Planning the attack

Questions from orgjunkie.com

1. What do I want the purpose of my room or area to be?
It should be a combined living and dining area,with the area near the kitchen having the dining table and the rest general living space which will free up the front room to be a more secluded, more adult sitting room.

2. What do I need in or near the room to serve that purpose?
Dining table, the current one needs to move probably to the attic as it has always been my work table and is very good fr that purpose, then my gran's hexagonal one has to come down from Mum's house.
Sofa, TV and most importantly probably shelving and other storage.

3. What can I remove from the room?
Some of the sewing stuff. Longer term this includes the sewing machine but it needs to stay till the workshop is ready so will probably take the place ear marked for a computer desk for now. There is less to chuck in this room than you might expect as it is where the stuff we actually want ends up because if it is put away we can't get to it as putting away currently means a storage unit!

4. What problems do I see with the room?
The area near the back door because it easily becomes a throw hole. This is where I plan to put a desk but for now will probably have to store the sewing machine instead. Getting the storage right so it works for what we want to store.

5. What organizational tools might solve those problems?
Lots of storage of the right size! Having a plan.

6. What habits need to change to solve the organizational problems?
Us all being squirrels. Ok that might not change but we need to stop being such perfectionists we need to realise the area is good enough to use and the last bits that need doing can be done around using the room rather than constantly waiting.. that is helped by Jon having realised he can do the heating from the void under the floor. Plus being realistic about what we are going to use and when, sometimes it's better to get rid of something and buy a new one later if we need it I know this in my head, my heart and the recycler in me finds that harder to accept.

7. What kind of a budget do I have to create the organized room of my dreams?
Most of the budget has been spent already on the remodling. Apart from paint and paper we have most of what we need as to start with we are going to reuse things we have at least until we get the new table and so forth in and see how everything sits..

8. What kind of a timeline is necessary to organize the room?
Next few weeks, end of the month at the latest as we need to get the furniture from mum's and get ready for christmas. Even though we don't decorate for christmas till the last minute I want to get everything out and go through it before the shops have run out of anything I might want otherwise I'll buy stuff I already have!

9. What is my plan of action? (very much an overview at the moment.)

Clear the wooden floored area and go through the random piles so i at least know what is there, work out what is staying and what is going.

Get one of the boys to finish stripping the ceiling paper (there was a big leak so the ceiling needs re-papering), once that is done I can get on with painting. I'm not doing the ceiling myself as I'm 5 months pregnant and my balance is suspect.

Once that area is sorted moving items of furniture around, which includes things currently in here and ones that need to come in from elsewhere. Then the other part of the room can be sorted and rearranged.