Organize your Stuff (round 6): Week 2&3: Brainstorming & Cleaning

Wow, it looks like we survived Week 1 of Round 6 of the Organize your Stuff Challenge at Two Peas in a Bucket pretty well. The POW is so happy that so many of you have decided to take this journey with us! Creative Me is on the equivalent of a sugar high, as she did more creating in the last 8 days, than she has done in the last 6 weeks! So, space audit complete!

Housekeeping: We are going to try and post a layout and a card every week to keep you motivated, and challenge you to create something…anything… as well. Here is our layout for this week:

Well, it is time for the first tweak to the patented Zen Master Wookiemouse 29 Step Program. In the first 5 Rounds, the POW has noticed a few trends. First, that before Week 1, there are 40-60 people who will post their need to Organize. About half will show up for Week 1…figure out your problem areas, and Week 2…brainstorming. But, when it came time to actually start cleaning, suddenly the thread was dead. Everyone’s Inner Hoarder and PA Me suddenly found hall closets in need of cleaning and errands that needed running.

By virtue of your making it to Week 2, your inner cleaner (OCD Me in our case) has at least some control at this point. Before our Inner Hoarder and PA Me get too organized themselves and realize that we are going to put them to work, it is time to distract them with thinking up their dream space while The POW and OCD Me start straitening up.

Say what?! Week 2 is traditionally called Brainstorming week. In the past, that has meant that now we have our list of what works and what doesn’t, we now picture our perfect place and savor it so that we have direction to move forward. Channel your inner Martha Stewart, and plan your scrap space just like you plan the way that you are going to spend that winning Power Ball ticket… oh and take a picture of your space.

The picture is for you to realize how far you have come…when you are frustrated because you have realized that you have been Jedi mind tricked for 3 of the last 5 weeks and you are not sure that you have made ANY progress, and it might be just easier to give up. Do not give up! Pop in your copy of The Princess Bride (and if you don’t have it, you really need to rent it) and remember that you can be mostly dead all day, and still come back and save the day. Break out that picture and rejoice. At least one pile is missing.

Our Scrap Space:

Now, we told you that we were going to show you the good, the bad, and the UGLY. Here is our UGLY. Now, OCD Me really, really, really wanted to pick up before we shot this, but as we tell our kids… we will never lie to you (intentionally).

In our defense, PA Me LOVES the TLC show “Hoarders: Buried Alive” and this is her attempt to get a professional to come in and clean it for her. Really though, it is the downward spiral of having Fabulous Spouse activate and leave for Afghanistan the day after Christmas and then having very well trained children “saving” everything for their Dad. Lesson Learned: Do not let your Inner Hoarder in charge of the kids…. OCD Me is not blameless. When we cleaned any other part of the house, what we had no place for came in here… Since the POW was too busy keeping the house going, Creative Me barely had time to slip inside, except to make a card for The Front to send to Fabulous Spouse. Literally, it has been 9 months since we did a layout!

Week 3 is time to start cleaning. There is two versions of cleaning in the School of Wookiemouse Organization: Start Small/ Spot Clean and Go for Broke/ Clean Sweep. In Round 2 (our first round) we Went for Broke. If you can do that, it really does make the process easier. Your OCD Me will feel like she has conquered our Flat-surface-it is (thank you Barbara for that term!), and your PA Me will be able to ignore the boxes , and the Inner Hoarder will not get too upset because nothing has been purged yet.

We are Spot cleaning this time around…This is harder, because PA Me and the Inner Hoarder keep reminding OCD Me that there are SO many piles, and so much more to do, that she might as well give up now. Again, do not give up. That is why we are doing this as a group. If nobody else does, we have your back! The only consolation with the clean as you go method is that Creative Me knows where everything is, and with the Clean Sweep method she tends to get more frustrated.

