First of all I’m so excited that so many of you decided to just go for it and show off your before pictures….so proud of all of you for doing that. Also I just wanted to mention that it’s not too late to join. The only mandatory link up, to be eligible for prizes, will be the final one at the end of the month. To read all of the challenge details please visit the official challenge page here.
I still haven’t had a diet coke but there have definitely been some tough days.
Today is all about linking up your 1st progress report. How are you making out with the challenge so far? Tell us how it’s going, are you further ahead or behind where you thought you’d be? Where are you getting stuck. Do you have a purge pile to show me? 🙂 Feel free to discuss in the comments as well if you’d rather.
A few of you mentioned on Facebook about feeling overwhelmed. My best piece of advice for this is don’t look up…break your project down into bit size tasks that keep you from viewing the entire space at one time and seeing all there is to do.
Also I really want to thank all the sponsors for providing so many awesome prizes for our challenge as well. I would love if we could show them some love by checking out each of their Facebook pages below.
Sponsor Facebook Links:
Container Store
SugarSNAP
KMN Home
SpaceSavers
Getting Organized Magazine
Lay-N-Go
Off-the-Floor Organizers
Clean Mama
Boid’s Bag Biz
Fridge Coasters
So here we go friends…it’s link up time!! Please remember to link up to your specific blog post and not to the main page of your blog. Also by entering your link, you are giving me permission to use any part of your post including pictures in a spotlight on I’m an Organizing Junkie (proper credit and links will be given to you, of course!)
Remember it’s not too late to join in the “fun”, this challenge goes on all month. The only mandatory link up, to be eligible for the prizes, is the one at the end of the month. All details can be found here.
April says
Thank you for holding this challenge! Trying not to get overwhelmed by the amount of work that I need to do before I am finished … probably why I haven’t done this already! But … I will have a functional and usable workspace when it is done. Just finding some challenges in finding organizing things that allow me to go vertical without out having to take a bunch of stuff out to get to what ever is at the bottom.
Laura says
Great attitude April! Yes you can do this. Taking advantage of vertical storage is always a good idea!
Megan says
Hi Laura! It’s Megan again…the one who can’t seem to link up for some reason! I posted a new blog entry and tried to link up that one to this new updated post, and it’s still not working 🙁 HELP!
http://lovepitterpatter.blogspot.com/#!/2013/03/laundry-room-updatepaint.html
Eydie says
Any help in the design department? I feel as if I can get through the purge but in a small space I need an office and workspace for me and 4 kids. Ideas?
Laura says
Hi Eydie, do you mean in terms of desks or organizing products?
Phil B says
Phil B
12 hrs, 49 mins ago
Hi Laura,
I’m a late joiner as well and from the UK if that’s ok? I appreciate that the prizes may not be appropriate/available over here but I’m joining for the challenge not the prizes (although they’d be a bonus!).
My whole house has just become full of clutter – my husband is a serial spender and all our storage spaces are filled with car/motorbike parts!! I need to take control!! The area I’ve chosen to tackle is our ‘back room’ – my step-son’s room/guest bedroom. He stays with us every other weekend and it doubles as our guest room but my husband uses the room as a dressing room as he uses the shower in the en-suite (we only have a bath upstairs) and it’s become a complete dumping ground. Our dining room table is often a dumping ground for things in transit to their proper place (usually paperwork) but if we’re in a hurry to clear the table we usually just dump everything in the back room. A a result it’s ended up as an ever increasing pile of clothes, paperwork, car/motorbike parts, as well as housing my step-son’s scooter/skateboard etc as all our other storage is full. I have to tackle the clutter in the whole house but as my mum is coming to stay next week I need to start here otherwise she has no where to sleep!
Unfortunately I’m having the same problem as Megan with the back link on pinterest. I thought if put a link in there but its not recognising it and I’m getting the same error message as Megan. I may not have done it correctly but here’s my page:
http://pinterest.com/frustratedphil/organising-challenge
I will persevere…..
