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January room challenge... ideas?

7K views 218 replies 36 participants last post by  slsurface 
#1 ·
'Ello! Anyone have any ideas for January's challenge? We've done (recently) master bedroom, child's bedroom/nursery, bathroom and kitchen.

What's next?
 
#177 ·
Quote:

Originally Posted by MamaFern View Post
my exciting news.. my sister bought a new amazing vacuum and i tried it out today and OMG. i thought my rugs were relatively clean. they were not! yikes. we have one very low pile rug in out living room and it just filled the canister with dog hair and dusties and stuff. i was shocked! and then my wool rug, which i had put away because i knew it was dirty i spent about 30 minutes cleaning. it was stunning how much fuzz and dirt came out, but it looks like new now! im SO happy about that.
It is so funny that you mentioned this, because I spent the afternoon doing the same thing!


My friend bought a really nice Dysen and brought it over- I can't believe how much STUFF came out of my carpet that I thought were clean! Gross. I'm thinking I will have to save up some money to get one because it looks like my vacuum is just not cutting it.

I spent the afternoon rearranging my living room- it's a pretty small space but I think I have it in a way that I like. Now I am on a mission to find some nice shelves to hang and a few decorative items that I want.

avengingophelia, your office looks awesome! I love the paint colors.
 
#179 ·
kirsten that is funny! im so saving up to buy a better one too. i knew mine wasnt the best, but i had no idea how bad it was.

jazz: its called the bissell pet hair eraser. i guess its specifically for pet hair, but it works great as a really heavy duty vacuum too. it has all sorts of crazy attachments and stuff for the hair. ewhatever! im in love! i think it was 250$ through homehardware or something. worth it imo.
 
#180 ·
Right now I am in the hunt for some nice shelves to flank my entertainment center. They were flanked by two bookcases but those moved across the room so I decided I wanted some shelves to display things! I found some I liked from PB (of course) but am on a hunt to find ones I love for less money. If anyone has any suggestions I am open to here them! Here's what I was looking at:

Either this or this in black. Possibly two of each kind.
 
#181 ·
Quote:

Originally Posted by kirstenb View Post
Right now I am in the hunt for some nice shelves to flank my entertainment center. They were flanked by two bookcases but those moved across the room so I decided I wanted some shelves to display things! I found some I liked from PB (of course) but am on a hunt to find ones I love for less money. If anyone has any suggestions I am open to here them! Here's what I was looking at:

Either this or this in black. Possibly two of each kind.
I know Ikea sells something very similar for a lot less. I couldn't locate it on their webpage (sorry no link for you), but I know I saw them in the store last time I was there. Maybe someone eles can find the link?
 
#182 ·
Quote:

Originally Posted by slsurface View Post
I know Ikea sells something very similar for a lot less. I couldn't locate it on their webpage (sorry no link for you), but I know I saw them in the store last time I was there. Maybe someone eles can find the link?
I don't have an Ikea link but here's what they look like.They can be painted easily.
 
#184 ·
#185 ·
Well, my goals this month were to do the utility room (laundry, pantry, and catch-all room) and my sewing room. The utility room got picked up a little but then quickly destroyed again, but I did get my sewing room organized! What can I say? Its a lot more fun to organize fabric than it is to go through and organized all the coats/hats/gloves/boots/socks/paperwork/shopping bags/recyclables that get tossed by the backdoor. I'm thinking I might have to enlist DH to help with the utility room, its just so overwhelming to me!
 
#186 ·
Quote:

Originally Posted by sunnysandiegan View Post
Thanks for the positive comments!
The fire ceremony was really beneficial and lovely!
:

Jan 12 - Mondays are my "home blessing hour" days. I borrowed the inspiring term from FLYlady, but I execute it differently than she suggests.
I just spend an hour doing whatever needs the most love and attention in our physical home. I do not recall what got accomplished this particular day, but I had help from my DD (age 7). I also had a healing session and cleared out some negative "stuff" in order to make room for wonderful thoughts and feelings (to go along with my intention for 2009, as written the night before).


