Home Renewal Challenge

My Newest Project: Mind Alteration

2008-12-15T13:29:00.000-08:00

"The greatest discovery of my generation is that a human being can alter his life by altering his attitudes of mind."

-William James

Lately, I've been working on altering my attitude towards my home. So I was very happy to come across this quote. For now, I've decided it's fine. (Deep down it is driving me CRAZY, but...) Each day I tell myself that it's fine. My home can wait. I will have plenty of time in the future (hopefully, the NEAR future) to "renew my home", but not plenty of time to be with my young children and enjoy life with them. Until I have more time, I am working on altering my mind. It's fine, right? It's just fine. Mind altered. For now!

Isn't It Ironic...

2008-10-20T00:36:00.000-07:00

It's amazing that I was almost done with my Home Renewal Challenge. Every wall was washed, every piece of trim was wiped clean, the blinds were soaked and my house was dust free. It felt wonderful and then this happened...

The timing of everything is so ironic. Dontcha think?!

Tim's Office

2008-10-19T00:35:00.000-07:00

Tim's office only took two weeks to build, but for one of those weeks he was already working from home. It was a challenge. Refer to the picture with the Lifetime table setup with his computer. He was doing everything he could to get his work done. It seemed like the longest two weeks of my life! Tim is happy to have an office of his own where he can actually get some work done now!

Storage Room

2008-10-18T00:34:00.000-07:00

This is my favorite room in the house now. It's so beautiful I almost don't want to put anything on the shelves. There is nothing more gorgeous than limitless amounts of storage space with so much potential for organization, which is why I've done nothing with this space yet. I'm working on it. That is the next phase of my new "Home Renewal Challenge." It should be called, "Operation Clean Up Contractor's Mess." Those guys sure do know how to kick up some dust!

Unexpected Change of Plans...

2008-10-05T22:26:00.001-07:00

My Home Renewal Challenge is not going as I had planned, but how many things in life actually go as planned?! I have been derailed from my "original" Home Renewal Challenge plan. We unexpectedly and very suddenly found out that we needed to finish a room in our basement. Tim accepted a new job and will now be working from home. We currently have a home office, but it's next to the children's playroom. It works great for me, but would not work well for Tim. So, we are having someone finish a room in our basement for Tim's office. AND, the best part is that we are finishing our storage room (which is next to the office) at the same time. I'm very excited about this unexpected adventure in our lives. Tim needs his office done by next week (yeah right?!) I'll keep you posted with pictures and details about our new home project!

Our two rooms are now framed and insulated. We did the insulation ourselves and it was soooo easy! We'd love the rooms to be done by the end of this week, but that would be nearly impossible. Although, as you know, I LOVE a challenge!

Kitchen/Family Room Update

2008-09-13T17:38:00.000-07:00

I took a week off from my Home Renewal Challenge. I was working on updates in the Kitchen & Family Room, but did not "complete" my kitchen and family room areas. Who cares? I was so excited to get a few little minor details updated that I could care less if the rooms were even clean. (Can you tell that I'm burned out on this HRC...what was I thinking?) I rearranged some of my decorations, updated some pictures and bought some new floral stems, which are making me sooo happy! Also, we have a ton of wild sunflowers that grow in our neighborhood (unfinished lots). I went and picked some of these flowers so that I could have them in my vases.

Often times it's the simplest things that can change our homes so much.

Gift Closet

2008-09-08T17:23:00.000-07:00

I have a gift closet to store...gifts. I use this closet to also store anything relating to gifts such as; wrapping supplies, ribbons, bags, etc. I love having this closet so that I can buy things as I find them year round or when I see a great deal. I was happy to go through this closet and reorganize everything. It was getting so disorganized that I didn't know what I had anymore. My gift closet is back in working order now!

Basement Completed

2008-09-06T17:12:00.000-07:00

Our neighbors were having a Yard Sale and asked if everyone on the street wanted to join them. I decided to deviate from my original Home Renewal Challenge Schedule and "renew" the basement this week. I thought it would be a great time to get our basement taken care of and get rid of many things that we were not using. These pictures are definitely not exciting, but it's proof that I completed my challenge (and made a few extra bucks).

Here is our beautiful unfinished basement. I should have taken a "before" picture because there were a ton of toys scattered throughout the entire basement.

I was also able to make more room for food storage

I decided that I could finally throw away ALL of these binders with my college notes and assignments (Seriously, why did I hold on to these so long? They were very neatly organized!)

Here is everything that we had for the Yard Sale

Baby Room Completed

2008-08-30T17:01:00.000-07:00

The biggest thing that I wanted to accomplish in Cooper's Room was making it feel like it was Cooper's Room instead of Parker's Old Room (since it is exactly the same). My number one priority was to change all of the pictures in the frames. I still had some of Parker's pictures lingering in the frames. I was able to change all of the pictures in Cooper's Room and make a few little updates. I didn't need to do much deep cleaning since I just did this before his arrival. This was the easiest room to do thus far!

