It’s been raining alot here lately, so we’ve been having a few indoor days.
So I wandered in my workshop, and tried to get inspired. But I had to organize first. But then I thought, it really needs a deep clean first. Then realizing that would eat up every minute I had, I wandered to the next room.
I cleaned my photo studio right before our vacay, but it was dirty again. Cat hair, cobwebs, cluttery piles in the way… but I tried anyway. I picked up a few planks and stencils… but, nothing.
Then I thought… others will be showcasing their beautifully decked out homes for fall. I should too!
But, every time I looked at a room, it needed more clean up and organizing first than what I had time for.
I quickly saw the writing on the (dirty) wall… my house was currently too messy to decorate or work in.
So… I decided to clean.
The broom, vacuum, soapy water, and glass cleaner all made an appearance.
My cats didn’t even know what to think of all the commotion. Kinda like when I finally cook something good… they wander in the kitchen and think, “What’s going on here…” 🙂
It was not pretty. And not very much fun. My vacuum’s pet attachment has been messed up for awhile now, so I ended up spending a bunch of time taking that apart. But I sat in the middle of that messy floor with tools, and just did it.
One step forward…. 5 back.
But after one room was finally done, I looked back and thought, “NOW I could make something in here….”
Until I couldn’t find my tools in the next room.
Stepping back again…
Hmmm… see a pattern happening here?
So, I just had a chat with myself, while I cleaned out this junk drawer today. I am going to clean one small area or even an entire room everytime I feel uninspired, instead of wasting a bunch of time scrolling Facebook to run away from the mess.
And with any luck, this place MAY be clean for Christmas. And maybe even wear some new paint here and there. Don’t we always wish we could start fresh before the tree goes up? I know I do!
So I guess this is my gift to myself this fall. A clean, uncluttered home. With room to spare.
Do you wish to be challenged in some way with this, or would you like me to simply update periodically with some befores and afters as I move along?
I could even deem specific challenges it that helps, such as “organize something” or “fix something”. Or just leave it up to you.
And try and figure out how non bloggers can showcase what they have done too.
I don’t want to bore you, but if the inspiration helps, I can throw this into the mix as little as once a month, or as often as once a week.
All I know is…
When I pressure myself with a deadline…
I’m much more prone to do it! 🙂
Bottom line is, if you’re as frustrated as I have been, maybe this challenge will help motivate you towards loving your home a little more too!
Before the tree goes up…
Lemme know your thoughts! My questions:
Do you like the idea of this series?
Is showing my efforts enough?
Or would you like to take part as well with showcasing your pictures somehow?
How often? (once a week? once a month?)
Anything else?
*Watch for a new post with official news soon!*
What a great idea! At least you have some clean wall space. I have something on every spot on the walls. I’m doing a lot of picking up and setting down. oh well.
I know how you feel. I’m in the middle of a project that I need to get done (out of our garage) before the cold winter weather sets in. I’m breathing new life into a curbside hutch I found and it’s in pieces all over the garage and basement. The paint is not cooperating as its been so humid here that it still feels tacky. Of course there are cans of paint everywhere and pieces of the project are strewn about. My goal is to have it finished and into my favorite resale shop before the first snowflake falls. I even used my new “Antiques” stencil that I bought from you. The hutch is going to turn out great (I’ll try to remember to take a pic and send it to you). Then a major clean up will be in order so we can actually park the cars back in the garage for the winter. I think sometimes it has to get messier before it can be clean!
I love real life and good, REALISTIC goals. This post has it in spades. Have a wonderful week Donna.
I’m there. I have been tryin to get a room designated just for me and all my STUFF, but there are piles everywhere . . . chaos. I just want to run. And I have for a while since the room is not yet set up. I just need to move everything out of the way and start with a clean slate like you did. Then I can step back and see what I need to keep and what needs to go. Even if I don’t have it painted or all pretty, it can at least be organized. Pretty can come later. We have been purging at work in anticipation of a move, and boy does it feel good to let go. Now if I can just follow through with it. Thanks for all your inspiration.
Wow, what a great job… the after is just fantastic. You did it and sure have inspired me to do at least one room a day.
If you are old enough, which I don’t think you are…… put on your list to get a Shingles shot, Flu shot and a Pneumonia shot (vaccinations) now, before you get sick with any of these. I got the Shingles & Flu yesterday (one in each arm) yesterday at 3:15 PM and the Pharmacist mentioned he had all his shots already which included Pneumonia (I must wait a couple of weeks to get it. Well, my health insurance paid all but $6.60 for my Shingles (hundreds otherwise) and the flu shot was free for me. And I called and my insurance and was told the Pneumonia was free for me also.. now the Shingles and P ones are only once in your lifetime (so I am told).