Jan 13 - On Tuesdays, I spend an hour on finances and paperwork. I got rid of a stack of paperwork and "processed" another stack.
I also spent a bit of time on the phone taking care of some lingering business. Dare I say I cleared some more "mental clutter"???
DD & I also ran errands and took care of a lingering task or two.


Jan 14 - Wednesdays are usually "project days" for me, but DD is still on Winter Break and a project not directly involving her is unlikely to succeed. LOL However, she decided to go on a picnic with grandpa for a couple hours in the afternoon and then played at his house, so I got to finish some *long* lingering finance projects. It took me hours to do the research, but we'll be saving money and we are ready for the changes to DH's healthcare coming on 2/1/09. More "mental clutter" GONE!!! Not to mention the paper clutter I had been keeping to remind me to do the tasks. Between Tuesday and Wednesday, I filled the larger than usual wastebasket 3-4 times!
Oh, I also converted this particular wastebasket in the family office to a "recycling only" receptacle.

Jan 15 - Thursdays are special Mommy & Daughter days usually.
It is DD's short day when she is in school, so we spend the extra time doing something special together. Um, well, since she had an upcoming sleepover at our house, our oh so special activity this Thursday was cleaning the house!
We had gotten so far off track due to the holidays and extended work break for DH (6 days off) and school break for DD (4-1/2 weeks off). As I pulled laundry out of the dryer, I inspected for holes and wear/tear. As we straightened up rooms, items were critically analyzed. We filled a bag for charity already. (We just donated an entire TRUNK FULL of stuff last week!) We did get out for an hour or so for a fun playdate.

Jan 16 - Our family Winter Break project has been building DD a dollhouse from recycled items. We had been collecting gently used items and had neighbors collecting for us, too. Our living room was a disaster zone from this project! We checked potential items against the dolls and the space in the house and recycled all the items that were not suitable. Um, five trips to the recycling bins! Other housecleaning resulted in a trip or two to the trash. DD decided she wanted to pull out her trundle for the sleepover for the first time in, um, a year. DH rid the house of dust bunnies. LOL I painted the girls' nails and that finished off one of those lousy bottles of kids nail polish.
(Friday, btw, is traditionally 'Friend Day' at our house. LOL It is rarely a sleepover night, though.)

Jan 17 - Today DD had a birthday party to attend while I was in class most of the day. These are the times I am SO GRATEFUL I have a gift box with items purchased on sale for kids and women and general adult gifts. DH & DD "shopped" in my special box and DD made a card with existing (and plentiful) craft supplies. They even figured out where the gift wrapping supplies were. I had sort of forgotten all about the birthday party.
(I had remembered I was picking DD up from the party after class, so that's the important part, right??? LOL) Anyway, this "box" had grown to two boxes and was overflowing at that. I had recently gone through it all and pared it down considerably. Just one box now and things fit even better now.
DH also helped me declutter the freezer a bit by starting a turkey stock on his own. He actually cooks far more often and far better than I do, but the whole stock (bone broth) thing is my baby and he hasn't even paid attention to it...or so I thought! LOL He had been saving cut-up pieces of veggie scraps in a freezer bag just for me. So, the old foil roasting pan got recycled along with the rest of the turkey carcass from Thanksgiving and a bag of veggie scraps from the last two weeks. Our freezer is looking GOOD!


January is turning out to be a mighty productive month for our family!!!

Jan 18 - Hmmm... My decluttering/simplifying/organizing efforts were limited to making a crockpot full of soup completely from leftovers that would have otherwise been thrown out or composted in the past. We ended up getting dinner and two lunches (total of 6 meals!) from this one "free" dish!
Somewhat related is we spent time planning our meals for the upcoming week purposefully using as much from our pantry/freezer/fridge as possible. Also, DH finished up the clean your car challenge (car wash inside and out).

