Finding the Motivation to Finish a Big Project
This summer is flying by for our family. In just 2 weeks my kids will be back in school starting their junior and freshman years. Yikes! I’ll have two in high school!
They’ve already been in the school mode this week as they have been at band camp all week getting ready for the upcoming marching season. So, hopefully we’ll make the transition to earlier bedtimes and earlier morning alarms easier when school starts.
We’ve been at work in the renovation/redecorating of our upstairs. It is coming along slowly, but I can see a light at the end of the tunnel.
One thing that seems to be holding us back is that there are just a lot of little things left to do. We’ve done many of the major projects such as painting and moving the rooms around. Now we need to focus on the small projects of organizing, figuring out where to put everything, and finishing the decluttering.
A few weeks ago, we finally were able to move my daughter to her new room and move my office into her old room. You can read about the new craft table I created here.
When I first moved in, I was very deliberate about not bringing in items from my old office that I knew I did not want or would use in my new office. So, for the first week or so, everything was nice and organized.
Then, it was time to clean out my old closet and move it all to my new closet. That was a mess!
My old closet is much bigger than my new one. So, I have had quite a bit of mess while I’ve been trying to figure out how to best use my new closet.
You can see how cluttered it had gotten here. And this is after I had worked on the room for a few hours.
Because my office has been in such a mess, I’ve not wanted to go in there to do work. I have lots of plans that I want to see through, but trying to work in the midst of chaos is nearly impossible for me.
So, I decided that it was time to buckle down and get the office decluttered and organized once and for all.
It took me about 1 1/2 hours to do it, but it is finally done!
Doesn’t it look much better?
(The basket and plaque laying on the floor need to be hung up.)
Finally finishing this one room has made me think about how can I motivate myself to get finished with the other rooms. Because, honestly, every room upstairs is in just as much chaos as my office had been.
Here are a few things I’m going to do to move forward and complete the other rooms:
1. Make a list of what needs to be done in each room.
I think this is the main hang up I have to totally getting each room finished. I’m just not sure what really needs to be done. Sometimes I get overwhelmed because I think there is a lot that needs to be done.
I bet if I make a list for each room, I’ll be pleasantly surprised to see that it really is not that much.
2. Focus on one room at a time.
While we’ve tried to work on one room at a time, we’ve not always been able to. Once we got started on moving each room, it seemed logical to do what we could in each room as soon as we moved the new furniture in.
Now we’re at the point where just a few little things need to be done. I’ll work on one room until it gets totally finished. Once I get one room done, then I’ll begin to work on another one.
3. Jump in and get it done.
Setting aside a couple of hours to finish up my office really made a difference. Once I made up my mind to finish the room, it was not too hard to get started.
It’s really easy to get bogged down by all there is to do in a room. If the room you need to organize, declutter, or rearrange is extremely messy and cluttered, then you may have to set aside a couple of hours in several different sessions.
I don’t think I could have focused longer than I did. However, because I wanted to get done, I pressed through and made quick decisions on what to do with all the items not put away.
My goal is to have it all done before school starts. We have a few furniture pieces to acquire, so we may not have them by then. But at least the rooms should all be set up, decluttered, and organized.
Stay tuned for more updates in the next few weeks!