Boys Bathroom Completed

2008-08-23T13:52:00.000-07:00

This room was extremely easy...look how small it is! Also, it is the room that I am constantly scrubbing down because I have two boys using this bathroom...'nuff said! Also, there was not a single spot of paint that I had to touch up, which made me really happy. I love my boys bathroom. The blue on the walls is one of my favorite colors in my whole house. It's nice to work on a room that I'm actually satisfied with and don't want to change anything!

Master Bathroom & Closet Completed

2008-08-16T13:43:00.000-07:00

I did complete the Master Bathroom and closet on time, but I am late posting this. Sorry! It was so nice to scrub down everything in my bathroom. The one project that made me the most happy was cleaning my blinds. I took my blinds down and soaked them in Pinesol in the bathtub. I couldn't believe how filthy they were! It makes me so happy to open my blinds every morning and not see a layer of dust!

It was also nice to give my closet some love. I could easily go through my closet monthly and get rid of more things. It's so satisfying to let go of things that you are not using or wearing. I had three huge bags filled to take to the D.I.

Organizing Jewelry & Other Accessories

2008-08-12T15:15:00.000-07:00

One of the challenge participants asked how I organized my jewelry. First I must say that I LOVE JEWELRY, but I'm also very good about not having too much. I tend to keep a few things that are sentimental and the rest of my jewelry is pretty cheap, trendy items, so it's easy for me not to have too much.

I have this jewelry cabinet (that my father-in-law built for me) and I love it! I have one drawer of watches, two drawers of bracelets, a drawer of earings, a drawer of buttons and mending items, a hair accessories drawer, a makeup bag drawer, and a hair tools drawer. It is more than enough room to fit everything I need. Because my jewelry is so BIG right now, it's difficult to find containers that will fit them well, but this is what a few of my drawers look like:

Bracelets...

Earrings (I use an ice cube tray to organize my smaller earrings and rings)

I bought this coat rack because it was cheap, cute and would go well in my bedroom. After having it in my bedroom for a couple months with nothing on it, I decided that it would be a great place for my necklaces. I love using this to hang my necklaces. I also have a few hats hung on top.

Since I was posting about accessories, I thought that I would share the following idea for organizing hats I got from my younger sister. I just put some small nails in the wall and hung our hats on them. It works great and looks cute!

I use a hanging organizer (typically used for Men's ties) to hang my scarfs and belts

Cord Organizer

2008-08-10T18:06:00.000-07:00

This is one of my favorite products for organizing all those messy cords. I use a Velcro Cord Wrap to control all of my cords. This is something that is easy to do and easy to remove. I'm pretty sure that I just bought mine at a local office supply store. You can use these in every room of your home. This is something I did in my Master Bedroom. It works great!

Master Bedroom Completed

2008-08-09T17:54:00.000-07:00

I am happy to report that the first room in my Home Renewal Challenge is complete! Some aspects of this task were much easier than I expected and others were more difficult. Touching up the paint was so easy and I'm kicking myself for not doing it sooner. This was something that had been driving me crazy for months, but I thought it was going to be a much bigger ordeal than it actually was. Thanks to Tim this task was very easy. He did most of it!

Also, I needed to hem my bed skirt to fit on my bed properly. It was just one of those things that I never got around to doing after we moved in over 3 years ago. It took me two minutes to complete this task and it made me so happy!

Washing the walls and vacuuming underneath my bed was a much needed task that I accomplished. I had hundreds of feathers from our down feather pillows underneath our bed. It was great to get them all vacuumed up and off the floor!

There was no point in taking before and after pictures because you would never notice the difference, but I notice a huge difference and it feels so good to have this room sparkling clean again!

Home Renewal Challenge Update

2008-08-08T17:30:00.000-07:00

I've been consulting many of you over the phone or through e-mail. THANK YOU for your interest in this challenge. You have all given me the motivation I need to keep going. I would have given up on this crazy challenge the day after it started had it not been for all of you. So, in your honor, I have started a "Home Renewal Challenge" Blog. I will be putting weekly updates, tips, ideas or anything you suggest on this blog for all of you who are seeking help. Also, if you would like any questions answered, I can use this blog to answer them. I would love to use this as a community blog to let you post your pictures and updates. So, get your pictures posted and send me an update. I will link to your blog to show others what you are doing.

Where Do I Start?

2008-08-07T17:19:00.000-07:00

1. Make a Plan
Since, I've already laid out the plan for you, that should be easy! But, let me explain my plan so that you can adjust it to fit your needs.. Start with a room that will not be too overwhelming, but that will also bring satisfaction. For example, I started with my Master Bedroom because I've been wanting to touch up the paint on the walls for months. I knew that if I could tackle that project I would be so happy! However, the room was pretty clean, I didn't have any unfinished projects so I knew that it wouldn't be too overwhelming.

