The Big Boys' Room

It will happen this week.

I am bound and determined that sometime in the next five or so days, I will be able to step back, take a look around Josiah and David's room, and say, "YES!  WE DID IT!"  "It" being a total clean-up, organize, get-rid-of-clutter, make-the-room-look-nice-again project.

I don't know why it is, but their room is one of the hardest ones in the house to keep neat.  A couple of months ago, I was so discouraged by the mess in it that I was tempted to give up and just shut their door so I didn't have to see it!  But then I came to my senses and realized that having a (reasonably) tidy room is worth the effort--in this case, the effort to teach them how to maintain a neat room and the effort to follow up and hold them accountable (which, as any mom knows, is harder by far than just doing the job myself).

So, we're making the effort; and bit by bit, day by day, good changes are happening...but the job isn't done, and I fear that discouragement and distraction will set in and prevent us from finishing it.  To combat that, I thought I might be able to inspire myself by fishing this old post up from the bottom of my drafts folder where it's been hiding out for a VERY long time.  I have no idea how long ago I took these pictures--obviously long enough ago that the room was neat and tidy; and since I can't even remember when it was like this, it's certainly a long time ago.  :)

Soon--hopefully--their room will once again look like this...or almost like this...  There have been a few changes since then.

Whenever these pictures were taken, the beds were obviously bunked; but then at some point, we took them apart and had them set up side by side in the room (there are a few pictures at the end of this post with them in that position).  After talking with Josiah and David recently, we decided to put them back together as bunk beds again, giving them more open floor space to use especially for their battle reenactments (using LEGOs, blocks, etc.).  Jeff helped me with that project last night, and all day I've had fun walking by their room and catching a glimpse of their bunk beds and the clear floor around it.  :)

The shelves and dresser pictured above are SUCH a hot spot.  One day there's a piece of paper on the top of the dresser that needs put away; and the next thing I know, the piles of junk on it are so high they're threatening to topple over.  How does clutter reproduce so fast??

One challenge in keeping their room neat is that they just don't have enough space for books.  Since the time these pictures were taken, we have accumulated more and more books...and since we homeschool (and even if we didn't), I don't see that trend reversing any time soon.  What to do?  Like many homeschool families, I hear myself saying, "We need more bookshelves!!"  :)

This little desk is actually not in their room anymore.  For now, it fits well in a corner of the hallway, freeing up more space in the boys' room.

But I'll leave these pictures in this post anyway because it shows how the room used to look (and also shows my dearly beloved David).  :)

Speaking of David, this picture (below) was one that we gave to him (maybe for Christmas two years ago?) because, of course, it depicts David from the Bible.  Our David loves it, and I love our David.  :)

These shelves hold some of Josiah's treasures...

...and these hold David's (although the assortment of treasures has changed somewhat since these pictures were taken).

On this wall is one of my very favorite pictures of Josiah and David together.  I'm not sure exactly how old they were in this one, but I sure think they're adorable.  :)

In this post from five and a half years ago, there are pictures from the way their room looked soon after we painted it and moved David into it, including pictures of their beds side by side.   

I'm also including some other side-by-side pictures that I took much more recently because--this is a little silly--seeing the colors of their sheets like this is significant to me.

Why?  Because Josiah always has the dark blue and David always has the dark red (the pictures make his sheets look lighter than they are in real life).

I told you it was silly.  :)  But seeing the beds this way is...well...it's just them!  ;-)

So far in our massive clean-up project, we've worked our way around the room clockwise starting at the door; and really, the only tough spots remaining are the shelf/dresser corner and the closet.  But oh, how tough they are!  I keep reminding myself to just think about one tiny area at a time.  Sometimes I narrow my focus even more and say, "Just pick up one thing.  Decide what to do with it.  Just one thing!  And then on to the next one.  The job will get done, one item at a time."

That's the plan anyway...  :)