Visual Spring Cleaning Guide - The Bedroom

Now that we have cleaned the living room, let's move on to the bedroom! Let's take a look where the magic hasn't happened in about seven months.

Since The Good Son is in his own room now, along with taking out his co-sleeper, we thought it would be a good thing to deep clean in here as well. What we did:

1. Dust the ceiling and corners
2. Dust the vents and fans
3. Wipe down walls
4. Remove and clean all art and photographs from wall
5. Take down draperies, curtains, blinds, etc, to wash or have cleaned
~TIP: Keep blinds clean by dusting often, with a dry cloth or a vacuum attachment. To clean wooden and faux wood, use a gentle wood cleaner on a nearly dry rag and wipe gently. To clean metal, rinse with water either outside or in a bathtub. Allow to air dry before hanging.~
6. Wash all windows
7. Wash all bedding, comforters, mattress pads, pillows, etc.
8. Vacuum and flip your mattress
9. Clean under your bed
10. Dust and clean all lamps and knickknacks (Don't forget to dust the light bulbs!)
~When cleaning a kid's room, now is a great time to check all toys and books and games to make sure everything has working parts and batteries.~
11. Dust down all furniture
12. Clean any mirrors
13. Clean the switchplates
14. Clean the outlet covers
15. Dust and wash the baseboards
16. Clean flooring
17. Sort through your closet using the Keep, Toss, Donate or Store method

I have found that kid's rooms are actually the easiest to clean. Since they play in them every day, nothing tends to gather that much dust. And the little shits outgrow clothes so fast, I don't find any shirts that should have seen the donation bin awhile ago.

Mid Century Makeover

The Good Son's room was a hot mess. Remember? We had the home computer in there for god knows what reason. But TGS is getting bigger and he needs his own space. So we wanted to move the computer into the living room and give TGS more storage in his room and space to play.

I had gone hunting for the perfect dresser for him when I was pregnant and found a mid century beauty on Craigslist and snapped it up. But then I never turned off the RSS feed so I get daily updates on all the mid century stuff listed from here to St. Louis. And I just happened to find this cute little bookcase from a local resale store. So I packed the kids up, got lost trying to find the place and the stored the bookcase in my garage for a few months.

aw, look at 50 years of dust. you will get another 50 years worth here, little one

It was a little shakey and the back had come loose in the move so I decided to remove the backing panel and make a new one. But not just any new one - a cool, awesome, vintage-y new one. So I ordered a vintage world map from Amazon and Mod Podged that bitch on.

And this is what the bookcase looks like now. Sweet, huh?

I used Mod Podge Hard for furniture and just slapped the coats on. I did 3 coats before I added some concentrated tea to the glue to help give the map that old, yellowed look. I did three more coats of the glue/tea combo before 1 final coat of just glue.

Then I nailed everything together with the help of The Good Daughter. The bookcase is solid now, with no movement. The shelf is more stable too. Overall I am over the fucking moon for this.

Before, all of TGS's toys were stacked on top of the dresser, which is ok in photos, but try and change a 16 month old on that without him knocking all the shit over. Not good. He needed more storage.

 
And just look at TGS's room now. I moved the dresser to the spot of the former computer and put the bookcase under the window. I filled it with all of TGS's toys which get them the hell out of the living room.

Everything is nice and neat. There is a spot for everything and everything is out for easy access.

Look at how awesome it is. There is so much room for more books, my personal favorite. I can't wait until Santa Grammy and Papa help fill this up this Christmas.

I can't believe that I have actually "refinished" some furniture now. Like a fucking adult. I feel so grown up.  

Dresser Organization - Kid Edition

I talked about how I organize The Good Son's room here. So far the room is sparse but functional. I mentioned that this time around I actually had something that doubled as a changing table. With The Good Daughter, I just changed her on the floor but I am too old for that shit now.

So I knew as soon as I got pregnant, after the "OH HOLY FUCK!! HOW DID THIS HAPPEN?!" shock wore off, I needed something for storage. Since I had been watching too many episodes of Mad Men, I also knew I wanted something mid century style.

