Spring Cleaning & Organizing!

 BEFORE! (oh my)

First, let me preface this by saying that my intention for this room was for it to be a school room. That didn't happen. Nor did my 6 yr old adjust to sleeping in a room with is little brother....... you'll never guess where he kept ending up...... yeah, so we had to make some changes. That took a bit of planning, and some elbow grease (and a day when hubby was home) but it was well worth the effort.

It was a pretty big mess, and it got worse before it got better. If you feel overwhelmed by your spring cleaning and organizing list (or day to day cleaning for that matter) let me share 3 little words that will change your life..... "Keep"....... "Donate"....... "Sell"........ of course, there is also the TRASH!

 

Everything in our "Keep" bin must have a home. A nice, neat, new home. Everything that is in good condition that we don't want to sell, can be donated and find a new home with someone who needs it. I am planning to have a yard sale, I also have several consignment shops that I have dealt with and had very good luck! Some people like ebay- or to hire someone else to sell things on ebay for them.

 If you don't need or want the money or it just isn't worth your time, by all means- just donate the goods to a shelter or local Salvation Army! (I no longer give to Goodwill because they are no longer a "not for profit" organization) Any good charity or local shelter (even churches are getting in on this because of the economy and demand) and should be able to give you a tax deductable receipt. So, it's a WIN WIN!

Back to our project- I moved the bed back into the room, took the large TV out of the room, sorted and organized the toys and clothing, removed all the "school" stuff to its new location (another post, another day), and started the deep clean. O.K. I actually cleaned the floors and baseboards before moving the bed back in to the room, but everything else was in that order. I wiped down all the window sills, and dusted the furniture. I brought in a set of shelves (traded really) from another room and added it to the closet for storage. I hung a few pictures & I"m done with Room 1:

(I still have to paint the picture that hangs above the Alligator over the bed- just working out my plans for it)

 The closet needed an extra shelf which we brought in (traded) from another room for storage!

I love the table and chairs. We made it a bit more "boyish" by using (wooden) birthday cake, and pizza for the center piece. The two younger boys have been pretending that the animals are all family having a family dinner- which I thought was very cute! 

 We attached a thin set of book shelves that came out of a historical building on our favorite island! (Love that!) It doesn't take up too much room and holds quite a lot of favorite books.
The painting hanging above the book shelf was painted by my son- the budding artist!

Our first "Spring Cleaning" project is completed and it feels and looks so great - he slept there all night!
(so far, so good!)