DeClutter Confessions Week 3 ~ Boys Bedroom ~ SuperMom Monday

I made it through Week 3 of the 91 Day De-Clutter Challenge, the second consecutive week of kids' bedrooms.  I saved the worst for last and I'm not sure if that was the way to go or not!  This week I tackled the clutter in my 9 and 11 year old boys room.  Last week was my 3 little Girls Bedroom and I must say, it was easier and smelled nicer!

Mary Organizes Week 3

My boys being older I let them know what I would be doing in their rooms while they were at school.  And everyday after their homework was done I filled them in on what my daily task was to be for the following day.  This gave them the chance to clean what they could because "If I don't like what I see you might come home to nothing."  For the most part they did pretty good.  Completely failed on the 'DeClutter Your Bed' day however.  Well let's get to it and you can see what I mean!

Monday

First task of the week: Clear the floor.  Unlucky for me on Sunday the boys grabbed a bunch of diaper boxes I had saved (clutter!!) and were making robots out of them.  Once I removed the 10 diaper boxes + 1 shoe box I also removed 2 bags of trash and broken toys hiding in all the corners.  It could of been worse!
Tuesday
Task: Gather all the clothes, sort and organize.
I explained last week during the DeCluttering of the Girls Bedroom that we did a HUGE clothes sort and clean out a couple weeks before school started and before I found Mary's Challenge.  This time I made my 9 year old try on all the clothes to determine which ones to keep.  He's notorious for thinking that clothes fit him and saves them.  Having him do a "fashion show" stopped him from saving clothes two sizes too small although he didn't appreciate me calling it a fashion show!
Wednesday
  Before the clothes sort their drawers were so stuffed they literally broke a couple of the drawers.  I'm still angry about this but I fault myself for not staying on top of it.  Although un-stuffed, their drawers were still an unorganized disaster.  You can see from the top picture his underwear/sock drawer had church pants, a crumbled piece of paper and a even a broken balloon inside.  Typical boys I pulled out a whole bags worth of stuff with holes in it!  I added a Dollar Tree basket to their drawer to help keep their socks and underwear organized.
Thursday

Thursdays task of decluttering shelving and toys was the biggest event of the week.  Under the bunk bed are two sets of shelving.  One side is used as their 'library' and the other side is supposed to be for their special things, each boy having one shelf and sharing the third.  Instead these shelves were just used to stuff things on to get it off the floor.  They also each have two other shelves with baskets on the front side of the bunk bed (shown in the pictures on Monday).  I pulled out 5 BAGS of garbage from these shelves.  And remember, they cleared some of this themselves the day before!  Terrible!  I almost had a complete garbage bag filled with toys.  With what they had left I organized the baskets into Big Toys (fire truck, balls), Star Wars (figures, light sabers), Miscellaneous (cars, army men) and Weapons (boys will be boys!).  
Friday

The task on Friday was clearing everything off the bed and cleaning underneath.  What I found on top of their beds was unbelievable.  Clothes, books, toys, garbage, a protractor that was supposed to be in the 4th grade classroom, and even an empty garbage bag.  I took everything off the bed, washed the 7 blankets I removed and sorted through the stuffed animals.  I loved that they still had some stuffed friends on their beds that they've had since they were little but I did remove 2 bags worth.  Under the beds was a non-issue thanks to one side being a bunk and the other side...well I fill the underside of the bed up so the boys can't!  See what's under there here.  No more cramming stuff under the beds when told to clean their rooms!

Saturday

Saturday was another easy day for me, thank goodness!  Their clothes were already scaled down so that task had been checked off a few weeks before.  They had a bit off a mess on the floor and got a bit of a scolding for that but the clean-up just took a few minutes.  The boys have a bad habit of throwing stuff on their closet floor so I started storing stuff in the closet too (not just under their beds).  Hopefully they learn before they have no closet floor left!

So now that both kids rooms are cleaned and clutter free I plan on keeping it that way!  What I used to do, and have now started again, is assigning a '15 minute Challenge' chore each day after their homework is done.  The Fly Lady gives out these challenges everyday and can be found here.  But using the daily tasks I completed this week will work great for Kid's Challenges too!  Clear the floor & vacuum, organize closet or drawers, 10 toy-toss for old & broken toys, organize book shelf, ect.  

If you are looking for some new ideas to motivate you and your kiddo's to keep up all the hard work you just did to clean and organize their rooms you should check out my post Chores with out the Fight.  You'll find some fresh ideas for chores, rewards and consequences.  

You can see how I transformed our office space into a 'Two Peas in a Pod' nursery for our twins here: Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3.  Next week we will be tackling the Guest/Craft Room.  Wish me luck!

See the DeCluttered Rooms you missed! 

Kitchen ~ Girls Bedroom ~ Craft Room ~ Laundry Room ~ Master Suite ~ Living Room ~ Office Area ~ Closets ~ Landing Areas ~ Playroom ~ Other Bathrooms ~ Garage