A Conundrum

Good morning. If you've read my last post, you'll remember that I am in the middle of an epic "Organize My Life" project. I'm happy to report that I have now reclaimed a second room from the chaos in my home: the bathroom! (My "daily use" bases are almost covered. :-D If I can get the kitchen under control soon I'll be on the downhill slope!) I'm even more pleased to confide that since I last wrote, my bedroom floor is still clear, the nightstands are uncluttered and the bed gets made every day. (For those unfamiliar with me, that is quite the streak of continuous tidiness. Kudos to Patrick for helping me keep it that way.)

While I continue to make slow, steady progress in sprucing up my home. I have reached a bit of a standstill with the yard. You see, I have a bit of a chicken or the egg style problem: there are so many things that need to be accomplished that I have no idea where to start. Once I'm done clearing out the debris and weeds, one of four things need to happen: Building a shed, putting in a fence, getting some kind of watering system (I'd love sprinklers but I can't afford to install them so I'm trying to figure out what else I can do with my one hose attachment), and creating a 'lasagna' style compost weed barrier (over pretty much the whole yard) to rehabilitate the soil. I have most of the stuff for the compost, but everything I've researched indicates that that should be one of the last steps of this whole process--that I ought to do any and all hardscaping first. But I really don't have the resources to do that right now...so what do I do?

Do any of you have experience with landscaping on a tight budget? Should I go ahead and just do what I can when I can--even though I might have to rip it back out later when I finally am able to put some other things in? Or should I postpone and save money to try to do it in the "proper order?" (This probably really isn't as a big of a deal as I'm making it, but I just feel stuck. I'm also mentally cursing myself for watching all those renovation shows where huge crews swoop in and totally fix up a space in two days...I feel like they ought to teach us how to do things in bits rather than all at once for a true DIY experience.)

Right now most of my yard stuff is strewn about the front porch--which is hazardous (and ugly)--or collecting cobwebs in the basement--which is a giant pain when I have to keep hauling them back outside and up and down stairs. (We tried once just leaving some of it in the back yard and my bike ended up getting stolen.) I would REALLY like to get all the outdoor stuff out of there so I can actually use my basement for storing things like baby clothes, crafting stuff, extra food, holiday decorations, etc. But I can't because I have nowhere to put things where they won't get stolen, so my house keeps getting more cluttered as we try to find places to put things! It's a vicious cycle...

I feel like a Dr. Seuss character: "She puzzled and puzzled, till her puzzler was sore..."

If any of you have advice, I'd be happy to hear it!