Whole Room Organizational Challenge Completed

Good grief - the time it took to load all these pictures took nearly as long as it took to clean the basement! LOL

As I stated in my other post, I've been working on two projects for Laura who writes at I'm An Organizing Junkie. This challenge was a month long. I chose to tackle my kitchen closet and the basement. This post in about the basement. To be honest, it is not as completed as I had hoped but MUCH progress was made and what IS left should not be a problem to deal with.

So, Laura's asked us to answer the following questions in our finale:

1. What was the hardest part of the challenge for you and were you able to overcome it?
Due to my ADD, I was completely overwhelmed by the whole task...thus, explaining how it got that way in the first place! So, the hardest thing was finding a way to dividing this up into manageable, smaller pieces without getting frustrated, discouraged, or distracted. Luckily, the basement is kinda divided into "zones": two finished rooms, one large unfinished space, and the laundry area. So, I tried to stick with one at a time.

2. Tell us what kind of changes/habits you have put into place in order for your area/room to maintain its new order?
Well, this challenge was more about what we will using the space for. The main motivator? The one room that was a guest room but will now become a homeschool classroom in the fall. The other motivator was it would be wonderful to actually USE my stuff now that I knew what I had and where it was located.

Our biggest problem (other than organizational! LOL) was that we hadn't really defined what we wanted for each space. Once the first room was designated at a classroom and the unfinished side was "storage", the second room's issue became how to organize what remained: boat materials, office stuff and teacher stuff. With these "use designations", we have "zones" now where stuff goes now so it'll be easier to keep it together.

3. What did you do with the "stuff" you were able to purge out of your newly organized space?
Good grief! The garbage men are absolutely HATING us at this point! LOL I've also been using Freecycle, Ebay, and Paperbookswap.com to clean out the majority of our unused, until-recently-unseen stuff.

4. What was the biggest lesson you learned from this experience?
Everything needs somewhere to go. And, everyone in this house needs to put away their "toys" when they are done with them! LOL

5. Now that you have completed the PROCESS, do you think having and keeping your space organized will make a difference in your life?
Most definitely. I'll be finishing up our new classroom over the summer and embarking on my (and Flicka's, of course) first experiment with homeschooling this fall! I'll also be able to practice more of the craft and home skills I've been learning now that I have the space to do so. This cost me no money, only time. And, as a result, I actually MADE money, got free books, and blessed several people in my community! Then, I can make more money and/or save our money by using those crafty skills even more.

Now, the unveiling:

The "guest room" before:


The guest room after:

The bed will be coming out of there next.

The unfinished storage area before:

And, then after:

Those remaining tubs and piles are things of Da Hubby's he needs to go through yet. And,that bookshelf has all my craft supplies now...all in one place and LABELED! Oooooo!

The second finished room before:

And, after:

Small Space Organizational Challenge Completed!

I've been working on two projects for Laura who writes at I'm An Organizing Junkie. This challenge was a month long. I chose to tackle my kitchen closet and the basement. This post in about the closet. When I complete the post about the basement later today, it'll be here.

So, Laura's asked us to answer the following questions in our finale:

1. What was the hardest part of the challenge for you and were you able to overcome it?
Well, honestly? For this one it was finding the time when the kids wouldn't be "helping". This closet contains a lot of cleaners and "kem-cals" as Flicka would say. I had the baskets. I had the labeler. It was just a matter of DOING it! LOL

2. Tell us what kind of changes/habits you have put into place in order for your area/room to maintain its new order? The biggest thing for this closet was instituting the "like with like" concept. Once I sorted everything, the mess immediately "looked" smaller. So, the trick will be to keep that up. I haven't thought ahead to what to do if something new comes in but doesn't fit the current categories of "plastic/tin foil", "light bulbs", "cleaning supplies", and "misc. supplies".

3. What did you do with the "stuff" you were able to purge out of your newly organized space?
For the most part, it was thrown out. This space has a kid-proof doorknob so often when toys are taken from the kiddos for a time out, this is where they end up. So, there were a few toys that needed to be "relocated" back to their rooms.

4. What was the biggest lesson you learned from this experience?
LOL - to quit just throwing stuff in here without thinking about where it goes because I don't have to "see" it. The biggest motivator for doing this closet is that it has our attic access door in the ceiling of it. So, I also needed a quick, easy way to move all this stuff when Da Hubby needed up there. Containerizing solved this problem perfectly!

5. Now that you have completed the PROCESS, do you think having and keeping your space organized will make a difference in your life?
I think it will maintain some marital bliss when Da Hubby can easily and quickly do what he needs to without me having to stop what I'm doing, clean off the kitchen table, and empty the closet every time he needs in the attic! My ability to unload the closet quickly means less time for him to get distracted and doing something else! *wink*

Now the unveiling! I actually have several pics: a before series, an after when I did it 2 weeks ago, and a today!

The before: the closet half empty and the other-half pile on the kitchen table:



The "first" after that day:



This morning:

30 Day Organizational Challenge Begins!

Today is the start of Laura’s 30-Day Organizational Challenge at I’m An Organizing Junkie. With the recent addition of some much-missed ADD meds, I have been on a LONG overdue organization challenge each day for the last 3 weeks! LOL

Basements are a big problem for me…out of sight out of mind I always say! *wink* When Da Hubby and I combined households in 2001, multiple boxes of mine went into that house’s basement. When we moved to this house in 2005, many of those boxes had never been opened. And, then, of course, they were simply placed in this basement where most still sit today.


Our current basement is probably 3 times the size as our previous one so the mess didn’t “seem” like a problem but it's just migrating everywhere. The basement is kind of sectioned off in quarters: one-quarter, laundry; another quarter, guest room; another quarter, storage, and the final quarter, a homeschooling/craft room. (And, yes, for those of you wondering...those ARE two canoes in my basement. If you have a boatbuilding significant other, you know how much it can overtake the garage, the basement, and any other space where a tool can be laid down! LOL) So our basement is my big project for this next 30 days.

Also, we have this funky closet in the kitchen. It’s not a pantry really – there’s enough cabinet space plus the closet contains the attic access thus access to the “earthy” smells that could emanate from an attic. LOL . So, we didn’t want a ton of cans, dry goods, etc. to move each time Da Hubby would have to crawl up into the “great beyond” of our attic.

Currently, that closet is where all our “leftover stuff’ accumulates…cleaning supplies, light bulbs, toys and gifts I’ve stashed awaiting the need for a reward for someone under three foot tall, washcloths and dish towels, etc. So, I need to first clean it out, determine what stays, and organize it in such a way that I can easily remove most of it when Da Hubby needs up in the attic. This is my small project. This pic actually shows it minus the "bottle return bag" and the "read newspaper bag" and a few other things.

Oddly enough,the rest of my house is really clean and relatively tidy! LOL

So, I’m off to link up on Laura’s Mr. Linky. Check out the sign-up page to see what else people are tackling this month and the wonderful prizes Laura’s offering.