Jan 19 - I have never in my life gone shopping for an entire week's worth of food with only 4 items on the list. Furthermore, I stuck to the list, except I had forgotten to write one item ON the list...so I came home with five items. So far, so good!
DD & I discovered the new recycling dumpster (full-size dumpster JUST for recyclables) at our normal recycling bin (too tiny for our HOA) location that we have been waiting for!!! We were both excited since they now accept all plastics with #1 through #7 (plus a bunch of other stuff). We will be even more excited when the dumpster closer to us is swapped out (currently two trash dumpsters reside there, will be one trash and one recycling)!
:

Jan 20 - I worked on our finances and put a large stack of paper in our "shred" pile, which will be recycled. I also SAVED paper, envelopes, and stamps by efiling our taxes this year.


Jan 21 - I worked on my house project list for the year. I had typed out a long version somewhere around here and decided I needed to get busy on that list, but it was too long and overwhelming (4 pages in Word!). So, I took the time to streamline it visually (more items ended up on the list) and print it out (single side of one sheet, easy to read, organized). Then, I did something on that list!


Jan 22 - Today I tackled a mental challenge I had been putting off for months. I invited my dad (retired electrician with lots of construction experience) over to show me what it would take to install a tankless hot water heater. I wrote the items down that I then needed to research and then I did the research!!!
I can now cross that off my list from yesterday. LOL It isn't happening for us due to how much work it is for our situation, so now I know we need to find a suitable replacement for our existing tank heater and what to look for. I also removed the old, ICKY faucet aerators from all three bathroom sinks (heavily encrusted with calcium and other mineral deposits, not an easy task to remove). When I was at the store buying replacements (after 8.5 years
), I checked on the tank heater to begin that research. I also tried to find four other items on my house project list, but that store didn't have what I wanted. I did find the aerators, though, and they are on each faucet.
Lastly, there is an e-waste event coming up at the school nearby and I asked DH if there were any such items hanging around even though we just dropped off a box of (non-working) electronics earlier in the month. He said yes, my OLD clamshell iBook wasn't being used and we no longer need it, so I asked for the specs and started to list it on freecycle since it still worked last we checked. Meanwhile, DH was clearing data off the hard drive. Hmmm... it no longer works at all, so all the related "stuff" and the laptop are in a bag ready for the e-waste event on Saturday.

While I am not exactly following the "one drawer a day" challenge nor the "one room" challenge, I sure am accomplishing a lot more this month than any other month I've done these types of challenges!!! It is all the little things I've been ignoring for various reasons and it sure feels GOOD to just get them all DONE!!!
 
#187 ·
Quote:

Originally Posted by sunnysandiegan View Post
Jan 18 - Hmmm... My decluttering/simplifying/organizing efforts were limited to making a crockpot full of soup completely from leftovers that would have otherwise been thrown out or composted in the past. We ended up getting dinner and two lunches (total of 6 meals!) from this one "free" dish!
Somewhat related is we spent time planning our meals for the upcoming week purposefully using as much from our pantry/freezer/fridge as possible. Also, DH finished up the clean your car challenge (car wash inside and out).

Jan 19 - I have never in my life gone shopping for an entire week's worth of food with only 4 items on the list. Furthermore, I stuck to the list, except I had forgotten to write one item ON the list...so I came home with five items. So far, so good!
DD & I discovered the new recycling dumpster (full-size dumpster JUST for recyclables) at our normal recycling bin (too tiny for our HOA) location that we have been waiting for!!! We were both excited since they now accept all plastics with #1 through #7 (plus a bunch of other stuff). We will be even more excited when the dumpster closer to us is swapped out (currently two trash dumpsters reside there, will be one trash and one recycling)!
:

Jan 20 - I worked on our finances and put a large stack of paper in our "shred" pile, which will be recycled. I also SAVED paper, envelopes, and stamps by efiling our taxes this year.


