It’s Another Client Check-in!

A couple months ago, I worked with Caroline, a busy mom of two girls, in her 7-year old’s crafty bedroom to declutter, get it organize and create systems she and her daughter could easily follow on a daily basis.

In this podcast episode, I’m checking-in with Caroline a month after our decluttering session to hear if we meet her goals and how they have been doing keeping up with the tidiness.

She gives a behind the scenes look into what it’s really like working with a professional organizer and gets vulnerable about the habits she was lacking to pass on to her children.

She says that she has gained peace of mind from the entire experience and that it was well worth the investment to get help.

Listen to our conversation below as I check in with her, discover how her daughter reacted to the overhaul and hear how their habits have changed since our time together. It’s a good one!

Then read the blog below as I share a detailed description about what we did to organize her daughter’s bedroom.

LISTEN HERE

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The Before Decluttering Pictures

The Vibe You Get Entering a Room

As you walked into Mary’s little girl bedroom, there was a short corridor with a bathroom to the left.

As you can see in the picture above, this short hallway felt smaller than it really was due to the shoes and toys that were being stored on the floor. This immediately gave the room a cluttered appearance and set the tone for the entire space.

Consider floors to be a surface in all rooms, so if we’re living by the rule of keeping surfaces clear, we know right away that things are out of place if they’re set on the floor.

Your floors are a temporary workspace and resolve that you’re going to reset all workspaces at least by the end of day. This is a good daily habit.

The Importance of White Space

Mary’s room looks like a typical 7-year old girl’s bedroom. It looks completely normal but all the little things all around the room doesn’t provide any white space.

White space is like blank space. Gaps between items in a room that provides a feeling of balance.

When you’re decluttering a room, keep in mind the notion of white space. Even in cabinets and drawers.

I always say, “Give your items room to breathe.” It’ll paint a mental picture of how to display items that will more than likely bring you the peace you desire.

How Paint Colors Create More Clutter

You can see the homeowner is testing out new paint colors in the picture above. She informed me that Mary loves the color purple and wants to paint her entire room that color.

My advice to her was to leave it neutral, lighter even, and to accent with the color purple instead.

Using a bold color all over can create a sense of clutter just by itself so if your goal is to eliminate clutter I suggest sticking with a neutral wall color.

My preference for wall color is some shade of white. It’s timeless, allows colors to pop in the decor around the room and will create a better sense of peace and serenity in the space.

My current favorites of white for wall color is Pure White, which is just the paint without adding tint, and Snowbound. I’m currently painting all the doors and trim in our home Whispy White for contrast.

Children’s Closet Storage

Mary has a great closet for a 7-year old girl! In the words of Goldilocks, “It’s not too big. Not too little. It’s just right.”

I love that it has shelves that lends to a system of order. Unfortunately, she’s not utilizing the shelves to their fullest potential.

At lot of people resort to using those tiered hanging units pictured above for extra storage but the problem with those types of units is the quality of material and its ability to hold up against extensive use.

And to be honest, they never really work out the way we want them to and eventually become a trap for clutter.

The After Decluttering Pictures

Peaceful Bedroom Entrance

After decluttering and organizing the space, the entrance to Mary’s room is now welcoming and relaxing.

The family won’t feel like they have to squeeze by or step over clutter to enter the room.

It also provides a clear exit in case of an emergency.

Storage for Stuffed Animal

I know stuffed animals are probably the one thing that drives moms crazy in their kids’ bedrooms. I hear it a lot.

Personally, I like stuffed animals. Maybe it was because I was a big lover of stuffed animals myself. However, I do think there needs to a limit on how many stuffed animals a child owns. Too much of a good thing is no longer a good thing.

Mary’s stuffed animals are important to her and she sleeps with a lot of them. Her mom understands this stage of life won’t last forever so she’s okay with them being stored on her bed as long as they are reset daily.

We weeded through old, dirty and unused “stuffies” first and then displayed them in the room based on how much they’re played with.

Some on the bed for sleeping. A couple on the dresser for play. We stored rarely used stuffed animals in a basket at the top of the closet.

RePurpose Furniture and Childhood Memory Boxes

You can see in the before pictures of this space that Mary’s toy box was to the left of her closet doors just as you entered the bedroom. Unfortunately, the toy box wasn’t being well utilized for toy storage and became a trap for collecting clutter.

Mary was using the surface of the toy box for crafting since the office area just outside her room was also cluttered.

I personally don’t like toy boxes and rather toys be displayed on open shelves for easy access. Out of sight is out of mind and if it’s out of mind and never used it has no purpose in our lives.

We decided to use the toy box as a childhood memory box and store items her mom felt were precious and important.

Since these were going to be rarely accessed items, we were able to repurpose the toy box to serve as a nightstand for Mary.

Child’s Closet Organization

My goal for this closet was to provide Mary with a clear system for organizing her stuff as well as provide a place to display her craft projects. Children love building and creating with cardboard boxes but they tend to look like clutter in a room. You can see the boxes on the bottom two shelves I’m referring to in the picture above.

How We Did It

Here’s breakdown of the system we created for Mary to increase functionality and encourage independence:

• Frequently used bags hanging inside the door because she already had a hook there.
• Frequently used dollhouse on the floor to easily pull out the play with and then makes for easy clean up by just sliding it back in.
• Art storage in a large file folder on the left and easily accessible to her. Cuts down on the amount of art laying around the house.
• Clear and systemized area for shoe storage. Remember she was storing them at the entrance of her bedroom.
• A designated shelf for book bags and hats which I placed in a basket so they don’t fall off the shelf.
• Clothes separated by length – dresses on left and shirts on right.
• Rarely used items such as heavy winter blankets, excess stuffed animals and suitcase stored at the top of the closet because Mary doesn’t need to access them her self on a regular basis.

Side-By-Side Comparison

I’d love to hear from you!

Does your son or daughter have too many things and they find it difficult to tidy up when you ask them to? What have you tried that works? Share with us!

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