It's Done and I'm Done-In

I can't believe I finished!  My kids are ecstatic - they're already planning on inviting all their friends over.  I had my doubts... it's been a wild month, and of course I got sick two weeks ago (gotta love Murphy!), not to mention I've been crazy busy.

Anyway, here we go - The Basement:

If you remember, the stairs were an accident waiting to happen:

I got those cleared off right away, but here's a new pic showing they're still clear:

Remember how you were greeted at the bottom of the stairs?  Kind of hard to take it all in, isn't it?

It was nuts!  Can I tell you how hard it was to post the before pictures? 

Are you ready for the after?  Are you sure?

My daughter has been skipping and jumping all over this room!!  "I can find everything, Mom!"  "Oh wow, I can't wait to start playing here!"  I had to beg her to wait until I had the pictures taken!  It's great to be able to see the floor - and to be able to vacuum it, too!

Okay then, Here's another one - this is the toy / dress-up area:

Kind of hard to play when every inch of the floor has junk on it.  Here's the new and improved:

The double bins contain dress-up / role-playing clothes (my 7yo daughter and 11yo son love to act-out the latest movie they've seen!)  The wheeled carts contain Barbies, Ponies, Pollys and a few accessories.  I'm so proud of my daughter - she was great at getting rid of things!  She gave up a play-vanity, a Dora Kitchen, a Dora House with lots of accessories, dress-up clothes she has outgrown, and even some games, just to mention a few things.  What struck me most was she didn't have to keep those things to remember the fun she had with them -- I want to be like her when I grow up!

Okay, next up we have the computer area before:

I have almost killed myself getting across the room to the computer - the obstacle course could have been included in the Olympics!  The desk in this area was not the best use of this space - so I moved it, um, okay, my hubby moved it and I kind-of pushed it a little bit.  I moved a small bookcase into it's place:

The bookcase holds a bin of Play-doh, a bin of Mr. Potato Heads, paper, coloring books, a bin of well-loved books suited to my 3yo and 6yo grandsons, and a bin of art supplies.  I also added a small table and chairs to play at.  The previous owners had this strange shelf on the wall, and though I'll probably remove it in the future, right now it holds foam alphabet squares that my grandkids like to play with.  The shelf is the perfect size, and by keeping them up high, I have more control over when they're played with.

Now the built-ins - before:

Now, I really wanted to paint these - and the room, too, for that matter.  But the aroma of paint in a closed up house was more than my suffering sinuses would bear.  I figure I'll paint them this summer when I can air out the house while the paint dries.  I'm a little disappointed, but I reminded myself that this was an organizing challenge, not a decorating one!

So here's the after:

Please ignore the awful paint job (thank-you previous owners!)  Here are some closer shots:

I don't think I would be exagerating if I said my kids had over 500 books!  And that doesn't include the books in their bedrooms!  We sorted through and pulled out the ones that were easy readers and the ones which just weren't up to 'pass down to your kids' standards.  The easy readers were boxed-up for the grandsons, and all the others were boxed up for a fundraiser at church.

And yes, that is the Encyclopedia Britannica, circa 1994.  I know kids today are computer savvy -- my son's favorite saying is "Let's Google it!"  But sometimes, just opening an encyclopedia can be a lot of fun -- you never know what you're going to find.  And it's also good for the old-age comments, because, you know, I was alive when the dinosaurs walked the earth!

There's a shelf full of Magic Tree House books for my daughter to start reading, courtesy of her brother.  Another shelf contains some science reference books, and the top shelf has Mad-Libs and joke books enjoyed by my son.

Rather than just lumping all the books together, I arranged them at different angles so the kids could see what was there.

The other shots show some games and puzzles, and Play-doh sets placed up high.  This keeps things out of reach from the grandsons, and my kids can still reach everything.

So where did the computer desk end up?  Well right here:

You know, my hubby is a trooper.  When I told him I wanted to move the computer desk, and that I needed his help, he had no idea that also meant he had to put in a new electrical outlet and a phone jack!  And then call our internet provider because the DSL wasn't working.

When the desk was moved, I also moved out approximately 15 cd-roms - mostly educational games my kids have outgrown.  Everything else was reorganized in the drawers.  I also cleared out the two previous modems and accompanying cables.  Why was I keeping them???

This post is getting long, not to mention I've got a deadline, so let's continue.  My reading/sitting area, before:

It's under here somewhere... oh, here it is:

And now, the after:

This is an homage to my early 'country' decorating days.  I still love this vignette, and I'll probably live with it for a while longer.  And don't you love my $5.00 garage sale chair?  I have plans for her!

And finally, the corner next to the stairs:  Wait, I didn't take a before picture (I couldn't get around the stuff!)  There was an antique dresser here, piled with junk.  We moved it upstairs - it will have a more fitting home in the guest bedroom. 

Now here is where the treadmill resides, and I moved a bookcase next to it.  It's missing a shelf (I didn't get enough of those peg things).  Here is where I have some board books for the 18 mo-old grandson, a couple of file boxes containing files I refer to often, and some more encyclopedia-type books for the grandsons.  I don't know what I'll put on the other shelf -- maybe I'll leave it bare!

One other thing - did you notice my new futon?  Me neither.  The one I had my eye on was no longer available, so I'm still searching.

Okay, now for the answers to the questions Laura posed.

1. What was the hardest part of the challenge for you and were you able to overcome it?   The hardest part was being overwhelmed with all the stuff!!  I would work at it, but it didn't look like I accomplished anything.  And I would quit.  But then I would remind myself that I was being held accountable (and I said I wasn't a loser and I didn't want to be.)  And I knew others were rooting for me.  So I just kept plugging away.  It's amazing what a little cleared space can do, as it got bigger I was more confident that I would succeed.  

2. Tell us what kind of changes/habits you have put into place in order for your area/room to maintain its new order?  Nothing goes into the basement unless it already has a home.  It was easy to use the basement as a 'stash and dash', but after dealing with all that stuff, I really just don't want to be back there again.  And because everything has a home, it's easy to make sure it's put back.

3. What did you do with the “stuff” you were able to purge out of your newly organized space?  My daughter is giving the vanity to her grandma for when her younger cousins come to visit.  The Dora Kitchen and Dora House will go on Craigslist with my daughter pocketing the cash!  A few items were put aside for the grandsons -- they will be visiting soon, and I'll ask their parents if they are interested in any of it.  What they don't take will be sent to the Goodwill.  Clothes were sorted and sent to the local food pantry for their kids closet, everything else went to Goodwill.  Books to church for a fundraiser.  And a lot of items ended up in either the recycling bin or trash bin.

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 think using bins sized for the item stored and limiting the amount of bins used creates the boundaries.  For example, when the role-playing bins won't close, we'll know it's time to weed somethings out.  Also, keeping things stored up higher means the grandsons can't grab everything and dump it all over.  Finally, I did not make one purchase for storage -- I used bins we already had - I even had some leftover when I was done.

5. Why do you think you should win this challenge?  I think I should win because I am an example that you're never to old to make changes that can impact your life for the better.  I'm 51 and have lived most of my life in a mess.  And I still have other messes which need attention.  But now that I have taken these baby steps and was successful, I know that I can conquer what still needs to be done.  And more importantly, I'm teaching my children the PROCESS, too!