Jan 21 - I worked on my house project list for the year. I had typed out a long version somewhere around here and decided I needed to get busy on that list, but it was too long and overwhelming (4 pages in Word!). So, I took the time to streamline it visually (more items ended up on the list) and print it out (single side of one sheet, easy to read, organized). Then, I did something on that list!


Jan 22 - Today I tackled a mental challenge I had been putting off for months. I invited my dad (retired electrician with lots of construction experience) over to show me what it would take to install a tankless hot water heater. I wrote the items down that I then needed to research and then I did the research!!!
I can now cross that off my list from yesterday. LOL It isn't happening for us due to how much work it is for our situation, so now I know we need to find a suitable replacement for our existing tank heater and what to look for. I also removed the old, ICKY faucet aerators from all three bathroom sinks (heavily encrusted with calcium and other mineral deposits, not an easy task to remove). When I was at the store buying replacements (after 8.5 years
), I checked on the tank heater to begin that research. I also tried to find four other items on my house project list, but that store didn't have what I wanted. I did find the aerators, though, and they are on each faucet.
Lastly, there is an e-waste event coming up at the school nearby and I asked DH if there were any such items hanging around even though we just dropped off a box of (non-working) electronics earlier in the month. He said yes, my OLD clamshell iBook wasn't being used and we no longer need it, so I asked for the specs and started to list it on freecycle since it still worked last we checked. Meanwhile, DH was clearing data off the hard drive. Hmmm... it no longer works at all, so all the related "stuff" and the laptop are in a bag ready for the e-waste event on Saturday.

While I am not exactly following the "one drawer a day" challenge nor the "one room" challenge, I sure am accomplishing a lot more this month than any other month I've done these types of challenges!!! It is all the little things I've been ignoring for various reasons and it sure feels GOOD to just get them all DONE!!!

Jan 23 - Today has been one of the best "decluttering" days for me yet!
I gave a project back to a "dictator" type leader at my DD's school with a brief, polite note. (I've been meaning to do this for MONTHS. Oh, this felt soooo good!) I spoke to the area coordinator for Girl Scouts about our troop. (I've also been meaning to do this for months and this felt really good, too.) I finished up a volunteer project at my DD's school that has been going on since September. Whew! I spoke with my DD's teacher about two things that have been on my list since November. While I was at it, I waited for a friend to finish up a long conversation in order to save myself from having to remember to call her later. We are going somewhere together on Sunday and the times have changed. The best part is I did all this in less than one hour while I was picking my daughter up from school anyway. Mental clutter GONE - crossed off my list - YAHOO!!!
:
 
#188 ·
Quote:

Originally Posted by Queen of Cups View Post
Well, my goals this month were to do the utility room (laundry, pantry, and catch-all room) and my sewing room. The utility room got picked up a little but then quickly destroyed again, but I did get my sewing room organized! What can I say? Its a lot more fun to organize fabric than it is to go through and organized all the coats/hats/gloves/boots/socks/paperwork/shopping bags/recyclables that get tossed by the backdoor. I'm thinking I might have to enlist DH to help with the utility room, its just so overwhelming to me!
So, today I asked DH to help me out by cleaning the utility room, and I got it started this morning. He finished it while I was cooking dinner and it looks great! I'm about to go clear off the windowsills, and then I'll take some pictures. I even sewed new curtains for it! It looks so lovely now! Its actually quite a big room, and now it actually looks big since the floor is clear!
 
#189 ·
Quote:

Originally Posted by sunnysandiegan View Post
Jan 23 - Today has been one of the best "decluttering" days for me yet!
I gave a project back to a "dictator" type leader at my DD's school with a brief, polite note. (I've been meaning to do this for MONTHS. Oh, this felt soooo good!) I spoke to the area coordinator for Girl Scouts about our troop. (I've also been meaning to do this for months and this felt really good, too.) I finished up a volunteer project at my DD's school that has been going on since September. Whew! I spoke with my DD's teacher about two things that have been on my list since November. While I was at it, I waited for a friend to finish up a long conversation in order to save myself from having to remember to call her later. We are going somewhere together on Sunday and the times have changed. The best part is I did all this in less than one hour while I was picking my daughter up from school anyway. Mental clutter GONE - crossed off my list - YAHOO!!!
:
Good for you!
 
