Jori's and Atto's Bedroom

I love organizing. I can tell because I re-organize things all the time. Remember those 10 hours I spent in December, organizing the toys into three different categories (again)? Yeah, I've changed it again. It's so weird 'cause I hate cleaning, I don't enjoy decorating really (just enjoy the byproduct of it), and yet. There's something about finding the perfect fit, the perfect arrangement...it's like a puzzle for me. I thoroughly enjoy it. At least when I succeed at it.

So I've had fun, moving Atticus into Jori's room and making things that had been in the two fit as well as I can into one. And I want to share! Because it tickles my fancy! So...here's that:

First, the loft bed and reading nook. I have a lot of further ideas on fabrics and whatnot for the reading space, but right now things fit so great! We have an old foam mattress pad folded in half, with this child's chair next to it. 

On the left of this picture you can see a plastic bin that houses their now combined stuffed animals, with a smaller one that houses dolls in front of it. I'd hoped the space between the two beds might be enough for a bookcase...but it really isn't a lot of space. And the depth is weird, what with the crib right there. Like the kids will have to walk through a mini-corridor, if we do end up putting a shelf there. So for now...these things work well. They can access them from under the loft bed.

I was delighted to find that this bookshelf, which we've had since forever and which Sam built when he was 8, fit pretty great underneath Jori's bed. I rearranged the stories so both the ones that had been in Atto's room and the ones that were already there, work together. There isn't a lot of room for growth, that's the only downside...but it works well for the time being.

This is a peek into the two, small closets in the room. I LOVE this, honestly. I don't love the dressers as they are, but I love the fit. We purchased the one on the right just recently. This means they don't take up any space in the room, though, which is just perfect. What I wanted.

Finally, on Saturday, I found my solution to the toy dilemma that had been in their room! After I disbanded the toy rotation (AGAIN), and put a certain number in Jori's room, Atto's room, our 'den' aka room next to kitchen and the rest in the closet under the stairs in the living room, I didn't know how I was going to combine the toys from the two bedrooms into one. We had them on kind of weird things in each room before. 

So I wish I'd taken a before picture, so you could fully appreciate how much less space this particular shelf takes up...but before it was this white end table and an old nightstand that jutted into the room almost double what the current arrangement does. 

And HERE is the glorious solution:

A white, wooden shelf I found at D.I. for $15! It's 2 1/2 inches longer than I wanted, as it does cover part of the molding on the closets, but you can still open the doors so my goal was reached there. And it's height is PERFECT for Atticus. Any taller and it would have made his access to puzzles, the smaller knick knack toys etc. more difficult. But he can see and comfortably reach everything with this as it is. 

I should've taken more pictures of the room overall...but my point is, I'm loving the arrangement right now. This is one happy space-saving-furniture-arrangements-lover.

Finally...this isn't actually in their room, but falls under that organization of kid-related things umbrella, so thought I'd share this too:

I bought this 5 drawer plastic rolling shelf thing, over a year ago. Since then, it's been used in a toy room, the laundry room and now, to house our art supplies. 

Before, they were crammed onto the top shelf of an armoire and it was very difficult to keep track of/find things. When it finally occurred to me to use this cart to organize these things, I was tickled pink! What a great idea.

 

On the very top, I keep our educational supplies right now. I use the book Jori and I do preschool out of, as well as the binder to practice handwriting, daily. The box is a good size for up there, but all the books in there is not a perfect solution...still, it works until I come up with something better.

Ahhh....isn't it nice for things to have a place? 

Buy! Buy! Buy! Sell! Sell! Sell!

I made all these new years goals this year (as I always do), and most of them haven't much lifted off the ground (as usually happens). But one of these...'goals,' was to work on home decor stuff. I'm working this at-home transcription job, and was hoping I could use most I earn there toward making our home a reflection of who we are as a family/a place I enjoy being, more. I've never felt much freedom in spending here. (Not 'cause of Sam, just...me.) So! I added up how much I expect to earn from this job within a certain time frame, and divided it up by rooms, so I don't have to feel bad spending a tad of money on things like...fabric for pillows or something. I also have $110 cash left from Christmas, which was the main gift I asked for on both sides for this same purpose.

But even with this, and with my first paychecks coming in...old habits die hard! It's easier for me to sell other things, and use that money, than to actually take money out of the bank for things that seem so unnecessary. (Except when it's from D.I., somehow that sneaks through my filter...sneaky, sneaky thrift store.)

