A Little Reorganization

Every morning, Brad calls on his way to work to let me know how drop off for Evan went. We have done it since Issa was an infant, and we will probably do it until they go off to college. It gives us a few minutes to catch up after the morning rush.

 

Friday during this conversation, we were innocently discussing how frustrated the kids were by having to clean up the playroom every day. It's not the cleaning itself that was the problem. They didn't like having to reset whatever game they were planning to continue the next day. It was a valid frustration, but since the playroom was downstairs it was necessary for my nerves. This all lead to us brainstorming some reorganizing around here. My desk was upstairs, but since I went back to work full-time I don't use it. If we took it out, it opened up a lot of options for some shifting.

 

We pitched the idea of moving the playroom upstairs to the landing over dinner Friday night, and the kids were sold. And since Brad is more of a doer than a talker, we started this move about 9:00 Friday night.

 

My type A self wanted to discuss how we would do this and maybe move a section at a time. Brad's get it done self started moving and I just scurried to keep up. (This is a pattern I both love and am driven insane by. Had it been up to me, we would still be working on this but I probably would have gotten teary a lot less.) By the end of Friday night, my laundry room had also become my office:

 

 There wasn't a lot of time for before pictures, so this is a really quick one Saturday morning of the playroom:

 And the family room:

We were clearly already well into the process when this picture was taken.

By yesterday afternoon, we were completely finished! The new family room from the front door: 

 And looking towards the kitchen:

 Yes, Brad was taking a much deserved nap.

The fireplace:

 And the playroom landing from the stairs:

 The kids' movies all moved up here, too, so they can watch them in the playroom:

 Evan loves his truck corner:

 All of his cars and "guys" are in that cabinet.

The doll wall:

 We did go out and invest less than $50 in storage bins--the only cost of the transformation. And we did dress the baby once her clothes came out of the washer.

Their junk buckets moved upstairs, too:

 We were really proud of the kids. Not everything is exactly where I would put it, but it makes sense to them. They also donated or pitched a lot of stuff this weekend!

And looking into the now music room from the family room:

 The books, blocks, and games stayed downstairs:

 I didn't want the kids to feel completely sequestered upstairs! Gram's cart came down, which makes me happy:

 And we took down the huge gold mirror that came with the house and replaced it with a print that had been hidden upstairs:

We are all thrilled with the changes...although I think we are a little tired from the moving.