I don’t think I’ve mentioned it on here yet, but about two weeks from now my brother is making the 1,200 mile drive from his current home in Minneapolis to our home in Colorado, and he is moving in with us for a few months! Tommy is 9 years younger than me so he was only a 3rd grader when I graduated high school and left home. I’m so excited to get to spend some serious time with him now that we are both adults! He graduated from college over a year ago with his construction management degree and has been working for a contractor in MN, but he has always wanted to live in Colorado, so my husband offered up our house for the summer. If he wants to stay longer than that we would love it – he’ll just need to find his own place to live at that point. 😉 We are hoping that between my husband and my father-in-law’s companies (concrete & construction) that they can keep him busy this summer, so it should be a win/win for all of us. Lots of quality time spent with my brother and we will get a good employee to boot!
At any rate, you’ll probably recall that our kids share a room because we have thus far been unwilling to give up our guest room / office space. With Tom moving in, we had to get the guestroom closet cleaned out and the room organized so that it can feel like his space while he’s here. He’s already getting kicked out to the living room couch when my parents visit in June and my BFF & her husband visit in July, so we figure we should make him feel as comfortable as possible when it is his room!
I took these “before” pictures last January when I was 40 weeks & 1 day pregnant with Harvey and deep into my #WhoNeedsIt obsession. I obviously never got around to posting about it. Ha! I actually did do a semi-decluttering of the space while I was on maternity leave, but of course a lot of stuff has gotten shoved in there over the past year, so it was time to really hit is hard again. Here are the before pics:
And here is my ghetto Paint explanation of the layout (I’ve literally never used this program before, so be kind *grin*). it’s not at all to scale, but you’ll get the general idea. The closets on the right run underneath the stairs that go to the upstairs, so the first game closet has the low sloped ceiling from the stairway.
And here are the afters!
Not bad for an afternoon’s work, eh? 🙂 Obviously the kids will still be going into that room for access to their toys (we have a tiny living room as well and I’m not willing to have all of Stella’s art supplies and baby doll stuff strewn about all the time), but I think it will work well. I love the feeling of an empty closet & knowing that family is coming to town soon!
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Here are a few other #WhoNeedsIt (Decluttering) Posts you might be interested in!
Challenge 1: Fess Up
Area 1: The Master Bedroom
Challenge 2: Get Real
Area 2: The Bathrooms
Area 3: The Kitchen Drawers & Pantry
Challenge 3: Start Small
Area 4: The Master Bedroom Closets – Stage 1
Challenge 4: Return to Sender
Area 5: The Guest Room Closets