I’m continuing to work in the office this week. I cleared off the daybed today, and that made the entire room look so much better. I had cleared major chaos out of the back corner, and cleaned off the desk, but for some reason, clearing off the daybed makes a much bigger impact. I had to point out the other two things to my husband last week, but he just now walked in to grab the cellphone he had left at home, and said, “Wow, you’ve been working hard today.”
Really, it was an incredibly quick job. I think it took less than 20 minutes. The main time-consumer was taking broken glass out of a frame. This is one of the things that grieves me about my lack of organization. I’ve been removing wallpaper in this room for at least six months. I had taken down all of my framed showposters to do this. I thought that I had put them in a place where they would be safe, but clutter got piled around them, then on top of them, and they were forgotten in the midst of the mess. The glass on one was shattered. I get so frustrated when my prized possesions take the fall. It was probably hidden from view by some too-small pair of pants, thrown on that daybed to be considered for ebay “later.” So, the prized items and the clutter all become one and everything suffers.
I have rehung all of the framed posters. They don’t look great on the unfinished walls, but at least they are safe.
I was thinking as I worked, that I am a collector of great ideas. As a creative person, I love to hear ideas. This room could be the place where these ideas become reality. It is a room where I could sew, paint, anything.
Instead, it is the room where great ideas come to die. As I worked, I found so many things. I found fun learning games to play with my kids. I found craft supplies. I found recipes collected from who-remembers-where and thrown on the bed as I entered the house, instead of making it to the kitchen where they could be brought to life. All of these things have value if they are used. They have no value if I can’t find them.
Here’s the daybed before:
And after:
Now that I know what an impact this item makes in the room, I have to keep it free of clutter. It will be part of my daily 5-minute check.
"Instead, this is the room where great ideas come to die." I love that line. I have several rooms where that is true. My kitchen – where the great recipes I find get lost in the pile of recipes to try and lost in the clutter of miscellaneous other paperwork. My family room/dining room/office – where crafty ideas get lost in the stack of mail, books and miscellaneous coloring books and other projects from the kids. Yes. My kids are learning my messy habits too. Ugh. That is my motivation for getting my slob-self rehabilitated. I do not want them to grow up thinking this is normal.
LOL! No offense, but unless I looked really closely I wouldn’t have even realized that was a daybed without you having said so. It looked sort of like a table that for some reason was draped with a bedspread instead of tablecloth.
Not judging you though – my house has plenty issues of its own. :-S
Now I know I’m a slob because I didn’t think the before picture looked that bad…..
I thought the same thing!
I know I’m late to the party, but I’m reading you backwards as you suggested, and I just have to let you know that you have been such a blessing to me! I feel like I can breathe easier because I have discovered that I am not alone; I am not even all that unique in the way I think and the way I’ve been living. Thank you for opening yourself up, sharing your journey, and being an inspiration to others. I have made progress too, as I’ve been reading your blog, and it is the first time I’ve felt encouraged this way. I’m so much like you, apparently, and if you can make the changes, so can I!
In the house we just moved from, I, too, had a ‘room where great ideas come to die’. It was my office/craft room too. Now I have to figure out how to store all my craft stuff in a hall closet. EEK! In the previous house, that room was also the dumping room when we did the ‘quick clean’ (i.e. hiding all the clutter in the living room and dining area) when we had company coming over, so it became unusable. 🙁 Right now most of the stuff from that room in our garage and I have to be methodical about going through it and deciding what comes into the house and what doesn’t since I have such limited space. And I have to decorate for the holidays now too (I’m a little late to that game this year). I am looking forward to continuing through your blog. Your plight speaks to my desperate slob soul! Thank you!