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Post by desposito on Jun 30, 2021 18:50:44 GMT -5
Okay everybody, who wants to join in and get something done in July? 31 days to work together to finish a project, purge a bunch of stuff, or form a new habit!
Pick something, or more than one thing, that has a measurable result so that on July 31st you can celebrate what you accomplished.
The idea is that it's easier, more fun, and more motivating to work together, even if we're trying to do different things.   
Don't be afraid to make a specific goal, if you don't reach it, we will still celebrate what you were able to do--there is no failure as long as you keep trying.
In fact, that's the only challenge rule--try your best!
Then come back and let us know how you're doing, good or bad.
 Dancing Banana says: 
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Post by desposito on Jun 30, 2021 19:45:10 GMT -5
I haven't quite decided on what my challenges are going to be yet, I have a room that needs lots of little organizing things done, but I would like to have something else besides that room. I'm going to make a baby steps list for that since it worked so well for my plant room project.
I might have an entire fridge cleanout as a challenge, it seems like something that shouldn't be a month-long challenge but I'm so bad about fridge cleanouts that it might actually get done if I put it on here. And since there are no rules, I can put anything on this thread as a challenge! I'm going think about it overnight and decide.
When I was doing the 2-month challenges I was mostly cleaning out hoard areas, they helped me a lot with purging--now that I'm in a new home, there's so much less purging to do--but there are areas of the basement that were never organized and I know they will involve some purging since I packed lots of stuff that I didn't have time to sort.
And there there's the ongoing paper project...
I'll sleep on it!
Diane
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Post by joyinvirginia on Jun 30, 2021 21:19:00 GMT -5
Definitely need to clean out bathroom by garage. It's so cluttered no one can get in there! There is also a closet full of stuff in that bathroom that I probably don't need. I'll join the challenge! I'm slow, so it might take the whole month for one room
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Post by desposito on Jul 1, 2021 10:06:55 GMT -5
Hi Joy, nice to see you here!
it might take the whole month for one room
That's okay, it took a month for me to clean up my plant room and now that I wrote out a list of everything I'd like to do in the next room I'm pretty sure it'll take the whole month too!
My room is going to be the one I'm using as a bedroom on the first floor. When I first moved here I was planning a bedroom on the second floor, but as my sister got sicker I started sleeping downstairs so I could hear her if she needed me at night. After she died, I realized I really preferred sleeping downstairs since it was in the middle of the house and I felt like I could hear anything going on anywhere. It's not really supposed to be a bedroom, it has a door opening into the living room and a door opening into the tiny entryway to the bathroom--maybe it's supposed to be a den or office. But it's okay, and I've been trying to do final touches to it so that it all works as a bedroom. That was interrupted a few times by various things, so now I'm ready to finish it up. It could really use a coat of paint but I'm definitely not going to worry about that now!
I'm going to make a secondary challenge too, but as I said above, when I started writing out everything that needed to be done in the bedroom I decided it would probably take a lot of time, so I won't go crazy and list a whole bunch of things--just one more, to be decided. I came up with 29 baby steps for the bedroom, but just before making this post I thought of something else I had said I'd do in there, so that makes 30. One short of the days in the month, but that's okay, there are a few steps there that might take some time.
Diane
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Post by desposito on Jul 1, 2021 10:10:27 GMT -5
Bedroom Organizing Challenge Baby Step List 1. Reorganize closet
2. Move portable AC into closet until handyman can help me move it back upstairs 3. What else can be stored in this closet? 4. Sort bin #1 by window
5. Sort bin #2 by window 6. Put away anything that I’m taking out of bins and consolidate rest into one bin
7. Take other bin to use for linens and wash it out 8. Collect linen from 1st floor and store in bin
9. Measure cabinet near ceiling 10. What can be stored in this cabinet and do I need any containers that will fit?
11. Find bin or box for bottom shelf of CD shelves 12. Vacuum hassock
13. Cut larger pieces of Dysem for hassock legs, rubber band on if works? 14. Adjust top shelf of CD cabinet to be higher, change pegs if necessary
15. Put together inner shelf #1 for CD shelves 16. Put together inner shelf #2 for CD shelves
17. Alphabetize remaining CDs among those already on shelves 18. Sort books currently on CD shelves, put away
19. Move desk table out, clean behind 20. Put shims under file cabinet
21. Adjust electric cord behind furniture, plug in lamp and CD player 22. Clean shelf above desk, rearrange, what else can go on here?
