On your mark, get set, ORGANIZE!!

Updated to add: Participants that completed the challenge can be found by going to either the whole room category or small space category.

Updated to add: Please link directly to your challenge post rather than your home page to make it easier for us to find it. If you have already linked up and didn’t do this, no worries, I’ll fix it for you when I come across it. Here is how you link to an individual post if you’ve never done it before: right click on the time at the bottom of your challenge post, click “copy shortcut” and then paste it into Mr. Linky. Also please know that links that have been entered by non-participants will be deleted.

This is it! Time to get busy…..sorting, purging, de-cluttering, containerizing….all words that will hopefully roll of your tongue by the end of this challenge. That or you’ll be ready to hang me up by my feet to the rafters and throw baskets at my head! Yikes….I’ll try to avoid this fate and do whatever I can along the way to encourage and support you in your endeavor. Although I just thought of something….if you throw baskets at my head do I get to keep them? Okay, right, off track but I just had a vision of me surrounded by hundreds of baskets, even if I am hanging by my feet, and I lost my train of thought for a second. Now where was I….yes on to the challenge!

To start us off I want to share a great quote I read today from Sanity Savers:

No Challenge, No Change.

If you don’t give yourself a challenge, there can be no change, and without change, there is no growth.

What is the 30 Day Organizational Challenge?

Your challenge is to organize one room and/or one area in your home over the next 30 days and at the end of the 30 days post “before” and “after” pictures on your blog with a brief description of how you got from point A to point B. I will also provide specific questions for you to answer. You may enter one or both categories if you’d like.

Today (or really anytime within the next 30 days) you will be required to link up (below) to a post sharing which area and/or room you plan on organizing, your plan of attack (this post of mine gives you some suggestions) and, if you choose to, your “before” pictures. You are not obligated to include your “before” pictures at this time if you’d rather not however I do encourage it. Accountability is a huge motivator.

Your goal and ultimately what the judges will be looking for is this:

Overall Transformation – A well organized, uncluttered, clearly defined and efficient space that is easily maintained.

Creative Use of Space – Using creative solutions to allow you to maximize your space and create zones and systems in a new and manageable way.

Baskets/Containers that Work – Using containers that allow you to establish boundaries and limits as well as contain “like with like”.

Overall Experience – The process you used, what you got out of this experience, what you found the most rewarding, most difficult, etc..

When does it start?

The challenge starts today, Tuesday, April 3, 2007.

When does it end?

The challenge will end at 11:59 pm on Wednesday, May 2, 2007.

Who are the judges?

Lara, The Lazy Organizer, has once again kindly agreed to help me out plus Professional Organizer, Marcia Francois has also recently come on board to lend a hand with the judging. Thanks girls!

What are the prizes?

Now to the fun part and hopefully a little extra motivation. First of all, thanks to all my contributors, especially Lifeorganizers.com who this time around will be donating $200.00 in support of this challenge!! Thank you, thank you, thank you! If you are looking for further motivation and ideas for your project you must check out their site…so many terrific and helpful articles!

First Category – a whole room:

1st place = $100.00 US
2nd place =$70.00 US
3rd place = Organization Transformation book donated by author, Liana George plus a spot in Marcia Francois’* Simplify your Life ecourse

Second Category – a small space (ie: closet, drawer, armoire, desk, etc):

1st place = $30.00 US plus BH&G’s Simply Perfect Storage magazine (Early Spring 2007 edition)
2nd place = To Love, Honor, and Vacuum book donated by author, Sheila Wray Gregoire** plus a Household Organizing File donated by Marcia*
3rd place = Household Organizing File donated by Marcia*

*Marcia is a Personal Life Coach and Professional Organizer. She donated the Simplify your Life ecourse and both Household Organizing Files. Her website can be found here and two of her blogs here and here.
**I will be interviewing Sheila next week when she stops by on her blog tour.

I will also be selecting a random winner from all the remaining participants to win the new Taste of Home’s 2007 Slow Cooker Recipes soft cover cookbook!

One final word. Please remember we all have different circumstances of which we may know nothing about. Therefore it is not our place to judge or make assumptions but rather help each other succeed with encouraging words, positive reinforcement and if asked, respectful suggestions.

Thanks everyone and good luck to all of you!