Review:
1.Think of your perfect Scrap Space (ours has a full service bar, a maid, and a nanny on staff)
2.Take a picture (you can link it in below)
3.Decide if you are going small or going big (and start to box up if going big)
4.Create something…always remember to keep Creative Me happy…she has the immunity idol and is essential to not getting OCD Me voted off the island!

Link in for anything Week 2/3 you want to share :)

Organize your Stuff: Week 3 (round 4): WOYWW & Clean Slate Part 1

Quick post this morning…or we will never get it in! Sorry for no Tuesday post. Will you forgive us? It has been crazy here with just Awesome Auntie and myself here wrangling cats…er… kids. Somehow PA Me has moved this down the priority list below feeding children, tying shoes, making sure that dogs get let out and the WMD stops crying… So needless to say, Marry Poppins, we promise to be good, if you would take us off the black list! Please!!!

Here is my WOYWW work desk.  Visit the Stamping Ground to see the list of other WOYWW desks! Do you see the dust settling and the lone cricket chirping? This photo is the first time that we have stepped foot in here since our layout. Goodness!

future wrestling layout

Thickers for future camping layout

The POW promised pictures of our new Thickers to the ladies at the Organize Your Stuff thread at Two Peas in a Bucket, and so here they are:

As for this week, this is where we start the real cleaning process. Will you go for broke and box up all your stuff, and put it back a week at a time? Or just tackle it as you go? This round we will be cleaning and tweaking as we go. However, in Round 2 we did Go for Broke and box up everything, and it really did help us A LOT! (link here to see my Clean Slate Go for Broke entry). 

Next on our plate, science fair!  (Save us!!!)

Organize your Stuff (round 3): Week 3-Clean Sweep or Start Small

OK.  I am trying to learn...Instead of just taking a picture, I scanned my layout for the first time.  There is no stitch function for my scanner, so I had to import it into MS Publisher, so don't look too close at the lines (OCD Me is very embarassed and did not want it posted, but the POW thinks that it looks better, and she is ultimately in charge).  Here is the layout that I failed to bring you yesterday. It is my entry for Dixie Pieces Glee Club Challenge Week 1: Classic Rock-The Beatles. I thought OCD Me was going to coronary over the lack of photos-due to Costco. However, Fabulous Spouse came to the rescue, and went to a different Costco after work to pick up photos for me. We love you!!!

As a side challenge from Dixie Pieces…and we all know the POW loves a challenge… We could also use a word from the title in a card for bonus points. Girl Friday has been doing the wheels on the bus at school all week and helped me with this one (she is the little blond button in the back).

As for the Round 3 of the Organize your stuff Challenge, this time I am “going small”. Realizing that “going small” in my universe is kind of an oxymoron (you know…jumbo shrimp, military intelligence, mandatory fun), but I did try hard last round. Therefore, I am convinced that this time around that it will be more of a tweaking process… or at least that is what I keep telling myself. So, Next week is paper… let’s see how it goes!

Organize your Stuff Challenge: Week 3 Clean Slate

Ok. So far, not so bad. Create a layout, make some lists, win the imagination lottery and create the Scrapbook room of your dreams.

This week started Week 3: Clean Slate. So, I went to Wookiemouse's blog, read all about this week's challenge...and the fact that we were going to hate her by the end of it, and was left with the really easy decision... start small or go for broke. No Brainer! Go for broke! I need to be firmly and irrevocably entrenched in this dining room before my fabulous spouse realizes football season is over and he can more easily move my stuff up stairs, then I can move mountains and get the rest of my crap...er...essential scrapbooking supplies downstairs. I do not hate you Zen Master Scrapbooker. This is not hard.

As a bargain with fabulous spouse, I have promised to do a minimum one layout a week during this hostile takeover of the dining room, along with the week's organizational activity...it is like that fine print with Rumpelstiltskin... and next time I get your first born child... Ok, I have been a mom long enough to realize that might not be such a bad thing (just kidding oldest child. Really.). But, fabulous spouse knows that in addition to being a member of the Scrap Addicts Guild, that I am unfortunately also a member of Procrastinators Anonymous (hello, my name is Scrappnbee and I have a...oohhh, shiny object...anybody see that show last night...) I digress. He is afraid that I would use this challenge as an excuse not to create, or creating as an excuse not to organize. But that is why I have you all!

