Ready, Set, Go...
So Saturday it was raining. Mr. L was away on business. I had no other plans. (In case you ever fall under the misconception I have some fabulous life, this is proof I've fooled you all!) It was time to get cracking. You might be thinking to yourself 'well, that doesn't look so daunting'. Ha! While its true the room is small, it was full of all the misc stuff that never found a home in our unpacking thus far - essentially things too important to throw away but didn't have a home. Lots of little bits that had to be sorted through one by one like old photographs, design samples, hardware, accessories, etc.
1 hour later
I just moved out all the big stuff first. Not put away, mind you - just moved it out so I could walk around in here without toe stubbing.
2 hours later
I got down on the floor and went through all the little boxes bit by bit. Looking through old photos: fun. Picking through the rest of the crap: not so much.
3 hours later
After 3 hours sorting in the room, I moved on to the rest of the house to drop things off in their permanent home. That took the better part of the day. By nightfall, it was done. Ahhh..
the next morning
I realize this just might be the world's most boring blog post but Im so pleased to cross this off the list. I've been putting it off for way too long. Took the whole day but I can finally use this room for something productive (more on that in future posts). Best of all, I don't have to make excuses when I give guests a house tour and conveniently leave this door closed.
So if you are putting off this kind of task, I'm going to push you to go ahead and get it done. You'll be so happy to have it off your to-do list. What is your secret shame?
Love the chair!
ReplyDeleteWhat are your plans for this room?
My secret shame must be our master bedroom - a furniture set, beige walls, and a comforter I've had for years because I can't decide on a new one. The worst part is I don't even know what I want to do with it.
GREAT chair! Success is YOURS!!! I need to do the same to my studio area... le sigh... I have no drive to do it!
ReplyDeleteit can be so much work, but de-cluttering is sooo satisfying. good job! and i also can't wait to hear your plans for this room!
ReplyDeletethis post made me feel better lol. I love cleaning, its my vice in a world that has too much clutter! It looks wonderful, and I bet you feel a lot better. I have one of these rooms, its an office- er. That is it will be when I get the funds to buy the schnazzy furniture I have picked out for it. For now it is doomed to be box city.
ReplyDeleteAhh, so glad other people have these rooms! Mine is the downstairs guest bedroom, where everything gets shoved. (Except mine looks way worse than yours did!) I have such grand ideas for decorating that room, but just can't ever seem to get motivated to clean it out.
ReplyDeleteLooks lovely! I love de-cluttering and cleaning. I swear it's an illness, but the "before and after" pictures are mildly thrilling. Makes me feel like I've done something with my day!
ReplyDeleteGood for you. I have a 4th bedroom/office that is in the same shape. The before and after pics were inspiring.
ReplyDeleteCar trunk
ReplyDeleteThat is amazing! You should submit it to Unclutterer. It looks great!
ReplyDeleteBeautiful room! I can't wait to see what you do with it!
ReplyDeleteMy babies woke me up at 5:30 this Saturday and then they went back to sleep and I couldn't, so I cleaned out/organized my craft supplies. SOOOO glad I did, because I found paint, brushes and stencils that I didn't even know I had but that I needed for an upcoming project!
I'm so glad to hear you had this kind of room too! Ours is the "office" (which is only considered one because it has the computer desk), but really it's a room full of crap that I can't throw away but doesn't have a home!
ReplyDeleteCongrats on getting yours cleaned up! This did give me a little bit of a push, so maybe I can tackle my shame soon. Can't wait to see what you do with your new space!
Congrats on tackling this project. I plan on tackling a similiar one this week...our closet! It's absolute kaos in there right now, not condusive to figuring out what to wear in the morning when I'm half asleep.
ReplyDeleteGreat job...but where did you hide it all?? xv
ReplyDeleteWhat a pretty little room, and it seems to have a great street view, too. It must be happy to be free of the chaos.
ReplyDelete(I say this, as I dawdle at filing months of mess in my home study.)
Must feel good :) I can't wait to hear what you've got up your sleeve for this room.
ReplyDeleteMy shame - my evergrowing magazine pile that I need to go through.
My shame is my den. My house is only 630 sqare feet and I have an entire room that I can hardly set foot in. It's SO my shame.
ReplyDeleteThank your for giving me some real motiviation!
