Hello Everyone,
Wow, it has been an amazing 29 days.
The first day of February I started working
on the challenge put on by
I'm an
Organizing Junkie.
The challenge was
to pick one room in your house and organize it in 29 days.
Take before and after pictures to show the
progress.
I chose my front bedroom. This room started out as the office/storage
room. This room has always been the
place to hold financial papers and store the important things that just can’t
go in the basement. While I was
finishing my degree, it’s the place I did my homework. Over the past five years, it’s become the
place to drop anything and everything that doesn’t have a home. Reality is, it’s the place things got dropped
because I was too lazy to put the stuff away or find a home for it.
Here is the first before and after
picture. As you can see, I can’t even
get into the room.
I had to create a plan to tackle this
room. The first thing I did was read a
few websites on how to organize a space like this. The next thing was to plan what steps I needed
to have completed by the end of each weekend.
The next step was to head to the store and purchase some storage bins
for sorting.
The hardest part of this challenge was
purging all the clothes. I’m a serious
clothes collector with a huge yo-yo weight problem. So
that means I have clothes that range from size 8 to 20. When I started working on the clothes, I had
to realize that I was never going to get into the size 8 again. I took a long hard look at myself and decided
that I was never going to get smaller than a 14. Anything that was smaller than an XL was set in
the donate pile. Should I ever lose more
than 20 pounds; my reward will be to go clothes shopping. I was not able to purge the cedar chest. I really tried, but the tears wouldn’t stop
and so I figured I’m just not ready for that step.
I had four piles of purged stuff. One pile was professional clothes that went
to an organization that helps to outfit unemployed women for interviews. The second pile was everything else that was
still in good shape but just needed a new home.
I took games, puzzles, purses, Tupperware and casual clothes. One bucket was for stuff that needs to be
shredded. Every night, I spend about 15
minutes shredding until the machine is full.
I figure I will be done in another week.
The last pile was paper crafting stuff.
All of this was placed in the basement in the crafting area of the basement. This will be the next area to organize.
Here is a picture of the casual clothes. I had to make three different trips to
Deseret Industries.
The main thing I did to create space was
to put shelves in the closet. These
shelves help to hold a few things that I don’t want in the basement, such as
photos and special mementos. My son
welded some metal rods onto a plate to hold my thread. When just stacking them, they fell over. I used magazine holders for both the magazines
and to hold all of the past taxes and got rid of the bulky binders. I then used one bag and placed the rest of
the bags in it.
The best piece of advice I can give
anyone – If you are taking on a big project discuss what you are planning with
the whole family. I really thought that
this was Tammy taking on the house. It turned out to be Tammy taking on the
family and the house. Everything I was
ready to get rid of, husband and son wanted to keep.
I am very excited that I was able to finish my room. There is still plenty left to do. I didn’t complete the second area that was on
my list, but I feel like I got a really good start. I would love to hear what you think of my change.
I have just one word for your cards: stunning!!!
I'm inspired.
Hugs,
Gloria