Laura says
Hi there, when I click on your link I get a Pinterest 404 error so it’s something to do with your Pinterest link.
Kari says
Thanks again for the Challenge Laura! I feel like I’ve made really good progress this week! Moving onto step 2..the Master Bathroom. And thanks for giving us the chance to brag on ourselves! After posting my before pictures I was thoroughly disgusted with myself! This helps get some of my dignity back! 🙂
Laura says
Always feel free to brag about your organizing accomplishments here, I love it!! And am so proud of you!!
Rita says
I am having a problem with linking up my post. I am not sure if I am doing something wrong because I just started blogging and have never linked up to a party before. Here is my post about this weeks progress: http://lovmyhouse.blogspot.com/2013/03/getting-my-guest-room-in-order.html.
Laura says
Hi Rita, I think you are having trouble because your blog is set to private. I think if you set it to public you should have no problem.
Rita says
Thank you! I did not realize I had it set on private. I have that fixed now and was able to sucessfully link up 🙂
Becky L says
I have decided not to link up this time. I’ve not been feeling the best lately, because of sickness that is finally going away. But am slowly going through the process of purging in my office/family room. I thought about all the rubber stamps I have that I don’t use, while I was at work yesterday. I looked last night and couldn’t believe all I have. I have one gift bag full and a couple other containers full of rubber stamps. I got a lot from a friend who didn’t want them any more. Oh dear! So am gonna go through them as I know a few I want to keep. My daughter uses some of them and then the majority will go. Downsize to 1/4 of what I have is a good start. That’s a big chunk of space to go. I used to rubber stamp a lot. Now I don’t, since I make my own photo cards with my photography. I still love to read your posts and all that’s going on.
Laura says
Hope you feel better soon Becky!
anna t says
What I thought would be overwhelming has turned out to not be that bad. I might actually end up doing two rooms. When I’m making my piles of “like with like,” I keeping thinking of stuff in the other room that should be organized with it. I need to take before pictures of the other room before I keep going. I’m also finding that when I empty a container that “isn’t working,” that container ends up working perfectly for something else. Thanks for the challenge to help motivate me.
Laura says
That’s what I like to hear!!
hsmominmo says
We did get started on clearing out our storage room. Having computer issues and can’t get to my photos (ugh!) but should have my post up in a few days. Following your PROCESS, which is the most amazing tool! In the meantime I’m enjoying peeking in on others’ projects – great work everyone!
Phil B says
I’ve tried another board on pinterest and still can’t link up properly 🙁
Update on pinterest is here:
http://pinterest.com/frustratedphil/organising-challenge-update-1/
Hopefully that link will work this time….
Laura says
Hi there, I’ve taken out the requirement for a backlink and linked up for you. Thanks 🙂
Hilda @ From Overwhelmed To Organized says
I’m loving this challenge Laura and it’s really helping me not to procrastinate! Question – if we write more than one post during the week with progress (i.e. too much to put into just one post), do we link them all here or just one and put internal links to the others? Not sure if it will happen or not but I wanted to check just in case 🙂 Thanks!
Laura says
Hey Hilda, certainly you can link up more than once to the linky on this post or you can save additional updates for next week’s progress link up. Totally up to you!
Hilda @ From Overwhelmed To Organized says
Thanks Laura!
Phil B says
Thanks Laura, that’s great 🙂
Phil
Inita Bermudez says
I would like to learn organizing.
Michelle says
Well I have the new blog almost set up, and the craft room looks a whole lot better. I have some things that I need to find homes for, and I need to get a couple of frames to hang some verse pictures in.
You should have seen it on the sort day – it looked like a tornado!
Alexa says
My life ALREADY feels better! I can’t wait to utilize this process on every room in the house!!! 🙂
Julio says
I’m not that much of a online reader to be honest
but your sites really nice, keep it up! I’ll go ahead and bookmark your site to come back later on. All the best
Michelle says
With a house move imminent it’s now time to really declutter – such a great opportunity, however in the meantime our current place is in dire straits! I only tackle little and often – it’s the only way I cope!