Just one secret shame?? That's hard! We have an 8'x 8' third bedroom that is completely stuffed with odds and ends, papers, furniture... who knows what else. I close and look the door whenever we have a guest, I am so embarrassed! You have really inspired me to get cracking on that room. I can remember what it looked like when it was empty and all clean- I'd really like to see that again :)
ReplyDeleteOur guest room (also our littlest room) served the same purpose for several months after we moved in. I had to close the door when people came over, and ultimately my embarrassment led me to bite the bullet and get it done. There are a few things that just moved from that room to another and haven't been dealt with yet. Maybe this weekend!
ReplyDeleteWe were still unpacking the house when the inlaws came over to see the place...2 years ago. We stuffed a bunch of boxes/bins in one of the guest closets and we have put nothing in its proper place that lives in that closet. I'm absolutely doing that this week!
ReplyDeleteIt must feel good to be able to leave the door open and to have a blank slate ready to be filled. I still can't get over how gorgeous your house is, even when there are boxes covering the floors you still can see the beauty!
ReplyDeleteMy hat is off to you. We lived in our last house for two years and I am well acquainted with the box room. Granted, we were in a perpetual state of demolition and construction but oh it drove me mad. I finally(!) got it put together the week before the house went on the market, it sold quickly, and we moved. I never got to enjoy the room. Now I have box room #2 to deal with in our new place. It's on my agenda as well. I think you have inspired me though. We'll see how much I can get done this afternoon! Sorry for the long comment.
ReplyDeleteGosh isn't organizing satisfying and daunting all at the same time? We'll since we are only 6 weeks into our new home we have a bit too much clutter in many areas of our home. The worst however, has to be what will become my new home office. I've been tackling it bit by bit the last week or so...it's getting better. So now what are you going to do with your newly cleared out room?
ReplyDeleteI had one of those rooms in England. Having no basement or attic really made it hard to have too much stuff in a too small home! My biggest goal is that when we move into our new house, get everything into a place for it, and make sure it stays!
ReplyDeleteYou did great, moving far quicker than I would have, and the room looks so bright and airy now!
This was so not boring...I totally did the same thing this past weekend. It was actually raning in Texas, so I started organizing.
ReplyDeleteI actually liked this post. :) It was encouraging to see what you can accomplish when you don't let yourself be distracted by, I don't know, DVR'd shows and trips to Target. If I could get a weekend at home with my kids at one of the grandmas', I'd be able to get some stuff done. I think. ;)
ReplyDeleteMy secret shame is our guest room closet. It's the dumping group for everything from off-season clothing to boxes of old photos to my husband's wet suit to my gift wrapping supplies. It was organized once upon a time but it's a disaster now. I'm making that my goal for this week...clean up my messy closet!
ReplyDeleteOMG thank you for making me feel better about my (newly renamed) Secret Shame Room... we moved 3 months ago, and its been haunting me as everyone wants to come see "the new house" and I conveniently leave that room closed... but you're right, just taking a day to get it done would make me feel good... thank you for the inspiration (as always!!)
ReplyDeleteIt's now the chair one sees, have you decided its fate?
ReplyDeleteJanell
it's safe to say my "secret shame" is my entire house :-) we live in "the shoebox"- as i like to call it for two reasons- it's a capecod so it's small like a shoebox and laid out like a shoebox (a long rectangle) and two- it's our storage house for when we move into a bigger house (i've collected GREAT things- clawfoot tub, letterpress, map files, etc that just don't work in the small confines, but will be fabulous when we have a bigger house- i.e. space).
ReplyDeleteso we just don't invite anyone over and if we do, no one is allowed in the front bedroom :-)
one of these days i'll get to it...
Bravo, you have given me inspiration I moved in March and the house that I am so lucky to have a garage to put my car in. But it is full with boxes and stuff I have yet to deal with. Thank you for the push.
ReplyDeleteThanks everyone! I need to reupholster the chair but Im being cheap. I just don't want to spend $400 on this project and I can't seem to get that price down by much (including pretty cheap fabric..if I get anything fancy, its even more)
ReplyDeleteMy secret shame? Instead of having a box room there is literally a corner in every room of my house with the exception of the kids room that has "stuff" I need, want, verdict still out - yet I don't know what to do with or where to put it. Drives me bananas. But this post gives me hope. Thanks for sharing.
