Spring Cleaning ... in the summer ......

So my last few posts mentioned Audrey and her birthday.  Well little Miss-9-going-on-19 has decided we need to re-do her room.  She just isn't "in" to the pink and the butterflies anymore .... I hate to see it go but I know I need to let her grow up so I told her we would work on it this summer.

I told her that before we could re-do anything, we needed to clean out what was already in there.  It was high time we sorted through all the stuff she's managed to accumulate in the 4 short years we have been here.  Time to part with just a few of the precious pictures, posters, art work, ridiculous party favor/happy meal/carnival toys and trinkets.  We do some "purging" here and there but it had been a while since we had really done a serious job.  So while she was at camp I started on it.  I went through the closet and under the bed and found the missing clothes/socks/shoes.  I went ahead and threw out what I knew I could.  She came home from camp on Thursday and that Saturday and Sunday we got in there together and worked and worked on it and I must say it looks soooooooooo much better now.

The only problem?
Amy and Allison were up there with us and they were more than happy to take any "treasures" Audrey was willing to pass along to them  Especially Allison who thinks anything from a big sister is just about the coolest thing EVER.  For a while there all we were really doing was redistributing the clutter.

So by the end of the day Audrey's room looked like this:

But Allison's room looked like this:

A mother's work is never done, right?

However, I was on a tear so Amy's room came next.  The motivation to clean out Amy's room came when I scored a Pottery Barn Kid's trundle on Craigslist for $75.  I just got the trundle, not the bed.  The bed wasn't quite what I wanted and I figured we could simply use the trundle under the existing frame for now and eventually get a nicer frame later on down the road. Then I remembered that Amy's frame is meant to expand to accomodate a twin or a full mattress and it has this support in the middle.  No problem I thought, we'll just switch out Amy's frame for Audrey's.  So I move box springs and mattresses and switch out the frames.  I get David to help me carry the trundle up the stairs.  I rearrange Amy's room to make room for the trundle and .... guess what ... the trundle doesn't fit under either frame. ARGH!!!!!  So now I have a trundle up agaisnt the wall of the master bedroom sitting room .... lovely .... I think I might hit IKEA this weekend and see if I can find an inexpensive bed frame there.

BUT Audrey and Amy's rooms are looking rather spiffy and I did eventually tame the clutter in Allison's room too. So there IS a silver lining ...... And hey - all that furniture lugging counts as a workout right?

Oh - and how does Audrey want to re-do her room now that she's over the whole pink and butterflies thing?  Well, she pretty much wants as much of this+ as she can get.  The child is completely obsessed with peace symbols at themoment ... but more on that in another post .......

And why do I need a trundle in Amy's room?  Well, remember when Allison was sleepwalking?  Remember how we were finding her asleep in all sorts of places OTHER than her bed?  We finally figured out she just didn't like sleeping alone so she now sleeps in Amy's room.  Only problem is she is sleeping on a crib mattress:

but she's not going to fit on that much longer.  They were lobbying for bunk beds but I do not relish the idea of changing those top bunk sheets on laundry day soooo - trundle it shall be :) I really hope we find a frame soon.  Flipping this crib mattress up like a murphy bed every day is getting old.  So is stashing it in the closet when company comes over .....