The floor of my six-year-old's room is often cluttered with clothes, toys, paper scraps, stuffed animals, dolls — so cluttered in fact that it's often difficult to walk across the room on bare carpet. It's true I haven't been very good at keeping on top of her and making her clean her room, but the real fact is she has too much stuff in her room.
That is, she had too much stuff in her room.
This last weekend I attacked her room with a vengeance, and after about eight hours of hard work over two days, it's finally clean and completely decluttered! We ended up taking about eight trash bags-worth of clothes and toys from her room and storing it in the attic for a garage sale this summer. We threw out probably two more bags of "junk," putting it directly into the trash. It's amazing how much stuff kids can collect that they don't play with at all; it seems such a waste.
We also did a bit of rearranging so she has more room to play by moving her dresser into her walk-incloset. She loves the new layout!
The before pictures below were taken after we had already started in on the room-purge, but I'm ashamed to say the photos are still pretty typical of what her room looked like most of the time. During the whole process Joely was eagerly handing me things that she wanted to get rid of; and now that it's all done, she's supremely happy, even though she has a lot less to play with in her room.
She also learned a lot about how to clean during this major project. I like to clean ultra-messy rooms categorically, so I had Joely divide the mess up into related piles: clothes, books, stuffed animals, garage sale, trash etc. Once the piles were divided, we attacked one pile at a time, working until it was completely gone. This method gave her a lot of focus as she and I cleaned, and she didn't get discouraged or bogged down. In fact she seemed to enjoy it!
BEFORE:
AFTER:
BEFORE:
AFTER:
I haven't decided on a particular project to tackle next, but not because there aren't rooms in my house that don't need it. On the contrary, there are too many messy rooms to choose from!
This post is linked to Itch to Pitch and Tackle it Tuesday.
{ 12 comments… read them below or add one }
Wow, that's quite a change! Great job. I really need to put some of the toys away.
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Whew! I'm glad to know it's not just my kids' rooms that get to looking like those before pictures. As a matter of fact, I know my girls' room looks about like the before right this very moment. I'm ready to see some afters.
Kris @ Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers’s last blog post..Homeschool Showcase #25
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Fabulous job!!!!
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Wow! What a difference! "Less is More." I love it. I have been thinking a purge might be coming soon for my 6yo daughter's room as well.
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Oh, wow! It looks great!
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WOW! Come to my house and you can help me with every room.
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Impressive! Seriously, I am really amazed at your clean up. It should bring you a pretty penny at your yard sale!
Toni
The Happy Housewife’s last blog post..Itch to Pitch Challenge ~ Week One
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The room looks AWESOME!!! I am glad to see that I am not the only one that has a kids room that can get out of control. I can't wait to get into my kids rooms.
Judy’s last blog post..I’ve got the Itch to Pitch Challenge–Week 1
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Why wasn't that done before our last visit??
Just kidding. Good job to all!
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wow, looks so much better, my daughters room needs a good sweep through also!!! Maybe next week, we shall see.
L2L’s last blog post..Itch to Pitch: Week 1 Play-doh toys
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Wow! You've inspired me to help my children's rooms clutter free too!
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Nice job! How long do you think your daughter will be able to keep it that way?
My 16 year old daughter's room looks like your before pictures most of the time. We get it clean but it's a mess thirty minutes later. 
momlovesbeingathome’s last blog post..Book Review: Mom Zone series by Sara Rosett
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