Before and After Pictures - Bedrooms

For the past few years, Will and I have had a tradition of purging and de-cluttering the house after Christmas while the kids stay with Nonnie and Pa for a few days. This year, we are attempting to follow the same tradition with the kids working as well, since free child labor is always advantageous. It is also hard to believe that it was only a year ago that we last de-cluttered the house. Will thinks that it isn't as bad as last year; nevertheless, it is still a wreck and it is impressive how fast everything can get cluttered again.

Before Pictures - Master Bedroom 

What a relaxing oasis of calm this is. Or not. 

Will's dresser, with an overflowing laundry basket right next to it.

My dresser. Among other things buried on it are all of my Crop Walk donation records, in case I wake up in the middle of the night and feel like doing some reports.

Let's stack up All the Books!

After Pictures - Master Bedroom 

A bed with only pillows on it! Okay, this was more cleaning than de-cluttering, but still. 

Clean dresser with no full laundry basket.

My dresser - and better yet, I actually finished my Crop Walk reports. YAY! We still do have a random chin-up bar there, because Chin-Ups.

Nightstands with only the book(s) we are currently reading. I can't ever bring myself to seriously purge books, but we did find homes within the house.

Before Pictures - Daniel's Bedroom 

Daniel's room, another oasis of calm. Especially the top of his dresser.  

This is not the greatest picture of under Daniel's tent, but it was dominated by a 3-foot (or 4-foot?) giant stuffed husky.

More crap.

Daniel, in the midst of sorting. I think he spent around 8 hours on his room all together, particularly with the slow and painful decisions of what to stay and what to go.

The four-foot-long stuffed animal and toy collection box for creatures that the kids were ready to part with. Daniel is lying down for size comparison purposes.

After Pictures - Daniel's Bedroom 

Daniel's bed, with a fully accessible tent. 

Cleaned-off dresser...and ready to cheer on the Royals.

New Lego Star Wars kits are proudly on display.

Clean closet! I neglected to take a "before" picture, but there was so much stuff jammed before in that it was impossible to open. Daniel chose to donate/get rid of a huge amount of what was here. 

Our sweet friend Janae brought over Star Wars posters to complete the room - thanks so much, Janae!!

Now, we only need to get rid of the rose wallpaper border someday, and Daniel might actually have a proper bedroom.

Before Pictures - Annika's Bedroom 

Oh, Annika's room. All I can say is that she comes by her messiness naturally. 

Huge amount of stuff hidden in the corner, including long-forgotten clothes from friends who have stayed the night. Sorry, friends! We promise to wash and return your hopefully-not-too-small-now articles of clothing...

Closet and bins. Hard to see but an impossible amount of stuff on the floor in the closet.

Because everyone needs an IHOP to-go box in their bedroom.

Annika's sorting piles of throw away/donate/put elsewhere. Very slow and she worked very hard.

Oh yes, socks. There were about 20 random socks found inside her tent. Perhaps these are the mates to the 20 socks which had no match when we did our giant sock sorting and were disposed of....

My favorite treasure: Yogurt. Not just any yogurt, but yogurt from last school year in an old lunchbox, aka a year ago. Miraculously, it still felt cool and did not appear to smell. This also makes me a bit afraid of this yogurt brand.

After Pictures - Annika's Bedroom 

Bulletin board on the front of her door. Annika carefully selected what she wanted to display. 

Closet! This is definitely not Pinterest-worthy but a whole mountain worth of stuff has been thrown away or marked for donation.

Functional dresser with nothing (?!??) in the corner.

Okay, there are still many stuffed animals and assembled Lego kits under the tent. Baby steps!

Side view of the book case. Oh, and the IHOP box is still there, because as it turns out, it is the housing unit for a very special group of ceramic cats. Choose your battles.

The whole room!

I am really happy that we were able to get the kids involved this year and have them making all of the decisions of what to keep versus donate. It was much slower but hopefully will be so much better in the long term. We are off to Colorado tomorrow, but the plan when we return is to conquer the rest of the house - all of us!