Challenge Comes to an End

It's been a busy month for the shortest month of the year. I committed to working on organizing my scrapbook room as part of Org Junkie's 29 Day Organizing Challenge. I had grand plans, but then had to become realistic when eleven days out of the month I had house guests from out of town. That also meant I had two weekends I was busy with friends and family and not free to spend the time working on my project.

There is still more I want to do but I am happy with my progress and the room has already proven to be usable in its current state. I now enjoy spending time in there and I may just put off another organizing effort in there to work on a scrapbooking spread first.

Here's the before and after of the progress made between Feb. 1st and Feb. 29th.

I began trying to organize my punches. The bin was a mess! I emptied the bin and organized the punches on my table.

Then I discovered that my plan for hanging these on a rod on the wall wasn't going to work! Most of my punches are Creative Memories makers. They don't have a lever to hook on the rod. I hit up Pinterest to figure out what others have done. Wouldn't you know that every idea I have pinned required my punches to have levers. So, the plan is now to put these in shallow drawers. But, that requires a trip to my favorite store, Container Store! That hasn't happened yet, so I neatly put the punches back into the bin (or as neatly as possible with items that don't stack well.)

Next I attacked my sticker album (I forgot to shoot the before of stickers in page protectors in an album). I purged away stickers I have been moving around for over ten years. I saved a few in the kid-friendly craft drawers, but most are purged for donations. I organized the stickers into themes based on what I predict I would be scrapbooking. That was much easier than I expected as I have purchased based on these same themes. I thought I was done and when I touched something else on a shelf, there were more stickers! So much for thinking I had all the like items together last time I moved, last year, or earlier this month when I emptied this room. This folder is too small for all of my stickers, but it works for now to keep the items organized.

Now for the overall before and afters of the room. First, from the doorway. The boxes are gone. Unpacked. The Cricut is set up, plugged in and ready for use. The wall decor is now hung on the walls instead of leaning against the wall in a pile. How nice to have everything put away and the creative inspirations on the wall!

From the closet door looking at the scrapbook table and t.v. table (random craft items underneath). The new desk is finally stocked and ready for a scrapping marathon!

The drawer unit next to the t.v. is full of kid-friendly craft supplies now. I found fifteen year old paint in there! I've been planning to make this the craft drawers for awhile and now it's done. I also need to find a shelf/box solution for the few books I have for visiting kids to read. For now they are all together with the kid craft supplies. The Cricut is set up next to the t.v. keeping the space occupied so it doesn't collect clutter and the Cricut is ready to be used!

Wow! The piles and boxes! Just getting the boxes out of there was an improvement. Now the boxes are empty and the shelves are a little more organized. The stamps are all together. Christmas stamps are in one box, all other stamps in the other bin and the Stampin' Up! stamps are neatly stacked. I will be continuing to work on better organizing the stamps, but for now they are all together (along with ink pads and other stamping supplies on two shelves.)

Part of Laura's challenge is for us to answer some questions on our experience.

In order to ease the judging process even more and to help me narrow down the much deserving winners I ask that participants complete a challenge summary by answering the following seven questions:

1. What space did you decide to organize and why?
My scrapbooking/craft room that also doubles as a second guest room.


2.  What steps did you take to ensure you completed the space within the 29 day timeline?
I started by looking at the calendar and setting mid-month deadlines for myself. This was driven by the fact that I had guests coming twice during the month and needed the mess to be contained within the room for the first guest and for the second visit, the room had to be functioning as a guest room! I also read through and referred to the PROCESS and tried to follow that although once I was on a roll, I didn't stop to refer back to the steps.



3.  What was the hardest part of the challenge for you and how did you overcome it?
My biggest challenge was getting motivated again once it had been presentable for my mother-in-law. This was time for the detailed organizing within the shelves. Unfortunately, I now knew what I needed to purchase for some of my solutions, but I hadn't budgeted the time or money to do so this month. That will be a next step to come. 


4. What did you do with the “stuff” you were able to purge out of your newly organized space?
Some items were ready for the trash bin. Others were added to the donation pile in the garage (headed for the donation station next week.) One of the after photos shows a few more stickers and punches headed to this bin. A few items were added to the kids' craft supplies.


5.  Tell me one of your proudest moments during this challenge?
I was proud to have the room presentable as a guest room in time for my mother-in-law to arrive. I was proud to have inspired my husband to clean out the closet and purge some of the bags. I was proud of myself when I walked into the room and smiled one day because it was clean, organized and there was inspiration radiating back at me from the walls.

6.  Explain any organizing “tools” you used to help you create additional space and to establish some limits and boundaries?
My random crafts are now limited to one bin and one bin/drawer. They are stacked together and that's it. My stamping is now limited to two shelves. I may expand this when I get some organizing products to better streamline this process but it's contained and limited now. Having my stickers organized means I will not "need" to run out for that sticker that I thought I had because now I can find what I have and make that work. My paper and scraps are organized in rainbow order and I can quickly grab the colors I need.

7.  What is ONE piece of advice you’d give to someone else to encourage them on their organizational journey?
Set a goal. Set a plan (whether it's steps or calendar driven). Keep going. Acknowledge when you get overwhelmed and then pick up five items and move forward. Stick to one project. Finish it. Reward yourself. Repeat. 

Thank you, Laura for the challenge! Thank you sponsors for making a challenge like this possible. I'm ready to keep the progress going, but I'm also ready to tackle the office!