Switcharoo

It's been in the works for a couple months to switch around the boys rooms. Luke and Ethan have shared a room for the past four years. Aaron has always had his own room and over the last year he has been sadly aware that he is the only one in our house who isn't sharing a room. It's not uncommon to wake in the night and find him squeezed in between Darin and me, or laying at the end of our bed or on our floor in his sleeping bag. A couple times, I found him on Luke and Ethan's floor in a sleeping bag. He just doesn't want to be alone. Sweet little guy!

We finally decided that after Christmas we'd paint/decorate the rooms and make the room changes. Ethan and Aaron would be roomed up together and Luke would have his own room. Although we've talked about getting started on our project, we haven't made any progress. The boys decided last Tuesday they were tired of waiting and anticipating and asked if Tuesday could be the day for the switcharoo. I was agreeable so we washed sheets and quilts and swapped the boys. 

Here is Aaron his first night on the bottom bunk with Ethan. 

Ethan was overly excited to be on the top bunk... as you can see by his excited expression!

The first night Luke has slept alone in a room since he was three! 

Finally on Thursday afternoon, we had time to tackle rearranging all the clothes, books and toys and in the process purge many of the baby items we still had around. It was a much huger job then I expected. Luke was an awesome helper working non-stop with me from 12:30pm until 5! phew! 

He is a kid who loves to organize. Hmmm... wonder who he gets that from?

Here is a before picture of what was Aaron's room. It was a mess. We had piles of clothes, books, toys that needed to be moved around and sorted. We needed to make this room look more like a 7.5 year old room without a glider. Luke helped me take everything out of the closets and reorganize. 

It was awesome having him help me!

Here is the after picture of Luke's closet. 

A few younger toys on the top shelf, but mostly cleaned out. 

Here is an after picture of Luke's room. We're going to keep the awesome mural that was here when we moved in. Hopefully soon, we're planning to repaint the green walls a similar shade to cover some holes from the previous owners.  I need to start thinking of some appropriate wall art. 

Luke was very quick to set up his legos and is loving having his own room!

I never snapped a before photo of this room, but I love it being organized. I know it's not going to stay so neat and tidy and I'm trying to prepare myself for that. We have great plans for the walls in here and the colors selected. I'm also pretty excited to play around with canvas and paint to make a few wall hangings. We've already had to remove the glider from the room since it was being used for some crazy stunts. And yes, that is a very large horse on the top bunk. That is one of Ethan's best friends... Blaze. :) 

Hopefully I'll be able to share some after photos once we Darin gets painting. My husband is the project man and he is VERY thorough and meticulous. He'll paint ceilings, trim, room door, closet doors, and walls. I've tried to help before, but he prefers to work alone with his iPod tunes. 

Can't wait for him to get started!

Lego Glut

I'm embarrassed to say that we have a Lego problem. I mean excess, overabundance, plethora... you get the idea. Ever since Luke turned 5 we have been lavished with gifts in the Lego genre and I'm very grateful. Every birthday and Christmas for the past 3 years he has received Lego sets from grandparents, aunts and uncles and some from us. Not to mention the 7 large sets that were Darin's as a boy that his dad saved very nicely for him. And now, Ethan has turned 5 and has entered the Lego realm! Oh my!

Now, don't get me wrong... I'm all about Legos. I think they stretch the brain, spatial awareness and creativity. It has built a lot of confidence in my shy, tentative firstborn. However, I'm starting to wonder if we have too much?? Is there such a thing? We have a room in our house that is designated the "Lego Room." (Something else for which to be very grateful.) Definitely something to ponder and be aware of because it can all definitely lead to greed and wanting more.

In the meantime, we had to come up with a plan to organize all these Legos and I love to organize! So here is what we've done. We have an old train table that we use to display all the sets that are put together and made a little town scene. (too embarrassed to show you just how many sets we have so I haven't taken a picture) Sometimes they get moved onto the floor to be played with more easily. Typically when a set is taken apart it is put into a ziplock bag and stored in the original box. However, we do have some random Legos not from sets and other pieces from sets that have gotten misplaced.

So, we have sorted all the Legos by color and size. 

I bought the bins one at a time from Michael's with my 40% off coupon. 

Then we had a sorting party. I did most of the sorting, but the boys helped. 

When something has been taken apart, it typically gets thrown in this blue bin until it gets resorted. I found that when we had all the legos mixed up together, they always DUMPED the whole bin out to find a piece and that was driving me crazy. The legos were getting scattered everywhere!! 

It takes some maintenance, but it is much more manageable now. 

Then I decided to buy a little file folder to store all the directions for the Lego sets. 

They were getting mistreated or misplaced and this system works much better. 

Hope this system will help someone else out there!

Ribbon Organization

I'm in the slow process of reorganizing our closet. It is quite large, so it has become a space for school files, craft storage, sewing, and clothes storage. I've really wanted to tackle this space for over a year, but there has always been something more important to work on. I've decided to be content with working on it in small chunks.

First step: reorganize those ribbons!

BEFORE: As you can see the ribbons are a disaster and 

really tricky to find something when I need it. 

AFTER: Here is my quick fix. My 5 year old was thrilled to 

help me wind the longer pieces of ribbon onto spools. 

We fit all the spools into this photo storage box. 

For all the short pieces of ribbon, I folded them and attached

them to a binder clip. Then I strung them on a scrap ribbon and 

hung them in the closet. It's not perfect, but so much improved!

Do you have any ribbon organization ideas? 

Happy organizing!!