The Grand Reveal!!

OK, I know you can't really tell how different this room feels from the photos, but believe me, I feel like I'm in a different house!! This definitely wasn't as easy as I thought it would be. A lot more went into it than you can even see in the photographs. First of all, I needed to find my long lost label maker, so I ended up going through boxes in the garage and organizing them (and creating a huge pile of things to give away, as well as a huge box of books to donate to the library.) I never found the label maker, but I did organize part of my garage! Then I decided to move the homemade curtains from the living room into the office/scrapbook room (instead of having a blanket hanging up!!) so I had to actually go and buy some curtains for the living room that actually fit the window, instead of the ones I moved that were too small. Things got moved around and sorted out through different rooms, so lots of things are better off because of this challenge. And, yeah - I can now walk in the office without tripping on everything, and now I will actually be able to scrapbook!!

So, here it is!!

Before

Let's start with the closet. This is a little closet, and part of it has to be used for clothes that don't fit in any of the other little closets in our house. I had the bill organizer on top of old computer boxes, and the sewing machine is haphazardly thrown in it's box. I have some mending to do, but always put it off because it's a pain to pull the sewing machine from the mess.

After

I tried not to spend very much money on this challenge, but these shelves are one thing I did buy. No more old computer boxes!! The sewing machine is now easily accessible - I do need to get a small container to hold thread, needles, etc. Also on the bottom shelf - a huge project that doesn't show. These are full of recipes that I have printed over the years. There are a lot of them. They are now organized into categories, so maybe I will actually use them now!

Before

Next, onto the desk area. This is kind of hard to show the before and after, because all of the furniture got shifted around. I like it the new way so much better! (Thanks to the suggestion of my husband!!)

After

The desk got cleared of all of the millions of papers. The top of the desk was cleared off, and I found proper places to put everything instead of on top where it wasn't so pretty! I can actually think when I work now!

Before

The last main area of the room is the scrapbooking table. I haven't done much on this table lately because I can never find the table!! That box in the picture? It was filled with bills/paperwork that needed to be gone through and filed/shredded. That is now done and that box doesn't exist anymore. I put things away as I do them now!

After

This is my favorite - I took a trip up to IKEA a few weeks ago and bought these shelves. My husband had a hard time putting them up (we are guessing that they must build things differently in Europe - it wouldn't line up with the studs in our walls. Josh had to do some extra things to get them to go into the wall properly.) I can now organize my supplies, and actually have the table to work on!! I also got some magazine organizers (they are the red flowery things) and I put my paper organizer in with the scrapbooking things. (Go figure!) I'm so excited to use this space now!! (Please ignore the boxes in the corner - those are all for my job, and I am awaiting my boss to come and pick them up.)

So overall, here are some extra before pictures:

And here are the extra after pictures:

I'm just so glad that I had the extra push to get this!

And onto the questions...

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

Actually getting in to do it was the hardest part. I kept walking into the room, prepared to purge, but it was so overwhelming that I would walk out and do something different. It took me a few days to actually even get started!! The way I overcame this was to move everything out. It was the only way I was going to be able to do anything. I had to start with a blank canvas. Everything except the desk was moved out, and only moved back into the room once it had a place.

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

It's so clean and organized now, I don't think it will be as easy to just throw things in. I think that was the problem before. I had a box of things to file, so when I was paying bills, I automatically threw them in the box instead of filing. Now that the box doesn't exist, things get filed right away. The shelves to keep the scrapbooking supplies organized will definitely help as well.

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

Ha! Most of it went in the garbage. I always knew I was a pack rat, but I didn't know it was that bad!! I had mixed tapes that were probably at least 10 years old in a drawer. I have no idea what I was keeping those for. I had to learn to let go with some things, but others were easy to get rid of. Good Will is getting a nice hefty pile as well.

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

Definitely!! I will now be able to work without the added stress of an unorganized room. And I have no excuse to not scrapbook now!!

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

Honestly, I don't know if I should. I've seen a few of the other entries, and some people did amazing things!! I think one thing that sets me apart is that a lot of this is "stuff" that I've been holding onto for years. We've only been in our house less than 2 years, but a lot of this stuff I've been moving around with me from house to house. I really learned to let go and figure out what was really actually important to me.

Now I've caught the bug, though. I may just have to do one room in my house every month until the whole thing is ultra organized!!