30 Day Laundry Room Organizational Challenge Final Final Update

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Laundry Room a catch all Room, March 2007

Laundry Room at the beginning of 30 Day Organizational Challenge

Laundry Room at the end of 30 Day Organizational Challenge

NOTE: I originally wrote my final report on Saturday, April 28th, before the final report rules were posted. Therefore, below is part of that report and the additional answers to the 5 questions (skip down to the RED part to just see the answers).

Total Expense during 30 Day Challenge: $176.28

Plan of Attack at the Beginning of Challenge:
Overall Goal: Remember that there should be a place for everything and everything should be in its place. To be able to use the laundry room as it was intended for and not for a catch all room. (Currently, I fold all my clothes on my dining room table.)
1. Find a place for the unused toys and clear out the floor area.
2. Sort and organize through the paperwork on the countertop and develop a system to address paperwork immediately.
.....Goal: Keep countertop clean so that it can be used for folding clothes.
3. Set up a place to organize craft items.
4. Attack the closet.

Actions Taken to Accomplish Goals:
1. Find a place for the unused toys and clear out the floor area.
- Sorted through toys and determined what to keep and what to give away
.....For toys we kept:
.....- Purchased garbage bags
.....- Covered toys with garbage bags to protect from the weather
.....- Transfer toys to garage
.....For toys to be given away:
.....- Photographed each toy and put it up for sale on an online yardsale
.....- At the end of the month, if no one purchases toys, the toys will then be given for free on FreeCycling
.....- Currently toys are stored in garage, organized in bins
- Purchased a basket for recycling paper that we just threw on the floor

2. Sort and organize through the paperwork on the countertop and develop a system to address paperwork immediately.
.....Goal: Keep countertop clean so that it can be used for folding clothes.
- Separated new paperwork from old paperwork
New paperwork:
- Developed a weekly "outbin" to be addressed once a week
.....- Papers are either filed, trashed, or referred to DearHubby to address
Old paperwork:
- Rough sorted through old paperwork and purchased bins
- Currently old paperwork bins are stored in laundry room closet for further fine sorting and filing (another 30 Day Challenge for myself)

3. Set up a place to organize craft items.
*Note: Craft & office supply items and magazines were stored in bins on countertop.
- Purchased 2 shelves and hung shelves up below laundry room windows
- Purchased containers for craft & office supply items
- Placed craft & office supply items on shelves
- Purchased binders and sheet protectors for magazine articles
- Tediously went through each magazine in bin and tore out all the articles I am interested in reading
- Each monthly edition was stored in a sheet protector and placed in binders
.....- One large magazine storage bin down to 3 binders

4. Attack the closet.
- Removed everything from closet
- Trashed what I didn't need
- Set aside items for FreeCycling or for Sale
- Made a list of items to be stored and made a list of bins that needed to be purchased
- Purchased storage bins and re-filled closet

5. Miscellaneous details.
- Purchased a hook and hung a laundry bag on DearDaughter's door to place her dirty laundry in
.....- The dirty laundry used to be placed on top of the dryer
- Determined a way to display DearDaughter's handprints
.....- We made a set of DearDaughter's handprints when she was 6 months old and set them on the window sill to dry, but never found a place or way to display them and they sat on the sill for almost a year
- Organized cabinets under the counter
- Purchased a Spacebag to compress sheets and sleeping bag and stored them under bed
.....- A friend gave me a set of sheets a few months ago, but I never washed them because I didn't know how to store them and I left them unwashed in the laundry room
- Cleaned utility sink
.....- Never cleaned sink before because we could never reach it due to items being in front of it
- Cleaned up plant
.....- Never took care of plant before because I didn't see any use in it since the laundry room was so disorganized

1. What was the hardest part of the challenge for you and were you able to overcome it?
The hardest part of the challenge for me was deciding which things to keep and which things to give away or even trash. DearHubby and I do not have much or much money and so we like to keep things for its potential future use or future profit.

I can't say that I've completely overcome this challenge, but I am working on it. I'm learning that something doesn't have any value just sitting around and so action needs to be taken in order for DearHubby and I to see its value put to use. I'm also learning that if it's going to sit around for a long time, then we're wasting its value. Those were the 2 things I kept in mind as I purged the laundry room. I haven't completely overcome this challenge because I need to learn how to part with items that are sentimental to me and that's the part I'm working on.

2. Tell us what kind of changes/habits you have put into place in order for your area/room to maintain its new order?
The initial cause of the clutter was not having a home for any of the items that were in the laundry room. The Organizational Challenge forced me to look at each item, determine its value of keeping, trashing, or giving away and then if I kept it, I needed to determine how and where to keep it.

The other cause for clutter was accumelation of paperwork and I have developed a system where I address paperwork weekly so that paperwork does not accumelate. (see comments above)

3. What did you do with the "stuff" you were able to purge out of your newly organized space?
I trashed some stuff, stored some other stuff in the garage, and the rest I either put up for sale on an online yardsale or put up for free on FreeCycling. Those things that don't sell in a month will then be posted for free on FreeCycling.

4. What was the biggest lesson you learned from this experience?
- I learned how to part with items I didn't need, either by trashing them or by giving them away
- I learned that even if something is temporarily being stored in a room, it's best to give it a home to keep it organized
- I learned that an organized room allows me to even attack the smaller details and organize them
- I learned that organizing a room motivates me to keep it organized because I know how much work went into getting it organized and I don't want it to get out of control again .....
- Having the laundry room organized makes me want to keep up with the laundry and not have it pile up

5. Now that you have completed the PROCESS, do you think having and keeping your space organized will make a difference in your life?
YES!!! I am grateful for this organizational challenge. It truly helped me develop a process to organize a room and I am taking what I learned and am now moving on to my next room for my own personal 30 Day Organizational Challenge. I used to be a Manufacturing Engineer and my job used to be looking at processes on the factory floor and "organizing" the floor space and process to make it more efficient. With that background in place, the organizational challenge gave me the motivation to take a specific area in my own home, look at its process, and create a space where the process flows efficiently. As I worked on my laundry room project, the main thought I kept in mind was what the room was initially intended for and the goal was to organize that room for its purpose. Now that the room is organized for its purpose, doing laundry is so much easier and since I had the space for it, I was able to set up homes for crafting items and supplies too and now the room is a combined laundry/craft room

Slide shows were not allowed on the Final report, but if you're interested in seeing in process pictures and more detailed after pictures, you may see the slide show on my original final report! Posting pictures on Blogger was such a chore and it took a lot of time just getting this final report to look just so with just the 5 pictures, which is why I gave up on showing more.