But thanks to Mad Men, anyone listing something they knew as mid century on craigslist also knew they could up the price. I searched for months and months trying to find something that was wide enough to fit a changing pad and tall enough to not break my back and cheap enough to not drain the bank account.

The trick was to find something listed as retro, vintage, or old since the seller probably didn't know what they had. I found this dresser for $40 from a girl that was moving out of town and didn't want to move it. We did have to drive 50 minutes to get it, but I think it was worth it.

It has so much storage and is super cute.

Since it doubles as a changing pad, I like to keep all of the diaper stuff within reach, in the first row of drawers.

Diapers, wipes and covers

More diapers

The top drawer also had this super cool divider. I use it to organize spit up rags, socks and shoes, hats, bibs and mittens.

The next row of drawers contains all the clothes for TGS.

Starting from the left and working to the right, I have the clothes organized by size.

9-12 months

6-9 and 3-6

0-3

And so I and The Good Husband can tell what from what, I labeled everything. So TGH knows where the jammies are vs. the onsies.

The bottom drawers contain the things we don't use all that often.

Extra sheets and mattress pads

Receiving blankets and towels

Diapers for when he is bigger

When TDS is out of prefolds and covers in the next month or so, that will leave me an entire drawer to fill with the clothes I know he will get at Christmas. Meanwhile, the old clothes get washed, folded and packed away.

Week 35 of the Weekly Organization Challenge

This is week 35 of The Good Wife's Weekly Organization Challenge! This week focused on kids' games.

Since The Good Daughter has her own room, she keeps all her toys in there and out of the living room, like we had in the past. But I don't keep any of her games in her room.

One, I don't want her getting into them when I am not in her room and everything gets lost or messed up. Two, I love family game night and it is easier to have the games in a common area so we can get them out and actually play with them.

So the games live in our entertainment center.

Right now we have a good mix of adult and kid games.

We also have games that The Good Husband loves (Up Words, Chess, Checkers, Scrabble) which I hate and games that I love (everything else). Right now, TGD can play Candy Land and Operation. Everything else will just have to wait.

Since I couldn't fit all the games into one cabinet, this side doubles as game storage and DVD storage, mainly box sets. I have some card games in here as well as other kid games.

See that game Pictureka! in there? It is one of the best games I have ever played. I love it to death and play with anyone, anytime. I highly, highly recommend it. Everyone from my 88 year old grandma to my 6 year old niece loves it and we all have an amazing time.

This post rounds out kids' bedroom organization. I have highlighted how I like to group like toys, separate clothes by size and keep games in common areas to facilitate family game night.

Organize along with me in The Good Wife's Weekly Organization Challenges

Week 34 of the Weekly Organization Challenge

This is week 34 of The Good Wife's Weekly Organization Challenge! This week focused on the kids' closet. 

I will admit that I haven't done much organizing of the kids' closets. The Good Daughter has too much shit and The Good Son has almost none at all. So I started with his closet and will hopefully continue on to TGD's soon.

TGS mostly has clothes in his closet and not a lot of much else. Other than boxes I still haven't unpacked from when we moved into the house four years ago.

But organizing his clothes can be a pain, since little babies have so many different sizes of clothes in the beginning.
 

So, one way I like to keep them organized is by making clothes labels. This way I can divide the clothes by size and once he is out of the smallest size, store or sell them.

I have labels until to size 2T. By then I figured he would have mostly all the same size in his closet at once.

To make the labels, I just used old CD labels I had around the house. You know, from back in the day before MP3 players. I made a simple design for each one, printed them out and then stuck them on some cardboard. I cut a slit on the left side so the label would fit on the bar and then organized the clothes until my heart was happy.

Organize along with me in The Good Wife's Weekly Organization Challenges

Week 33 of the Weekly Organization Challenge

This is week 33 of The Good Wife's Weekly Organization Challenge! This week focused on kids' books. 

I love to read. I was reading Steven King novels in 6th grade. I blame The Stand on my zombie/survival/end of civilization obsession. It was very important for me to show my love of books to The Good Daughter. At Christmas and on her birthday we ask that everyone get her books or clothes. I tend to buy her just books. 