#191 ·
Quote:

Originally Posted by Queen of Cups View Post
Here's my blog post with pictures about my organized utility room (and some about cooking I did today)!

Reading about everything all you ladies have been doing is so inspiring! Thank you for sharing - it was what motivated me to get this done today!
that's rad! your room looks great. and cute girl too! how they have grown
:
ill you share your recipe for the naan and curry? i make lots of curries but never naan. i miss it living way out here in nowheresville. if you dont want to be OT you can pm me
 
#192 ·
Quote:

Originally Posted by Queen of Cups View Post
Here's my blog post with pictures about my organized utility room (and some about cooking I did today)!
It looks great!

Today I went and bought some things for my living room and tomorrow I am hoping to get to Ikea to check out the shelves. If I find what I am looking for I may get the room done this weekend! I haven't found curtains yet, but that's no surprise. There are vertical blinds on the window and sliding glass door now, and I would want to remove them to put up curtains and that may be more work than it is worth. We live in military housing so we would have to put the blinds back up when we move out.
 
#193 ·
#194 ·
hey everyone! just checking in. our kitchen remodel is going very well. we took a spur of the moment trip up to ikea today (3 hours away for us....up by detroit) and got some really great stuff! the best part is that we ended up getting new counter tops! very nice stainless look. they were so reasonably priced that we decided to just do that instead of painting the old ones. so now i get a new stainless steel sink as well! YAY! we got new lighting and stainless steel shelving, and all kinds of good stuff. a very productive trip for sure.

we should have most of it finished by superbowl sunday.......the original deadline that my hubby set as we're having a party, but now with the addition of counter tops to replace and possibly doing a subway tile backspash, it will take longer than this week to complete everything. but we should be 99% finished by then.

i can't wait to share pictures!
 
#195 ·
how's everyone doing on their respective rooms??

our kitchen remodel is in the home stretch....FINALLY! and i'm so happy to have this enormously messy project almost over!
:

i will take some more "in progress" photos today and i need to update this on my blog too. in any case, i'll post some photos later and will definitely post photos when it's completely finished....which i'm not sure will be technically in january! lol!

hope everyone has been able to be as productive as we have!
 
#196 ·
I went to Ikea TWICE this weekend and spent way too much money on things for the house.
I did get these Ikea shelves that everyone suggested, so thanks for the idea! I bought two, but am in the hunt for two more shelves to go below them. I'll have to go around this weekend and find some. Once I get those I can put everything up and I should be done!
:
 
#197 ·
How am I doing on the room I set out to do? Not good at all! Fizzeled, flopped, Quit.

Good news is that seeing such an overwhelming project I have been motivated on getting the living room and dining room together. I feel like I'm really making headway! Other than a few toys in the living room left out after play tonight there is nothing in there that shouldn't be in there! - well the Christmas ornaments in the one cabinet, but they are the breakable ones and it's a safe place until I can really put them away, so I'm using the excuse... they should be there
The living room seems so much more comfy now.

As for the dining room, it's together and only the stuff that I want in there is there. I need to rearrange some stuff in my cabinets in there switching some things from the kitchen cabinets to the dining room and vise versa, but until I tackle the kitchen I know where the things are and I have went through the dining room cabinets only keeping the things I want.

I'm on the lookout for some pretty containers for condemets, oil, vinegar, salt, pepper, sugar bowl, a shaker for parm cheese and nutritional yeast. Looking for either US made or used, best would be thrift store find of made in USA, so until I find what I'm thinking of in my head, we'll continue to use the containers things came in.

I have a tray on a ??? dresser?? there's a fancy name for something like that if it's in the dining room, right?? that I have decided to keep the condements on in reach to the table so I'm not having to make that extra trip to carry it to the table... does anyone have some sort of set up like this? wanna show pictures of your pretty conatiners?

