ThoughtfulEscapes

...it's life.

Cleaning #2

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I’m on a roll! Cleaning #2 – it’s the second weekend in a row to get some deep cleaning & organization in, and I’m so thankful this weekend’s organizing isn’t ending in the flu. I didn’t realize how awful I felt last week through all the cleaning until I tried to get up for church on Sunday morning – I was beat! (& I didn’t make it. I actually slept most of the day and then took a 3 hour nap on Monday to get through – then Tues I was fine and have been ever since. Thank You, Lord!)

Today Christine and I tackled her room. It is once again a haven for her, a place she can enjoy. We’ve been trying to tackle this project for weeks – but we just couldn’t ever quite make it. Today we conquered!

• IMG_3148This is the view as you walk into her room. The bathroom door is immediately on the left, that green dress is hanging on the outside. The bed is to the right and the rest of her room is further in. #1 is a large, double, porcelain sink that will be moving to the cabin. It has been the utility sink in this corner for 15 years though and it’s huge & heavy…so until the cabin is ready, the sink stays. #2 is the replacement sink, when #1 goes. We thought this would happen this summer – but it didn’t :-D. After today, it is holding all her empty backpacks/wallets/bags.  #3 is full of notebooks, drawing, miscellaneous stuff she doesn’t want to get rid of, but doesn’t know where to put and doesn’t want to look at.

• IMG_3149

Looking the rest of the way to the right. See the pretty sparkles over the window? Because there is so much darkness in the winter and the position of the window in the house – there is never direct sun into her room and the day light isn’t much to speak of in the winter….so, I have two tension rods up – the inside one is a white alternative down blanket to block cold (folded in half, then over the rod – so it’s four thicknesses of blanket) and the front one has the white sheer with sparkles (again folded over length wise since the window is short. She never has to feel as if someone can see in & it helps keep her room warmer. Because it’s not a window with darkness outside it helps her room be brighter too. In the spring/summer/early fall months it is just the sheer with sparkles in front of the glass.

The shelves are holding all her paper craft stuff, painting, sewing, clay, legos, Only Hearts Dolls, American Girl dolls/clothes, and a ton of books.

• IMG_3159A darker view, but the lights glare so much it’s hard to get a picture. The closet is behind the wall you see on the left. It is so hard for me to imagine how all of this used to fit into my room! She doesn’t have more stuff (except toilet & sink) CRAZY!!!

• IMG_3158She finally has a “vanity table”. We have tried many different configurations – but this is the one I came up with today. The other two tries have flopped, third time’s the charm – right? :-D When all the lights are on it’s very bright, so she’s going to try to put make up on down there. You can see her scarves and all the elastic headbands hanging on the wall. I think this set up might actually work for her. As much as she & I are alike…. when it comes to everything having a place and everything in it’s place – we are extreme opposites. I’m hoping this isn’t “so” organized she shuts down, but instead she’ll actually follow through with putting stuff where it belongs. Time will tell :-).

• IMG_3155When you turn around from the vanity area. Isn’t it cozy? (Please excuse the sheet hanging down.) I got the fun duvet cover from IKEA, when I got to go there this summer.

• IMG_3142And again with lights on and seeing the bedroom door shut.

A bit of history & my closet…

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My closet is the one place in my home for storage. When my parents built this apartment over an attached garage, it was for my mom’s parents. My mom’s parents did many amazing things. My grandma actually travelled on the Queen Mary. My grandparents were married in Paris, France; their wedding photo has the Eiffel Tower in the background. They were missionaries to Africa (where my mom was actually born) and upon returning to the States my grandpa was a pastor. My grandma painted; I don’t know when she started that in her adventurous life. They moved to Alaska in the mid-90’s, my grandma LOVED my dad. They were in their early 80’s when they moved to Alaska. At first they lived in their own apartment in a nearby town, then they moved into my parents’ home. My youngest brother was in high school at that time, middle brother was also here, and I was living out of state. My mom’s brothers came up to help build this apartment for their parents. I believe my grandparents moved into it around October of 1996. The end of February 1997 my grandpa passed away, in May my grandma passed away, and Vince was born in July. We moved back to Alaska (from Portland, Oregon area) in February 1998; and I moved into this apartment end of October 1999.

Anyway, the apartment was built custom to my grandparents’ needs and desires. The living room and bedroom are the same size – 15’x15′; there is a ramp that comes up to my deck and kitchen door. My grandma had purchased a Baby Grand piano at a garage sale (Yes, for real!) and the living room was sized and wired for lighting to accommodate that piano. The bedroom was sized to fit a King size bed and sitting area, with a ledge for holding my grandma’s paintings. Today I’m going to tell you about the closet.

The closet is 43.5″x10’8″. The closet has been a bedroom for both of my kids, a playroom, my sewing room, and always my general storage – besides my clothes closet. It was Vince’s room first and I built a bed the width of the closet that was high enough to slide Rubbermaid totes under to hold his toys. The width of the closet is too short to put a crib mattress lengthwise, so I used a chunk of 3″ foam for his mattress. (This was before I had a digital camera; I will look for a print and get it here someday.) He had a sweet little room with cute truck wall paper border on the wall. Then he upgraded to a built-in room in the corner of my room. At that point I moved Christine’s crib into the closet and changed the wall paper border to the cute clothes on a line that you’ll see in the photos. When she started crawling out of the crib, I was concerned she’d get hurt from lack of room between the crib and wall. God blessed me with finding a wonderful wooden toddler bed, so her room was able to remain in the closet. When Christine was four (I think) I switched her to a loft bed in the big bedroom and that part of the closet was used for a “playroom”. Somewhere in there the closet was my sewing room. This closet has had so many faces in the 12 years I have lived here :-D. Here is it’s current organization and use:
The view as you walk into the closet and kind of look towards the left. You can see the cute wall paper border. {Yes, I know – I have way too many hangers. The blues and green are for my clothes; Christine’s are on black and hot pink. I don’t like the notches on the shoulder part and it’s become harder to find them and when I could they went up to nearly $4! I found a pack on clearance for .75 – I couldn’t not buy them :-).}  The two white shelving units and plastic drawers are our homeschool books and supplies. There are two built-in shelves; the one above what you can see, has about four feet of space that is all homeschool things as well. After 10 years of homeschooling, we have quite a stash, but we love it :-D!
This is the view when you step in fully and look to the left. That is a lot of my sewing and crafting supplies. All three of us do lots of crafts, and up until lately it has all been just my stuff, but it’s starting to be that the kids use it as much as I do.
This is the view standing directly in front of the tall black shelf and looking back towards the entrance (on the right). We don’t move the sliding mirror doors, so the doorway pretty much stays the same. You can see my clothes hanging on the left (straight ahead when walking into the closet) Christine’s clothes are to the right (straight on view in the above photo). I installed the wire shelf you can see so she could reach one shelf for her clothes. Otherwise the first built-in shelf is just over 5′. The rods on the ends don’t really do anything now, but it is better than storing them somewhere else.

I’m linking this to The Nester’s nesting place blog and the “it doesn’t have to be perfect to be beautiful” party.  I have already changed the organization in this closet and have had this post written since mid-January waiting for the updated pictures….so I’m “celebrating the imperfections” by posting anyway, even though it’s a day late too.  It is a conscience choice for me to not let life get me down when I can’t get things done the way I think they should be done.  I appreciate this chance to acknowledge imperfections’ place in our lives. :-D

I’m so thankful my Heavenly Father doesn’t get tired of my silliness{sigh} … He is even partial to my imperfect-ness, it is His choice for me to lean on Him and Him alone.