2. Combine Similar Tasks Together
I decided to work on my Master Bathroom the week after the Master Bedroom because it makes sense to clean and organize these rooms at the same time. I combined some of the tasks from each room, which means that I technically worked on both rooms for two weeks. I have clothes and jewelry in both rooms. Also, both rooms are painted red. Therefore, it just makes sense that I would combine these two tasks together and do them at the same time. So, the first week I did the painting and the second week I organized the clothes and jewelry.

3. Give Yourself a Break
After tackling such big projects I decided to do the Boys Bathroom next. This bathroom is the smallest room in our house. It is also already pretty clean and organized. I'm ALWAYS deep cleaning this room so I shouldn't have too much work to do. This will help me finish up any unfinished work from last week's projects or start working on some projects for next week. As you can see, the Boys Bathroom will be a welcome break after finishing my tasks from the previous two weeks!

4. Prioritize Your Projects
I try to look at each room and decide what three most important things I want to accomplish. In my Master Bedroom I really wanted to touch up my paint, wash off my dusty walls and wash all of my linens (especially the drapes). Therefore, I focused my efforts on getting these three tasks done.

5. Don't Waste Your Time
Don't work on tasks that you know you are going to do on a weekly basis. Focus on things that you know you won't ever "get around to." For example, I know that every week I am going to change my bed linens and dust my nightstands so I chose to focus on washing the walls first and touching up paint, which were tasks I knew were not a weekly priority for me.

6. Keep the "Big Picture" in Mind
Don't get frustrated if it's Saturday morning and you haven't even started on your Master Bedroom (that is supposed to be finished by midnight!!) Start working on a little project in that room and see if that helps get you motivated. If that doesn't help then move onto another project in your home that you want to do. Sometimes, just switching it up a little bit helps. In the end, the most important thing is that we get everything finished at the end of the 12 weeks. It doesn't matter what order we accomplish the tasks. It only matters that we are accomplishing tasks that will get us to the end result...a renewed home!

7. Stay Focused!
Although it's fine to deviate from the course now and then, it's important to stay focused on the task at hand. For example, I was working on my Master Bedroom and had some books that I needed to return to the bookshelves downstairs. However, when I got downstairs to the bookshelf I noticed that the bookshelf needed to be reorganized. I really wanted to start organizing the bookshelf, but I knew that would deviate me from my original task; the Master Bedroom, so I returned to the Master Bedroom knowing that I would get the bookshelves organized in a few weeks when my focus would be on that room. This is the reason we start with a plain. It's important to stay focused on the task at hand instead of being distracted by the many other projects that you have around you.

Are You Up For the Challenge?

2008-08-01T17:25:00.000-07:00

I need to challenge myself. Let's face it, who doesn't need to challenge themselves every once in awhile? My time has come. I'm out of motivation and I don't know what to do. You know when you hit that wall with your home when you feel like you're ready to just throw everything away and start over? That's where I am. Since I don't have thousands of dollars to spend "starting over," I thought of this challenge. I decided that if I could have my home feeling new again, or at least just clean, that I might be able to appreciate all that I have a little better. (I know that when I clean myself up I definitely like myself better!) I can always find something to complain about whether it's myself or my home. So, instead of complaining, I decided to do something about it. The following is my "Home Renewal Challenge":

I'm putting this on my blog so that I have some accountability. My husband is too nice. He's happy just to have a roof over his head so he won't care if any of this stuff is done. My children definitely don't care. However, I know that some of my friends and family out there might care and may even be up for the challenge.

Are you up for the challenge? Anyone want to join me? If so, please refer to my challenge, but make it your own. (You can click on the document and save it to your computer.) The only thing that must stay the same is the 12 week deadline. I made it 12 weeks so that I could continue to be a good wife and mother. I wanted this task to be something I could actually accomplish without letting everything else in my life fall by the wayside. I also gave myself a budget so that I wouldn't be tempted to redecorate every room. It was a way to remind myself that this challenge is about renewing what I already have!

I would love your feedback. Did I leave anything out? Any suggestions? I really don't want to do this alone so I'm hoping that some of you crazy people will want to join me. Blog stalkers, family, friends, anyone crazy enough can join me. I'm going to report my progress each week on my blog and I would hope that you would do the same. Also, for those of you who would like to join me, I'm going to throw a party at the end. After all that cleaning I need to reward myself (Have you seen the Arctic Circle commercial? It will be like that only we will have actually accomplished something). If you do the challenge I would like to reward you also. I will be throwing a party for anyone who does the challenge. Please join me or at least send me some motivation. I need all the help I can get right now!