Before and After

Wow, glad this month is up, was a tough one, the challenge was more work than I thought. And although I'm not 100% finished my initial list, I'm very pleased with my progress. For comparison, here is before:

and after.

And for fun, the purge piles:

My room is now functional, i.e. we are able to work, file papers, and I can find my craft supplies. Plus, I now have a fun corner for me to plan projects and read! I will probably a few nice things for it (I worked more on the function than the aesthetics), but for now, no money was spent on the room. I just reused things I already had. But I did manage to add some pretty. So all in all, a room that makes me much happier than before.

Challenge Questions:

1. What space did you decide to organize and why?

My office/craft room. It was not functional and it was stressing me out. Plus costing us money, as we were duplicating a lot of purchases due to stuff being lost in the pit.

2. What steps did you take to ensure you completed the space within the 29 day timeline?

The main thing was to keep plugging away. I tried to do a bit every day. I knew that if I stopped I would never get through it. I wasn't overly concerned with the timeline, I knew that I just had to work through the piles, and if it took longer than the 29 days, well that was okay too, as long as I moved forward. However, having the link-ups was a help, as I did want to make sure there was a good difference between my pics. Accountability is great!

3. What was the hardest part of the challenge for you and how did you overcome it?

Two things. Firstly, accepting that I will never be able to use all the craft supplies I have. On some cross-stitch boards they refer to it as SABLE (stash acquired beyond life expectancy). So I had to pick my favourites. I didn't purge enough, will have to do another pass on it. Hard to give up some things that didn't make the cut. However, I did look at all the nice stuff I have, and know that now I can find the things I want when I'm ready to stitch.

Secondly, realizing all the money that I spent on STUFF. Very frustrating, I want it back! I will try to sell some things on e-bay. But I know that that money is gone, all I can do is not waste any more. We use the concept of sunk costs a lot at work, so by looking at it that way it makes it a bit easier.

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

Some of the stuff has left, but most of it is still waiting. As I sorted and purged, I realized that if at the same time I had to sort through for different charities etc., I would get bogged down and stop. I needed to only have to decide between keep and go. So I made an all-inclusive out-the-door pile. My challenge for March is to sort through and get it out-the-door. However, I did have over 15 bags of garbage and recycling which are out the door. I found an awful lot of boxes/bins/baskets that I didn't need. However, I will hang on to these for a while as I have a few other messes to tackle. Once that's done, I'll get rid of the extra containers. They do come in handy during the sort.

5. Tell me one of your proudest moments during this challenge?

When the closet was mostly set up. It made me happy to have one pretty section, even if there was a tonne of work left to do. Whenever I would get stuck, I would just go look at it and smile. Now I know that everything is there, no overflow. There is still work to do here to make it more functional (sorting threads, etc) but just knowing that I have contained my crafts to this area is a good thing. Especially looking at my purge pile!

6. Explain any organizing “tools” you used to help you create additional space and to establish some limits and boundaries?

I put one of the desks in the closet. It was exactly the right width. This gives me a surface to hold the paper cutter, which because of the danger is a tough thing to store. I can also store bins underneath. I made a little wrapping station to go on the top. I was pleased that I had exactly the right size bin to hold all of my gift bags. The plan was to contain all of my cross stitch stuff into 6 bins, one drawer, and one file organizer. I didn't quite down that far, and have an overflow bin for the moment. But this is my target - I need to finish more things then I buy to get everything to fit into the drawers. I got all of the other supplies to fit in their assigned limits, e.g. one drawer for yarn, 1 for beading etc.

7. What is ONE piece of advice you’d give to someone else to encourage them on their organizational journey?

The most important thing is to find out what keeps you motivated. There is no one-size-fits-all solution. I had a different strategy in the beginning of the project, where I was going to sort everything first and then put things away. But I discovered that having my closet all set up and organized was a great motivator for me. I liked looking at the once nice space and it helped me to keep going when I wanted to quit. As mentioned, I needed to get things sorted, but not necessarily out the door. Some people may need to do things differently, no wrong method as long as you keep moving forward.