a place for everything, and everything in its place. A Challenge

Organization is the key to a simple life, right? Or something along those same lines.

Sure, I guess I can say yes to that rhetorical question I just asked.

I believe, however, that the better question(s) would be:
1. Can I get my family organized?
2. Can I get the roommate on board, even if unknowingly?
3. Can we do it on our budget? (More on that one later.)

I don’t know about you, but the title of this post describes me only about 60% of the time. It describes my wonderful husband about 75% of the time. Unfortunately, it describes our roommate 0% of the time. Yes. ZERO.

Are we gross, disgusting slobs? No, not really. Are we lazy? Yeah, that’s totally part of it. Are we hoarders like you see on TV? Not exactly. I seem to think that I have to keep every single piece of paper I’ve ever come in contact with. Ever. Don’t believe me? Check it out. (that’s Peter. Isn’t he adorable?)

That is a bookshelf I added to our “office” to help me stay organized. Clearly, it isn’t working. So, I need to do better. So, Where to start? Well, a redo of the office in its entirety is probably actually the first order of business.

Our office is actually the dining room of the small house we share with the roomie. It’s about 8 x 10, I guess. Right now, we have our “desks” against the 8′ wall, which is all windows. If we ever opened the blinds, it would be a great view, but it doesn’t allow for much in the way of wall organization. So, we want to get /build one long desk that is approximately 10′ long (or two that fit comfortably in that space and are the same height). Then, we will need cork board – at least 4 of them making a square. And one of these awesome wall organizers by Martha Stewart.

We don’t need a lot – a place for two computers, one printer. And someone to go through our paper crap and get rid of it. I have a week vacation coming up soon. I get the feeling it is going to involve this stupid room and all that stupid paper. Ugh.

I know most people hate moving, but I love that fresh start feeling. We didn’t get it when we moved in here because we moved in to the home where our roomie had already been living. Which brings me to our challenge. Can we get ourselves organized on a budget that is so restrictive we can’t afford even one desk from the goodwill right now (but maybe in a few weeks…), and can we do it so that the roomie is involved? I think that we can.

Now, this challenge isn’t a one month challenge. We definitely can’t do it in one month. Let’s see if we can do it in one year. So dear Husband. There is our challenge. We must organize this entire house – and keep it that way – within the next 12 months.