Since rumor has it spring is upon us, despite still being 30 degrees outside, what better time for some SPRING cleaning! Unfortunately, in our house, it’s totally unclear where to start because every room needs help. Every. Room.
But there’s one extra special, disaster room that’s crying out the loudest for help. I usually address these cries by shutting the door and going into denial about the actual square footage of our home (out of sight, out of mind, amiright?). But the stars seem aligned right now for this room – our “guest room” (aka “the back room”, aka “the storage unit”) -- to get the help it deserves and has been crying for. Not only is it (supposedly) spring now, my mom will also be travelling to visit us in a couple weeks and it seems somehow not OK to make her sleep on the floor.
In addition to these very logical reasons, it’s also great timing for participating in the One Room Challenge. If you’re not familiar with what this is, it’s a challenge that takes place twice per year for 20 featured designers, and many guest designers such as myself, to makeover a room. The challenge takes place over six weeks and the deadline for completion is May 10.
So. First thing’s first…DECLUTTERING. I’ve already made one trip to Goodwill and my poor, tired car is loaded up again for another trip. That said, I’m actually jumping into the ORC almost a week late, because…cleaning. I was really on the fence about taking on the challenge and unsure if I was biting off more than I can chew. Six weeks is a tight time-frame, even without the daunting task of clearing out a whole room.
Here’s a beautiful “before” picture of our guest room, partially de-cluttered already….I literally couldn’t open the door all the way, so you only get to see part of the room plus part of a door:
Charming, isn't it??
To be clear, this room started out with good intentions. We had a super tiny guest room/office in our old apartment with a twin bed in it that fit perfectly. When we moved the twin bed into the more generously sized guest room in our current house, it looked pretty puny but worked for awhile. Guests were actually able to sleep in a GUEST room. Until, that is, the extra floor space made the room more hospitable for junk than for guests.
With a larger master bedroom in our current home as well, we upgraded our queen size bed to king size awhile back and held onto the queen mattress set - with the intention of setting it up in the guest room...”someday”. And can you guess where we stored it?? (Hint: See about 45% of the above photo.)
We also kept the disassembled, iron, canopy bed previously holding the queen mattress set. Since the canopy bed assembled is too tall for this room, out it goes. Of all the things I do not enjoy moving around my house, a disassembled, iron, canopy bed is probably at the top of the list. That said, I haven't personally moved a 10 foot sleeper sectional, a bathtub, a pool table or my car around the house yet, so if 'iron canopy bed' gets bumped down from its #1 spot on the list, I'll be sure to post an update. Finagling it into our basement closet was a real bear too, but I have renewed confidence in my geometry skills and a new found respect for the limitations of stairwells.
When you love something, you don't let it go. ..Right?
Here’s another lovely “before” pic, showing parts of the iron bed frame. It’s like this room is literally behind bars:
With more and more visible floor space, I’m looking forward to seeing our "back room" turn into a real bedroom! My mom is probably also super excited about not sleeping on the floor, so there’s that too.
I hope you’ll follow along for the challenge!
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