Reorganizing

Our spring threw us for a crazy-eight loop.  So much so, that six months later I am in the mood for spring cleaning!  Let's call it fall cleaning.  I am not a natural born neat- freak.  I have always aspired to be one but where it comes easily for some I have to try really hard (and keep trying again).  I knew there were more efficient ways to organize the little girls' rooms.  I kept thinking about it until last week I rearranged Claire's layout and this morning I reworked Hallie's closet.  Because neither bedroom is very large, we keep the bulk of the toys downstairs.  Claire has minimal stuffed animals in her room.  Hallie, however, needs more toys since she is not actually sleeping during nap time.  Her "quiet time" as we now call it is her opportunity to play toys and read by herself.  Therefore we needed to accommodate that need on minimal space. 

Here is Hallie's new closet.  I hope it will facilitate both organization and imagination.

 We bought Hallie a castle to house her princess collection as a birthday present.  It quickly become a source of contention for the girls.  Claire now loves princesses and calls them all "Rella" for Cinderella.  We knew this toy needed to stay in Hallie's room.  I needed it to stay on a hard surface because it just fell over on the carpet.  I lifted up the bottom shelf of her old bookshelves to create her new toy place.  There were no peg holes where I wanted to put the new shelf so I just created new ones with screws.

The white bottom was boring so Hallie and I painted it with acrylic paints.  It was a fun activity and it looks great, but I can tell you already it needs some type of gloss protectant coating on top.  It will be scratched in no time.

The next priority was going through her clothes and getting rid of stuff that didn't fit.  Afterward, we hung all the dresses and sweaters and made labels for the rest.  I had chalkboard containers already and created labels by cutting up a large chalkboard rub-on I purchased at Dollar Tree.

I used to put Hallie's jewelry in a small jewelry box.  This was sort of a disaster.  Hallie was always pulling them out and twisting her necklaces around furniture pulls.  So, I painted and distressed an old frame we never used and hung nails directly in the old black mat.  It just so happened I could write on the mat with chalk too . . . which matched my theme. :)

A new door handle, courtesy of Hobby Lobby

Hallie likes the results!  Exhibit A. Playing.  Exhibit B. Goober smile.

Above: The other side of the closet . . .  Below: Where her other stuff hides

After tweaking the furniture arrangement and moving a bulky dresser into the closet, Claire's room feels so much bigger now and is much easier to clean.  She also really likes to play in there more because there is more space to make messy!
 

 The trim is still screaming "Paint me white!  Paint me white!"  It told me that a year ago when we moved in.

Above:  Some of my favorite pictures I have taken of Clairey Bug.  Below: Her bed when she outgrows the crib.

    

I wanted to take a peak at Claire's bed time "must haves:"  Minnie is a requirement, the babies vary . . .

Below: The stuffed animal station (a.k.a where the tornado starts)

I think she likes it!

Now let's pretend that my reorganizing will always stay pristine and perfect.  And let's also pretend that I don't need to reorganize the rest of the house too.  Can you see I long to be a neat-freak? If only. . .