One of my biggest challenges has been trying to get my spare room aka; office, craft and clothes closet room organized. I have felt really out of sorts that this area has been so disorganized for so long. I found myself not wanting to do anything creative or get old papers in order because I felt so overwhelmed. So my February vacation plan was to finally tackle that ROOM! Mind you this is a very old house; 150 years old, and it is a small cape style home. My first tackle was the closet, just a standard closet but with a portion that had a slanted ceiling. Here is how that played out. I went to the Container Store and for a $1000 they would gladly install a custom made closet organizer. Thanks very much, but no! Home Depot has a do-it-yourself version for $150. Brought it home and began pulling out all the clothes and taking down the old rod and single shelf, that I could never reach anyway and starting drilling holes to install the tracking system. After getting that done I realized that you had to make sure you drilled holes into studs! Who knew! Oh yeah, it did mention that in the directions. Fortunately I have a nice neighbor who is pretty handy. So I asked joe to come over and just check to see if I did it right. First question? Did you use a stud finder... Huh? Stud finder? Does this thing work on finding cute guys! Where was that in the HD aisle? Anyway, I digress. Joe checked out my work and laughed at my dumb luck that without really trying I actually managed to drill right where I needed too. Too bad that I didn't have that kind of luck with real studs! FYI the cute guys at HD will cut the shelves to fit your closet once you have it all measured. Had to buy a hack saw though to cut the metal rods. Again, the cute guy at HD ASSURED ME THAT I could do this. Hmmm? I think I heard that phrase before, (Mel). So the closet is up, looks great and I sorted through all the clothes. I gave a bag full to charity and some to my cousin, all the things that no longer fit from having lost 50 pounds. It felt great! It felt even better after the first night when it did not come crashing down. I found clothes I didn't remember I had. It was shopping for free.

Ok, hang in there I'm almost done. So the rest of the room was still a mess. A good friend of mine came over and we decided to swap help. She helped me organize my room and this Saturday I will help her with her bedroom. What a great help this was. I could not have done this alone. She was like a tornado. Together we whipped through that room in a few hours and it looks amazing!
I am looking forward to helping her.

I share this long boring story because when you are overwhelmed sometimes all you need is a boost in a different direction. A friend can really see past all the stuff in your way and get you moving again. We don't have to do this alone!

Thanks!