My friends Bonnie and Liz participated in the last Challenge, and quite intimidated me by doing so.  But I put OrgJunkie's blog in my reader (one of only three strangers' blogs I read) and have slowly been gaining confidence.  The real enouragement I give myself is to note what I can accomplish in little bits at a time.  Whenever I feel like I can't do it, I can point myself to an area that's working (like my system for kids' clothes) and realize that though I have far to go, I've also come far from where I was (or could be!)

I'm entering our computer room as a family organizational effort.  This is the place where I do all my computer work, including personal and Lime Daley finances.  We also have a tall shelf full of toys for the boys to play with while I am working.  The bigger closet is for Jon's "computer stuff."  This includes many pieces, parts, cases, hard drives, cables, wires, etc.  The extra monitors don't fit in the closet, so they are on the floor in the room.  Jon has successfully put together working computers in the past, but has decided that it's time to give the parts to Goodwill.  Added to the pile last summer was Jon's childhood appleIIe and accessories, including boxes of 5 1/4" floppy disks.
 The computer will be for our children to learn programming on, but it has to be organized and set up if it's going to be useful in that way.  Oh yes, one more.  The new server (clementine) for Lime Daley is on a card table in the middle of the room.

This room is not as bad as it could be.  For example, I already planned and implemented a reorg of my work space, for which Jon made a nifty shelf.  But there is still plenty of work to be done, and the added challenge of getting the futon clear for Grammy and Papa to sleep on Veterans' Day weekend.

The general game plan is: 

1. Clear out half the big closet, donating to Goodwill.  Half the closet will be for Jon's useful stuff.

2. Reduce and organize the toys such that they fit in the other half of the above closet.

3. clementine goes to the colocation building.

4. Revamp the filing cabinet which I had revamped previously to a system that doesn't work well for anyone.

5. Last and least, but the room wouldn't be complete without it, organizing the upper shelf of the copy closet.

A lot of work, but we're all working together as a team, which is always greater than the sum of our parts. 

Posted by Heather Daley on November 2, 2007, 4:26 pm | Read 12081 times
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Comments

wow - good for you! i'm not motivated right now to organize...but maybe i will again come january! i can't wait to see the "after pictures" (will your boys be in those pictures as well? love their little faces "peeking in" on the sides of the photos...).
is this the room you enter from the driveway? with the piano? for some reason, i don't recognize this room!!!
~liz

Posted by ~liz on November 2, 2007, 5:15 pm

This is the other bedroom on the second floor, next to our bedroom. Most daytime visitors probably haven't seen it, or only once on a house tour or something.

Posted by joyful on November 2, 2007, 5:51 pm

Wow! Good luck! It's nice to see the whole family will be pitching in to help. I grew up with my Dad collecting computers and all sorts of computer things. He had to keep it all in this little room in the basement b/c it was always such a mess. My Mom would be impressed if you can accomplish organizing all your computer things! She could never get my Dad to keep it in any sort of organized fashion. Anyways, I look forward to seeing the "after" pictures! Oh, and I love the picture that has the little toy car thing tied to the connector hanging out of the computer. Looks like an ingenious invention :)

Posted by Bonnie on November 2, 2007, 8:17 pm

It's Jon who's the organized one in this household.

That car-cord-computer item is Jonathan's invention. The boys love plugging in various cords to the back of that computer - they have their own keyboard, mouse, usb cord, DSL adapters, etc. But when it's gone, they will still have lots of other toys to play with, so hopefully they won't miss it.

Posted by joyful on November 2, 2007, 9:15 pm

Ganbate! More later, no time now....

Posted by SurusmCorda on November 3, 2007, 9:31 am

Good luck on the challenge!

Posted by Jami on November 4, 2007, 11:02 pm

I forgot to weigh the computer stuff. It filled up most of our car, and a whole bin at the Goodwill store. Probably close to a hundred pounds of old computers and stuff.

Posted by Jon Daley on November 7, 2007, 10:45 pm

Actually, it must have been way more than one hundred pounds. I could have taken the stuff downstairs in three easy trips if it was only 100. I didn't actually count, but my guess would be eight easy trips and two tough trips, plus Jonathan's box, and your heavy monitor (which easily could have been fifty pounds by itself.)

Posted by joyful on November 9, 2007, 7:53 am

Good luck on the challenge. It will be so nice when it's finished.

Posted by Dawn on November 11, 2007, 2:32 pm

Hey guys,

A friend of mine runs a spectacular blog on clutter:
http://www.unclutterer.com

Thought you might enjoy. Good luck with the challenge! :)

Posted by Glen Stansberry on November 13, 2007, 12:28 pm

Hello! I hope your challenge is going well for you. Looks like you've got a great space to work with! Can't wait to see it done!

Good luck and thanks for joining us,

Laura

Posted by Laura on November 18, 2007, 11:41 am
Trackbacks
30 Day Organizational Challenge Finish Line
Excerpt: Here is my original post to enter the contest, here is my update.   Our computer room/guest room is now functional and neat.  There are still two actively-being-worked-on server computers on the card table in the room.  We had ho...
Weblog: Daley Ponderings
Date: November 30, 2007, 11:54 am
Challenge Update
Excerpt: Normally, when we have an update to a post, we just put it in the comments, but since I've entered us in the 30-Day Challenge, here's a separate post to link up. Now before any other "challengees" faint when they see my pictures, I'll re...
Weblog: Daley Ponderings
Date: November 9, 2007, 9:13 am
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