28 Day Organizing Challenge the Finale

Well, here we the last day of the challenge hosted by Laura at Organizing Junkie and I'm so very nervous and excited to show you the transformation of my bedroom. When I first decided to take on the bedroom for the organizing challenge I really wondered if I would be able to stick to it and get it finished.  I'm happy to say once I got started it was pretty easy to keep plugging away at it little by little to get it done.  I am, however, glad that we had 28 days to complete our rooms.

Are you ready to see what the room looked like 28 days ago and what it looks like now?  Let's get to it then!

View from the door before

View from the door after

View towards closet before

View towards closet after

View from bed before

View from bed after

Closet before

Closet after

Well, what do you think? I am so pleased with how clean and organized everything is. I actually love tidying my bedroom in the mornings now and I can't wait to go in there and relax at the end of the day because it truly is a relaxing space now.

1. What was the hardest part of the challenge for you and were you able to overcome it? I think the hardest part for me was just getting started. Also when I emptied out the closet the huge mountain of stuff that I had to go through and determine if I wanted to keep it or if I could get rid of it - that was a daunting task for sure. Once the closet was complete (that was my first step in organizing the room) I was able to see I could do this and I would be able have the room of my dreams.

2. Tell us what kind of changes/habits you have put into place in order for your area/room to maintain its new order? I decluttered a lot from the room. That was the biggest change for sure. We had way too much stuff for the room.  I love my bedroom now and I'm no longer using it as a dumping ground for other items around the house.  I also have stopped buying things without a purpose. And I've started a dream journal for decorating the space.  I think that having an idea of where we want to take the room next will help me keep my bedroom clean and organized.

3. What did you do with the “stuff” you were able to purge out of your newly organized space? A lot of the stuff that I purged has been donated, sold or trashed. I had a full black garbage bag of shredding to do too! Who keeps that much stuff around that should be shredded?!? It was amazing seeing the amount of "stuff" we just kept holding on to and it was never used or even thought about. It was very liberating letting go of things we didn't use or love.

4. What creative storage solutions were you able to introduce in order to create additional space as well as establish some limits and boundaries? We installed a new closet organization system ($40.00) to help better utilize the space we had in there. We decided to put the baby's clothes in bins in the closet ($2.00 each) so that we could take the dresser out of the room and create more space and leave less space to "hide" things. We decluttered our dressers so that we can easily open and close the drawers.  That should help with getting our clothes put away and if we buy something we now know exactly what we have so we can decide if we really need it or not.

5. Why do you think you should win this challenge?


I think the before and after pictures speak for themselves.  The transformation of the bedroom is really amazing.  I am so proud of the work and the results.  I feel excited to start tackling other areas of our home so that all of our rooms can make me feel just as happy as our bedroom does. The rest of the house doesn't even come close to the state this room was in, but now having the experience of really being ruthless when it came to decluttering I feel like I can take that to other areas.  We really do have a lot of stuff that we really don't use and I know I have many things I don't love but just keep.  Thank you Laura for hosting this challenge and teaching me that it's really okay to let go of things. Things don't make us who we are.

28 Day Organizing Challenge the Finale

Organizing in the Bedroom Continued...

It's been a long week but at the same time a very quick week. Ever have weeks like that? I've been sick this week, not sure if it's just a run of the mill cold or the flu.  It hit me hard and fast which makes me lean towards the flu. Somehow I lost a day too.  I thought for sure today was Wednesday, but surprise it's Thursday! So that makes me feel like the week has flown by.  I haven't really done much work in the bedroom this week. I'm not quitting though. :)  I did take a little time Monday or Tuesday (can't remember now) and cleaned out the cedar chest in our bedroom.  Originally we bought it to store extra blankets and such, and maybe one day I can actually us it for that.

