The Bedrooms: Before and After

On the upper level in my house, we have three bedrooms, the baby/computer room, a hallway closet, and two bathrooms.  I finished tossing stuff in the bedrooms and closets last week and I tossed stuff in the bathrooms today.  The upper level is finished - yay!

I didn't take "before" pictures of my bedroom, like I said before - there's not much in there so there wasn't a lot of places I could fill up with clutter (Hmmm.  Maybe there's something to that...)  I just had to throw away a lot of paper (talks and things I had printed out that were laying on the nightstand), take some books to the bookshelf downstairs and some to the D.I. pile.  We had some weights on the floor that went into the master closet (now that there's plenty of room in there) and a guitar that went into the corner of the computer room (now that there's plenty of room in there).  Here's what's in our bedroom:

Actually, that's not all, there's a laundry basket that you can't see by the door and a little magazine holder next one side of the bed for Rock's books.  The nightstand drawer has the books I'm currently reading and the cupboard has two small bins with crocheting and cross-stitching supplies for the kids to do while I read at night (sorry if the detailed lists about everything that is left get a little boring - in my mind I think that if I can list exactly everything that is in my house and where it goes- I'll be about where I want to be in the amount of stuff I have).

I also didn't get a "before" picture of the girls' room.  They got started on it since they were so exited about getting rid of stuff, so by the time I got in there, they already had a garbage bag full of clothes that they didn't wear.  I should have taken a picture anyway, though, because I went through their closet and drawers with them after that and we came up with 2 more garbage bags full of clothes to give away.  I had no idea there was that much in there - it didn't look like their was.  The girls are pretty good about keeping their things organized.  Here is the after picture:

(I know I need some art on the walls - I've never been very much into decorating, but with how nice and simple everything is looking now - I'm seeing the need for a nice painting here and there.  The drawers are now about half full instead of busting with clothes.  Top to bottom left to right: 1)Accessories, 2)Spice's pants, 3)skirts, 4)PJs, 5)socks and underwear, 6)Little Miss' pants.

Here is their closet (I would love to have no toys in here, but Spice really likes to keep her doll's things organized.  If they are in the toy room siblings and kids that come over mess them all up, so I've allowed her to keep them in her closet).

Bottom:
The plastic drawers at the bottom hold doll clothes and accessories (ridiculous, I know, but she and her friends play with this stuff for hours).  The two purple boxes you see on the floor are the doll's beds.  She also has doll clothes hanging on little hangers on the stand that middle doll is on.  Funny girl.  I'm okay with it as long as she keeps it clean.
Right:
Spice's shirts and boots above them
Middle:
Hats and Spice's shorts
Left:
Top - clothes to grow into
Middle - Dresses
Bottom - Little Miss' shirts

I think the hardest part was giving up some clothes that were in perfectly good condition and that I liked, but there were just too many of them - how many shirts does a girl need anyway?  I'm still going through my closet periodically and getting rid of clothes that I'm realizing I really like on the hanger, but I don't wear them because I don't like them as much on me.

The boy's room "before":

Bud almost didn't allow me to post these pictures on my blog because he said it was embarrassing (he's wiser than I am).  I finally talked him into it by telling him how it's fun to see how peaceful a place can look when you decide to get rid of everything you don't need.  Here's their room "after":

Notice that the drawers can shut (I could usually accomplish this feat after organizing a bit, but now they are actually half-way empty so it was pretty easy.)

Boys seem to need to keep certain treasures. The box on top of his dresser is Bud's whittling stuff, the top red shelf holds Bud's current books, a water bottle and his scripture bag.  The middle shelf holds his rock collection and Bazinks' night time books (he sometimes reads in bed with his dad if he gets bored during our family story).  The bottom shelf is Bud's bug habitats.  The two swords in the corner are decorations that I plan to put up on the wall ones of these days.

Top box: Clothes to grow into.
Shelves: T-shirts
On hangers: Other shirts and suits
Floor: Shoes and a stool

Here's the hallway closet before:

I had each child pick one blanket for themselves and their favorite towel.  I got rid of all the rest (except for the ones in the basement guest room - I'll get to those later).  I plan to buy hooks this week to stick on the inside of their doors for them to hang their towel on when they are done using it.  This way, I can just gather up the towels once a week and wash them all instead of finding them in messy piles on the floor.

Here's the hallway closet after:

Top to bottom:
Things for our bed if we ever get a bed frame :-)
A picnic blanket and a baby blanket
Towels (these won't be in here once I get the hooks)
Seven "Cuddle" Blankets (they look kind of messy don't they?  I guess I have room to put two on each shelf if I want to right?)

I didn't get "before" pictures of the bathrooms either.  Since everything was just in drawers it didn't look like a very dramatic change.  I did toss A LOT of lotion and body sprays (I don't use either very much).  I go through a bottle of lotion like every three years so I had like a thirty year supply in my bathroom.  I kept my favorite lotion and body spray.  I only kept the make-up I use (how novel is that?), one bottle of hairspray (we use it so seldom and I had four bottles - I'm not sure why), three brushes (I don't think I'm responsible enough yet to trust myself with only one brush), and a few other things that we actually use.  I threw everything else away.  It occurred to me how much easier it is to clean somewhat empty drawers - maybe I'll get around to doing it more often!

The kid's bathroom has nothing in the drawers except some floss, toothpaste and Bud's eczema cream.  I put some extra toilet paper in the cupboard.

I'm so glad that the upper level is done!

I told the kids of a game we will be playing to keep it organized.  Every morning they get to move up the ladder 5 steps if I find nothing out of place when they are done with their morning list.  For every item I do find that is out of place (I'll be checking drawers and closets too) they'll get to move up one less step.  I want to eventually apply this to their zones as well, but I want to start practicing with a smaller space, and I want to clear their zones of anything we don't use before I start expecting so much.

Rooms I'm dreading getting started on now: the kitchen and our "Project" room.  Ugh.  I just have to remind myself how nice it will feel when they are done!  Hopefully I can get them done this week!