Tackle It Tuesday #20 - Kids' bedrooms

Ok, as promised, here's what I did in the girls' bedrooms over the weekend (sorry, it's very long!). For those who have no clue what I'm talking about - I decided on Saturday morning that both of the kid bedrooms needed a major overhaul. I stopped short of anything as drastic as re-painting and I spent a grand total of $0 - my kind of makeover! All I really did was to re-arrange furniture and sort through the toys, removing many that had either been outgrown, broken or that were just plain annoying. I love the way that Becca's room turned out and there's an improvement in Abby and Hannah's room too - although there's not a lot to be done about the fact that the room just isn't terribly big for them both having to share it.

This is what prompted the whole endeavor - Becca's new toddler bed was originally facing in the opposite direction from how she actually sleeps:

Here's a couple of shots of what her room basically looked like going into the weekend. The explosion of toys all over the floor had a lot to do with me pulling the Christmas Little People out when we put our tree up. And the diaper boxes are full of outgrown clothes waiting for our garage sale in the spring.

I started by pulling every toy off of the wire shelves (someone thought that was great fun). I moved all of the diaper boxes out into the hallway, to be stored downstairs, and filled the empty diaper boxes with toys that I decided that Becca had outgrown. She had other ideas, so I had to sneak a few of them into the boxes... I also swapped the (mostly empty) chest of drawers with the small bookshelf in Abby and Hannah's room (prompting a mini-makeover of their room as well).

My goal was to get her room done and 'sleep-able' by nap time. And I made it! Here are some 'after' shots - can you believe the difference? :)

I think I must've put the toys back on her shelves a dozen times - she was pulling them off to play with about as fast as I could get them put away! And yes, she was still in her pajamas... I did get her dressed before lunchtime though. :)

What boxes out in the hallway? I don't see no stinkin' boxes! At least I don't now that they've all been moved downstairs, that is...

This is long already, but I wanted to share a few quick photos of the (not as drastic) transformation in Abby and Hannah's room too. There's not a lot we can do in there since the bunk bed only fits in one position without blocking windows or doors - I don't really like the setup, but at least it's a little better than it was.

Here's pretty much the 'before':

I hated the bookshelf in there because the books all fell down constantly, got piled in there and slid out as you can see... Also, you can't see it, but there's a wooden vanity that someone gave us that was up against the ends of the bunk beds. I moved that to where the book shelf was and put the chest of drawers from Becca's room up against the bunk beds instead, along with the white shelves/baskets thing.

Piling all of the books in the middle of the floor? Just a temporary solution... And notice the 'help' I had, or rather the little one who was taking full advantage of being able to access the big girls' room.

Here are the 'after' shots - it's a bit hard to get a good photo in there because there's just so much stuff, so I tried from a few different angles.

My temporary solution for all of the books is the two fabric storage 'cubes' with the girls' names on them. I don't like this much either though since it's impossible for them to find a specific book without pretty much emptying the whole thing. Anybody have any ideas for how to handle kids' books?

The small chest from Becca's room gives Abby and Hannah each 2 drawers to keep 'their' stuff in. That's something they didn't really have before - all of the toys were pretty much mixed together and I really wanted to be able to give them someplace for their own things.

What are you tackling this week? And check out other Tackle It Tuesday posts over at 5 Minutes for Mom!