Not in the plans

Two of the girls were away at Guide Camp.  I thought that meant we could enjoy a quiet weekend with just our oldest daughter.  Maybe wake late, do a bit of shopping.  I don't know exactly. 

Sleep in?  For no known reason I woke fairly early.  Maybe because I could hear that our overnight guest was up and unlikely to help herself to coffee or breakfast.

So I got up.  We visited for a bit, had an unsatisfying breakfast and took a look at some furniture she had to donate to Goodwill. 

Did we have need of a solid wood dresser?  Yeah, maybe.  And a clean mattress (ie. not pee-stained from earlier years)?  Yeah, that might smell better than one we had. 

Once we cleared room for the dresser (which would give more drawer space and storage than our current setup), we were looking at this.

 I had to pile a bunch of stuff on the bed in order to vacuum the floor.  It doesn't always look quite this bad.  I could have swept and vacuumed, put everything back on the floor to put the new mattress down, but I saw this as an opportunity to fill garbage bags. 

This is unfortunately the normal state of her closet.  With her away at camp, this was our chance to get rid of junk. 

It's by no means a lovely, reorganized makeover, but it's way, way, WAY better!  The container on her dresser was all that we asked "permission" to discard.  Two garbage bags left the room, and I have a small pile of Goodwill items to donate. 

I know that I would have felt my space was invaded if my mother had ever done this to my room.  I don't think we were ever allowed to let it get so full of paper and half-finished crafts, school work and "precious" little things.  I couldn't bring myself to tidy up her artwork wall, and we'll look for new non-pink fabric together for new curtains. 

In the picture, I see that I should have swept under her bed.  We'll be keeping our eyes out for a proper wooden bed.  This one was supposed to be a captains bed, but the drawers were so cheaply built that they feel apart very quickly.  The bottom support stops us from using the valuable underbed space properly. 

This is the view of her desk area.  She needs to organize some of her own pretty things and the gerbil cage should go on the other side of the room, but that's a small detail. 

I still have work to do in her closet before I take an "after" picture there.  The biggest mess there are the linens that we store there.  I wish I had a good solution for storing stuffies.  Her reading chair is holding a big bag of them and they can't stay there. 

For now, Alice should have a place for almost everything, and a lot fewer things to find places for.   And I've gained six drawers for my use too.  I really have to work on the fabric situation.  Something for me to fill my time this week. 

And yes, Beth and I did actually get a bit of shopping in, coming home with drapes for our living room.  After only 12 years, I'm hoping for a bit of window insulation in our living room.  Yay!