Day 2: The Master Bedroom

Ahhh...the master bedroom.  It's supposed to be a place of peace and tranquility.  A place to rest, relax and recharge.  A place for the grown ups of the house to reconnect.  This is the one room of the house that's a sanctuary, right?

Um, no. In reality, for most of us, the master bedroom is a dumping ground.  Each corner of the room holds piles of toys, mounds of laundry and a million other items that don't belong.  The dresser drawers are stuffed with clothes that haven't seen the light of day since the 90s.  The treadmill or exercise bike is buried under bags and boxes of who-knows-what. Don't worry...it's not just your house and your bedroom!  Unfortunately, many of us live like this.

Today's focus for the "31 Days to Clean" Spring Cleaning Challenge is to reclaim your bedroom.  We're going to tackle the closet and bathroom in the next couple of days. For now, focus on creating a bedroom that will be the type of daily retreat that you deserve.  If it's not decorative or useful (for you, not your kids!) in the bedroom, it needs to find a new home.

Start this assignment by making the bed. In fact, start EVERY DAY by making the bed.  This simple act alone will give the appearance of a clean room.   It doesn't need to be perfect; just pull the covers up and throw the pillows back on.  It should take you just a few minutes, if that.

Once the bed is made, start at one end of the room and work yourself around. Clear out the dust bunnies under your bed, go through the books in your nightstand, clear out the clutter in the corners...do whatever it takes to make your bedroom your own.

I vowed years ago to keep our bedroom as a place for me and Mike.  Other than a {very} small basket of toys to keep Jason entertained while I shower or get dressed for the day, our room is toy-free.  Of course, my kids find reasons to come into our bedroom (hide and seek in our closets, putting their CD of church songs in Mike's alarm clock CD player, jumping on the bed, etc) but for the most part, I've intentionally kept it an adults-only space in our house.  (Actually, it's probably the only adults-only space in our house!)

When I set out to tackle my master bedroom, I didn't think I had much work to do.  I started by going through my husband's (fairly empty) bedside table. Then I went over to my side of the bed and unloaded my long-ignored book basket and nightstand drawer.

Hmmm...I'm not as tidy in the bedroom as I thought!  In this pile are 3 remotes (for things that are sold), 6 books, tons of magazines from 2008, countless bookmarks, too many lotions, an unopened deck of cards from our trip to Scotland (in 2003) and a torn-out page from a 2005 magazine titled "Enjoying your pregnant belly as it grows."  From 2005 people!

Clearly I didn't go through this drawer during my last spring cleaning.  The good news is that almost half of that stuff got tossed or recycled...the pile didn't take me long to go through at all. 

Here are the before and after pictures from the rest of my room:

BEFORE (Reading corner and Mike's nightstand)

AFTER (not a huge difference, but I found homes for the forgotten-about books in that little table.  I also added a lamp that we bought months ago.)

BEFORE (my nightstand)

AFTER (most important is what you CAN'T see - that the basket and drawer are virtually empty!!! And I put the old lamp in the garage sale pile for later.)

BEFORE (my dresser)

AFTER (I repurposed those white shoe shelves in the playroom - SO excited about that decision!)

I didn't have the time to go through my jewelry chest, but I'm hoping to get to that this weekend.  This room required much more attention than I expected.  Great - and it's only day TWO of my self-inflicted spring cleaning adventure.  (*sigh*)

Keep in mind that I put this room at the beginning of our list because we need to love our bedrooms, not dread them.  So go ahead...get going!  And don't forget to post before and after pictures on your blog and link back to your post below.