On Friday, all four of us were off - my husband and I were off from work and the girls were off from school. At dinner a few nights prior, we discussed as a family what we would do with this special day. Here's how the conversation went, Mommy, "How about we go to the zoo?" Daddy, "Oh, that would be fun!" Eleven year old, "Let's clean the basement!!" (She wants to make an art studio down there -- prior to this you could hardly get her down there to grab a roll of paper towels...) Five year old, "Let's rearrange my room!" Talk about your role reversals... We decided to rearrange our youngest daughter's room (it was rainy and snowy on Friday) because it was a relatively easy task -- we'll save the basement project for another day!
We started around 9:00am and began by emptying the room -- the other bedrooms upstairs were suddenly overrun with stuffed animals, etc. We pulled everything but the bed and dresser out -- even the 2 area rugs came out. We vacuumed the whole room -- corners of walls, up to the ceilings -- everything. And we also dusted everything thoroughly before bringing it back in. Our girlie's room is the smallest of the upstairs bedrooms (downstairs we have a guest room and a very small bedroom that is my husband's office) and she has a beautiful full-sized bed which takes up a lot of room. We were limited on where we could move the bed -- we were trying to maximize her play area -- so we flipped it from where it had been, 180 degrees in the opposite direction. We moved her dresser (which had been at the foot of her bed) over next to her closet. We downsized the amount of stuffed animals -- some are going to be donated, a few were put in her "special box" in the basement (a tub full of mementos) and the rest into her toy box. She tried to negotiate sending some over to Grandpa's house, but we didn't go for that idea (they'll only end up back here - smuggled by her one at a time!). We decided to take her nightstand out of the room -- it had previously been used to hold a pile of toys... We also had to take the glider out to give her more room. I told my husband that we'd have to find a place for it somewhere in the house -- I said, "I can't give it away! I rocked both of my babies in that glider!" And then I said, "Do you see the tears starting?" Because truly, my eyes were welling up... And he said, "Don't worry, you don't have to give it away -- we'll figure out a place for it!" Not sure where that's going to be -- but we'll figure it out! (I'm a little sentimental...) :)
We re-hung everything that had been in her room, and we didn't buy anything new -- we'd like to get her a couple of things for this little reading "nook" at the end of her bed -- a bean bag chair, a lamp -- ultimately I'd like to install a little, girlie chandelier in the corner, but that will involve an electrician. We thought it was cute to hang the Tigger cross-stitch that Nana made over the chair with all of the Winnie the Pooh stuffed animals!
Really the only "new" addition to the room is just something that I pulled out of her closet, and it's my favorite item in the room -- I took a sweet little Disney princess dress that I had bought her when she was a baby and I hung it on a cute satin hanger and we hung it up on the wall next to her window. I think it's such a darling idea, adds to the "princess theme" and it's a nice way to easily showcase a special item that might otherwise be sitting in a box or the back of a closet. We
re-hung her little mirror, this time over her dresser -- she's not tall enough to look in it today (standing in front of it) but soon enough! :( And over the mirror we hung a little pink princess sign.
She was very excited about her new bedroom! And after 7 nights of bunking in our eldest daughter's room, the two girls moved the February Recess Sleepover Party into our little girl's room for the past two nights! Tomorrow they are back to school, so tonight they are sleeping in their own beds! It's fun to freshen things up and move things around when you have a free day. We spent no money on this change, but just moving the furniture around, rearranging the decorations and even pulling the little princess dress out and hanging that on the wall, made a huge impact! Let the Spring Cleaning begin!
On Friday, all four of us were off - my husband and I were off from work and the girls were off from school. At dinner a few nights prior, we discussed as a family what we would do with this special day. Here's how the conversation went, Mommy, "How about we go to the zoo?" Daddy, "Oh, that would be fun!" Eleven year old, "Let's clean the basement!!" (She wants to make an art studio down there -- prior to this you could hardly get her down there to grab a roll of paper towels...) Five year old, "Let's rearrange my room!" Talk about your role reversals... We decided to rearrange our youngest daughter's room (it was rainy and snowy on Friday) because it was a relatively easy task -- we'll save the basement project for another day!
We started around 9:00am and began by emptying the room -- the other bedrooms upstairs were suddenly overrun with stuffed animals, etc. We pulled everything but the bed and dresser out -- even the 2 area rugs came out. We vacuumed the whole room -- corners of walls, up to the ceilings -- everything. And we also dusted everything thoroughly before bringing it back in. Our girlie's room is the smallest of the upstairs bedrooms (downstairs we have a guest room and a very small bedroom that is my husband's office) and she has a beautiful full-sized bed which takes up a lot of room. We were limited on where we could move the bed -- we were trying to maximize her play area -- so we flipped it from where it had been, 180 degrees in the opposite direction. We moved her dresser (which had been at the foot of her bed) over next to her closet. We downsized the amount of stuffed animals -- some are going to be donated, a few were put in her "special box" in the basement (a tub full of mementos) and the rest into her toy box. She tried to negotiate sending some over to Grandpa's house, but we didn't go for that idea (they'll only end up back here - smuggled by her one at a time!). We decided to take her nightstand out of the room -- it had previously been used to hold a pile of toys... We also had to take the glider out to give her more room. I told my husband that we'd have to find a place for it somewhere in the house -- I said, "I can't give it away! I rocked both of my babies in that glider!" And then I said, "Do you see the tears starting?" Because truly, my eyes were welling up... And he said, "Don't worry, you don't have to give it away -- we'll figure out a place for it!" Not sure where that's going to be -- but we'll figure it out! (I'm a little sentimental...) :)
We re-hung everything that had been in her room, and we didn't buy anything new -- we'd like to get her a couple of things for this little reading "nook" at the end of her bed -- a bean bag chair, a lamp -- ultimately I'd like to install a little, girlie chandelier in the corner, but that will involve an electrician. We thought it was cute to hang the Tigger cross-stitch that Nana made over the chair with all of the Winnie the Pooh stuffed animals! 
Really the only "new" addition to the room is just something that I pulled out of her closet, and it's my favorite item in the room -- I took a sweet little Disney princess dress that I had bought her when she was a baby and I hung it on a cute satin hanger and we hung it up on the wall next to her window. I think it's such a darling idea, adds to the "princess theme" and it's a nice way to easily showcase a special item that might otherwise be sitting in a box or the back of a closet. We re-hung her little mirror, this time over her dresser -- she's not tall enough to look in it today (standing in front of it) but soon enough! :( And over the mirror we hung a little pink princess sign. 
She was very excited about her new bedroom! And after 7 nights of bunking in our eldest daughter's room, the two girls moved the February Recess Sleepover Party into our little girl's room for the past two nights! Tomorrow they are back to school, so tonight they are sleeping in their own beds! It's fun to freshen things up and move things around when you have a free day. We spent no money on this change, but just moving the furniture around, rearranging the decorations and even pulling the little princess dress out and hanging that on the wall, made a huge impact! Let the Spring Cleaning begin!
