Saturday MADNESS!

Before Christmas I had the great idea that it was probably time to switch up the bedrooms. Kent (6) and Lindsay (5) have shared a room their whole life and I figured it was time that Lindsay roomed with a sister. I thought that maybe over the break we would tackle the project, but since Dave (my organizer & general stress manager) didn't have a lot of time off, we waited. Going over several different combinations and locations I finally decided that I would put Amber (9) and Lindsay together and Paige(11) and Samantha(14) together. It just seems logical because of their ages. However, Lindsay and Amber have similar personality traits that together might prove challenging. I guess we will face them as they come.

To start off the day, Dave and I ran 10 miles (training for our half marathon in three weeks) and then came home and tackled the project. We actually ran separately. Dave ran early because the YM were in charge of cleaning the church at 8am. I ran with Mary Ann, Erin (friend and running partner of Mary Ann) , Kourtney and my friend Yvette. It was a beautiful day and I was surprised and pleased to be pushed harder than I would normally have gone and talked most of the way. Okay I only talked a little (I still can't talk and run at the same time very well), but I enjoyed the company!

For our BIG project, our room became the "staging" area. Which means "junk storage" because ALL the junk (I am sure that my kids don't think it is junk and if I did too much thinking...bad idea...I am better off just thinking of it as junk when trying to clean out) needed a place to go in order to move beds, dressers, clean, sort and dejunk!

Dave in the midst of all the stuff!

We scrubed everything, walls, blinds, spots on the carpet, doors.
I probably should have done some touch up painting too,
but I didn't and I am okay with that!

Below is Amber with ONE of her piles. I thought she told me
that she had put everything of hers in the loft
only to discover later that she had a whole other
pile in our bedroom!

How many stuffed animals can one family have?
The end pile was actually bigger than this.

Tensions flared a little, but not as badly as I thought they would. It just was so overwhelming. Lindsay commented that the mess just got bigger the longer we worked. About 3 in the afternoon I felt the same way. I thought this project was out of control and that it would never end! The kids got a little bored and tried to help do some of the cleaning, but generally came and worked for a while then went and played for a while (that problably helped keep the tension down a bit). The biggest challenge came when we had to switch Samantha & Amber's things. They both have TONS of stuff (we ended up with a HUGE bag along with several other smaller bags of garbage and lots for a yard sale next week)! Next Christmas I think we will just go on a trip rather than get more STUFF!

The day did actually end. The floor of my bedroom is back to normal and my house (at least the bedrooms) are cleaner than they have been in years (since the last time we did this)!

Here are the rooms with their happy occupants!

WOW! I am so glad that we can say that we have accomplished the nearly impossible and won't have to do that again for a while. As Dave and I were going to sleep I remembered there were a few other rooms & areas in the house that could use the same through going over. Well there is always another day, but for now I am going to enjoy the fruits of our labor!