23. Clean off desk table, put back 24. Clean off top of file cabinet
25. Clean off bedside table #1 26. Clean off bedside table #2
27. Scrape stickers from door 28. Sweep floor
29. Mop floor 30. Remove old brackets from tops of windows
Diane
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Post by gaylem on Jul 1, 2021 10:34:46 GMT -5
I would like to accomplish a major category sort on inherited tools. They are in a shed, on a large table on a front overhanging porch,on a table in the living room, and in a couple of drawers in the house. They are mixed up and many are rusty. There is also hardware new and old mixed in with tools.
Once a large category sort is accomplished an auto restorer who hauled away the heavy equipment will return to take away junk. Most of the junk will be broken,rusty tools and metal stuff. Hopefully by month end I will be able to donate or gift the good hand and electric tools and hardware.
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Post by desposito on Jul 1, 2021 11:16:15 GMT -5
Gaylem, that's a good subject for this kind of challenge, I'm guessing it gets pushed to the end of the to-do list so might sit there forever unless you formally address it. Hardware is one of the items in my basement that I still have to sort and purge also.
Diane
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Post by goldenthreads on Jul 1, 2021 13:02:46 GMT -5
Thanks for starting this, Diane. I'm actually embarrassed to be here, because I did barely anything in joyinvirginia 's very useful two months of challenges earlier this year. But I'm going to give this a shot anyway.
I am going to imitate you and number some steps, but I need to account for being gone much of the month.Goal: make the kitchen more functional.    And a bit cleaner!
- Put provisional content labels on each of the cabinets.
- Put much of landlord's/apartment's excess in the most inconvenient cabinets.
- Assess my own things: keep, donate, or put in storage--lower cabinets.
- Assess my own things: keep, donate, or put in storage--upper cabinets.
- Go through everything in freezer and toss anything with freezer burn.
Go through everything in refrigerator and toss all the forlorn things.
- Clear off non-kitchen stuff from long counter (most is stuff waiting to be recycled in special ways, and some has no home).
- Clean oven on a not-too-hot day.
- Clean refrigerator when it's almost empty.
 - Take rough inventory of cupboard food, and decide if it'd be better for workflow to change anything.
- Find homes for the three things that are parked on the floor.
- Wash the outside of the cabinets--upper.
- Wash the outside of the cabinets--lower.
- Wax the drawer slides (?) so they'll slide in easily.
- Beautify: bleach the stained counters, clean windows, hood, around the sink hardware, and whatever else needs it.
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Post by desposito on Jul 1, 2021 19:19:40 GMT -5
Hey golden, I love that you're making baby steps, it helps me SO much to do that. Are you going on vacation this month?
Diane
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Post by goldenthreads on Jul 1, 2021 19:24:03 GMT -5
Hey golden, I love that you're making baby steps, it helps me SO much to do that. Are you going on vacation this month? Yes, I won't be announcing it, but you'll know when I stop posting for some days.
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Post by desposito on Jul 2, 2021 8:32:53 GMT -5
So, here's how important it is for me to think in baby steps. Yesterday was the first of the month, so it would have made sense for me to start my first challenge step. But--when I looked at it, I knew I was going to make a long phone call soon and I thought "oh, the first step is organizing the closet, that will take too long!", so I didn't do it.
First of all, nothing says I have to do step #1 first, some of my steps are in order for various areas of the room, but I could easily have done another step first. And--my mind was going back to when I would have to organize a closet that I hadn't touched for several years--that would take days. This closet was just set up recently, and has some things out of place because I was looking for things in there--it will probably take 10 minutes.
If I had said "spend 10 minutes on closet" I probably would have done it. I need to break things way, way down in order for me to not avoid them.