My hubby borrowed the labeler from work so once I get to the store and buy some tape for it I can set out to labeling the rest of my jars of bulk foods. (the stuff in the dining room cabinet that will eventually make it's way into the kitchen)

My worst room is still my worst room but I've made headway with other parts of the house so all is good.
 
#198 ·
Quote:

Originally Posted by lightheart View Post
I have a tray on a ??? dresser?? there's a fancy name for something like that if it's in the dining room, right?? that I have decided to keep the condements on in reach to the table so I'm not having to make that extra trip to carry it to the table... does anyone have some sort of set up like this? wanna show pictures of your pretty conatiners?

My hubby borrowed the labeler from work so once I get to the store and buy some tape for it I can set out to labeling the rest of my jars of bulk foods. (the stuff in the dining room cabinet that will eventually make it's way into the kitchen)
i think called a butler's tray table??

i just purchased a really nice label maker so i could label all my bulk spices and jars of flour, sugar, etc. i LOVE that little thing!
:
 
#199 ·
okay, update time! click on my blog link (in my signature) for photos on our kitchen remodel! we're still not finished yet so these are "in progress" photos.

it's coming along very well!
 
#200 ·
Quote:

Originally Posted by vm9799 View Post
okay, update time! click on my blog link (in my signature) for photos on our kitchen remodel! we're still not finished yet so these are "in progress" photos.

it's coming along very well!

It's looking really great! I can't wait to see the end results!
 
#201 ·
Quote:

Originally Posted by sunnysandiegan View Post
Jan 23 - Today has been one of the best "decluttering" days for me yet!
I gave a project back to a "dictator" type leader at my DD's school with a brief, polite note. (I've been meaning to do this for MONTHS. Oh, this felt soooo good!) I spoke to the area coordinator for Girl Scouts about our troop. (I've also been meaning to do this for months and this felt really good, too.) I finished up a volunteer project at my DD's school that has been going on since September. Whew! I spoke with my DD's teacher about two things that have been on my list since November. While I was at it, I waited for a friend to finish up a long conversation in order to save myself from having to remember to call her later. We are going somewhere together on Sunday and the times have changed. The best part is I did all this in less than one hour while I was picking my daughter up from school anyway. Mental clutter GONE - crossed off my list - YAHOO!!!
:
Thanks, rere, for the cheers!


Jan 24 - Hmmm... I don't think I did anything in the decluttering or organizing realms. I suppose simplifying may apply. I had made a financial plan with DH's input and DD & I carried out our January charity plan. I had allocated $100 towards charity for January/February and we had decided we wanted it to be a family benefit type charity. We chose the aquarium (100% tax-deductible). The family membership is $75. I decided to donate the full $100 to the aquarium versus the $75 and then having to find another $25 charity later. One receipt, one decision, and a canvas bag to use over and over...


Jan 25 - I had plans to drive to Orange County to meet friends and attend a large convention. I invited a local friend to carpool with me instead of driving alone.
While there, I carefully chose the "freebies" offered instead of just grabbing them all (as I have sort of done in the past). I mostly accepted reusable canvas bags and I plan to share some of my old ones with my dad. I also accepted a cloth apron for a volunteer program I do in my DD's classroom.

Jan 26 - I had the most amazing healing session in which I visualized and felt my "body clutter" leave my body. (I no longer feel like I need the extra protection and I said goodbye. GREAT FEELING!!!) I also felt anguish from an old scar (and the event that led to the scar) leave my body.
:

Jan 27 - As I was doing laundry, I inspected everything and was able to repurpose or donate a handful of items.

Jan 28 - As I did our finances today, I was even more selective than usual on what to keep versus what to let go right now (versus waiting awhile and THEN letting it go). Our recycling is sooooo much more than our "trash" nowadays and we've always been conscious of buying the least packaged items whenever possible.
 
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