Domestic Geek

Wondering where I've been lately? As you may recall, a little less than 3 weeks ago, I posted that I was going to participate in the 30 Day Organizational Challenge over at I'm an Organizing Junkie!. Well, as per my usual Queen of Procrastination™ fashion, the contest officially ends in a little over an hour, but I can proudly say I am done! Well, there are always things that can still be tweaked and I have a little bit of work to do on my shelves yet, but the majority of the crap is gone and I have room to breathe and be creative! Thanks so much, Laura, for putting this challenge out there and giving me that little incentive and boost I needed to finally have my craft room.

If you'd like to see the full set of before and after pictures, head over to my Organizational Challenge Photo Gallery.

The biggest problem I had with the room was my desk. It was a cheap piece of junk that I picked up at Office Depot a while back. I've hated it since the day I brought it home. Marcus offered to get me the stuff I needed to make a desk. What an awesome guy I have! We procured a file cabinet (that was a fiasco story for another day) and a countertop. It took me over a week to get the countertop finished. I had to put endcaps on it. I've still got to put the laminate repair stuff on the edges to cover the chips, but I'm really happy with it so far. It is the perfect height for me to work, plus there is now room for the 2nd monitor that I wanted to use. I also have room to get out my Wacom tablet when I'm in the mood to do some computer graphics. It's currently being stored in the drawer under the 2nd monitor for easy access. I was going to toss that monitor riser and I'm sure glad I didn't. I'm really pleased.



To make room for the desk, I decided to move the bookcase into the closet. Since I mainly keep books and magazines on it, they don't really need to be out in the main room. I also purchased some plastic organizers that were coincidentally on sale at Target last week. Yay for sales! I'd like to get some more totes for the rest of the stuff in this closet as finances allow. At least I have a path and can get to anything I need. I threw out a lot of crafts I will never finish. It made me a little sad, but I'm glad they're gone.



In place of the book case, I decided to get more shelves. I was really torn about how to do these and I wanted to spend as little money as possible. Except for the melanine edging that I still need to put on the top two shelves, these are working out great, too! I'll finally have some place to put some of my Star Trek memorabilia. It's been in boxes for years because I had no where cool to put them.


Can you believe I haven't seen this carpet since I painted the craft room right after we moved back to Aurora? That's been 4 or 5 YEARS! Look, no socks, either!



This is the worst surface because it catches all the junk as you come into the room. I even had stuff sitting here from when I was unemployed back in July. That's how long it's been since I organized anything here. I had my old work bag sitting in front of this, too. It had all the work and notes I did at the place that let me go in July. Let me tell you, nothing felt so good as chucking all that stuff. Anyway, I bought a small 3-drawer organizer to use here to keep those small tools like needle nose pliers, tape, etc. that I always seem to need but never have handy.



This is what I'm most excited about. Marcus and our friend, Dave, bought me this great drawing table for Christmas many years ago. Unfortunately, it hasn't seen much drawing because it's always piled high with stuff that is not supposed to be there. Yay, I can finally open up the window this summer and sketch like I've always dreamed of doing!



Look, I have room to work on my WORKbench. What a novel concept! I love how I had set this up because I have under counter lighting and a convenient power strip. It was never usable because of all the crap sitting here. Most of it was projects I couldn't decide if I wanted to ever finish. Well, I decided. Most of them are on their way to the dump.


Here's the answers to the questions about the challenge posed by Laura:

1. What was the hardest part of the challenge for you and were you able to overcome it?
   The hardest part was actually getting started. I had all of this negative self-talk going in my head that there was no point in trying since I started late and I could never finish by the deadline, so why try? I finally kicked myself in the butt the other day when I realized it didn't really matter if I finished it before the deadline, it needed to be done and I owed it to Marcus for all he did to help me get the desk situation resolved. I also had a couple of friends who read this blog that kept asking how it was going, so I felt like I would be letting them down if I simple gave up. I also almost quit when I made a bigger mess than I had when I started. Fortunately, I worked through it.
2. Tell us what kind of changes/habits you have put into place in order for your area/room to maintain its new order?
   First, no socks or dishes back here anymore! Second, if it doesn't belong back here, it won't get stashed here. Third, when I'm through using something, it'll get put away. No more years' worth of projects out on every surface.
3. What did you do with the "stuff" you were able to purge out of your newly organized space?
   The majority of it was trashed. There are some things that I will be taking to Goodwill on Saturday. Everything that didn't belong back here is in the process of finding it's home.
4. What was the biggest lesson you learned from this experience?
   No matter how overwhelming the task seems, just start. You might be a little surprised at what you can accomplish in a relatively short period of time!
5. Now that you have completed the PROCESS, do you think having and keeping your space organized will make a difference in your life?
   Well, the process is never really done now, is it? It's definitely going to make a difference in my life having this room organized. All that clutter was keeping me from being creative, which was the goal of this room in the first place. I can't wait to tackle the rest of my clutter!

So, there it is! I did it! Of course, I'm going to pay the price at work tomorrow, but I'm so proud of myself I could burst! Thanks again to Laura at I'm an Organizing Junkie! for hosting this challenge and to Marcus for helping me. I can't wait to be creative again!

As a little side note, I really loved the quote Laura wrote in the post that stated what the final steps for the challenge would be:

Getting organized means freeing up time and money to spend on the things that really matter.....spirituality, emotional well being, physical health and loving relationships.

It's so true.