I am messy. I am not a born-organized kind of person. Things around me are not dirty (I don’t like dirty), but there is clutter. There are piles all around my desk and all over my husband’s desk and on top of the file cabinet and on my bedside table. Things stack up on the table just inside the front door, on the buffet in the kitchen, on most any flat surface.
My sweetie and I don’t mind this for the most part. It drives my mom-in-law and my daughter nuts, but we can always find what we need. Stuff is all filed choronogically and geographically. It’s like this: I had it yesterday and I was on the computer so it must be near the top of this stack over here.
I’m not making excuses. I’m just stating the facts. I try to be organized and I can’t keep it up. If I go it all at once, I get burnt out. If I try to take it slow and easy, I get bored. So, compared to my house 5 years ago, I have more stuff (mostly more kid stuff), but it is getting less cluttered and more organized one project at a time. Once I get something done it usually isn’t too hard to hang onto it (except for those flat spaces in the common areas – they ALWAYS collect ALL the paper that comes into the house).
The highlight for me was redoing our master bedroom. We wanted a more romantic place that was a haven for us. It is LOVELY! We did it last April. Put down laminate flooring, painted it bold, deep colors (scarlet’s velvet and geneva blue with water chestnut accents). I made new curtains and a cover for my vanity stool. We painted the baseboards, the door, the closet doors and all the trim. Then I put up black and white ‘romantic’ posters. It’s SO pretty.
Well, it WAS so pretty.
Because I loved the space so much, I was very careful with it. I kept it clean and uncluttered. I had moved all but a few books out of the room (off the bedside tables).
The dresser and vanity were completely clear, except for our alarm clock, a wedding photo of us and our jewelry boxes (do guys call them jewelry boxes?). Our headboard was covered with candle holders and nice candles. The closet was clean and the doors always closed nicely.
But slowly things got away from me. A few clothes that I needed to mend, a pair of pants I could wear again without washing, it’s-11 o’clock-and-I’m-too-tired-and-hurting-to-put-away-that-last-load-of-laundry pile… it all began to stack up. NOW, I can honestly say that every day before my surgery our bed was made, complete with lovely cushions. At least IT was nice. Other places began to pile up a bit.
I even hate to admit that, but it did. Our nice calm, beautiful, spacious bedroom slowly became a little less romantic, a little less of a haven, and a little more of a stuff-everywhere place.
So, I am already wanting to reclaim our master bedroom. I’ve wanted to do it for a while now. It can be and has been such a wonderful room. I LOVE IT! And I came across a contest to give me a little bit of incentive to tackle this project.
30-Day Organizational Challenge
From “I’m an Organizing Junkie”:
What is the 30 Day Organizational Challenge?
Your challenge is to organize one room and/or one area in your home over the next 30 days and at the end of the 30 days post both the “before” and “after” pictures on your blog with a brief description of how you got from point A to point B. I will also provide specific questions for you to answer. You may enter one or both categories if you’d like.
I actually took these photos (the messy “before” ones) on the 3rd and meant to get them up right away because I’ve done a bit of work in there already. This is the project I’m going to be working on for the month of November. I’m healing still so I have to go slow (I’m so glad I have the rest of the month to do this), but I’d like this room to be back in it’s glorious beautiful best state before the end of the month.
As part of the contest I’ll be posting my “after” shots at the end of the month.
I’m excited to reclaim this room. My sweetie and I are very romantic as a general rule (and by “romantic” I don’t JUST mean sexual…) and we often enjoyed retiring early to our room just to spend some time together. Maybe having our ‘space’ back will inspire us to do that again. It’s one of the important things we read about during our premarital mentoring that we’ve always tried to make a priority. I recently read about it again in an article by Michael Webb, author of 50 Secrets of Blissful Relationships (and at least 10 other powerful marriage resources). Having our master bedroom back the way we like it is a small thing we can do to help our relationship – and we’ll probably sleep better without all the clutter, too! We may reclaim the master bedroom in more ways than one!
To see the rest of the story go to the follow-up post – Master Bedroom Reclaimed!
