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30 Projects In 30 Days – Getting It Done (And a Pep Talk!)

I don’t know about you, but I see September 15 on the calendar, and it makes me wonder if I am going to meet my goal of 30 Projects In 30 Days. Of course, just writing that makes me more determined than ever. (Yes, I was a strong-willed child. How did you guess?) Since September is halfway over, today is a good time to take a good, hard look at your list.

When I created this challenge, I wanted to be very real about making this goal attainable. Now that we are at the mid-point, I can tell that my list needs a little rearranging and some culling too. I feel no shame in reassessing my priorities.

For instance, yesterday my priority was admiring the last of the hydrangea blooms. I can’t get over this shot that my son took with my camera.

Keeping feasibility in mind, here are some tips for making the rest of your month productive and successful.

  1. Set aside a bit of time each day to work on your projects or make a plan for the weekend.
  2. If you are a weekend warrior, spend some time during the week making a list of items or supplies that you need to gather or buy so you can tackle jobs immediately once the weekend rolls around.
  3. Drop unrealistic projects and replace them with reasonable ones. (Oh, you can declutter your whole house in the last two weeks? Awesome. I want some of the drugs you’re taking. They sound fantastic.)
  4. Break big jobs down into smaller parts. You may not be able to declutter the whole house in two weeks, but you might be able to tackle two rooms or declutter specific items in every room. Break. it. down.
  5. Group similar jobs together to maximize efficiency. Example: I have several jobs that require the brad nailer and a heavy compressor. Rather than drag out those unwieldy tools four times, I’ll bring them out once and complete everything at the same time. Boom!

If you have some tips to add, please leave them in the comments.

Progress Report

Now that the pep talk is over, I do have a little bit of visible progress to share.

This week, I started work on the hall cubby. It used to be a pass-through from the kitchen, but it was converted to shelves when the kitchen cabinets were added to the opposite wall.

When the contractors put more electrical outlets in the kitchen, the back of one of the boxes had nowhere to go but into the cubby.

On Monday, I talked about my plans on my Instagram story. If you watched it, ignore everything I said. Now that I’m into this project, I realize that the shelves are just too small and narrow to be useful. Instead, I think I want to turn the cubby into a small cabinet for keys and such.

After writing this, I realize that this project is not really progressing at all. I’m back to square one. Nothing to see here folks.

Andy swapped out two black switches for white in this same hall, and I finished a two-minute task in the butler’s pantry. I finally reattached the chain that secures the swinging door. It took 1:30 to find a proper screw and ten seconds to screw it into the wall. This job had been on my list for about two years. Talk about making a job harder than it had to be!

Finally, I put a coat of oil-based primer and latex paint on the toe kick in the kitchen pantry. It still looks terrible, but part II of this projects is new shoe moulding. Once I have that at the base of the toe kick, it should look much more polished.

I have our weekend plan in place, and we will be crossing a lot of items off of our list starting Saturday.

Now, it’s your turn. Let me know how you are doing. You have a few options to make that happen.

  1. If you are a blogger; I created a link-up for you at the bottom of the page. Please keep your linked posts related to the 30 Projects in 30 Days challenge. You may link more than one post.
  2. Tag me on Instagram and remember to hashtag your posts using the #30ProjectsIn30Days hashtag.
  3. Give me a shout in the comments section here on the blog.
  4. Send me an e-mail.

Participants will be entered into a drawing, and one will be randomly chosen to win a prize. I will announce the winner on October 3rd.

We’ve got this! Let me know how I can help. If you need input or feedback, I’m your gal.

[inlinkz_linkup id=736787 mode=1]

4 Comments

  • SH
    Posted September 14, 2017 at 5:29 pm

    Yes, yes, and yes! I had a few projects spread over a few days, but were easier than expected, so rolled up into one day. But also vice versa as well. Already moved more difficult projects to the next list, and replaced with simpler ones. I’ve been looking at a couple things for months; and most of list for a couple of years; a few things for five years; and two items since we moved in—TEN years ago! I can’t thank you enough for your challenge, and it’s only the mid-point 😉
    It’s encouraging to see you having to roll with the punches too, although I wish you smooth sailing from here on.

    • Post Author
      Stacy
      Posted September 15, 2017 at 7:59 am

      This may be wrong of me, but it is comforting to know that a few items on your list have been there for five to ten years. 🙂 Sometimes, it feels so difficult to just make the shift from to-do to doing. I do not know why that is. I hope to make this 30 Projects in 30 days a regular September feature.

  • Devyn
    Posted September 14, 2017 at 10:29 pm

    Love Hydrangea’s (even if Madonna hates them). I think turning they cubby into a key cabinet is a great idea.
    I am sorta doing the 30 projects in 30 days getting our NYC apartment ready to sell. So many little details to get done my list is about 45 items to complete, some big enough to hire out, some very small. But progress is happening.
    Keep on keeping on, you will be amazed at what you can accomplish.

    • Post Author
      Stacy
      Posted September 15, 2017 at 8:06 am

      What does Madonna know? 😀 I look forward to the big reveal before you turn in the keys. I hope you get to spend many years in your new place after it reaches its somewhat-finished state.

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