The Fourth Bedroom

I love to organize. A place for everything and everything in it's place. It gives me the warm fuzzies all over. You know, like that "I had one too many glasses of wine" warm fuzziness that leaves you delirious yet relaxed. Any chance to break out my labeler or alphabetize something and you'd think I'd won a free trip to somewhere beachy. I love tearing apart a room and putting it back together, labeled, and neatly organized. You would think such a proclivity toward uber order would result in the tidiest house on the block but alas, this is not the case. I have grand plans for my home, oh yes, but sadly, I have yet to bring any of my ideas to fruition.

My spice cabinet is a jumbled mess of half empty bottles and expired cinnamon. My closet is an accident waiting to happen. Every time I pull a coat from the hanger, a (neatly organized) box of gift wrapping supplies launches from it's place on the shelf and vomits its contents on a pile of clothes labeled "Dry Cleaning." And if you'll remember from only a few posts back, I just removed TWENTY NINE pillowcases from my linen closet and got that happy disaster under control. Is my house clean? Yes. But lurking behind cabinet and closet doors are hidden pockets of chaos waiting to be classified, coordinated, scrubbed down with homemade cleaner and finally, put in their place. Case in point: the fourth bedroom.

When we bought this house, I was beside myself excited that it had a fourth bedroom. I had never lived with such luxury! A whole room dedicated solely to guests and recreation. However, the room's multifunctionality has created a hodepodege of clutter with no rhyme or reason as to it's placement. The room is our home office, my sewing and crafting room, a little bit of a storage area and lastly, a place for overnight guests. It's ridiculous. It had gotten so bad, I found myself avoiding the back bedroom at all costs, and keeping the door shut during the day so as I went about my business I wouldn't have to see what was lurking in there.

But nothing spurs you into organizing action like house guests. We are to have house guests for Thanksgiving, perhaps four or five of them, and in order for everyone to fit comfortably, we're going to have to clean up and make space in the fourth bedroom. This space was going to have to become a functional office/sewing/craft/storage room quick, fast and in a hurry. No time for the bells and whistles like paint and art and curtains. That will come later. Now is the time for some hardcore, get it off the floor, organizing. Better get out the extra roll of labeling tape. Here are some of the before shots:

Seriously? I can't believe I'm letting you see this!

Ew.

I spent ALL DAY in there. I mean really. I wandered out to feed the offspring, break up a few fights and put on some band aids but once I get started, it's impossible to stop. It's not perfect but it's much better. Lookie lookie!

Organizational Goodness!

I can see and FIND all my sewing stuff!

I love that my hubby mounted my thread holder to the side of the bookshelf. Brilliant!

The computer amoire went to our brand new neighbors. The mattress is still there but will be moved back into the master bedroom tomorrow. And the computer situation is still.....questionable. That's our old broken desktop in the picture, along with a the borrowed laptop that I'm sure any day now will be needed and taken away!Hopefully, Santa will bestow upon me a new laptop and then the desk will be even LESS cluttered with MORE room for me to sew up all the cool, green projects I have in wait like reusable snack bags, fabric roses made with upcycled shirts, and curtains from the scrap bin. Oh yeah! And now my guests will have a little room to stretch out after stuffing themselves with organic smoked turkey and cranberry sauce. I think it's going to be a wonderful Thanksgiving. T minus three weeks and counting...