going to use the dining room for storage! YEAH!!

Then EE (and AA offered to help her) made the table, picking a table cloth from the quilt rack, some placemats (fabric) and some napkins (fabric). EE placed the placemats and AA folded the napkins in a pretty style and placed them near each placemat. IT LOOKS SO PRETTY AND ELEGANT!! Now I just need to put some candles in the center and we are ready to go!

The dining room is part of EE's zone and she is responsible for cleaning it up and keeping it clean (a very overwhelming and sometimes neglected task). Working with her today and encouraging her (and not having it be a storage area for her anymore) really encouraged her today! She is able to clearly see what needs to be done and will have a much easier time keeping a reclaimed area clean!! :)