Fall House Cleaning Part 1

I have been so busy. You know how I mentioned I'm selling children's books? I've made it into the top 50 for sales in the company. Yes, I am number 50 and, yes, I won't be up there by the end of the month. But I am super proud that I made it at all! It's because the books are so fabulous.

I have been so busy. Obviously with the books and also doing things around the house and going out with friends. Started working out again and my abs hurt! It's a good thing.

I am nearly done organizing Isaac's room. It's been my project of the month. No lie. His room was messy and had toys everywhere (as did the living room) and there was no, and I mean NO floor space. It needed to be touched. I began by checking pinterest for toddler rooms and I didn't see anything I really liked. Isn't that hard to believe? But true!

I wanted his room to be open and bright and cheerful and to have the maximum possible floor space for playing.



So I spent some time thinking about what needed to be in his room and what didn't. He has moved on to his big boy bed, and we read stories there instead of in his chair. So out went the crib and chair. In went most of the living room toys. I cannot describe what a relief that was. There are, of course, still toys in the living room. But they are better controlled now. Before, he would dump everything out and not really play with anything. Probably because it was an overwhelming about of stuff in there!

I began with storage. I purchased a second storage bookcase for toys first. But it was still messy. I then went through and donated a good bit of toys to both Goodwill and friends. And then I donated some more. Repeat with clothes. And bought a larger dresser.

It took most of a day to put together by myself, but it's beautiful and works. And it has two empty drawers! We're ready for winter. In Texas winter, you still need your shorts and t shirts but also must have light long sleeved shirts, heavy long sleeved shirts, jackets, pants, socks, and hats/mittens. And now he has space for all that in his dresser. His closet got completely emptied out and all his toys, except for stuffed animals and books, went in there along with his two shelving units.

His bed got moved against a different wall. Not pictured is the nightstand I put beside his bed to hold his current bedtime books (we read 5), his bedtime snack, and the lamp that I've promised he gets to pick out after sleeping 3 nights in his big boy bed. Also not pictured is the large bin of stuffed animals at the foot of his bed. It is overflowing and will be sorted probably tomorrow.

I need to create a solution for his books as well, since most of them will not fit on the storage unit in the closet. Under his bed live puzzles and trains - his two favorite things to play with. He hasn't played with them in awhile because he simply didn't have the space.

I need to sort one stack that is on top of his dresser, too, but that will only take a couple of minutes. Of course, his room will get messy. Probably very messy. But there is a ton of space to play in there now and I look forward to hours of train tracks and knocking over blocks. And using his imagination. Because he's just started doing that, and it's awesome.

Except for putting a pretend dinosaur to sleep. It might be harder to get a pretend dinosaur to sleep in a big boy bed than it is to get a toddler boy to do so.