Anyway, they did not ask my weight, so evidently the dosage is the same for me (125 pounds) as it is for someone 225….. so I was really out of it from 6 PM till this morning at 6 AM. I realize some of you may be against these shots, so please don’t say mean things to me, it is your choice after all.
Have a really wonderful day.
Sheryll what a great idea. I take care of my 84 yo mom and always make sure she has everything done by fall. But I never do the same for myself. Thank you for reminding me to take care of myself.
While Facebook is a great way to connect, I spend (waste) mounds of time that helps me avoid the things I need to do. I too rise up to the deadline or guests at my house. Lol. Love the challenge! Thanks Donna!
I have a craft room that needs so much attention. Between paper, projects, boxes and more I hardly have a place to work. Sound familiar? So I’m taking up your challenge and WILL have no more ‘crap by Christmas’! Thanks for the inspiration!
I am working on it! I have boxes from moving two years ago and they are going to get gone through this fall or else. We need every square inch of room we can find in this 100 year old farm house. So no more putting it off. I will be checking in for inspiration.
I’m so in Donna. Just got back from two months in Oxfordshire and the house looks like a bomb went off! Yesterday I sold a print on my Etsy and went upstairs to the studio to print it, looked around and said, “no more”! Now I’m in the mood of “everything’s got to go!” I’ve been stuck at home here in rainy North Van too, and so am on it. 😀
Yes! Inspire On! I so need a fire lit under me…. no energy….TOO much stuff. 🙁
It gets overwhelming, and then I can’t work in a mess… so nothing gets done! Ok… ONE spot at a time. (after company leaves.) Your work space is WoNdErFuL!
I have been saying I was going to park in my garage for two years, now my goal is just to see it again…So yes please inspiration is helpful. I have made progress but a lot of it ended up in my house, so not good.
A lovely, organized paint studio! Wahoooooo for you, girl friend!
Wanna come help me with my craft room?? You have inspired me to get busy on my own organizational journey!
Good luck with the next room……
Gigi
Ongoing inspiration and motivation please! Started repainting my entire main living area. Stalled out in May. Must finish before Thanksgiving. Ugh.
As an aside, I’m stalling out on Facebook. The people I really wanted to follow are pulling away from it. Too many slogan type reposts by previous classmates, etc. My YA children use snapchat and Instagram now. I’m looking for my favorite bloggers via email and Pinterest now and even Pinterest is getting clogged.
Keep being my cheerleader!
Sounds like a plan. I was thinking the same thing. I have a million ideas but too much junk all around to do them. I am with you. From crap to clean before Christmas.
I’m in! We just moved into this house mid July and I spent July and the first three weeks of August cleaning and unpacking and hanging wall art and putting stuff away…you get the picture. Now I need to get into the garage to finish all those last boxes…and the last box still sitting in my living room…and call for a donation pick up…and repair a spot in the living room wall…and…gosh…I really want everything done before the holidays since we have family flying in from Tennessee and Washington. So…count me in!
I love the idea and the motivation aspect of it. Your posts show the human side of our daily lives, we live, we clutter and we need to clean it up. Watching you do this and share with us gives me hope that I can do it too. Keep us in the loop as you move through your life and clutter. With a “kick in the pants”, I can do it too. Thanks for sharing.
Too funny….did you hear me complain about needing to wash the windows this morning but not doing it cause so much OTHER stuff needs to be done too? I mean really…just yesterday I was thinking I need to get BEHIND everything and do that deep clean.
Yes please….keep us going so we are clean by Christmas. Love that “Crap to Clean” tree!:)
My windows are terrible… so I know exactly what you mean! I think I’m going to go with room to room… otherwise it may never look done! 🙂
Wow… We are on the same wavelength.. I started cleaning from the inside out. organizing to the point of obsession. My VAC died.. Over heated and told me goodbye. Kaput. It was cathartic in a way. I lost my sweet furbaby and decided to do all the things I couldn’t do while he was here or sick. I had to replace a few handvac plugs since he took his revenge on them at one point or another.
As goofy as it sounds, It is helping.
However a little tip. I tend to get lost in a job which is great when you are painting or creating, but I was taking way too long to do the tasks that I could have done in an hour..
My tip.. Old as the hills..Set the kitchen timer and make sure you have to get up from what you are doing to turn it off.. It became a beat the clock thing. I am now 3/4 of the way finished, and it’s helping me budget my time.
Thanks for all your inspiration. I look forward to your blog and pics every week.
