Wednesday, February 1, 2012

Org Junkie’s 29 Day Organizational Challenge Begins

Warning:
If the show hoarders scares you and  leaves you in tears due to the conditions of those people's homes, this is not the post for you.  This  post will show pictures of an overcrowded disorganized room.


What could be lurking behind closed doors? Didn't I just clean up this room less than a year ago? (Yes) Is disorganization hereditary?  Is there any hope?




Hello, my name is The Absentminded Mother.  I am a recently laid off mother of two.  I have a daughter who is 8 and a son age 4.  I grew up with working parents, sometimes working 3 jobs at a time to put 3 girls through Catholic school.  Our house wasn't visited very often and we didn't have a regular cleaning schedule or chores.  The summer before my freshman year we moved out of a 4 bedroom 1800's 2 story home and into a 5 bedroom ranch home built in the 60's.  We had so much stuff to move I remember that we left a lot of this behind.  After I left for college and my older sisters had moved out my parents house has really gotten out of hand.  My mother likes to craft by quilting, crocheting and sewing.  She makes good money but she doesn't spend the time to get organized and has a lot of items.  The basement where I use to sleep and throw parties when parents were out of town, is now full of kids toys and misc craft supplies.  I tried to ask my overly neat Grandma how to clean a house, and she replied "I just clean."  I guess I was looking for a more a-ha moment where I would magically like cleaning and my kids and I would sing and dance like Mary Poppins does.

So here is the room:
A basement room where I stick everything I don't want to deal with right now.  I have never had a rug big enough to sweep these things under, so I assigned them a room.  


This is the view from the door, which I like to keep closed.  Last year I installed a door knob that locks to keep my kids out of the room.  Inside this room are toys that my kids would have spread all over the toy room area if I allowed them access.  I have also recently added two big boxes of stuff taken out of my daughter's room, one donations and one needs to just be out of here room.  This has kept her room neater but I haven't yet done anything with these boxes.


Under here is my guest bed.  This used to be my mom's room when she stayed with us, now I just end up throwing things off the bed when she visit. ( It may be bad to say, but it must feel like home sleeping in here.)


This is the closet with out a door.  To the left corner is old year books and empty video game cases.  The cardboard boxes hold extra school supplies and shoes.  The middle plastic containers are old tax info and kids artwork.  The shelving to the right is photo type items with a few extra items.  Also my teddy bear I got from my uncle at age 5.


Here is the main part of the room with all the toys and household supplies.  The right corner holds a lot of board games and the back wall has storage boxes of toys.


This is the side right in front of the door.  I mainly took this shot to show the book shelf that my kid have, and next to that is a bunch of art supplies for them.


I just wanted to show you my sad elliptical.  My husband would really like to use this room as a exercise room, but I took the computer off my elliptical since it doesn't work.  I haven't been able to justify fixing this machine since I don't use it as much as I need to.


This is to the right when you walk in the door.  This shelving unit holds all my sewing and craft supplies.  I think I could use some more bins to clean this area up.


This is my introduction and I will answer Org Junkie's questions on tomorrows post.  Good luck to everyone else who is doing the challenge and I would love any advice anyone has to give!




4 comments:

  1. Good luck, hope you can make it into a space you and your guests can enjoy

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  2. Another bad basement room. It is so good to know I am not alone!
    We can do this!

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  3. This makes me laugh because I am the same way! I cleaned up my basement less than 6 months ago and now I am finally ready to do a complete overhaul and clear out the clutter! Good luck!

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  4. Thanks ladies for the support. I'm really good at shuffling the clutter it it the purging of it that I'm really bad at.

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