Organizing Challenge: Study (FINAL REVEAL)

Y'all. It's DONE.

I almost can't believe I pushed through the whole month and actually completed the 29 Day Organizing Challenge. Don't get me wrong, I love to organize, but I tend to get a little ADD and move onto other projects before I can finish an entire room. So THANK YOU, OrgJunkie for giving me a little motivation in the form of prizes. It was apparently just what I needed to transform our study. And you know what? As much as it pains my super-competitive self to say this, even if I don't win, I really do feel like the finished product is totally worth all the time I put into it. There, I admitted it.

If you want to check out the weekly progress posts, you can find them here:

Week 1 | Week 2 | Week 3 | Week 4

Now onto the big reveal! For a more detailed explanation of the process, check out my challenge summary at the bottom of the post.

{BOOKSHELF}

We got rid of the stuff between the shelf and the wall, making it possible to move the shelf flush with the wall.

{WINDOW}

{DESK}

This picture stresses me out.

I finally found a new home for my Broadway prints! They used to live in the hallway, but it was time for a change. This is perfect.

{KIDS' ART AREA}

I love this photo collage here! I bought it awhile ago and never quite decided where to put it. Ta da!

 

This lamp used to be in our bedroom, but it works so much better here. I also moved the bulletin board to this wall (it was replaced by the collage on the other) and brought in a floor pillow. I sewed some fleece pillow cases to go with the room decor (I knew my fleece stash would come in handy!) and will probably sew a few more pillows soon.

1. What space did you decide to organize and why? I chose our study/office because it's at the front of our house and had become a dumping ground for "stuff" that didn't seem to belong anywhere else. I was tired of not having a desk to work at, and I was annoyed that the doors always had to be closed to hide our embarrassing mess.

2.  What steps did you take to ensure you completed the space within the 29 day timeline? I actually planned out the organizing process! I made lists and spread out the tasks over the entire month. That was SO helpful because it kept me from getting overwhelmed. The weekly check-ins helped also because it gave me some accountability to get something done each week.

3.  What was the hardest part of the challenge for you and how did you overcome it? Getting rid of books. I know that sounds silly, but I had to finally have a reality check as to which books we'd actually re-read or were worth keeping. Now that I have a Kindle, it should be a little easier to keep our overflow of books under control for the future, plus if I want to re-read a book I got rid of, I can always go to the library.

I also had a hard time staying focused! The more I worked in the study and saw how good it was looking, the more I wanted to organize other trouble spots in the house.

4. What did you do with the “stuff” you were able to purge out of your newly organized space? Honestly, a lot of the "stuff" went in the trash. I'm kicking myself now for not taking pictures of our purge piles, but I was on such a roll getting stuff out of the room that I totally forgot.

The exercise ball was deflated and put with our other exercise equipment in the garage. The toys went to the appropriate child's closet. I'm trying to sell some books and donating the others. The box of blankets got straightened up and put in our linen closet (what a novel idea). Avery's art table is being given away in our church's annual Garage Sale Giveaway this weekend.

5.  Tell me one of your proudest moments during this challenge? Coming up with a viable solution for Avery's "office." She loved having a whole table to work on, but it was just way too big for the space and she was taking over the entire room. I was really proud of myself for coming up with the idea to create a little nook for her in the corner, complete with pillows and a lap desk. She loves it!


6.  Explain any organizing “tools” you used to help you create additional space and to establish some limits and boundaries? We didn't have a lot of money to put into this room, so it took a lot of creativity and scavenging our own containers to find solutions to some of our clutter problems. The biggest tool we used to create space was to trade out the huge table for a lap desk. It cost a whopping $4 and created a much cleaner look in the room. It also fits perfectly in the bottom of Avery's art shelf.

I also bought three baskets at the Dollar Tree to keep our lesser used items on the very top of our wall shelves. Containers are the key to me being able to establish limits and boundaries. If an item doesn't fit into the basket where it belongs, it makes me rethink how necessary that item is.

And labels are my best friend! By putting them on everything I'm ensuring that the room doesn't start looking like the before pictures again.

7.  What is ONE piece of advice you’d give to someone else to encourage them on their organizational journey? Make a plan, get started and stay focused! Actually STARTING is so intimidating, but if you can just force yourself to take baby steps, you'll start to pick up momentum. Once you really get going, keep the end result in mind so you don't lose steam. It's also super helpful to make a list of things that still need to be done in a room. And lastly, you don't have to spend a lot of money to make a BIG change. Our entire room transformation cost $7.50.

I love that we have an actual workspace in our home again. I keep going in there just to look at it. That's pathetic, I know. Now it's time to focus on the next project: the master bedroom. My sewing corner is taking it over! It's time to rein it all in, so I'm gonna try and apply the method I used with our study, and hopefully we'll see similar results! Thanks for stopping by to see the finished product; happy organizing!