I had all kinds of ideas for the second part of my challenge but I think I'm going to just do a time challenge on the paper. My important paper is in much better shape, but there's still more to go--and I find that the old paper is very time consuming because there are many notes in there about things I want to look up--books, websites, etc. So part 2 will be spending 6 hours this month working on paper. Breaking it down--1.5 hours per week, or only 10-15 minutes per day. I can do that!
Diane
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Post by desposito on Jul 2, 2021 18:49:53 GMT -5
I finally got a little start on my work, I did the first two steps of my bedroom organizing, as I thought, the closet only took about 15 minutes. I also spent 20 minutes on paper.
BEDROOM PROJECT STEPS DONE: 2/30
TIME SPENT ON PAPER & FILES: 20 minutes
Diane
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Post by mynicehome on Jul 3, 2021 8:48:06 GMT -5
Hello dtesposito! If I may I'd like to try something through July that will maybe/possibly kickstart a new habit, along with a challenge to declutter books. What I'd like to do is try list-making to-dos and ta-das. I enjoy reading both workalong threads and have wondered about joining in at times but I don't think I can be consistent with either the to-do list itself or posting it daily or regularly. So I'd like to try that for one month and see how it goes. My challenge to myself with books is 1 book per day for a total of 31 books out by the end of the month and I will focus only on the library (former bedroom) and not the ones in my bedroom. The library is almost unusable with stacks (some toppled) of books everywhere and it could be such an enjoyable space. I have a comfy chair in there (somewhere) and a good reading light, small side table for coffee or a snack, plus there's a lot of natural light from a big bay window. Additionally, this will be a room where smoking is off-limits hence assisting me with some discipline in that area. If I can manage more than 31 books I'll be so pleased! Books are my very hardest things to declutter (not counting sentimental items, of which there are books involved too). My daily (hopefully) list of to-dos and ta-das will likely be all over the place and will without a doubt be hit and miss since I deal with unpredictable cycles of fatigue and insomnia that can greatly interfere with daily (or dead-of-the-night) activity. I do have daily "minimums" which are done without fail unless the fatigue or a general malaise is extreme. These include meditation, multiple (14) cat box scoopings, dishes, poop patrol, multiple (6-8) outdoor excursions with dogs, brushing at least two cats, and attending to any mail or phone calls. So these are what is understood as "minimums" which will appear on each list. So if this is an okay way to use this thread, I will run with it! Sample list of what I want to do today is below, along with the book challenge. To-do: Minimums 2 loads of laundry including dying a white set of sheets dark brown Clean two small windows in kitchen 10 minutes piling wood in basement Book Challenge: 0/31 Thanks for this challenge Diane! Good luck to participants goldenthreads, gaylem and joyinvirginia!   |
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Post by goldenthreads on Jul 3, 2021 9:50:59 GMT -5
My challenge to myself with books is 1 book per day for a total of 31 books out by the end of the month and I will focus only on the library (former bedroom) and not the ones in my bedroom. The library is almost unusable with stacks (some toppled) of books everywhere and it could be such an enjoyable space. I have a comfy chair in there (somewhere) and a good reading light, small side table for coffee or a snack, plus there's a lot of natural light from a big bay window. Additionally, this will be a room where smoking is off-limits hence assisting me with some discipline in that area. If I can manage more than 31 books I'll be so pleased! Books are my very hardest things to declutter (not counting sentimental items, of which there are books involved too). Oh, how lovely to have a library! I've seen pictures of your bedroom on your blog, and you have wonderful vision and design sense. May you take a lot of joy in unpeeling some dusty layers to get to the beauty beneath.
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Post by desposito on Jul 3, 2021 13:47:42 GMT -5
Hello mynicehome! I think your idea is a perfect way to use this thread! I love making to-do lists in the work-along thread, I can't tell you how many times I'm doing one of the things and then get distracted and have to come back to see what else I said I would do--they really keep me on track.
And oh, can I relate to the stacks of books everywhere. You are a kindred spirit in that regard. I have to say I'm much better now, although I still have boxes of books in the basement that I don't have room to display on the bookshelves that I have here in the house. And I also have some boxes that I intend to get rid of once I read them. I will watch with interest to see if you're able to let some books go, hopefully you can share your thought process and how you're able to decide. Although your minimums seem like enough to keep you busy.
Diane
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