Red Lips,
Mom Hips
& Coffee Sips

This stormy winter weather has had us all indoors, cozy and relaxed, spending quality time with our lovely children, everyone doing their share and helping out around the house. It has been glorious. Can you hear the sarcasm in my words, even though you can't hear my voice? I literally looked out my window this morning and saw the snow flying and knew I wouldn't want to be getting in my car to drive anywhere! And then I thought of yet another day at home with the little angel, who gets bored so easily and doesn't think that letting me do any actual work is on his agenda whatsoever. I decided that if the school was open, I would quite literally put him on a sled and get him there if that was the only way to do it. An email came through letting me know that the school is actually closed again today. Another day in the winter trenches where I will be just happy to have the house in somewhat of a presentable condition by bedtime, but I definitely do not have any huge expectations on myself to get too much done.

It's a good thing I made so much progress before Christmas, that now in a few rooms in my house, it is just tidying up and not actually hours long project days. So this morning, when Orry got dressed and threw his jammies on the floor, I showed him where the nice laundry basket is in his room that is just for his dirty clothes. He picked them up and threw them in the hamper. He wanted to play with a puzzle, so we went to the little shelf and grabbed the puzzle basket and put it together and before any other toys or books were taken out, that puzzle had to be picked up and put back. These are habits I have not taught him yet, so it isn't really his fault that he doesn't do this stuff automatically. But I can teach him now! He has made some comments recently about his nice clean room and he has fun playing in it now!

My happy boy playing in his neat and tidy room!

Putting away these toys before others are pulled out to play with.

Ok so let's back up a bit to just before the Christmas Holidays. My delightful friend who helped me with my New Room organization, came by for the morning to help me with Orry's bedroom. She wishes to remain Anonymous, mostly because I fully believe she fears that if people know who she is, she will be inundated with requests from people to come help with their homes once they see the miracles she is pulling off at mine! The bedroom had gotten so out of hand with toys, clothes, some outgrown, some current and some to fit into someday. The bed had become just a place to put piles of stuff since Orry spent most nights in bed with me. The book and toy shelf was absolutely chaotic and guess what? I just didn't know where to even begin! This is where I find my struggle with ADHD really affects me. If I see a project and deem it too big to start, I just don't. I don't know how to just start in one corner and work my way around the room. It is something I am working on and getting better at as I make my way around my house.

This was mid-way through the project.Working on getting the closet bins organized.

Each room gets worse before it gets better! This is usually where I completely lose interest!

Can you say "DISASTER ZONE?"

My helper started in the book and toy shelf area. We purged a few things that Orry had outgrown and made sure the puzzles and toy sets were complete and had all the pieces. Then we sorted those things into baskets and got that shelf looking just organized and sweet! The closets in my century home are not huge and Orry's bedroom has the smallest for sure. We emptied out the closet and I sorted the "too big" clothes into a couple categories. I decided to sort them into clothes he will be getting into in the next few months to a year in one bin and then clothes he will be in later than that in another bin. It doesn't make sense to have to get out both bins if I had sorted it by all shirts in one and all pants in another. I also have a bin for extra blankets, extra or future winter coats, shoes and boots for next year. My super sidekick asked me if I had ever used vacuum sealer bags for this type of storage and I hadn't! She said that because a lot of the stuff was puffy and taking up a lot of space, vacuum sealing them would make sense. I Amazon Primed the bags she suggested faster than Orry on a sugar high! Of course doing the actual sealing would be my homework since they would take a few days to arrive!

A lot of the actual cleaning of the room was just finding the proper spot for all the stuff. Orry loves his stuffies and those little sweethearts take up a lot of space. Because of the radiator, Orry's bed has to be situated with a small space between the wall and his headboard. So we came up with using that spot for his stuffies and Squishmallows and cute Superhero pillows. Out of sight, out of mind and he can grab them to play with and toss them back when he is done. Once the closet stuff was organized and put away, the book and toy shelf was looking stunning and the bed was cleaned off, all we had to do was some dusting, vacuuming, we moved the dressers and washed the floors, cleaned the window sills (that hadn't been cleaned in more time than I care to admit). I also removed the window AC unit that had no business still being in the window in December! I started to fall back in love with the bedroom I had so lovingly put together for Orry when he was still in my tummy, waiting to make his appearance into the world. I wrote a blog post on his Nautical Nursery a few short years ago and you can read it here. You can see the small changes I have made, but also how it has stayed very much the same in the years that Orry has grown from a baby boy to the funny little man he is now. I have realized that when the stuff has a place and the rooms are tidy, I feel so much more calm and relaxed in my house. And last night when Orry went to bed (in his own bed thank you very much!) he said "I love my new room Mommy!" So do I, Orry! Here's what the room is looking like now. The transformation is so satisfying!

What a difference! This is the beautiful bedroom of a little boy's dreams!

My Caribbean Fish painting and lots of other nautical decor.

The books and toys have never looked so good.

The Captain's sleeping area. Now if you'll excuse me. his First Mate needs to go clean her own bedroom!

Brooke