We are doing a brilliant thing here at Chez GEW. We are moving the kids' room.
We have three bedrooms, and our kids share a room, so the extra room is a playroom/office. The problem with this arrangment, however, is that it really ends up being mostly playroom and not so much office. As a result, the kids' bedroom and the playroom are, quite regularly, in full states of destruction. The bedroom they have been sharing is fairly small, and the playroom isI rather large. Recently, I suggested that we move the kids' bedroom to the room that has been the playroom, and then turn the small room into a and office/guest room in which kids do not play.
At first, no one liked my idea. Hubby didn't like it because he knew it would be tons of work to move the furniture and sort the crap. The kids didn't like it because they are happy and safe in their room, and the playroom has a sliding glass door that would be scary at night.
But on Sunday, after Hubby's brother came for dinner with his family (which includes two girls, ages 2 and 6), I said, " I want everyone to come look at the bedroom and playroom." Both rooms were destroyed.
Hubby took one look and realized that I am a genius. Well, maybe not exactly a genius, but he did come around to my idea. And somehow, even the kids became convinced.
So we have moved the furniture and steam-cleaned the carpets. Now I'm sorting through Polly Pockets, and plastic jewelry, and rock
collections trying to purge but also keep what matters. Right now, the kids' new room has no clutter. None. It is absolutely beautiful. The two room are the cleanest they have been since we moved into the house. The kids are amazed, and I think they love it.
Granted, the hallway is full of crap, but I will tackle that today. Granted, we have cousins coming to visit this weekend, and the room will be destroyed again, but with some clutter gone, it cannot end up so bad as before. And the capper? Only one room will be destroyed. The new office/guest room will be golden.
Even better? I now have a place to work on the dissertation in peace. We even have room for me to bring in a new, big bookshelf that can hold all of my PhD books. This could be huge, people. Huge.
Someday, the kids will want separate rooms--the boy girl thing, you know. But I think we have a year or to before they insist on that. And last night, as I gazed upon the beautifully clean and sparse study, I decided that maybe they will have to stay put at least until the PhD is finished.
15 comments:
Sorry for the typos. the I-Pad has some editing limitations once I hit "publish." Can't scroll up and town within the text box.
What a great feeling that must be to get all that done. Pat yourself on the back now! :-)
I picture you laying flat on the floor of your new space, sprawled out staring at the ceiling in wonderment.
unicorn, who LOVES beads and rock collections
Excellent! We just split our daughter and son. Although my daughter loves her new room, which had been the playroom and is now a pink and purple paradise, she has decided to continue to sleep in her brother's room for a while. It was kind of a challenging process, but once it's all done, it's pretty cool, huh? And it's one more sign that the babies refuse to stay babies . . . .
Oh! I'd love to have you drop by my place to say how "The Help" is going. Can't wait to hear!
Steel, By day, both kids love the room, but tonight, the Girl cried QUITE a bit, thinking it was all very scary, wanting to move back to the other room. I feel bad. I hope she's better tomorrow. (And I'll come by to comment on The Help, or I might blog about it here.)
And, unicorn, you are right on the money! I've spent a lot of time just admiring the beauty and order.
Today, I was inspired and bought some new bath decor. Must be all of that HGTV we watched on the trip.
We are thinking of putting out kids in the same room when we're in our new house too. Thus is the first time we've ever lived in a two-story house and it seems smaller because of the division. (Even though it's technically bigger than our old house by 300 square feet.) Anyway we thought it would be nice to have a guest room/office as well. We'll see how it goes.
Good for you on making a room of your own! Happy writing!
Re-Org is soooo satisfying. We recently swapped the tv room and the living room and I SWEAR there are angels singing in my house that didn't sing here before. So happy for you. It feels so good to get fresh starts. It's like your house turns into a big piece of fresh, white paper. :)
And maybe having the kids at the opposite end of the hall from y'all might be an added bonus!
Though I get The Girl's fear. I used to be terrified of closets with sliding doors. They still kinda weird me out.
And what is "Steel Magnolia" talking about with 'The Help?' It doesn't come out until 8/10. Wouldn't that be a fun birthday movie for us to go to? We'd leave early and get some movie candy and enjoy all the trailers and watch Southern Stuff.
I am praying that the movie is as good as the book. I am praying they don't eff it up. I'm ready to be blown away by a good Southern flick.
An office devoted solely to writing? What a dream, GEW! (I think I wrote my entire thesis sitting in our bedroom or on the living room sofa -- not bad spaces without kid clutter, but certainly not professional feeling either.)
As for your post on final revisions, congratulations on being at that stage! I know all the clean up for the draft is daunting. I wish you the best with it. When I was a copy editor, I printed out a hard copy of what I was editing and marked it up with different colored pens (glitter, GEW! do it!) coded for different read-throughs (say, purple for what needed fixing, green checkmarks next to those when I was done with the changes in the electronic document). It was work, but at least the process was pretty ...?
Fie, We first put them in th same room four years ago when they we two and four. They really like it, and we love it! it'g especially great at bedtime/story time.
ginger, Yes, we have the angels, too! And those angels are telling me I should add more color to the house and redecorate a bunch of stuff.
TSB/Cousin, The sliding door goes to the scary outside backyard! But we put the dog crate in front of it, so having the dog in there helped. Last night was fine, but that might be because she fell asleep during story time, exhausted from the fair. As for the "The Help," Steel is talking about the fact that I just recently read it. Previously, she has posted on her thoughts about the book, and I had mentioned some of my reservations about reading it. She probably saw on my sidebar that it was on my current reading list and wanted to hear my thoughts. Which I will
stop by and provide. (soon) And, yes, that would be a fantastic birthday outting! Do you have any special plans, yet?
CT, Yes, a glitter pen would definitely glam up the process! And this final draft is just for an article, which Is while I need to GET. IT. DONE! It's holding up the real dissertation. Bah. Thanks for the encouragement!
Love that you have your own space! Way to go...
Sounds great! Dissertation room utterly necessary. And the prospect of later needing it as their second bedroom is a great incentive for progress!
What a great idea!!! An office all to yourself? I'm jealous. On another note, just had a conversation with Ms. Heidi (I think you know who I'm talking about), and she told me that her kids (boy and girl, 2 yrs apart) always shared a room and she's glad they did because now (girl 18, boy 16) they really understand the dynamics of gender relationships (and not in an incest way, obviously) and that they're much better off for having to learn negotiations, compromises, etc.
I thought it was a very interesting perspective.
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