I’ve been working on this room, honestly, for years. I get it cleaned up for some event when I want people to be able to get to the bathroom in the back corner, and then before I know it, it is a disaster again.

So what’s different this time? I hope it’s me that’s different. In this process I’m going through to change my slobbish ways, I’m doing my best to stay focused. My daily tasks are how I am doing it. And since I’m in this for the rest of my life, I’ve been working slowly but surely on this room, even though I don’t have a “reason.” I want it to be a livable room that makes me love my home.

Here’s what it looked like at the beginning of last week:

And this was TONS better than usual. Having clear floor space was my idea of “good enough to let someone see it.”

I am not done by any means. It’s going to look bad until I get the wallpaper totally removed and paint it. It’s ugly, but for today, I’m okay with ugly. I’ve always been the one who liked the ugly puppy best. I love to see potential, but I couldn’t see the potential with all of the clutter.

Here it is now:

It isn’t perfect, but the disaster areas are gone. The desk is great. The shoe cabinet is good other than the pile of “to be returned” items. The bed looks great. The back corner may have stuff, but it’s generally organized stuff.

Today I finished “the chair.” The funky blue chair that I’ve been forbidden to ever get rid of because my mom stripped black lacquer off of it after we found it at a garage sale. Have you ever stripped black lacquer? Apparently, it’s a very difficult and messy job. I dream that this chair will be a perfect place for my kids to sit when they come to talk to me while I’m on the computer. If you notice in the before pic, there are two little bitty chairs that they had dragged in. I think this one is more welcoming.

It is official. You can walk into this room, and I won’t have a heart attack.

Go me!

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