30 Day Organizational Challenge- THE END

I've FINISHED Org Junkie's (Laura) 30 Day Organizational Challenge!! I must say, I was TOTALLY nervous about this and afraid that I wouldn't complete the challenge on time. I did it... and I'm so proud of myself!

I chose to work on my front "office" room for this Challenge... mainly because it was the WORST room in our house. Originally when we moved in to this house, this room was designated the "book room." It was to hold all our books... AND my computer. That decision was made before The Kids came along. From the beginning, it never really moved out of "storage" or "unpacking" mode and since kids, it became a repository for all our things we didn't know what to do with... our junk! Most of the junk arrived in this room when The Girl was born and we lost our spare bedroom!

The BEFORE and AFTER tour (sorry, I couldn't figure out how to get them side-by-side)... this is the view you see when coming in the front door.
If you turn your head to the right, you will see my "office." I didn't do MUCH with this area, as it had been organized previously!A little more to the right and you see the kitchen entryway.
Then, there's our BIG bookshelves!
The entryway, we started at...
AND finally, to the right of the entryway...
We are SO HAPPY to have reclaimed this room as a "book/office" room!! :)

Now I would've LIKED a slipcover for our hideous hand-me down chair, but haven't yet succeeded. AND there are a few other "decorating" projects I would be glad to do/have done, but for now it's CLEAN and that's AWESOME!!

To help ease Laura's judging process, she's asked that I answer the following five questions:

1. What was the hardest part of the challenge for you and were you able to overcome it?

• There were so many HARD parts to this challenge: the massive amounts of stuff crammed into this room, the time limitations, The Kids, the distractions, the regular chores, and more! I think that the HARDEST part of this challenge was battling my own thoughts. The negative thoughts, as well as, the "hoarder" thoughts.
  
• I overcame the negative thoughts by purging them on my blog (I REALLY think this helped) AND continually reminding myself how nice it was going to be to actually use this room for it's intended purpose (I DEFINITELY kept returning to my "vision" for the room). Mr. Wonderful helped a lot with this, too, by continually reminding me HOW much I had done... and how good it was looking (or how much change he already saw... this "outside" perspective REALLY helped)!
  
• The "hoarder" thoughts are still there, but I helped battle those thoughts by starting with the "easy" junk... the books, the clothes... the objects that didn't have THAT much sentimental value to me or much use in this room OR our home. Once MOST of the "easy" clutter was removed, it made it easier to deal with the mementos... and it had put me in the right mindset for cleaning/purging. The mementos were a much harder task to deal with. I started with a VERY large bin (I'm not sure on the exact size of this, but I'm pretty sure it's the LARGEST made by Rubbermaid)... of items I've collected since High School and I whittled it down to two small boxes of keepsakes AND several binders of letters. There was a LARGE of amount of stuff in the bin that I had NO idea what it meant to me anymore! ...AND then there were all the silly things that I still know what they meant (for example, sugar packets that my summer "camp" buddies and I used to "steal" from restaurants and pretend to use as energy boosters in class), but there's not reason to keep that memento to remember (plus, that's a pretty GROSS thing [the sugar packets] to keep... a bug magnet, although I didn't find any thankfully)! It was a hard project, but I feel much happier now that I've tackled it!
  

2. Tell us what kind of changes/habits you have put into place in order for your area/room to maintain its new order?

• We are working on getting EVERYONE in the mindset of putting books away after reading, even The Girl who is 1. I figured out a solution for The Kids books. These baskets were sitting unused in The Boy's room, so I thought they would work nicely on the kid shelves! I think they will have an EASIER time putting books in a basket, rather than trying to fit them back on the shelf!
• Another change, is that I NOW have room for my photos (which still need some organizing) and old memory letters on the bookshelves! To be able to keep this up, Mr. Wonderful and I will have to continually evaluate our book situation. We ARE NOT getting more bookshelves (we have set our limit to ONLY current bookshelf space), and if we get more books... we will have to send some books out! I did join PaperBackSwap and am allowing us to have ONE box of books to exchange. This box is NOT full yet!!
• Most importantly, EVERYTHING comes into this room MUST have a place or it is banished! This room will never again be a storage room!!
  

