2 Reader Space: "Faith" in an Organized Bedroom

Be ready for some eye candy in the form of a little gal pal's bedroom, I know I am totally crushing on this organizational transformation for one lucky little lady!!

Tabitha wrote:

Hey Jen!

I found your blog about a month ago and have since read all your postings from start to finish. This is only the second blog that I have ever done that with. I just love all your ideas and you have really inspired me to start getting my house organized and decorated a little. I wanted to share with you a recent room makeover that I did to my 8 year old daughters bedroom. I figured that rather than email you all the pictures that I would just send you the link to the post that I did on my blog. If you get some time I hope that you can check it out and let me know what you think. Thanks again for all the great ideas.

http://riggsfamilymoments.blogspot.com/2010/09/faiths-room-makeover.html

- Tabitha 

 Tabitha blogged:

Recently I have been trying to get our house more organized. One of the projects at the top of my to-do list was Faith's bedroom. I follow several organizing blogs and had gotten several ideas that I wanted to try. This post may end up being fairly long, but I wanted to share before, during and after photos of the makeover.

I actually didn't think to take before pictures until after I had already worked for an hour Thursday night helping her clean out from under the bed. So here is how the room looked before we started cleaning out the room on Friday night.
 

As you can see, it was a mess! It had been more than a year since we had gone through her toys and weeded out the things that she no longer played with or had outgrown. I had a few things in her room to try to add storage and organize the toys, but things didn't really have a "permanent" home so they would just get tossed anywhere. Faith was a real trooper and worked with me most of the evening on Friday to throw things away and give things away. I did not give anything away without her permission. We started working Friday evening around 4:00 and finished up around 10:00. I was so proud of Faith for all the toys that she was able to part with. I think that she has learned from me that the less things you have the more you are able to enjoy your space. The picture below shows how much she gave away.

On Saturday my friend, Rosie, came over and helped me rearrange furniture and then we went SHOPPING! I was able to purchase decorative items for the room and some organizing bins. I will admit I went overboard on the organizing bins so I now have extra for other rooms. I just couldn't help myself. LOL.

Faith actually bought the inspiration for the rooms decoration with her birthday money. She found a pink guitar wall clock that had peace signs on it and pink neon that she just had to have so she purchased it with her birthday money. Then I found a trash can with peace signs on it that matched and some wall art with peace signs on it.
 

The lamp in this picture was our next find at Wal-Mart and on the box of the lamp was the curtains. I loved the curtains and Rosie had the idea to actually look to see if Wal-Mart had the curtains and sure enough...they did! My favorite part of the room though is the bins under the bed. Each bin holds a different category of toys. One is for Polly Pockets, one for Little Pet Shop & Legos, one for Barbies  and the other is for Dolls & iPod Docks. The picture below shows how I organized the inside of the Polly Pocket & Little Pet Shop Bins.

I love the way the bins turned out. Everything fit in the bins perfectly and it looks so much better than having this big stuff either stacked against the wall or under the bed for all to see and to get shoved all the way to the back. Also having the bins under the bed like that keeps her from just shoving things under the bed when she cleans because the bins are in the way. I love items that serve a dual purpose!

The next picture shows the reading nook that we created. This is by far Faith's favorite part of the whole room.
 

For this area I purchased the cube shelf at Target. I removed her old bookshelf from the closet. She always had a hard time keeping the books staight because the shelf was so long the books would tip over and she would get frustrated and just pile the books on it or stack them on the floor. I hoped that having smaller areas would help her keep it organized. The fabric bins each hold a different toy item. These are smaller toys that she has accumulated and didn't want to get rid of. We put a bean bag in her reading area and some pink dry erase dots, which you can see she was already using.

 The photo below is her vanity area. We didn't really change much here. Just cleaned it up and organized it better. In her storage ottoman I put a shoe box for her to keep her brushes and lotions and then there is enough space beside the shoe box for her to keep her hair dryer.

The next photo is the inside of her closet. We removed the old bookshelf and toy storage unit and put her dresser and small drawer unit in the closet. The small drawer unit holds her media, gloves & mittens, purses, doll clothes, and dress up clothes in each drawer. Since this picture was taken I have created labels for each drawer. As you can see there is still plenty of storage space in the top of the closet that could be used for storing seasonal clothing, blankets, etc.

The next photo is the completed bedroom. That night after all the photos above were taken we went out to dinner in a different city and my hubby needed to go to Wal-Mart to pick something up. As we were walking through the store we happen to pass by...the bedding to match the curtains...and there was only ONE twin size left! You know that I just couldn't pass that up and, of course, you can't have matching bedding without matching sheets and you can't forget the matching accent pillow! Thank God for an understanding husband! So below is the finished product and I must say that the bedding really completed the room. I couldn't believe how much of a difference just adding curtains and bedding made to the room. 

The only problem that I have now is that Faith loves the room so much that now she wants to go in there and shut the door all the time.  

Inspiring right?!  Her little honey sure has a great space to call her own, and Tabitha definitely did all the right things to give her daughter the necessary tools to keep her haven, uber neat and tidy for years to come! 

Side by sides are my favorite, so let's take another quick peak at the magic worked:

One of my most favorite parts is seeing the amount of things that she was able to part with.  And when I say she, I mean Faith.  Letting go of things is typically much more challenging to little ones, and for her to realize at such a young age that less really is more, and that giving is such an incredible feeling, will surely teach her amazing life lessons she can take with her as she grows.  That gives me so many happy tingles.

Congratulations Tabitha and Faith for creating such an incredible bedroom for Faith to grow in.  I hope that you are finding daily rewards in the new area!  And Faith, please keep that door open and spend some time with your mama, sounds like she is pretty amazing! 

 

P.S.  Have an awesome story to share?  How about some organizing tips and tricks?  Maybe a project completed from an inspiration found?  Please send your story and photos to iheartorganizing@gmail.com and I would heart to feature them right here, on the blog!!