Saturday, May 12, 2007

Final 30 Day Organization Challenge Post

We are down to the wire and I'm sure everyone is excited to see who is going to win the big contest! I know I am, this has been fun and no matter who wins we all are winners as we have these newly organized spaces and rooms in our homes to enjoy! Now to answer the five questions, I feel like I am back in boarding school getting ready for the big test! lol!



1. The hardest part for me was actually getting started! I was so overwhelmed with the mess ahead of me that I almost didn't do it. We're talking about three years of accumulation since we built my sewing room. What helped me overcome it was the excitement and support from all of the others that decided to take the challenge. It was contagious and it gave me the courage to dive in!


2. The habits I have put in order to maintain my new order are 1. to put things away immediately after I am finished using them and not allowing a build up of clutter. 2. not to hang onto things that I know I will never use again. For example when sewing, I have little scraps that are not big enough for any future project so now they go into the trash! Why hang onto this stuff that takes up precious room when you know it is useless.


3. What did I do with stuff purged? I gave away things that were still usable, for example we have a group of home schoolers that meet at our church every Thursday and I gave them a huge bag of fabric that was still perfectly good but the colors just weren't what I would ever use again. I felt they could use it to practise on. I also threw out 6 bags of stuff that wasn't any good for anything. Why do we keep a gazillion boxes? That is what the TRASH MAN is for!!


4. The biggest lesson I learned was not to be a pack rat. Now before I put something on my newly organized shelves I ask myself 1. will I use this? 2. when will I use it? 3. is it really something that I want taking up my space? STOP AND THINK that is my motto now!


5. How has this made a difference in my life? I find that I am much more productive in my sewing now that everything is where it's supposed to be and I am not spending time hunting for things all of the time. It also has made me want to have the rest of my home as organized as this room is and I am working on that. It also has made me think of my own life and the 'clutter' that I need to get rid of. Just one example is wasting time watching too much television when I could be using that time doing something much more productive. It's all a matter of organizing my time in a manner that is goal oriented. Once I set the goal of meeting the Challenge and accomlished it I felt I could go on to other things and succeed!

Now for the 'Before' pictures: BOO!!!!!HISS!!!!!!!








NOW THE 'AFTER' PICTURES! Drum roll!!!!!!!!!!





Thanks Laura for hosting this wonderful challenge!!!!!!!

21 comments:

Beth/Mom2TwoVikings said...

W.O.W! That is anamzing transformation! Well done!

Heather said...

You did a great job on your sewing room. I was excited (and near giddy) to scroll down to see the "after" pictures.

Anonymous said...

Awesome!! You really did a lovely job. Very impressive. You should really be happy with yourself.

I haven't posted my final pictures yet but hope to in the next couple of hours.
Stacy

Carole Burant said...

You really did an excellent job of organizing all your work spaces! You deserve to win the prize:-) xox

Anonymous said...

I love it! What a lot of work you did. Have a great time in your new and improved craft room.

Susie said...

I haven't see the other bloggers who participated, but I think the transformation is amazing!!
I do envy you that beautiful sewing room!!
:)

Marcia Francois said...

WOW - that is amazing. I love the colour co-ordination too.

How long has it been like this?

BarnGoddess said...

amazing job! that is a complete makeover. The Before/After pics tell a BIG story.

you motivated me to clean and organize my walk in closet.

Thanks! it looks so much better

Debi said...

WoW! Amazing...simply amazing! It looks absolutely fabulous! Bet you have a hard time staying out of there now, huh?

KC said...

WOW you did a great job.. Want to come over and do my whole house?? ;P

Thank you for the comment on my blog about the kids.. I think I'll keep them, there pretty good most of the time :)

Sometime tonight I'm going to be posting my Day #4 of our spring vacation post.. so I better get back to typing it out..

Since I'm not sure when you are leaving for Florida, I'll say it now.. have a safe, fun and wonderful trip.

Karen said...

HA! I love how the cat found your nice clean table and claimed it as his own. That is so "cat." :)

Joan said...

The before and after photos speak volumes about the work you put into this challenge. You are definitely a winner no matter what happens with the contest!!!

Barb Szyszkiewicz said...

WOW--your room looks great! I bet you'll enjoy lots of time sewing in such a lovely space.

palmtreefanatic said...

wow! that is ALOT of hard work and fabulous job!!! You go girl!

Robin said...

Congratulations on completing the challenge. You have a great space and did a fantastic job of cleaning and organizing it. Well done!

KC said...

Thanks for the comment.. I can't wait to see T's nails. I bet they are just adorable. little flowers sound so darn cute. Sweet Pea would love to have something like that done and she has nice long nails to do it, Princess from as long as I can remember, bites her nails no matter how much reminding I do to get her fingers out of her mouth.. so where she would love something like that there is nothing there to paint.

I know your leaving in the morning so you don't have time to post anything new anyways..
BUT if you are wanting to all you have to do is make the Organization challenge post a sticky post, meaning it will stay at the top of your blog and all new post will be below it by going to Edit post, click on this post when it comes up go to the bottom of that page and at the bottom left you will see Post opptions, click on that and to make it a sticky post just change the date until the last day you want this post to be at the top of the page like say you want this post to be at the top until next saturday just in the date spot type in 5/12/07 and then publish your post and it will be at the top until the 12th.

I know with Vacation you might not have time to do any new post anyways.. but now you know how to do a sticky post.

Have a wonderful trip I can't wait to hear all about it and see pictures..
tonight or tomorrow morning I'll be getting Day #5 of our trip up and ready to view. Then there won't be anymore until next week because i'm going away for the weekend and won't have internet.
So take care and enjoy those memory making moments with your grandkids.

Anonymous said...

AMAZING! That looks great. Grouping by color makes it looks so neat and tidy!

You must have put in a whole lot of effort, I am sure. It was worth it, as it looks extremely functional and usable.

Marcia Francois said...

Back again to say I LOVE that pink tote bag hanging on the hook. Did you make it in this beautiful room?

Rising Rainbow said...

Wow, your before pictures look like my sewing room, only mine is worse........even more cluttered. I hardly even go in there anymore it's so scary. Guess I need to get motiviated and organize, organize, organize. If I could just get myself out of the barn.....

Musings of a Housewife said...

That's AMAZING! Good job!

Jenny said...

Just beautiful! I could go SHOPPING in your sewing room. Would help if I could sew, but that's not the point :) You did an AWESOME job!!