So she has a lot. And we keep them in her room so she can read them whenever she wants and I am able to read them to her each night before bed. 

There are two ways that I organize her books.

The super anal retentive way {by far my favorite} by placing them on the shelf in order of height. 

And the group by colors.

While I prefer the almost OCD organization practice of sorting by size, I don't want that to rub off on TGD. So I let her hand me all the books at the end of the night and I put them on the shelf in the right order. However, she can group her books together by color, so I found that at the end of the night, both of us can help clean her room and feel good about it.

Now if only I didn't have to sing that damn clean up song every fucking time.

Organize along with me in The Good Wife's Weekly Organization Challenges

Week 32 of the Weekly Organization Challenge

This is week 32 of The Good Wife's Weekly Organization Challenge! This week focused on the kids' room. 

A while back, I talked about how I updated The Good Daughter's room from a nursery to a woodland critter themed big girl room. Before the room just had white walls, her crib and wardrobe which is a hand me down that I have had since junior high.

I wanted to keep her room fun and functional. Shit, I even painted it pink. Growing up I never had a bedroom that I decorated. My mom would just get some furniture and then put it in my room and I would have to work around it. I had the wardrobe and a teeny, tiny single bed, a desk, a tv stand and a cabinet for dolls I didn't really like. So I thought it would be awesome if TGD could have something that she got to help create and she can live with for a few years.

But since we moved the crib out of her room and had another baby to put in that crib, that shit had to go somewhere too. What was once my home office became the new nursery. Once I found out I was pregnant, The Good Husband busted ass and got my office finished in the basement. There is no before photo of the hell that was my office.

Since I have two kids' rooms, each with separate functions {baby v pre-k'er}, each room as to serve a different purpose.

TGD's room has to be fun and colorful and give her a place to play, to sleep and offer storage for all her shit. TGS' room is basically there to keep his clothes and change his diaper, since he sleeps with us and doesn't play in his room at all. 

We also have to keep our personal computer in there until we can finish the rest of the basement. For now, since no one sleeps in there it is ok, but as soon as The Good Son can play in there, it will have to move downstairs.

One thing that I did do differently this time is I added a changing pad. I use the top of the dresser for a changing table and keep a small container, similar to the one I use for my new mother breastfeeding survival kit, to help with diaper changes. That way I can have lotion, diaper area wash, rash cream and other essentials within reach at diaper change. I also have the dirty clothes hamper at one end of the dresser and the dirty diaper pail at the other.

 

TGS has a small box of baby toys in his room for when he can play with them. Right now TGD likes to get into it and pretend to be the baby again.
 

Another thing I added this time was a rocking chair. Now I can savor the 20 minutes I get each night rocking TGS to sleep. I get to snuggle in, rub my nose on TGS's little bald head and take 20 minutes to reflect on the day, to prepare for the next day and relish the last time I will probably have a baby in the house.

 

TGS also got all of TGD's nursery stuff - crib and bedding and decor. When it is time for his big boy room I will paint and give him some stuff that is all his.

Organize along with me in The Good Wife's Weekly Organization Challenges

Week 31 of the Weekly Organization Challenge

This is week 31 of The Good Wife's Weekly Organization Challenge! This week focused on purses.  

Like everything else even tangentially related to fashion or style, I have a basic (read - ugly) purse and wallet. I chose function over fashion more than a few years ago and have had this purse ever since.

Since I have the personal emergency car kit, I need to carry very little in my actual purse.

Starting from the outside pockets, I have pens and my checkbook.

I also have one of the most important cards I can carry in the outside pocket for easy access. This card allows me to whip out a tit when I need to and not get arrested for it either. Not that I have ever had any problems nursing in public but I still carry this on the off chance I can go all Nora Rea on someone's ass one day when they make a stink about my boobs in public.

The inside of my purse is divided into personal and business.

In the business side of things, I have my wallet, a notepad and some tissues.

And of course I have an ugly wallet to match my purse. It contains no cash, one too many credit cards, my drivers license and my voter's registration card.

On the personal side, I have some powder makeup and this clear plastic bag to contain small beauty products like lip gloss and lotion.