So here it is before crammed with a bunch of junk. Okay, it's not all junk.  There was a lot of the kids school papers and such in there, along with a set of dishes I haven't used in oh maybe 5 years. All of that stuff came out.  Papers will be sorted through and put into a Banker's box for each child.  That will be stored in their closets once I get to decluttering their bedrooms later in my "plan".  The dishes are going to consignment shop and I think just about everything else was donated or put into it's proper place.

Here it is after.  I decided for now to store all of our books in here. We're going to be building bedside stands (hopefully this spring or early summer) that will have plenty of room for both of us to have our books displayed, so I decluttered some but kept the ones we really love. Also kept extra wooden hangers, I didn't want to get rid of them because eventually we'll be moving to a bigger house and I will need them for guest's coats in the coat closet.  I also put little E's stuff in here that will be displayed on shelves once he get's his own bedroom.

This project didn't take more than 20-30 minutes I think.  It's amazing how we let things go and then it doesn't take very long to get it tidy and organized.  Too bad weight loss wasn't the same haha.

How are your organizing projects going? I haven't done too much this week, but I am planning on spending some time today working on decluttering and organizing dressers and the armoire. Should be do-able even though I am sick. :)

Organizing in the Bedroom Continued...

28 Day Organizing Challenge - Week One, The Closet

This weekend was devoted to getting the closet emptied and putting in a new organizer. When talking with Dh about how to go about getting the room organized we decided the best place to start would be the closet since so much needed to go in there (coats from the craft closet makeover, clothes, ect.).  So with his help I am now the proud owner of an organized closet.  You are not going to believe the difference in pictures.  I am so excited. It does make it easier to continue having the pictures to compare...I can do this!

Remember this picture? Where I couldn't even get to the closet...

All of that stuff is out of the room & the closet is revealed...oh yes it's bad.

And 24 hours later:

Can you believe the difference? I can hardly. The closet doors still need to go back up but they need some touch up paint first.  But holy wow! I am just amazed.  I really didn't think I was going to be able to do it when I had all the stuff out of there.  The mountain of stuff was huge!

Remember last week's picture when you walk in the room?

Here is the view today:

And the view from the bed last week:

The view from the bed today:

Still lots of work to do in there but it's coming along very nicely if I do say so myself. :)  Actually looking forward to going in the to go to bed tonight. That's a nice feeling.

28 Day Organizing Challenge - Week One, The Closet

28 Day Organizing Challenge in My Bedroom

I've known about this challenge for a couple of weeks now and I've tossed around the idea of joining. Two things were holding me back. First of all once you see the room you'll see it's going to be a huge commitment. Can I follow through? Or will I start and then freeze on it? Secondly I would have to take before pictures and share my embarrassing mess with all of you.  Admit I've got a dungeon - who likes to do that??  Well, I'm taking the plunge.  I'm joining the challenge and I hope by the end of the month I'll have a beautiful retreat to show you.

Before I get started on the great organizing mission I'm going to share the before shots *deep breath*

This is what you are greeted with when you walk in the bedroom. Not exactly the most welcoming retreat to walk into. 

And here we have the view from the bed. Best just to close your eyes and go right to sleep to avoid starring at the mess for too long.

And the view towards the closet. Lovely isn't it? I would have taken pictures of inside the closet but *ahem* I couldn't exactly get to the closet. Trust me, it isn't any better than the rest of the room though.

There you have it, in all it's glory - the mess from hell.  Now, in a little fairness some of this mess wasn't created until the great craft closet makeover. Everything from that closet was dumped into  my room and the leftover bins were also dumped in there. So it wasn't quite this bad a couple weeks ago - well, the closet was but not so much the rest of the room.

Just in case you've already forgotten - here it is again for you ;)

I hope to take pictures as I tackle this challenge and share some progress pictures with you. Now, don't flame me for my mess okay? Just hold my hand and tell me I can do this. Been there, done it? Have some tips for me? Have some ideas? Please share!

28 Day Organizing Challenge in My Bedroom