Annie
Oh, Donna. You must be reading my mail! I need a fall clean-up, but feel overwhelmed and then do nothing. So let’s go…
What a good idea. My home is pretty clean and it appears to be organized….notice I said “appears”. I need to organize the basement and garage. I have three adult children, one still at home and one is a student 25 hundred miles away. The student graciously allowed me to keep most of her stuff….I need boxes. I need tape. I need labels. I need motivation! I would love this series. Maybe I’ll feel motivated to “play along”.
Sign me up! How about every other week for some organizing encouragement? Everywhere I look needs attention, so it’s hard to know where to start. Thanks for the inspiration! It’s always easier when we do it together.
I love seeing your before and after of your cleaning the unorganized rooms, it makes me want to get going. Your problem is you have access to too much good “stuff”, but you have the talent to make something out of nothing or so it seems.Keep it up, I love seeing your talent displayed.
Once a Month only gives us 3 posts before Christmas!
I’m going to need way more inspiration than that! Judy A-
I love it! You are inspiring!
great idea…can always appreciate inspiration. And we all have these spaces even when we don’t want to admit it! A once a week show off your crapified and de-crap-ification (?)pics could be kinda fun. <isery loves company when cleaning and de-cluttering!
Thank you so much for this. It is very inspiring and what I needed. To be more of aware of the idle time I really don’t need to be wasting and doing something with a purpose.
Btw…Gumby and Pokey I haven’t seen them forever.
OK, so where do you put all the stuff you clear out?? Your stuff always looks so cool, I can’t imagine you re parting with it all??
Hi Susan! I gave lots away, to the thrift and broken stuff to the dump. And lots of it I put to use as storage, that you can see in the reveal under the table.
My reasoning for getting rid of stuff is, if I haven’t used it within a year, I probably won’t. 🙂
I love before & after pics – they are such great motivators.
I’m in
Would love a weekly small achievable challenge to keep me moving
can never find anything easily so spend lots of time looking and then run out of time to do or get overwhelmed by all the stuff that needs to be done and walk away
nothing changes
maybe a monthly goal and then steps to get there
I love what you did with your studio! I get so overwhelmed that I put off deep cleaning also. I have to start putting stuff in boxes so we can have new carpet put in. I know that will be a good time to go through my stuff before putting it all back into the rooms. I am working on saying no to buying more stuff and saying no to those who want to give me stuff. I want to use my money for helping others. Please keep posting how you clean up your home. It’s very inspiring!
Just stumbled upon your site..love it!
Yes, yes, yes! I love the idea. I’ve been doing this at my own home lately and am inspired by seeing others’ organization. It feels so good! Keep it coming.
Love the idea!
I have the same feeling about my little townhouse. How did it get so out of control? I love the idea of this series and seeing your efforts got me going again. It is still hard to let go but at least I am moving forward. Thanks!
I like your organizational challenges and inspired solutions. Honestly, the last time you did it and had your paint studio reveal…I’ve been working towards several goals ever since. Your studio and garage had me realizing I wanted a workspace in my garage and that I wanted to complete my desk area. Although my desire was great to move on those projects, the fact remained that I had a domino affect…other things had to be sorted through, disposed of, altered, and adjusted and being a teacher that took time for me too do. So, ultimately I designated my summer vacation to be Project Summer…to get lots of projects completed to move me forward. Lots got accomplished and there is still so much more I want to do but…things have slowed down again since school has started. I say all of this to say, it was you and your post that got me motivated although it is a long term motivation. I also wanted to share with you some inspiration that came about…like an item I repurposed in order to store some wood since I lacked your wonderful scaffolding. I’m not a blogger so I’ve often wished I was able to add pictures here in the reply section so I could share. Bottom-line, yeah….sure….bring on the organizational posts…they are doing me good. Sorry for being lengthy.
Donna,
I say we go for it! Let’s see the progress and maybe I’ll be inspired to join you.
Donna
Haha, I too need to clean up my space! I’ve got a Christmas ornament wreath project taking over my table, things in line to get photographed and new purchases waiting for attention. One project has migrated to the dining room table waiting for a bottle of wood wax / oil. Another project waiting on a replacement sandpaper attachment for my Dremel and another project waiting to be turned into a coat rack. I need to make a trip to the Hardware Store, the old fashion kind where I can find everything I need. There I have made a plan. I like the challenge idea, watching your progress gets me going. Sometimes I just need to step back to see where I’m going. Thanks for the motivation!
I like the idea….and hope that even a non blogger like me could figure out how to be included….actually I am inspired even if I am not included.
I am already thinking about what I can do in September to be ready for a little get away the first of December and still be ready for Christmas.
The early bird gets the worm 😉
I love this idea!! It’s so easy to let things slide for too long! I want to be able to photograph my home for my blog, too, and it needs help!! This will be fun!! Bring it on! (Plus, I’m having company arrive in a little over a week so that adds a little pressure, too!! Eeeeeek!! Thankfully, she won’t judge, she saw it after only 2 months of living here, I’m sure anything will be an improvement!)