Here is my layout for this week (done before clean slate-ing, because I know where everything is, even if others would need tracking dogs). I even got to use my new glitter rub-ons (yeahh!) ...That was Friday night.

Saturday, fabulous spouse "sent me to my room" with the promise of no commercial interruptions by children, and a cup of coffee. Wow. Um, yeah. Can I have a hall pass? ...I'll get you Wookiemouse. YOU and your little dog too. This is WAY too overwhelming. Ok, now I know officially know how my kids feel when I say "Just go upstairs and clean your room."... and I get the look that says, I will do anything, anything...just don't make me do THAT. I'll eat vegetables...please!

I am a big girl. I AM wearing my big girl panties. So, I girded my loins, cowboy-ed up, picked a corner and started. Ten minutes later I stopped.

You see I had run out of space to put things in piles. This is bad. Then I looked at my piles...

Ribbons

Flowers

Beads

Eyelets
Brads

...whoa Tiger! Put that inner OCD away! If I remembered correctly (and trust me, my mantra is: If I knew I would lose this many brain cells having children, I'd have had more fun in college... so my memory does not always serve me right), there was an embellishment and a ribbon week in my future, but not a flower week or a bead week.

So, downstairs I went, and I found some post it notes and the master week list from the message board and decided that I was only sorting by Wookiemouse's categories... at the appropriate time OCD Scrappnbee can have full reign and go to town. However, today is not that day, else it will take me to week 7 to complete week 3!

All right! Back to work. Pile by pile I had a plan and I was ready to go! Fabulous spouse would come up and check every so often, just to make sure I hadn't started doing something inappropriate with the decorative scissors, and to ply me with caffeine.

As work progressed, I did come to the realization that some things were category-less...

1. Adhesive. I mean seriously! I have at least 3 sizes of Xyron (and their cartridges), Zip dry, Tombo, Hermafix, glue dots, dry adhesive, wet adhesive, refills. So, I created a bonus post-it for this (and will tackle on a non-event week for me...like templates (sorry template lovers, I missed that craze)).

2. Mini-albums. These are not projects/kits/ whatever... that behemoth has already had to be moved twice as it has grown. These are small, blank Chipboard books, tag books, Target $1 books, you know the completely blank little book for when you are either drafted by co-workers, or compelled by school/ scouts to "create" something scrapbook-y. Wow. They have been busy in the dark and multiplied like bunnies....fertile bunnies.

3. Misc/other/ etc...what category do shrinky dinks go in? Unused page protectors? album protectors?

Like the Karate Kid following Mr. Miagi (I am sorry if this dates me and makes me old) I toiled all day long. I even got to the two boxes I had not even opened since moving in 2008...which meant moving the Scrapbook Room TV...which was actually in my bedroom, as I never worked in my Scrapbook Room, and would watch my DVR in bed!

It was boring. It was tedious. It was not as I thought when I went up in the morning, definitely not as bad as giving birth...no cool drugs afterwards though....In the end, I had proverbally waxed on, waxed off... I could not yet do the crane... but I was progressing. Oh! and in my piles of memorabilia (I totally plan on taking a bottle of wine up with me for that week....) I did find a baseball (yes a baseball) that my then 4 year-old oldest child caught in SC, and American Express travellers checks from a vacation in 1999...yes $40 from 1999. It is a good thing that American Express didn't go down in the banking crisis... oooh scrapbooking money. If only it was a fertile as those mini albums *sigh*.

Ok, Wookiemouse. You are still fabulous, your dog is safe. This is doable, one piece at a time. I am still a neophyte in the world of Scrapbooking Organization. Oh, and here is my After... Original Scrapbook Room post-clean slate!