ReplyDeleteTotally not a boring blog post at all- it might be a silly chore but dont you feel SO much better now that its done? I hate the misc. boxes of crap- I have to do the same thing in my house, this is great motivation, thanks!
ReplyDeleteI love this space, I can't wait to see what you do with it. I know it will be fabulous and no it wasn't the most boring post. I really enjoyed reading it.
ReplyDeleteThis place looks nice! perfect for a small office/library type of room, and i like the chair!
ReplyDeletemy biggest shame is what's hiding in the closets, tons and tons of old books, notes, pens....and i just cant seem to have the time or energy to clean it...
Just looking at the last photo makes me feel so relaxed! It was well worth the time and effort and now you can truly appreciate the glossy wood floors! Marvelous!
ReplyDeleteOk...I'm bummed. My "box room" ie laundry room...WHEN it is cleaned out. DOESN'T have shiny wood floors and lovely glass doorknobs and an amusing and flirty little chair...Nope. It most certainly is the ugly step sister to your sexy little box room.Even when it's clean.
ReplyDeletesigh.
That is the BEST feeling ever! Love to accomplish things like that. I"m so excited to see what you do with your new room ;-) xoxo
ReplyDeleteCongrats! Boy, I bet that feels good. Oh my...I have clean room envy.
ReplyDeleteI have a spare room I need to focus on also. Ours is called the "futon room". ;-) The futon, being my husband's couch/bed from his college years. We really need to get rid of that thing...
Tracy
Looks fantastic. What a difference! The chair is fab! So what's it gonna be now that you've cleaned it out?
ReplyDeleteYou're awesome, and the room looks adorable! I love the color blue. I'm working my way through a list of fall resolutions...first was to set a date w/ the handyman to come over...check that off the list. Unfortunately, he's discovered an area of the house is rotting, so I think I"ve just added a few more things to the list!
ReplyDeleteMy secret shame is our cold storage room in the basement. We have visions of turning it into a proper pantry and wine cellar but right now it looks like a room from the Silence of the Lambs. One of these days we'll somehow motivate ourselves to clean it up.
ReplyDeletebig (((((hugs))))) to you for doing a fabulous job. Well done, you should be VERY proud of yourself!
ReplyDeletexo
congrats, i bet it feels quite good :) My room is even smaller (my walk-in closet) but i cannot bare to get in there and organize things properly. Of course it doesn't help that I keep adding stuff and rarely seem to take stuff away!
ReplyDeleteOur "box room" has been very boxy for three years now. Congrats on finishing a task that is so easy to procrastinate.
ReplyDeletewow! and yahoo! good for you!
ReplyDeleteand now - what will you make this room? its like your own design show!!
I'm so impressed how you actually finished the project of cleaning out the room. My secret shame is I put things off for so long that eventually I forget about doing it. I seem to be stuck in the move things from one point to another thus never completing what I intended to do.
ReplyDeleteOh La La!! Congrats.
ReplyDelete(sigh) I love that feeling. Well done! What do you intend to do in the room now that it's clutter-free??? (And PS - I do love that yellow chair you found a little while back...it may just be perfect)
ReplyDeleteI have 2 secret shames: (1) our basement storage area, specifically the tool bench/explosion of crap, and (2) my office/guest room bookshelf/explosion of crap. You may have just provided me weekend inspiration!!!
Looking at these photos is getting me inspired to tackle my downstairs closets...they are horrible...but the after photo looks so clean! Thanks for the nudge!
ReplyDeleteChelsea
Way to go! Before I moved to my apartment, I had a secret box room, too. Now it's confined to my coat closet... and it may or may not be packed so full the door won't close...
ReplyDeleteCan't wait to see what you do with this room!
I have the EXACT same room in my house! And {for shame!} we've lived in our house for 3 years...
ReplyDeleteI need take your painstaking work as a sign that our "box room" needs a little more attention...
Thanks! The room looks great
Now if only I could find the same motivation to get this done in our back bedroom which has become an extension of our laundry room. Clothes EVERYWHERE.
ReplyDeleteI really appreciated this post because I have my own secret shame room - also a box room that I've been trying to deal with for three years. Thanks for the inspiration to get to work on it!
ReplyDeletecozystyle.blogspot.com