29 Day Organizing Challenge ~ 1st Progress Link Up

   Ok, so here I am, a little over a week since starting this challenge, and I feel like I haven't made much of a dent. It has been pretty difficult trying to focus, let alone get things done, with many annoyances in the way. Kudos to you moms who have kids AND a clean house!  My little munchkins have been consuming so much of my time, and my 3 year old is going through a phase where he wants to be by my side at ALL times! So, hence the difficulty getting this project under way. My 18 month old? Well, that's a different story. She's my climber. Enough said.  With time being an issue, as well as recent back pain, there is a cloud of doom lurking over this space... I am impatiently waiting excited for that light of happiness and hope to swallow up that nasty cloud!   OK, enough about above mentioned woes...time to kick some booty! To my dining room and foyer: I will take control of you. Muahahahahaha! (sneering) 

    So like I said, just over a week into this challenge...I got the space cleaned up a bit, and put the diaper boxes to use as my sorting boxes. I labeled them: 'donate, keep, sort, toss' and then I added a bag for 'relocate.'  I couldn't limit my items to keep, toss, donate...because my goal was to just start tackling the items and if I hesitated I didn't want to make a rash decision. (I have done that way to many times and ended up wishing I never got rid of the item in the first place.) So my keep and sort are pretty similar. The 'keep' box is for items I want to keep in the dining room/foyer, the 'sort' box is for items that I am unsure if I want to keep, donate, toss, and if I should keep it then where should I designate as its home? The 'relocate' bag is for items that do not belong in the room and already have a home. There. Sounds complicated, but once I relocate everything and sort through everything I will go through the boxes again and really challenge myself with what I should keep or donate.

    Since this first week found me in a time crunch, I tried spending as much time possible figuring out what I wanted to do with this space and problem solve. I asked myself many questions... How did I want this room to function?  What were the problem spots?  What habits needed to change in order for the room to function properly? What can I part with? Other than organize the space, what else can be done to make it visually pleasing? What can I bring to this room that I already have? My mind flooded with ideas, color schemes, furniture, DIY projects...and then I had to take a deep breath and bring myself back to the task at hand. All the DIY, painting, etc could be done at a later time. I really needed to concentrate on purging, and sorting and really trying to make our system work this time around effectively for myself and hubby (and the kids too).

    As I sit here typing this, a brilliant thought just came to my mind. I really need to ask my hubby what he envisions with this space, and what areas he finds problematic etc. If habits are going to change, I can't expect others to conform to my idea of what works if it drives them nuts doesn't make sense in their eyes. DUH Denice! Below are my progress pictures, and it doesn't seem like much has changed. On the contrary...it has. The boxes are empty, some of the space cleared, and of course don't forget that brainstorming!