Let’s be honest here. Our entire house is a disaster area and I’m completely helpless under the tide of crap. For every bag of crap I throw out or recycle 2 more bags of crap appear. There MUST be a way to keep things in order! I decided I would attempt to tame Jack’s things. Jack surpasses even me with his ability to spread his stuff all over the place and is suffering clearly from stuff not ‘having a specific place to live’. How can you clean up if things don’t have a spot?
Well, here is Jack’s room in a before picture:
He had been sleeping in the nest of blankets on the floor every night for a week. There is a pointless huge table on the left that i just stuck in there because it had no where else to go. In this picture I had already gone to Ikea and bought and assembled one other Trofast set of shelves you can see on the left.
When I moved his original trofast there were all these little things that looked like grains of rice under it.I didn’t think too much of it, i thought maybe he had a toy with rice or… something… who knows. Only, later I was bending down and one of the grains of rice MOVED. omfg. MAGGOTS, I thought immediately. but HOW?!?!? WHAT? GROSS!@FUCK!
They were not maggots but were carpet moths. gross enough. It took two days to get rid of them with much vacuuming and dusting of diatomaceous earth and borax and much woe is me-ing about how gross it was.
His room has 4 low trofast shelves ad one stepped trofast. I meant the stepped trofast to be for his Legos but Vim scoffed at it as too small. So I will move that and fill it with more toys from downstairs and buy two large tall trofasts to be for legos. I also put in a small Ikea desk for him.
So we got that all cleaned up and the furniture built and then I weeded. I donated a box or so of his books and put some in a box to be gone through later, basically reducing his books by about 2 thirds. I changed the orientation of his bed to make it easier to make and clean around and even though that does reduce his play area a bit think it’s worth it. I weeded his stuffed animals and reduced them to two laundry baskets full and one box of them put away in the top of his closet. I weeded his toys donating some and putting some in boxes up in his closet to be gone through later.
One thing I did that has made a huge difference is to reduce his bedding by like 90%. Before he had a top sheet, a large blanket or two, a comforter or 2, a small quilt, and a million small blankets. WHY?!? I reduced it to a top sheet, his Little Blanket Soft Blanket, one large blanket and a comforter. The rest of the stuff I put in the linen closet and I hope he never sees them up there because he will insist on having it all back on his bed.
I’m not done, obviously. I need to go get the large lego shelves and i need to frame some pictures and hang them up. I wants a full length mirror and some hooks to hang up his hoodies and superhero cape.
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Looks great! Love the shelves. Nice work. I’ve got so many organization plans in my head. I think I need to take it one room at a time. Just did new bookshelves in our bedroom and donated like 2 dozen books. It’s start I guess.
so, i was tired of my house having multiple disaster areas, and i have tackled this beast in stages. as of last week i have totally purged & organized every single drawer/closet/cabinet in this ENTIRE house.
i did a big purge every couple of months for a year or so, until I learned to love the feeling of purging so much that eventually I wondered if we’d have anything left! The last big purge (LBP) I decided that if I haven’t used something in a long time I’d get rid of it – I’d rather risk having to buy it again than have it sitting around the house.
And yes, now EVERYTHING has a place. And it is much MUCH easier to keep the house uncluttered when you can pick something up and know where to put it, rather than just putting it in one of the multiple “stuff i don’t know where to put” spots on the house.
I feel like I’m one step closer to actually being an adult.
Holy crap! Great job! I think you got over the toughest part which is being quite ruthless about choices…
Carpet moths – yuck! I know the revulsion that comes with finding larvae in places. I have over the years brought home goods (ha!) from the grocery store that were, unbeknownst to me, contaminated with weevils. They get everywhere and the amount of food you have to throw out once they do makes me cry. I’ve been kinda insane about the sealed glass jars for dry goods since…
Wow! That looks great! It is so great to see a kids room that actually has toys and such in it. I always feel like I ought to be giving my jack a clear uncluttered space with like 3 (wooden) toys at a time or something, really I should do what you did and give him more storage for what he has! More Legos!
Patti – I think I need to follow your example and do the big purge every few months. room by room maybe. It’s HARD though! I love stuff… i do have a good book for it though called One Year to an Organized Life.
Becky – yes! like all the pictures of kids rooms form OhDeeOh or whatever it’s call, where there’s apparently only one handcrafted toy in a place of honor up too high for a kid to reach. hah