It has been a month since I declared my intention to redo my
front room. I wish I could say I was
really productive during January, but alas I did not make much progress. I will get into some new pictures and the
actual progress report in the moment, but first a little self-defense. The first excuse I have is that January was a
tough month for me. If you follow my
blog, then you already know that January was the quarter close and we had a
huge blizzard. Work and snow-shoveling
took much of my weekend time that could otherwise have gone to working on the
front room. The second defense I have is
that the room actually got worse than the original pictures. We did Christmas with my stepson after I took
the January photos, so I had more boxes and toys scattered across the floor
than what was shown. So while I did
actually spend some time cleaning, it was more clearing the new stuff than
working on the existing mess. Now that
the excuses are out of the way, we can move on to the comparisons.
The first picture is the January 2016 picture, the second
the February version. I did actually
throw away some of the boxes that were already broken down and laying on the
floor of the room. I also broke down
most of the remaining boxes but have not yet removed them from the
room. I did intentionally keep a couple
boxes that were a good size for me to pack and move stuff as needed. I also intentionally kept the kitties’
favorite boxes. These will probably
eventually go, but I did not want to deprive them before I needed to do
so. I know this section does not show
much progress, but honestly I will probably focus more on the other half of the
room first anyway.
Again, the first one is January and the second
February. This also does not show a lot
of improvement. I did clear up a few things
that did not belong in this room from the floor area. I also went through many of the things on my
desk. This does not make a big difference
in the picture, but it does represent dealing with a bunch of documents that I
had put aside to read “later”. I have
several stacks of paperwork on this side of the room that need to be sorted
through and either filed for safekeeping or trashed. I have come to the conclusion that I need to
surge ahead with some planning and decision-making first. It will be a lot easier to deal
with the paperwork and other stuff in the boxes along the wall, if I have
shelves and file cabinets to store kept items as I go through them. Right now, I feel more like I am moving
things around than cleaning them up.
The new picture actually looks worse than the first because
there are more jackets and shirts hung on the posts. I tried to move some things into the closet,
but they all migrated back out as they were worn. Until I figure out something to organize
seasonal coats, I think this area is likely to continue to be messy.
This is the one area that I actually did make progress. I went through everything that was in the
closet. A good portion went back into
the closet: the coats, the bin full of
hats and gloves, the outdoor games, etc.
Everything that did not belong in the closet was taken to the
appropriate place, like the utility room or the upstairs closet. The big black bag that was in the shoved in
there was actually full of garbage. Can
you believe I have had a bag of garbage in my closet for almost two years? Luckily, it was mostly packing materials and
paper, so it was not smelly and disgusting.
This is now sitting by the front door and will go out with this week’s
trash. I do want to move some shoes from
upstairs down to this closet. I also
will eventually need to figure out proper organization solutions so I can get the
cardboard box out of there. I probably
will not go back to this space until later in the project though after I have
completed some of the otherareas.
That wraps up my progress report. It might not have been an extremely
productive January, but at least I started.
For February, I am going to focus on the office area. I will continue to sort through some of those
boxes of paper. I also need to start
making some decisions on design so I can get furniture ordered. Hopefully, next month’s progress report will
be more exciting.
See you next week!
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