I found some motivation- Boys Room CHECK!

Last night both boys were gone. I always seem to have the desire to go through their stuff at night but problem- they are in there sleeping. So since it was such a disaster and no one was here I dove in. It took me about 4 hours total. Three last night and one this morning.

I'm so proud I'm just going to show before and after pic (as if you could forget those horrid before pics from last night!) and then I'll share my plan of attack.

I got rid of a TON of toys from the closet. I think you can tell- but man, it is still full!

TADA!

Here is the pile of toys I took out. Plus I filled to trash bags of trash. Now hopefully the kids won't miss them and whine to me!

I walked into the room and wasn't sure where to start. I mean there is just so much. Now a smart person would have picked the books since they were everywhere and blocking the door but no not me, I went right for the closet. Apparently breaking my ankle sounded like a great plan. 

Okay, so I am in the closet but what do I do?! I decided I was going to take out the toys I knew I wanted to keep and stack them on one of the boys beds. So out came Star Wars, Legos, Batman, and Imaginext. But now a problem- Levi has 2 tubs of Star Wars and Wyatt only has one tub of Batman- will they notice this? So I decided Wyatt could also have a small tub of Trio blocks. Keeping things "even" was challenging. There were a few other keep items- games, puzzles, nerf guns/swords.

Now I am on to the get rid of stuff part. This was really hard for me. When I was about 6, my parents got rid of nearly everything I owned one day while I was gone ( the reasoning behind it- oh it is insane and I'll save that story for another time, but none the less it was traumatic for me) so now I am afraid that is what I am doing to my kids! There are toys they just got for Christmas but I hadn't seen them play with them so they must go, man what a wate. 

That right there is what I am trying to avoid- wasting money on toys that will never be played with. The toys I knew I hadn't bought were a little easier to put in the basket but the ones I had- man that was hard. I kept thinking maybe if I keep this and get rid of something else they will play with it. Maybe I should do the rotate out toys like some other people do. But no, no, no! It must go. Let someone who will appreciate and play with them have them! Let some other mother put all these little pieces away!!!

Once the closet was empty then the task of placing all the items back in came. I came up with a plan I thought worked best knowing the issues they boys have with getting to some toys due to height/weight etc... so I moved a shelf and Tada! A far more functional closet!

The rest of the work was just daunting. I did finally get to the books after tripping over them for nearly 2 hours. I mean why was I so stupid to not get to that first- it was one of the easier jobs- sort my size, place on shelf! Pulling out the mountains of junk from under their bed was great. Who knew that much junk could fit under there! I mean how are their beds still on the floor?!

One of the irritating parts was just the constant re-binning of items. I found Lego pieces everywhere. I felt like I spent the majority of my time just picking up small parts of things and putting them in the right bin.

I also swapped out their computer monitor. They had a huge one and I noticed my old flat screen in the basement. I think Brad uses it when he has computer problems and needs to move a monitor around but sorry honey the kids desk just needed something smaller on it!

So YAY! For the most part the room is done. We still need to weed through stuffed animal land. Right now they are all shoved on the top shelf of their closet. The bins need labels. Levi has a ton of school papers under his bed. And their desk drawer/shelf need to be tackled but YAY! This is the room I was dreading the most. I think I will volunteer Brad to finish the small details with the boys now that I have accomplished the brunt of it.