So. I thought I'd share some of the things I've been buying and selling, because of my nesting. Silly me. :)

Remember these? Sam's brother Jotham and his wife Jamie gave these two us, 2 1/2 years ago. I have loved how long the couch is, and we made good use in our current home of the love seat as a reading couch in Jori's room. But really...the fabric isn't practical, for a family with small children. And the couch is 8 feet long, and I don't know if we're done with apartment living or not (could have to do it again). So I decided to sell them. I got quite a bit more for them than I'd gotten my hopes up for ($150), since they're so hard to clean and had spots all over the place. So I was happy.

So then I started looking for a leather couch, for their durability with children, in a certain color and preferably with reclining seats. And I discovered this bad boy on KSL, for only 50 bones. $50! In Provo, too! I told the guy I would buy it about 3 hours after he posted it, and Sam went to get it the next night (a Friday). Which was a fiasco, btw, 'cause Sam's truck's emergency brake locked on for some reason (he hadn't put it on), and the truck was smoking...but the guy helped him carry it to the truck where it had broken down a block from his apartment, and I felt satisfied. Other than the truck stuff but that's a different story.

And then we got it inside and I sat down on it. OOF.

"Well," I thought, "Maybe I could get used to a Flintstone-hard couch." And then two seconds later, I thought "Um, no." So I checked on KSL Sunday night, just out of curiosity...and found a leather couch (turned out the one pictured above was vinyl), closer to the color I'd been hoping for (turned out the other one was darker/more brown than I'd wanted), WITH reclining seats this time, for $100. Hurray!! In Sandy. Lucky for me Sam was feeling generous, and went and bought it Monday night.

I know it's more wrinkly-looking...but it's way more comfortable, has reclining seats, and I'm not worried about any cracks forming. Yay! I sold the other one for $75 about ten days later, so it was more like this one cost $75.  Win-win.

Then, well let me back track. Our neighbors had given us their old bunk bed that was a full size bottom, twin size top, back in November or thereabouts. They'd said they were planning to take it to D.I., but would rather hand it off to someone they knew who might benefit from it. So when they asked us, we said sure, thanks!

 But after a lot of thought (seriously, I'm a worry wart), I decided it'd be easier to keep Atticus in either his crib or a toddler bed, rather than try to adjust him to sleeping on a full.  Right before the baby comes. Plus it took up the entire room. So we sold that for $100. 

Lest you think I'm an ungrateful jerk...well, you still have permission to, but I used about $95 of that to buy a new twin-size mattress and a water-proof mattress protector thing (looks like a sheet but also protects against allergens), for Jori. I'd been looking on KSL for a twin-size mattress too, but had such mixed feelings since you have no way of knowing what has happened on that bed before you! Somehow a couch or clothes or...all sorts of other things, I don't mind, but a mattress? I dunno.

So it was SUCH a blessing that our neighbors, in a roundabout way, enabled the purchase. Yay! Many, many thanks to them for that.

Instead of the full-size-bottom bunk bed, I decided we should get a loft bed for Jori, and have Atticus sleep under it in either a crib or toddler bed. And I really got lucky spending-wise here! Someone was selling a partially lofted one (like, Jori can stand under it, but not her friends who are taller), and also a much higher lofted one, for $40 in Sandy!! Together! This seemed perfect, since I hadn't decided if I thought it'd be best for her to be way up high or just, a little bit. Depended partially on if Atticus could sleep in a toddler bed or crib, since I didn't think a crib would fit under the lower lofted option.

But after we set up the lower-lofted one, I realized I could set up a reading nook for the kids under there (which I'd been planning for the room anyway, just off to a different side), and have Atticus still in a crib but NEXT to her bed. Perfect! Light bulb! Hallelujuah, sleeping arrangement finally figured out!! 

Yeah. This was a big deal, you guys. A month of worry resolved. Phew.

So here's Jori's bed, currently: 

Very currently. It's a wee bit messy in there. But I want to make a post about their room a different time so I'll leave it at that, for now. (The only down side is it really is kinda squeaky...but I figured it's something we can deal with.)

And here's the taller one, propped up against our bookcases in the living room: 

We discovered upon further inspection that I think it's missing a couple pieces...but considering most of these go on KSL for, at their lowest, usually $80, I'm hoping we'll find someone who'd be willing to take it off our hands for $20 or something. The pieces aren't essential, just make it more stable. So we'll see.

These have been my main sales. We've also bought a vertical dresser for Atticus for $35, a shelf for their room for $15, and I've spent a tad on some purchases for our backyard (swings for $25, portable fire pit for $30, patio swing for $25). But both the kids' shared room and our backyard I want to have their own posts, so for now...I'll leave it at that. :) 

I'm a classifieds-shopping fiend.