FINALE! 28 Day Organizing Challenge

Here they are, the before & afters of our attic space! After going up the stairs, the pictures go counter-clockwise around the room. Enjoy!



Stairway landing:





West gable end:

(Christmas decorations, memoribilia, out-of-season jackets, farmer's farm toys)

*notice the metal platform

South side:

(sewing supplies, crafts, home decor, some baby stuff, a few extra containers)

East gable end:

(kids' clothes) *another metal platform



North side:

(furniture, baby equipment)

There are 5 questions that need to be answered for this challenge:

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

I always start a project with gusto & then as the work keeps dragging on I oftentimes slack off & even quit, so that was the hard part for me! I did slow down, partly because of the latter but we also had sickness running through the house during the middle of the month. What a good excuse to slow down, right? But! I did finish! And now that I'm 35 weeks pregnant, AM I GLAD FOR THAT! =)

2. Tell us what kind of changes/habits you have put into place in order for your area/room to maintain its new order?

Seeing all the junk, the ridiculousness of it all hit me. What is this stuff really doing for me? Nothing but making me feel, on the inside, what all the clutter looks like on the outside. I'm determined to decide & purge right from the get-go when things need to be dealt with. And I want to start doing a better job of getting the boys involved in the decisions too.

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

Most of it went to our local donation center, 2 van loads to be exact. There was a minimal amount of trash. The biggest thing I discovered was that I had WAY too many storage containers! They took up a lot of space. Farmer wants to use some of the empty ones for his garage come spring & the rest...will find good homes with someone else!

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 had a nice dresser & hope chest that were made by family (did not want to part with!) but didn't have a home anywhere else at the moment, so I put them to use storing crafts & a few heirloom quilts I have. My dad was kind enough to humor me by making some metal platforms to go over top of some heating ducts so I could use the wasted space above them. However, these were made before this challenge but are a very important part of this organizing success.

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

Being a realistic girl, I know there are a lot of nicer, better organized, & prettier spaces than mine in this challenge that can win & that decision is for the judges & not me. I didn't enter this challenge to win a prize (although if I did, I would be ecstatic, ECSTATIC!). This WAS a challenge, something I needed to push myself out of my comfort zone & succeed at. I think I did; I'm excited that I accomplished what I did & I love to share that excitement. I'm not my own biggest fan so starting & actually finishing felt great.

If you want to see what this is all about, click on the Organizing Junkie button below & take a look! And thanks to Organizing Junkie & everyone involved for putting this together; it was fun!

February 2010

These pictures are pretty but please...NO MORE SNOW! =)

Week 4 update

Here are some last pictures of week 4:

Lots & lots of old papers!

Not much left...YES!

Another reason the attic seemed so cluttered was that I have A LOT of storage containers & they were not all full. Most of these containers have smaller containers stacked inside of them.

I will be posting the final before & after pictures tomorrow!

Catching Up

No, I haven't given up pr forgotten about posting about the organizing challenge; I'm just not quite with it! =)

After going through more stuff in the attic, I've realized what a great job I did about a year ago while getting things ready for a garage sale. There is actually a lot less than I thought there was. Yay! So I've been working more on deciding & trying out where things will go after I'm all done. So, there are no pictures!

This is the last week of the challenge so I do need to go through all the old papers/bills & get them organized (I'm procrastinating with that one!) then I need to get EVERYTHING back in place & nice and neat. I see the light at the end of the tunnel! =)

Me, me, me

We discussed chapter 2 of Francis Chan's Crazy Love in Sunday School today; there is so much to think about in this chapter.

"On the average day, we live caught up in ourselves. On the average day, we don't consider God very much. On the average day, we forget that our life truly is a vapor." Crazy Love, p. 39

"Both worry & stress reak of arrogance." p.42

"Why are we so quick to forget God? Who do we think we are? I find myself relearning this lesson often. Even though I glimpse God's holiness, I am still dumb enough to forget that life is all about God and not at all about me." p.42

"You could be the next person in your family to die. I could be the nest person at my church to die. We have to realize it. We have to believe it enough that it changes how we live. " p.50-51



This life is about me. The way I worry about whether Jif is a girl or not, the way I parent, the way I think my opinions are right, the way I drive, the way I treat my husband, the way he treats me, the way I get upset when snow ruins our plans, blah, blah, blah.

It hurts to see the truth, that we are just a vapor here on this planet, a mist that will lift & then be forgotten. It hurts to realize that I am so arrogant, my pride doesn't like it. But will it change the way I live? Frankly, I need to get over myself.

Week 2 update & Week 3 Plan

Week 2 threw me a curveball so I didn't get everything done that I wanted. I only have an after picture of the clothes part of the week....



Believe me when I say that before the sort, it would never have fit into this tiny closet. I also realized that I had already decimated my craft stash last year; all I needed to do was get rid of all the leftovers from last summer's garage sale! (I've had a garage sale almost every year for quite a few years but I've decided that with baby Jif coming, I just won't have the time or energy to do it again & the clutter just needs to be gone!)

I'd still like to go through all my home decor stuff & purge even more; having kids has limited my decorating & I've come to realize less really can look awesome.

Curveball #1 came in the form of a second round of snow midweek-which means Peter Pan was home from school & Farmer was out A LOT doing this:

I realize not everyone has the opportunity these days to have a good job or to make overtime but Farmer put in 54 extra hours of work in 8 days! He has to be up & at work sometimes by 4:00 am. Unfortunately right now, one of their 2 trucks is out of commission which makes everything take twice as long. And we are expecting more snow again this week. Ugh.

Curveball #2 came when Skippy woke up Thursday with a fever, so on Friday, I took him & Peter Pan to their doctors. Skippy has a bilateral ear infection & Peter Pan has infected adenoids with the possibilty of having to get them removed after the infection is cleared up. We knew Peter Pan had been having trouble with his hearing & now we know why! So both are on antibiotics for 10 days.

Curveball #3 is that I now have a sinus/head cold & don't feel like doing a whole lot.

Needless to say, it has not been a routine week & it's been hard for me to stay on track.

For week 3 I would like to finish with home decor & start on paper/old bills, personal mementos (you know, all that stuff you save from high school), old electronic equipment/current equipment boxes, etc. & all the baby equipment shoved back in the corner. Oohh, it's going to be a long week! I am also hoping to prime & paint the shelves Farmer made for baby Jif's room sometime too. I have a feeling all this won't happen but I'll give it my best shot!

I better get to work...

Week 2 Plan

Week 2 is here! This weekend I took a vanload of stuff to the donation center...it felt good, but I sometimes still fight the guilt of getting rid of something. "What if we need that?!" It's all good though. I also repainted baby Jif's room and I think this time it's just what I was looking for. I also ordered new fabric (on sale!) for curtains....so cute!

This week I will be focusing on CLOTHES, CRAFTS/HOME DECOR, & FURNITURE. There are a lot of off-season coats & jackets that need to be purged & I'm just going to have to get tough & slaughter my craft stash. Hope I can do it! =) I doubt there will be any furniture leaving, but there isn't a whole lot. (We'll see when I get up there & dig around though!)