Maybe for Christmas I will get a new purse, but for now, it is organized and functional.

And with this post the bedroom should be organized. Next we move on to kid bedrooms which are normally harder to keep organized. Stay tuned!

Organize along with me in The Good Wife's Weekly Organization Challenges

Week 30 of the Weekly Organization Challenge

This is week 30 of The Good Wife's Weekly Organization Challenge! This week focused on jewelry.

Much like my clothes and shoes, I don't have a lot of jewelry. I blame 12 years of Catholic school for my lack of fashion sense.  

What I do have, I keep in a jewelry box The Good Husband gave me a few years ago. You saw it when I posted about our master bedroom. 

For me, I like the uncluttered look of a simple box on top of my dresser. It holds everything I have now - some ear rings, necklaces, broaches, bracelets, a watch - plus has room for when I get something new.

I know there are prettier ways to display jewelry, but I am a traditionalist when it comes to this area. Besides, I wouldn't know where to put any cute display anyway. Also by having all my jewelry inside of a box, it stays untangled and dust free. And since I only wear some of these things a few times a year, the rest of the time it would spend collecting dust and tempt the little fingers of The Good Daughter.

Organize along with me in The Good Wife's Weekly Organization Challenges

The Good Daughter's Big Girl Room

The Good Daughter turned 3 in June. A month later The Good Son was due. We thought it would be a good idea to make a new big girl room for her so that she could have her own space that was all hers and that she could have something special before her world was about to get ugly with the addition of a new baby. 

The theme of her room is woodland friends. 

And it all started with this:

TGD needed a nightlight for her room. I saw this little one at Target a long time ago and picked it up b/c I love hedgehogs. I mean look how cute he is. ~Awwwwww~

Then I found out that it was part of a larger line of bedroom stuff at Target that had all sorts of woodland critters. But it only had bedding for a twin bed and TGH has a toddler bed. And then everyone and their mother jumped on the owl trend and soon everywhere I looked every little girl had an owl room.

Shit, that won't do.

So I started collecting ideas on Pinterest. You should know how much of a Pinterest whore I am by now.

And now her room is this pink and yellow wonderland:

She picked the wall colors. Well, she said she wanted pink and yellow. I picked out the actual colors.

I was able to find fabric that had owls, deer and hedgehogs on it. My grandma and I made the bed skirt, the sheets, the pillow cases and pillows, a summer comforter and a winter quilt.

One great thing about giving TGD her own room is that I was finally able to get her toys out of the living room. She still has the fucking pink play kitchen.

I wanted to set her room up so that she has different areas for different kinds of play. I also wanted a large area in the middle of the room to allow her to space out with all her stuff and play.

She has the imaginative play area above.

By the window, for the best light, is the art center. She can color with markers and crayons and well as chalk here.

Next to her wardrobe is where most of her toys are. I got her a fox storage bin (sources at the end of post) to keep most of her toys. The bigger toys and the ones she plays with the most are kept on top of her bookcase.

  
Next to her bookcase is a reading corner with a pillow and blanket. She also has a music corner with her play piano.

I tried to incorporate different styles of woodland creature. The terrarium features a tiny hedgehog. She has a fox print of a family as well as a fox on her toy box. She has an owl blanket as well as an owl hanging with her name on it. 

I still have some odds and ends I want to add to the room but for now it is mostly complete and makes me smile like a 3 year old.

~source list~ 

Fox  Storage Box - 3 Sprouts

Good Manners Cards - Abe's Market

Bookcase - Target

Fabric - Doohikey Designs for Riley Blake - Hoo's in the Forest {most of this line is sold out but you can still find some on etsy and ebay}

Owl Blanket - Kohls

Floating Shelves - IKEA

Fox Family Artwork -Etsy, seller Lulu Froot

You Are So Loved Artwork - Etsy, seller The Wheatfield
My Favorite Weather Artwork - Etsy, seller The Wheatfield

Hedgehog Terrarium - Etsy, seller Lovely Terrariums

Paint Colors -  Valspar Fairytale Pink and Star Bright