{the great clean out}



Today I am participating in 10 Rooms' The Great Clean Out.


It is fitting as we just had The Great Switch at our house to start the new year of with an organizational bang.

 For those of you who don't know what I mean by that, we switched around 3 rooms upstairs in our home in order to create a space for the kids to hang out with their friends. My daughter moved out of the large room {which technically is a games/playroom} and moved into her brother's room. Her brother moved into what was the den. The den moved into the newly carved out games room. A switch of this magnitude required planning. My daughter and I drew up plans to make sure furniture fit in their new spaces. We had to switch the ownership of a few pieces, which are now waiting for an updated paint colour.


What I am focussing on for The Great Clean Out is the bookcase and closet in the new games room, since the room is not quite finished. 

What this great switch forced me to do was to finally go through all the boxes and books we stuffed into the bookcase and closet when we moved in 2 years ago. I failed to take a before picture but here is an in-the-middle of the switch picture.




After sorting, purging and re-organizing...

here is the after.





The bookcases are Billy bookcases from Ikea filled with the kids' books, photo albums {which I hope to either re-cover or replace}, photo boxes, a few mementos and reference books.



Using boxes from Michaels {only $2 each}, I was able to house all the photos {pre-digital days}we have that still need to be put into albums. The labels were just printed onto card stock. Some of the boxes house ipod cables, camera cables, and other small computer "stuff".


Baskets are used to corral other stuff that just don't really have a place.



Out came our "vintage" cameras to put on display. One is my dad's old camera from the early 70's that takes the most amazing photographs. The other was our last film camera. Something the kids probably don't remember using!


Using large canisters from Ikea, we were able to house and display our large collection of seashells from our trip to Florida.



Moving onto the closet...
Which is a work in progress.

The closet in this room is very generous and I was able to house all our boxes with files, momentos, games, my teaching binders, husband's coaching binders, and office supplies. I am still waiting for a wire shelf to come in at the local hardware store to fill in the blank space above the games. so some of the items that are stacked will head onto that shelf.

Into the closet I placed a small Billy bookcase we have had for 16 years. It didn't fit into my son's current space and fit perfectly into the closet! Now it houses, bins with crafts, beading supplies. paper, games, etc.

{sad blurry photo, still learning how to use our SLR}



This closet still has a way to go but I am happy with the progress thus far.

Can't wait for this room to be finished.

Being frugal and a procrastinator it is moving along slowly.

Make sure you check out the other bloggers participating at 10 Rooms The Great Clean Out!



xo Barbara

12 comments

  1. Great work Barbara! Looks and sounds like a huge undertaking but you absolutely rocked it! :)

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  2. Barbara, you are incredible! I love what you did here, and can't wait to see the rest of this room - and the other two! Thanks for participating and your patience with the email :)

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  3. hey barbara! ahhh! it looks great! i bet it feels great too cleaning out and organizing! keep it up! i need the inspiration! we are working over here too! i love your new look!

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  4. wow - great make over! loving this little series 10 rooms is doing!

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  5. Barbara! Great job! This looks like a really time consuming job and I'm so impressed!

    Enjoy your new space,
    abby

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  6. Fabulous job Barbara. You did such a lot of work and made the space work so well. It looks soooo good!

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  7. Wow! Amazing job! I need to take part in this Great Clean Out asap!

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  8. wow great job! I'm tired just thinking about all the work that took! it does feel great though, doesn't it? I've got a couple of spaces that have become catch-alls that really need some attention :)

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  9. Ooh! Look at all the pure fabulous organization! This is giving me motivation for my home office Barbara! We got our Eames management replica chairs and now I've got a lot of organizing to get the rest of the room up to par. Love what you have done!!
    Nancy xo

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  10. Wow! You did a closet too!!! I love the way your shelves turned out!

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  11. WOW...way to make me feel guilty....but not quite enough to get started yet :)

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