Thursday, February 21, 2013

Master Bedroom

How many of you have the master bedroom as your personal sanctuary? Your special place for you and your hubby? How many have your kids in and out of it all day and all night? Is it clean or is it the catch all room?

In our house it is a combo. While are children are not forbidden to be in our room, it is also not a regular place for them. They can, and often do, drop things off in there but it is essentially OUR space. They do not share our bed or come to our room regularly. The occasional thunderstorm or nightmare will drive a younger child to the floor beside our bed. Usually sickness ends with Mommy in the living room with the child. That being said...our room is also that catch all! It is the place where everything gets thrown! Company pulling in the driveway? Hurry, run this basket of clean laundry to Mom's room and shut the door! Don't know what to do with something? Drop it in Mom's room and let her deal with it. And MOST of the time it gets tossed on my bed. Well, come 10 pm when I am trying to go to bed I am NOT in the mood to fold, sort or otherwise deal with STUFF...so it gets moved to the floor to be dealt with later. There is the catch....when is later? For me, it never seems to come! Here are the before pictures. I will be honest...this is the worst it has ever been!

As you can see, there was stuff kind of piled everywhere. Some from Christmas. Some from loaning the breathing machine but not the medicine to an Amish friend. Some that needs stored. Some that is too small for my kids and needs donated but I had to sort it first. Everything gets tossed in here!

Well, yesterday morning...when these pictures were taken...I had been at the end of my rope! I was at my ultimate limit! And the kids had stepped up on Monday and had the first floor in good shape so instead of dedicating my time to my public areas, I got to attack my personal, private HEAP!

Do I want it to get this bad? No! Do I usually let it? No. Does it get so overwhelming that I don't know where to start? Oh yeah!


So I started at the doorway and worked across the room. I sorted, I removed from the room. There was very little trash...it was all stuff that hasn't been put away (like laundry tossed on the cedar chest) and Christmas gifts and such. So I worked, and I worked and I worked. And then I had to leave! It wasn't done! I knew it would be hard to come back and I didn't want to leave it half done...but I had to!

Before I got to the room again, a friend posted on her facebook about rearranging furniture. She asked if we tend to periodically rearrange or leave everything as is. I am a rearranger. I LOVE to rearrange when the kids and Cory are not home and then watch their faces when they walk in! Too funny! So of course, I decided to finish the room last night and rearrange while I was at it!

There are still areas that need help like the top of this wire cage drawer for Cory's jeans. And you might be able to see that the rug needs vacuumed...but since I really don't OWN one....I have to borrow from my mother-in-law! This also has shelves on top that are waiting for my hubby to have time to install them on either side of the fireplace. They have been sitting there since I got them for him for Christmas....at least 4 years ago! Should I hold my breath that they will get up this year? Maybe! The two doors lead to the bathroom and the bedroom walk-in closet which were not yet TOUCHED so the doors got closed so you couldn't see them!

I also still need to tackle my bookshelf. If you can see, it is all at least 2 books deep and much of it is 3 layers deep. And this is just ONE bookshelf in the house! There is another in the hallway, one in Rebekah's room, at least two in the basement and still books in boxes! This picture also shows the wire basket unit that holds my jeans and shorts. Since I have family who sent me lots of pretty things from Kenya, I used some of them to drape over the sides of the baskets to pretty them up a bit!

As I continue to go around the room, I am reminded how much love my hubby put into this room as he carefully laid the wood floor and put the beautiful patterns in it. You can see the lighter stripes in these pictures but as I get over the fire place you can truly see his craftsmanship as you look under the wood rack and see the intricate square he created. It took him a long time to get it just right and it was all because he wanted our room to feel special. Then it struck me. Keeping my house clean is something I have tried to do to make it welcoming so I could feel free to invite people and share my God with them. But my room gets put last. What does that tell my hubby? Am I unintentionally telling him that he isn't as important to me as a million other things? Am I giving him the impression that I don't love him enough to put forth the effort? Oh, ouch! That kinda hurts! And yet....it gives me pause. And it gives me motivation! I want to finish the room and have it look AMAZING instead of just tidy up a bit! I want to blow him away! Oh, realistically I still see areas that need work and have no idea when I will get back up there to work on them, but I can say he was in shock when he got up there last night. He joked about being in the wrong house! And he slept peacefully in front of the fire in this clean room, having been SHOWN he was important.



As you can see, the mantle still needs some work...and I realized yesterday that only 2 of our 4 children have their picture up! Oops! Guess I need to add a few frames! The wood rack is empty since he made a fire last night and the one downstairs is full so I think I will take some up and get it ready for another fire! That was nice! Falling asleep to the crackling fire! My curio cabinet of music boxes got moved, but not dusted and cleaned out well. I admit it. It is not a perfect job! But I think the amazing thing is that I did it! I cleaned up the room, I moved the curio cabinet, the bed and the cedar chest and the end result was that Cory wanted to know WHY and I was able to say "Because I love you".

And you know the side benefit? Some giggles! See, moving the bed all around messed with him! He gets up earlier than me in the morning and he is so wonderful he makes his way to the bathroom in the dark. He has done it from one spot in the room for a year or two now. So this morning he floundered. He fumbled! He almost fell! It appears he does better maneuvering through a maze of stuff than across open floor space! Oops! Sorry dear! But you will get used to it because I realized! My master bedroom IS my sanctuary! And it is evidence of my love for my husband and he is NOT going to come last on the list anymore!


Thank you for sharing this walk through my honestly horrible room! Next on my list will be the bathroom and the closet....but I admit...not today! We are painting the living room, staircase and part of the kitchen this weekend and I am resting up to tackle that!

6 comments:

  1. Very nice progress! So far I've accomplished getting my desk cleared off, bedside table and one little stand. My biggest issue is getting rid of stuff - and I don't get rid of pictures and memorabilia. Yikes.

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  2. Wonderful...and you have a beautiful room!

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  3. Wonderful...and you have a beautiful room!

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  4. Wonderful...and you have a beautiful room!

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  5. Wonderful...and you have a beautiful room!

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  6. Thanks Casey...for all 4 notes! ;-) I agree I have a beautiful room. I love it. We actually put a lot of thought into each room in our house, but after 9 years I think we are starting to take them for granted.

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