New to the challenge? Catch up here.
Hi organizing friends! I’ve been thinking of you all week wondering if you were hanging in there with me here. You are probably right in the thick of things right now. Your space may very well be looking worse than before you began. You may have things scattered here there and everywhere as you are trying to sort through it all. This is totally normal. Don’t panic. Take a deep breath and just keep moving. Little bit by little bit.
If you didn’t get a chance to read my post from earlier this week you might want to as I’m sharing one of the most important things we need to focus on when it comes to getting organized.
Also if you need a little more encouragement can I suggest you check out my 52 weeks series I ran a couple of years ago. There you’ll find 52 nuggets of organizing gold. Well okay okay gold might be a bit of a stretch but you may find a little sliver of inspiration over there to help you out 🙂
Quick Tip:
Remember don’t go out and buy bins and containers until you finish with the tough stuff of sorting and purging! Do not skip those steps of the PROCESS as tempting as it will be, you’ll thank me later. Have I told you how much I like chocolate? Oh wait I’m not suppose to be eating sweets 🙂
And for those of you that are following me along on my quest to quit diet coke. 14 days and counting!! It’s getting easier!!
If you have any questions, please leave them for me in the comments.
Last week I shared all the Facebook links of our amazing sponsors. This week I want to share all their Twitter pages with you. Be sure to check them out for more organizing inspiration!
Sponsor Twitter Links:
Container Store
SugarSNAP
KMN Home
SpaceSavers
Getting Organized Magazine
Lay-N-Go
Off-the-Floor Organizers
Clean Mama
Fridge Coasters
So link up how you are doing below or simply give an update in the comments. And it’s not too late to join us. The only mandatory link up will be the one at the end of the month.
If linking up today 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!)
Hang in there!
Ellie says
Thanks for the Friday encouragement. It is much needed. Have hit the difficult part. The easy decisions have been made, the motivation was waning, and the mess increasing. I have too much available storage but that is a trap to postpone decisions. Many items don’t need to be stored, they need to be donated. Yes, there is gold in the 52 week series. Need to keep at it. Your words are once again inspiring. Thank you!
Mo says
I’ve made some great progress in my master bedroom, cleaning out most of the areas, and of course, realizing it wasn’t as bad as I thought. Ha!
Tomorrow I am hoping to tackle the biggest project, which is a giant box full of years worth of paper work…it’s all getting filed 🙂 I can’t wait to get it organized, but am also not looking forward to sitting there sorting through it all.
Laura says
Ahh paper sorting, I feel your pain. Do it while watching a movie, it goes much faster 🙂
April says
I am so happy with the progress that I am making in my office/living room … that I even cleaned out my closet and purged about 30%-40% of the stuff in there! This challenge is making such a difference in my entire house … It has not been an easy week, but I am so glad that I pushed through my roadblocks and kept going!
Laura says
So loved hearing this!
Emily says
Hi! I just found your site through interest and love the idea of this challenge! My house is a major disaster and most of the starting point to getting it in order hinges on organizing my craft room first. This challenge is the perfect thing to get me started. I know I’m kinda late to the party but I’m excited to set up a plan and get going on it!
Susan says
Ok. I’ve posted a link to my update for this week, my first linky for the challenge. Hope my post wasn’t too long, but my readers didn’t even know I was doing this, so I had some ‘splainin’ to do! 😉 Thanks so much for the challenge, Laura!
anna t says
I haven’t made huge progress this week but sometimes it is the small things that make the biggest difference. I think I finally found a system to store my beads and jewelry making supplies that is organized, usefull, and easy to maintain.
I’m also about to take a giant step “backward” by bringing more “stuff” into my home. I’m headed to my parents and plan to bring back all the other craft supplies they have been storing for the past 7+ yrs while I’ve been living in dorm rooms and rented bedrooms. It will not all come in blindly, I plan to sort through it there and only bring home what I want to keep.
Jenny says
I linked up the other day without a comment so I wanted to stop in today and say WAY TO GO ON THE DIET COKE CHALLENGE. That may be tougher than cleaning any of these spaces 🙂 Congratulations on overcoming the power of the Coke!
Laura says
Thank you Jenny, I am feeling really great!
Phil B says
Just linked up – a bit of an odd week as I had to skip steps of the process to get our back room habitable for my mum to stay in. Spaces I emptied last week have been refilled with things that still need sorting just to get them out of the way. So tempting to leave it like that as the room already looks so much better from the sorting/cleaning etc I’ve done so far. But I’m determined to get it properly sorted and solve the storage problems so it doesn’t get in that hideous mess again!
Mary says
Just wanted to pop in and say thank you for this great challenge. I’m doing a project that has been put on the shelf for years…and piled high since then. This was much needed for my sanity, and by organizing and purging on this one room I am getting other rooms organized as well (because I can now properly fit stuff in the classroom that should be there and not scattered all over the house). I can’t wait to reveal what we’ve done. For us it’s a huge makeover and has cost us less than $30 so far and I don’t see it costing much more than that by the end of the month. The girls are excited to have a new classroom, and I’m excited to have an organized space to teach the girls. It will help in our routine sooooo much every day! Thanks again, can’t wait to report back more progress later.