40 Bags in 40 Days-Post Four

Janey’s room!  For those new here Janey is seven.  Her room is the perfect size and she has a great closet.

Bed was a Craigslist find that I painted and wicker end table to given to me by a friend that was moving.  Her pictures are from a book I had when I was younger-I bought a used copy and chose a morning prayer to frame.

The curtains are made out of two cotto tablecloths I found at TJ Maxx at Easter time-they have pink stitching.

The dollhouse is her older sister’s that she is “borrowing”.  These are not all her toys, we have an area in our family room of toys also.  The bags are American Girl clothes sorted into outfits (mostly her sister’s again).  

Bookshelf and table were finds that I painted.  More framed picture book pages that I loved as a child.

Bottom left, clothes she can access now.  I put together outfits on hangers.  The center top are hand-me-downs from friends, the other shelves are her bags.  The bottom are her shoes (not all of them-she has two pairs of boots and two pairs of tennies downstairs), and the little blue vintage suitcase holds her Legos.  Uniforms on the other side and summer (opposite season) clothes on the top.

Top drawer-bathing suit, athletic outfits, and stockings.

Socks, undies, summer and winter pj’s, and a t-shirt she likes to wear to bed that she made in preschool.

Bedside table.  Every girl NEEDS a junk drawer.  The bottom drawer she collects all her papers from the year.

If the junk drawer fills up (because oh my gosh the things girls save) I clean it out.

I regularly clean out my younger kid’s rooms and closets.  On my insta story this weekend, it showed us doing a try-on.  This girl has grown like a weed!  I realized she needed a few shorts for the summer, so I bought two pairs.  We bought a new pair of tenniessince the shoes she was wearing were tight.  A small basket of clothes that didn’t fit were donated.

TIPS:

1. The fewer choices kids have the less overwhelmed they are with choosing outfits and getting dressed by themselves.  I do laundry often so it’s not an issue here.

2. I always try to think in terms of “outfits”.  Not that we don’t end up with some crazy ones sometimes (that I almost always let go) but it simplifies things for both of us and things don’t go unused because there is nothing to match.

3. When there are clean organized spaces kids can easily put their laundry away themselves and clean their own rooms.

4. She has one set of sheets, one fuzzy blanket, and the quilt.  Easy to make.

5. Kids these days have too many toys!  Mine are no exception.  (I guess it’s all relative.) The less they have and the more, once again, simplified they are I find, the more they play with toys.  When sorting kid’s toys, sometimes I save a box in the attic and see if they even notice they are gone.  Or those “special things”-the really high quality I can imagine grandkids playing with also-go in the attic.

WALL COLOR:

Benjamin Moore Shell Pink 883