28-Day Organizing Challenge Final Wrap-Up--It's Finished!!!

Wow, I cannot believe what a month I've had! I have finally made it to the end of the 28-Day Organizing Challenge hosted by Organizing Junkie, and I am so happy with my results. Actually, I feel more inspired than anything else....I'm ready to do the rest of my house now! :o)

I want to say thanks to all of my friends out there who have encouraged me along the way....I love you guys!!! Y'all just cheered me on the whole time, even when I felt so very, very embarrassed that my craft room was probably the junkiest room in the whole world. So, from the bottom of my heart....thank y'all so much!

I'm gonna share some before and after pics with you as well as some Q & A about the challenge to let you see and read my progress over the past month. The pictures start from the viewpoint from the hallway looking in, then once you step into the room, moving clockwise.

(You can click on the picture itself to enlarge it.)

View from Door Before:

View from Door After:

My jewelry desk, chest of drawers, and the floor Before:

My jewelry desk, chest of drawers, and the floor After:

View of My Sewing Desk and Computer Desk Before:

View of My Sewing Desk and Computer Desk After:

View of the Bookcases Before:

View of the Bookcases After:

View of the Closet Before:

View of the Closet After:

1. What was the hardest part of the challenge for you and were you able to overcome it?

The hardest part for me, I think, was finding a place to start the work. I literally had zero floor space when the month began, and I just had to find a way to get in there to get started. Once I got the floor taken care of, then it was easy to tackle the individual parts of the room that needed work.

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 have already set a number of goals for myself now that this room is organized. The first one is that I won't start a number of different projects in there, but rather, try to do each one from start to finish. With my jewelry making, this won't be difficult at all because those projects are the quickest. The hard part will come with the sewing and cross-stitching (I have a very great tendency to start projects there without finishing them.....i.e. the quilt top that finally got finished this month, which was another one of my goals for the room).

The next goal (which will be even harder) is not to acquire so many books. I have got to do better about reading more than what I get....which is really gonna take some strong willpower on my part!!! I also plan to gradually dwindle down the excess books that I have available to post on the swap sites that I'm on (PBS, BookMooch, and Swaptree). So far, that is working really well for me because I've gotten rid of LOTS of books in the past couple of weeks by donating the ones that I've had for months either to the hospital, my church library, or to Goodwill. Eventually, I want to wean myself down to using just one swapping website so that I'm having more going out than coming in. And besides that, to save some money on postage...it racks up after awhile.

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

Wow, there was a LOT of stuff that was tossed out of my room. Let's see....6 overflowing bags of garbage, 18 boxes that were emptied and sorted through appropriately, a huge pile of stuff that went to Goodwill (should've taken a pic of that before all of it left), and a grand total of 107 books and 12 CDs that either were swapped, or donated to the hospital, my church library, or Goodwill. A lot of the stuff that was in my closet had been tossed in there right after we moved into this house almost 2 years ago. I had just been putting off the unpacking for months and months and months. Now that it's all unpacked and either tossed out or kept, I feel so much better knowing that when we move next time around, I'll have less stuff to take with me! :o)

4. What creative storage solutions were you able to introduce in order to create additional space as well as establish some limits and boundaries?

I don't know if you'd call any of the storage solutions I used "creative," but they certainly are functional. I had probably 6-8 empty Rubbermaid totes that were just begging to be used for this challenge. Thankfully, I didn't have to sort through those before using them!! :o) 5 of them were all the same size, and each one now has a purpose and a maximum amount of stuff it can hold. I'm determined to not let them overflow so that I need to buy anymore! I did have to buy one extra container for the challenge because I was looking for one that needed to fit a certain amount of space as well as have the storage space that I needed....that one only set me back about $7.

The only other thing that I had to purchase were some magazine files for my craft bookshelf. I was able to go through the craft magazines and booklets that I have, and sort them into the files by craft (cross-stitch, jewelry, sewing, etc.). Those were available at Office Depot in a package of 6 for $12.99.

All in all....I'm out $20 bucks, but my peace of mind is a bit more intact knowing that my whole space is much more organized and functional!

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

Honestly, I wasn't even trying to win the challenge when I signed up for it. I knew that I had a serious problem in my craft room, and my goal was to simply get it under control. Now that I've accomplished that, I feel like a clean room is the biggest prize of all. I can walk in there freely now without have to step over or on top of things. I have a space that I can work in and let my creative juices flow....I am so excited to get in there and make something now! :o)