Home CDO

I have been wanting to start a cleaning, organizing and decorating business for awhile now. I have done many jobs for people, but rarely have I had the forethought to take before and after pictures of the work that I am doing. I did, however, take before and after pictures of a job that I did in a friend's home in December. I'm going to share the photos with you here and give you a run-down of the space that we were working on and what was in there. The job took two days to do and is done and I will show you after pictures next week. But to get started, here is the room:

The Den:

This room is supposed to be a place where the husband can balance the checkbook, pay the bills, file away all of the important papers. The wife was supposed to be able to do her homework in here, but she was graduated from college before we were able to even get this room started. Now, she will be using this room to put together her resume and apply for jobs. This is the room where scrapbooking will happen as well as other kinds of crafting. The husband also plays video games in this room.

But when I got to the house, this is the view that I was greeted by (after having dealt with some items in order to get into the door to start with)...

 

 

As you walk in, you are initially greeted by an older computer tower, with random clothing items on top. The computer tower was determined to go to be recycled, the clothing items on top went to Goodwill. Behind the computer tower, although you may not be able to see it, is a small hexagonal side table, covered in papers and other randomness. Behind the table from this view, is a box filled with miscellaneous dishes, towels and knickknacks that were brought in to the house when a relative passed away. Next to that are two gun cases with guns inside and I cannot quite remember what is in the corner between the dresser  and the box from the relative, apart from the pictures that I can see leaning against the wall. You will see the narrow path that they used to get into and out of this room.

 

In this picture, you can see the random items sitting atop the dresser and the filing cabinet. If you click on the picture, you can also see the layers of dust coating the items in this room. They have outdoor dogs that have a doggy door into a kennel in their kitchen, so they end up with a lot of dust throughout their house.

 

In this picture, you see the desk where the husband works to manage the household finances, play his video games, et cetera, as well as his haphazard attempt at organizing papers on the small bookshelf that divides his desk from his wife's desk. His wife's desk is also covered in random papers and miscellaneous items that just ended up being put down in this room.

Here, you see the desk a little bit more clearly, along with a very large shelf that the wife and I had picked up a few years ago from Goodwill that has never made it up on a wall in their home. It has lived in various corners, propped up as such, since it's purchase date.

In this picture, I am standing in the narrow pathway that you saw earlier. At this point, it is nearly impossible to get to the wife's desk due to the random clutter between the walkway and the desk. Included in this picture (as best as I can remember and see) is another shelf from Goodwill (that oddly enough ended up going back to Goodwill, with price sticker still attached!), a ball and a stuffed dog for their niece who visits weekly, a gun box with ammo and other items stored in it, a couple of bowling ball bags, a set of bowling shoes, another gun bag, a small tote with random items, a box of stuff from the deceased relative, a super cute endtable with two fold-down leaves that the husband made in high school, an old school metal chair, some backpacking equipment and bags, a dog bed, a tote of scrapbooking supplies, bags of purchased but unused scrapbooking supplies, some throw blankets, a bag full of bows and ribbon to be used on Christmas presents, and a bunch of other mostly miscellaneous stuff.

And here are some other random shots from that narrow walkway:

 

So, as you can see, on this day when I got to their house, we had our work cut out for us! The first day, the three of us spent about 6 hours to get it to a semi-presentable state. The second day, the husband was at work and it took the wife and I about another hour and a half to tidy up the loose ends and actually get the room cleaned. I will show you the intermittent and final pictures of this room next week.

As a side note: No bashing will be allowed or tolerated in the comments. People end up with clutter for a myriad of different reasons. We dealt with some of those underlying issues as well when we worked on this room. I will post some about those issues when I show you the pictures next week.

And on a personal note, I signed paperwork today to be an employee in a friend's cleaning, organizing and decorating business. It is a part-time position that I can work around my family and my obligations. While I'd much rather have my own business, working in this position and doing jobs, like the one above, on the side will help me to develop my resume and references for when I am ready to branch out and go solo.