Thanks for the inspiration! I like that you included both the small and big win: a cleaned out drawer for a small, attainable goal and also an entire reorganized room, for a huuuuge home run goal! Looks great, very inspiring! Baby steps and bite-sized victories overcome analysis paralysis and help me fight my perfectionism that sounds like this: “Oh, I can’t clean out that closet yet, until I get the right boxes”! or, “Before I can clean I have to find that picture of the cute hanging rack I was going to make with a random board,leftover stain,and repurposed hardware I just happen to have on hand…somewhere!”
P.S. Off topic but yes I got my shingles shot, at Costco, using insurance. Have firsthand experience with the devastation it causes for otherwise healthy older adults.
I go through this struggle each time I clean, Andrea. But yesterday I decided I didn’t need the right boxes. I just needed a garbage bag! haha My pantry is now as clean as ever. New paint and shelves can come another day. It’s time to cleeeeeaaannnn! Just go for it. 🙂
The ‘from crap to clean before Christmas’ logo is adoarble, Donna! Every area tackled is one more. That is what hubby and I have promised and we have been working on it. From finishing small projects that were started and not finished, to cleaning and purging, we hope to have a lot done by Christmas. A series or encouragement would always be welcome.
You gave me inspiration today to reorganize my craft/sewing room. It is so good to have a clean area to work with. Thanks.
Doesn’t it make a world of difference?! Hope you’ll join us each Monday with your hard efforts shown!
I have to say it’s nice to see the ‘flip side’ of people’s lives. Much like Facebook, blogging allows us to show everyone our very best side.
I frequently lament the disaster that is my home. It’s comfortable and lived in – until I can’t find something and then I spend endless hours wading through the clutter piles, the dust piles and the cobwebs just trying to find a space to feel creative (as I usually get sidetracked my some ‘inspiration’ long before I find what I set out to locate). My studio is frequently under clutter – even though everything has a space. Sometimes, things just don’t have space, no matter how hard I try.
Last week, I made a similar commitment to myself and plan on working on a small space each day. However, according to my dear, sweet husband, I will ‘procrastinate’ and finally get everything ‘cleaned’ on the 23rd of December when I realize our parents will arrive for dinner the next day. I laughed and I suppose after 17 years, he really does know me after all.
Great work so far and thanks for sharing the ‘dirty side’ of the creative mind – I’m sure many of us can relate! I like this kind of series as it’s good to have motivation and some times, accountability. Once a week is a kind of a push for me but I’d certainly try!
So glad you’re going for it! And you’d be surprised how much you can do in a day. My sister gave me some canning and I had nowhere to put it. So I yanked apart the pantry and had it purged in about an hour… then I wanted to do MORE! 🙂
Sometimes unplanned cleaning is the very best! Just wing it, have it on your mind, and when frustration mounts in a given area, don’t think about it… go for it!
When I read this I totally thought “THIS IS ME TO A T” I have recently read the book “the life changing method of tidying” by Marie Kondo to get inspired to rid my house of just plain JUNK that doesn’t service and purpose to me or my house but I’m having a hard time getting started. But every Christmas I think this same thing about my house and wish it was clean, organized and more functional as I start to decorated and add more stuff on top of my other to much stuff!!! Thanks for the little push by posting this. Hope you have a great week and I love your blogs!!! From one junker to another junker!!!!
Whitney….
i like the before and after photos but would like to see more of the process of how you got there (deciding what to get rid of or where the crap should go. Do you just empty your drawer completely, etc. The older I get, the more I find myself staring at everything in confusion
Hi Karen! Duly noted! This was just the intro post. If you click my home page on my blog, and look for 1. and 2. in the title headers, I go more into detail on my befores, durings and afters. 🙂 I’ll make sure I chat more about the during next round!
I love this “from crap to clean” ! I hate cleaning, especially dusting, so I put it off on the stuff up on my shelves that people can’t see. Talk about heavy duty dust! I started cleaning deeply on 8/15 & was going to be finished by 8/31. But, I still have 1/2 my kitchen & sun porch & garage to do. I am also organizing each room, & decorating them for fall & Halloween, so that has led to a slow-down on my 8/31 goal. All will be finished by 9/30. Drawers & cupboards have being cleaned & purged. Magazines & newspaper clippings have been read & recycled. IT FEELS GREAT. (Of course, it has been a month since 1st room was cleaned, & it’s getting dusty again, but not like it was.) Windows are being washed, but not curtains – yet. Our TX temps are still in the 90’s. Thanks for your inspiration & keeping it REAL!