Green Office Organized and Decorated!

Six weeks to go and one room done!!!  Well, that’s not really fair to say.  They’re all livable except the living room, but I’ve actually finished all the plans I came up with for one room!  And I’m trying not to add to that list at this point, just so I can bask in the done-ness of my to-do list.  So here’s what happened:

This room went from living space to office space.  It gets used SO much more now!  We really didn’t need two couches, so moving the real couch to the main living room and the desks out here is working for us.  And, I feel like I’m more centrally located, so when I check to see who im’d me in the middle of playing legos, I’m only cut off from the game for a minute or two, instead of being back in the blue room.  When I moved the black desk in here, I took care of a few organizational issues my favorite way… New baskets!

That little area in the black table that is actually for a vcr was a magnet for clutter… now it’s nicely concealed in the cute white baskets from Target.  Oh, and I actually wrote on my to-do list to remove the tags from the baskets… both the new ones and ones I bought six and 12 months ago… apparently all I found it necessary to do was rotate them so the tags were against the wall and forget about them.  =) And I got some plastic tubs for the inside so that all the stuff I piled next to the printer was contained.  It’s mostly educational games and toys that we only get out occasionally, like our pumpkin game. 

I really don’t like any of the woodwork in my kitchen, but I thought of something fun to do with the island.  I bought a white dry-erase board with a nice black frame and used super duper Velcro to attach it to the wall.  Now we have a nice little space to color together!  Serenity’s even getting pretty good at putting the lids back on =)  She’s getting a lot better at writing and making deliberate shapes, but we’re miles away from actual letters and such, I wonder when that happens?

And then the final item on my to-do list for this space… concealing all the cords under the desk!  Serenity’s not that interested in them, but I hated the look of it and I’m sure the new baby would have been curious about that pile of twisty cords and electricity.  So I hung a simple black curtain up to hide them.  It’s just stuck to the underside of my desk with the magic double stick Velcro, so it’ll be easy to take off or take down if Eric needs to work with the cords.  I say Eric because I’m not crawling under there again for at least the next six weeks, it was a tight squeeze ;)  

Closet Organization!

The next step is organizing the closet… I’ve made a few plans for that so far.  First I bought these plastic tubs to hold her folding clothes.  She’d outgrown the baskets I used for her baby clothes, and the new baby can use those anyway.  I’m not 100% sold on these, but they are at least organized for now and they block the corner on that silly shelf that everyone seems to bump into.  I also bought a big 18 gallon tub to hold the hand-me-down and off-season clothes she hasn’t quite grown into yet.  (Thanks Kelly and Raegan!)  I went through everything while I was at it and packed away all the clothes that she’s outgrown and hung up her dresses in matching hangers… yes, pregnancy OCD strikes again.  Although I usually do hang her clothes in rainbow colors, I don’t usually go to the trouble of spacing them evenly like this… so it was worth a picture. ;)   (Oh, and notice the important fire escape ladder)

Making this whole organization thing more fun, Serenity found me while I was trying to decide what clothes she'd outgrown and what of the 4t stuff we'd just gotten from Raegan would fit her... and so we had an impromptu fashion show.  I think she tried on everything twice!!!  I especially loved it when she began her outfit by wearing just her pink boots and diaper =)  She eventually added a dress and pink jacket but for a while it was all about the boots.  Then she discovered a polka-dot nightgown... and decided it went great with a polka dot swimsuit... and then later I found her in polka dot pants too.  Believe it or not, there is also a pink polka dot skirt underneath all that!  =)  

I plan for the second bar to be dress up-clothes, with a tub for the hats and such underneath.  Then on the right side will be her dollhouse when it’s not on rotation in the corner I’m dedicating to a “big toy”

I added the dress up clothes!  It's so nice to be able to hang some, the tub that now just holds hats and accessories was enough at first, but her costume collection has grown like crazy!  I love that she enjoys it so much =)  You can read more about the cape, and bird wings here.

Organization Obsession

Organization Obsession!!! 

In case I haven’t mentioned it before, we are having a baby in May!!  I am so excited, and also seriously nesting.  At first, our plan was to try and add on a room, but because the price kept going up and up to the point it didn’t make sense for the price point in our neighborhood, we have a new plan:  Musical Rooms!

1.)    Move the rest of the daybed upstairs to be part of Serenity’s big girl bed.

2.)    Move the tan couch from the green living room to the front living room to make room for…

3.)    Moving the office from the blue bedroom to the green living room!

4.)    This allows the blue bedroom to go back to the Master Bedroom (It feels a little bit strange to be in the big room. =) 

5.)    The purple room we were sleeping in will be Serenity’s Room, and finally:

6.)    The baby gets Serenity’s room because it already matches my nursery stuff. =) 

Whew.  So far I’m loving the moves, I’ll post some of the individual room changes soon!  I've already sorted through most of the closets, taken a huge trip to Goodwill, and now it's time to decorate!