3. What did you do with the “stuff” you were able to purge out of your newly organized space?

• I purged a TON of "stuff." On my sidebar I have a list of items that I've purged since the beginning of this challenge (TOTAL Items Purged is approximately 294)... boxes of items donated to Purple Heart: 2, books freecycled: 112, cassettes freecycled: 133, other items freecycled: 41, and bags of garbage: 6. Freecycle has been where most of my "stuff" has been outsourced, too! I LOVE Freecycle! I also have a pile of items awaiting donation pickup (5 large boxes, 3 smaller boxes, a bag of coats, and two chairs that were NOT yet included in my Purge list because they aren't OFFICIALLY out of my house yet)... sitting near my front door. They will NOT leave this spot until they are placed outside the door on their scheduled pickup date!
• I'll admit... that TWO small boxes of mementos were moved to another room. They just didn't fit in the newly organized space... and fit quite nicely in a new room!
• MOST of the items purged from this room have also been PURGED from the house (through Freecycle, donations, or trash)... making the whole house seem lighter! :)
  

4. Now that you have completed the challenge, do you think having and keeping your space organized will make a difference in your life?

• It will definitely make a difference in my life. I might actually invite friends over more often. I will no longer be embarrassed if an inspector, neighbor, or landlord stops by unannounced. Mr. Wonderful and I can actually USE this room to read and relax... instead of sitting in the family room watching TV! The Kids can now find books that have been hidden away for months... a whole new library for them to explore! I actually have a place to organize photos. My letters are no longer stuffed in a box... they are on the shelf and can be enjoyed when the mood hits! I can ACTUALLY consider opening up this room to be an option for meeting tutor clients. I can "play" at the computer without feeling suffocated by all the stuff in the room! :)
  

5. Why do you think you should win the challenge?

• I have already WON this challenge... I got my room and I'm already so much more relaxed! Coming in the front door is a whole new experience... I'm not immediately bombarded by the thoughts of ALL the things I NEED to clean/organize!
  
• I think in terms of "winning" the prize... well, I put in a LOT of time in this room to get it RIGHT and DECLUTTERED! I didn't keep track of actual time spent, but I would estimate a good 4-8 hours on weekends and 2-3 hours during the week.
  
• I think the change is QUITE noticeable both in the room and our habits! Not much clutter was transferred to OTHER rooms (only a few odds and ends... and the TWO small boxes I mentioned earlier)... MOST of the clutter was sent away!!
• I have overcome some MAJOR mental hurdles. I am a pack-rat... and I'm learning to deal with that urge. I am fighting my hoarding ways... I don't want to be OVERRUN by my stuff... it's suffocating. AND now that I've conquered my WORST room, I see how much better I feel without the "stuff" and how much nicer it is without it. I will now be more "picky" about which mementos I will keep... and which non-mementos can stay AND come into our house!
• We have used container limits (the bookshelves) to help combat future clutter problems.
• I tackled MOST of this project on my own. Mr. Wonderful helped TREMENDOUSLY on the weekends with entertaining the kids while I cleaned and he sorted "his" books, but otherwise, I was on my own. I don't really have any organizing freak friends who live nearby that I could call in to help... and those that are have young children that need to be watched, too!
  
• AND overall, I did have FUN with this challenge! I did get overwhelmed at times, but mostly I tried to enjoy the project... especially when I got to the hardest part of it! I let myself think back and remember the past and I used these "happy" thoughts to help push me through! :)

So, there you have it! The finished room and my thoughts on the whole challenge!

NOTE: To see the beginning, go here... for update #1, go here... for update #2, go here... AND for update #3, go here!

...AND to see other 30 Day Organizational Challenge participants, go here or here.