FFA Challenge #3

Challenge #3 is to pick a room, any room, to makeover. Well, since baby #2 is on the way, I knew it had to be Sydney's room. I have been brainstorming for over 3 months (since the time we didn't get the lovely 3 bd apt down the street we wanted) about how I would be fitting both of our girls and all of their stuff into a 9'x11' room. Well I guess the real problem was that it is also used as our storage room. And now it will be exclusively a bedroom for our two cuties! (Except for the closet, still need that for storage space:)

First thing that needed to happen was to get rid of the wall of boxes...

This was a long process, but it felt good to get rid of some of the stuff we (mostly me) have been holding on to. My BIL laughed when he saw some of the boxes actually labeled "Crap", but that's what it was. You know, all the random stuff you have left over when you have packed up all the clothes, dishes, books, other necessities. Like text books, random tchotchkes, and free (so I HAD to get it) crafting supplies "I'm going to use someday." 

Here's some pics during the process:

Luckily, my SIL and her fam were moving in July so we did a combined garage sale at my MIL's house. We had a great turn out and made over $300 total, $140 for us! I was so excited and really wanted to put the money to good use. I bought a new (to us) dresser/buffet for $80 from ksl.com for holding the girls' clothes:

I love the richness of the color and the detail:

Thanks to these handsome men for loading and unloading the chunky monkey:

I love the way the room is now with the dresser on the left wall. The crib, bookshelf, and rocker on the right and Syd's 'big girl bed' parallel to the bed and crib on the back wall with her coloring table. And the toy bin is next to her closet on the back wall. Here's a pic of the little stink bug after a long exhausting day of play.

Better after pics to come when I can catch Sydney's room clean, she loves emptying out her toy bins and bookshelf. But that's ok because now everything has a place and she is good about "keening up". 

After going through all those boxes and getting the girls' room all organized I just couldn't stop. SO I planned out how I wanted our room to be organized so we can fit a pack n play by our bed for the first few months. Better Homes and Gardens has a great tool called arrange-a-room that has been really helpful during this whole process. It's really nice because you can get the exact measurements of the room and all the furniture in and arrange it virtually before you actually go through the hassle of moving things. The hubs is grateful since he only has to arrange once (usually:) and I already know everything will fit in the space.

Here's how our room now looks. Bed centered with bookcases on either side, laundry on the right wall and pack n play and dresser on the left:

(yes, that is a pic of my computer screen)

Also since most of my craft stuff was in our room, it has been moved to the front room. So we have our couch on the back wall. Side table, over-sized chair and random shoe/coupons/crap storage thing (that I am debating about letting go cause it's a bit of an eye sore) on the right. The entertainment center on front wall with my craft storage shelves next to it. And on the left wall my crafting table and more supplies.

I love having my craft stuff out of our room because now it feels like a bedroom instead of a storage room!

Well I guess this turned into making over our whole apt (don't worry, the kitchen got some lovin' to as I went through the wall of boxes in there and organized our kitchen gadgets better) rather than just the girls' room, but it feels great to accomplish so much! I still have more organizing and putting away I need to do before I get some good after pics, hopefully that will happen over the next couple of weeks.

And in case you are wondering where the other $60 from the garage sale went I spent about $40 and bought 3 awesome over-the-door-organizers from amazon. One for our coat closet to hold all the random things we never know where to put like rope, batteries, ink, pens, paper clips, pins, etc. One for the bathroom to hold my jewelry and our stockpile of toothbrushes, toothpaste, deodorant, etc. And one for the girls' room for shoes, accessories, bows, all things girly. Feels so good to get organized! With the $20 left over we went out to din din! Gotta have a little fun. :)