Stay @ Home Update #23

Each Sunday (at 5:00 AM) I'm sharing how the week's 10-minute stay@home organizational challenge went. If you don't have an idea what that means and you're curious, you can learn more in my original Stay @ Home Update blog post - found HERE.

I can't believe I've been working on this as long as I have. And it looks like I'm just about finished with the process. This has been a great way to OPTIMIZE (my word of the year) my time at home.

Here's what I've accomplished this week...

Day 1 - SUN, September 6

This box from the garage was taped closed and was simply labeled Items from Craft Room Files. Hmmmm... Surprise! I wasn't sure what to expect, but I assumed this box had been packed for our move - 5 years ago. I was right. And it was mostly different colors of inexpensive cardstock and a couple of files of things I had saved, thinking I might take up scrapbooking. 

The papers were added to the donate box and the memorabilia was stored appropriately.

Day 2 - MON, September 7

Okay, today's box technically isn't a craft box. I didn't know what I'd find when I opened it because the box wasn't labeled. It simply said Craft Room - why, I don't know because there was nothing crafty in it. LOL! It actually had items I've gathered on travels - two matryoshka dolls from Kazakstan as well as two pottery shepherds (YAY!) and a pottery mama/baby. This was a treasured box to find... so even though it isn't craft-related, I'm glad I opened the box.

Day 3 - TUES, September 8

This box was labeled Scrapbooking and Misc but it was mostly miscellaneous stuff. There were some picture cases, conference-leading storage items, and a few items I'd intended to alter for scrapbooking in days gone by. I purged most of the items in this box but the two things I kept went into the appropriate storage container in my Play Room.

Day 4 - WED, September 9

What a shock to open this box simply labeled Craft Room. It literally was boxed up two moves ago and never opened again. I know that because I haven't had my ebay business since that time and the items in this box are from that time. I went to yard/garage/estate sells regularly looking for items to sell. Every time I found inexpensive vintage buttons, I purchased them and put them in this box with the intent of filling a flat rate box of buttons and listing it for sale. Well... I have a medium size flat rate box of vintage buttons now. I wonder if I could sell them??? I have way too many buttons in my Play Room already for cards, especially since I rarely put a button on a card... so I don't need to keep these. I'm going to do some research and if I decide not to try to sell them, I'll move them to my growing donate pile.

Day 5 - THUR, September 10

Today's box found an assortment of items including an ATC holder (not sure if I'll keep it or not), a cup holder for when I used to go to stamping retreats, some special storage items, and more.

Day 6 - FRI, September 11

This bin contained craft items from my cross-stitching days. That was quite a while ago. It also had some of my Grandmother's tatting and some of my husband's Grandmother's doilies in it and three books that were my husband's when he was a child. An odd variety of items, obviously. I got rid of the cross-stitched items but saved the other treasures.

Day 7 - SAT, September 12

This box was unlabeled... so I had no idea what to expect. It ended up being mostly items I've used in conferences; not really craft items. I did purge some items and what I kept went into a new box and was labeled Conference Items so I'd know where to find what I needed in the future.

Okay, that's it for this week.

In fact, that is it. Completely. I've gone through every item in my Play Room and every box/bin marked Craft Room in the garage. Whew! Who knew when I started this stay@home project on April 5th that I would have 23 weeks devoted to it? I know I never dreamed I/we would be sheltering at home this long. Thank you for joining me in this organizational journey!

What's coming? I will still be working daily at getting more organized, but from here moving forward it will be kind of mundane and repetitive, so I'll not share weekly updates on my blog. I am going to add index sheets to my stamp sets and as I do that I will also check the sets in my Evernote inventory to see if there are any tags I want to add to them.

I've actually been adding these index cards to the My Favorite Things stamp sets in my inventory all along. 

I'm not sure why I didn't do it with the other companies. Now, it appears, I have some time to invest in doing that - 10 minutes each day (maybe I'll even set a timer to keep me on task).

As always, THANKS for stopping by my blog and being such an encouragement to me through your comments!