29DOC - FINISHED!!!!

Welcome to the end! The 29 Day Organizing Challenge is over! And I made it...mostly... :)

I must announce, though, that I guess I am no longer eligible for the official challenge contest. Due to our snow storm yesterday, and hubby having to work from home (and thus being on the computer from 8-5), I did not get my blog posted...and posting closed at 3pm yesterday.

I did not know this.

For other link-ups, she allowed about a week to get all posts in. I assumed (I know, bad Carrie) that she would do the same for this week.

She did not.

C'est la vie.

The point is that I got it done, right?????

The point of this challenge, ultimately, for me, was to give Hubby a Valentine's Day present of a clean bedroom. I have done so. Yay, me! So all those prizes (those beautiful...wonderful...I-will-never-buy-on-my-own prizes) don't really matter. At all. (They don't.) (Seriously.)

But! I am posting anyway. HA! :)

So here are my before and after pictures, as requested.

Behind The Door - now the door opens all the way!

Baker's Rack & Corner - I don't kill myself trying to get to the lamp in the dark anymore!

Under the Bed & Headboard - obviously a picture under the bed wouldn't work, so this is the "purge pile" that came from it, and a picture of the bookshelf-headboard which you can't see in it's entirety (and it was pretty clean to begin with).

My Side of the Bed & Bookcase - an empty bookcase, and the trash is now next to the bookshelf-headboard.

 Dresser & White Chair - the frog got to stay, and the laundry basket is now where the chair was.

 In Front of the Closet - this was the BIGGEST part of the room to clean; now a cohesive, organized space (in HUGE need of a nice circle rug).

That was the practical part of the exam. Here is the written:

Laura also had 7 questions for us to answer:

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

    I chose me and Hub's bedroom. I got the idea from Elizabeth at Ready. Set. Simplify. She chose the bedroom as a Valentine's gift for her husband, and I thought it was perfect (admission: total copy-cat). Our room is treated as a total after-thought. Neither of us go in there except to sleep and get dressed, and it's been our mutual, unspoken feeling of "well, let's get everything else done; we can wait." I thought...enough waiting. I also thought it would be nice for Hubby to get to his closet.

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

    I started late, so I knew that breaking it down into small pieces, and scheduling them out in the exact number of days I had left would be crucial. I made a list of how many spaces I had, and then put them into manageable groups to fit the 19 days I had left. And I did NOT plan to work on Sundays. That would be organizational suicide.

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

    That would have to be that the very first full week that I was in the challenge, early in the week, my stepdaughter announced to her guidance counselor at school her plans for suicide. Nothing happened the rest of that week.

    The next week, also early in the week, everyone in my family began to get the stomach flu. Nothing happened the rest of that week either.

    I overcame it by simply ceasing to care. Not in a bad way, but merely by deciding that several things - these things - were more important. I could catch up. And if not, so be it. It was already better than it had been. I forced myself not worry about it. (And at times, it was quite forceful.)

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

    Much of it was stuff that belonged elsewhere. Much of that "much" was Hubby's fencing stuff, which belongs in another room entirely (it already has a closet, it's just been a process to get it all located there). Some of it went into his top dresser drawer (because, honestly, there's some stuff we just can't decide about, and this is where he keeps his small trinket things). A LOT of it was clothes that got washed or hung up. A lot of it belonged on the first floor. And a lot got simply thrown away.

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

    It was a realization over the course of several days more than a moment. Usually I'll sort things and put them in bags, and then get disenchanted or distracted before dealing with those bags or piles. This time, almost every day, I dealt. with. them. Before I stopped working for the day, everything was delivered to where it needed to be. This was big-time, because it was a completed project - every day!

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

    As mentioned in #5, I dealt with everything that day, at that time. This boundary was necessary to not getting behind, and to keeping myself on track and motivated. If I'd gotten bogged down, I would've been sunk.

    Also, once I got a bunch of the junk out, I was able to see more of the pieces that I actually liked and wanted in there, and put them in prettier, more useful places.

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

    Hook up - gain some accountability somehow! Ultimately the only thing that can completely drive you is YOU, but knowing that I had people working on this with me - and encouraging me as I went! thank you, commenters! - and that I had a deadline, and a plan - and, I admit it, the potential for some sweet prizes - went MILES to keep me dedicated.

So, here it is, ladies and....well, probably mostly ladies. :) I confess: I did NOT finish the bookshelf. I didn't even start it. It's a monster, and with all that happened, I ran out of time. But I DID. NOT. FAIL. My bedroom - our bedroom - is light years away from where it started. It's peaceful. And inviting. And it was a gift, which I succeeded in delivering on.

Because I love my Hubby.

And that was the point.