We haven't had a big room switch since the four older kids
stopped sharing one room five years ago. And if you click that link and also wonder if the boys kept their room that clean, well, um, no. You can't even tell its the same room. I guess they will be the next project.
Anyway, up until yesterday,
Evie Genevieve and Fiona shared one smaller bedroom and Daniel, Lula, Heidi, and Jason shared the larger room. It was past time to give Daniel a girl-free room to dress in even though he still is afraid to sleep alone at night. Or maybe I should say Lula needed a Daniel-free room to change in.
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| I remember setting up the bunk bed when we moved and stripping out the bolt and being thankful I would never have to move it again. Ahem. Sorry Mark. They got it around that corner though. |
In the matter of a few hours, we managed to take down a crib and a set of bunk beds (including hauling four twin mattresses and three crib-size mattresses out to the living room), rotate the other bunk bed so it sat on the opposite wall, and move boxes of clothes. Mark had to take the four older kids to taekwondo and I was left to sort out the...gulp...toys.
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| Piles of JUNK! Except the diapers. Those are necessary. |
They have a lot of little junk. The problem is that
Evie Genevieve and Fiona are very creative when it comes to playing. Most busy mothers would be envious of their go-off-and-play-by-themselves-for-hours ability. But let me tell you, clean up is nearly impossible. Say they decide to play Little Pet Shop. They have the little animals and some little play sets, but then they decide it is someone's birthday. They then get little doodads, like a pompom or a fake jewel, wrap it in a scrap of fabric or piece of plastic, and clip it closed with a hair clip. Or they get a LEGO Duplo, stuff it with beads, close it with a regular LEGO, and secure it with a rubber band. Dismantling these creations and returning the pieces to their rightful places all over my house takes
forever. I just want to throw it all away and buy new LEGOs, hair clips, and beads. Or not replace them at all.
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| What, you want to work? I don't think so! |
And then all the girl junk needs to move to the new room and find a place to be stored. There just isn't a lot of storage room in a bedroom with four girls, so we are going to have to be selective on what toys we hang on to. The hardest items to home are the stuffed animals and dress up clothes. They are staying in Daniel's room until I can come up with a better idea. Daniel just isn't into playing dress up or snuggling with stuffies. Or playing with toys for that matter, but that is a post for a different day.
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| Daniel and Jason's new room! Nothing on the wall! |
The girls got right to work hanging pictures of horses from an old calendar and placing their pretty things where they can be played with by their younger sisters. Keeping special and personal things out of reach of the younger girls will be a challenge, but I have a plan. There is one dresser in their room and the drawers are hard to open. Each girl gets a drawer, with
Evie Genevieve getting the top drawer. They keep their precious things (like chapstick and jewelry) where little arms and hands cannot reach. Heidi doesn't have any special possessions yet, so we are using her drawer for dance costumes...and keeping them away from Lula.
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| Less than 24 hours after switching and it already has a "lived in" look. Sigh. |
A few months ago, I gave up on keeping clothes in dressers. I've switched them over to a tote system. The two older girls have two totes each: one for tops and one for bottoms. Lula and Heidi get one tote each. When the season changes, I take the totes, slap a lid on them, and put them in the attic. I replace them with the next size/season and we are good to go.
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| The boxes are in age order, top to bottom. Heidi and Lula share the bottom shelf. |
I got really super tired of Lula pulling all her clothes out of her box while she looked for her favorite bathing suit or sundress and dumping them on the floor. Daniel would go swimming in the pond and dump his wet and dirty clothes on top of Lula's clean clothes. I wouldn't see the mess until bedtime, but then it was too late. I swear, I washed the same load of laundry forty times and never saw anyone wear any of the clothes I washed. I slowly made her clothes disappear into storage boxes in the attic and replaced them with three identically styled dresses and five pairs of leggings. She now has no choice on what she wears (I seriously had to fight her into the van the first morning she couldn't choose) and the room stays a lot cleaner. Yes, I do sometimes have to wash all three dresses in one day, but my life and her room is much neater.
Last night was a big change for everyone. Daniel, who is usually the first to go to sleep, needed me to sit on his bed until he fell asleep. He complained, "I would be asleep by now if those girls weren't so loud!" Sure enough, the four girls sounded like they were having a party and I'm pretty sure the loud booms were someone jumping off the top of the bunk bed! So I had to go settle the girls down. The older girls are used to sleeping in pitch dark. The little girls are used to a dim lamp. Heidi isn't used to sleeping on a bottom bunk (her bed is now Daniel's). Lula was confused because the bunk bed she usually sleeps in is now on the opposite side of the room with Heidi's sheets and blankets. I tried to snuggle with Lula so she wouldn't sneak up into Fiona's bed (another reason we switched rooms). Heidi also had a late nap, so she kept turning the overhead light on and off while everyone else was trying to settle down. I got out of Lula's bed and took Heidi to bed in my room so the rest of the girls could go to sleep. I moved her back to her bed after she fell asleep, but she woke up in the middle of the night screaming. I couldn't see anything when I went in there, so I knocked over a bunch of boxes and woke
Evie Genevieve up. And wouldn't you know it? Jason slept through the whole thing in his crib in his new bedroom. Hopefully tonight goes better!
