Clean Your Room

With a day off school (even remote learners get a day off) we decided to clean out the toy room. We found a great deal on these giant boxes that are about 60” x 60”. They were two for 99 cents!  We found them while getting deli items while on our bike adventures this weekend. I didn’t feel comfortable hauling 20 boxes and the bikes on the same trip because there was a lot of interstate between the store and home.  Owen and I took a mini road trip to get them yesterday. 

Embarrassing that this is such a mess, but we didn’t throw too many toys away since Owen was born (13 years).  I’m a thrifty person.  Many of these items were given to us. Many were garage sale items .  We always allowed Owen to play with an of it. We moved the giant box of Nerf guns, sporting goods, and Hot Wheels in the doorway before I thought to take a pic. 

This is really Owen’s room in the house we started building years ago. I’m perfectly content in the house we live in on the same property. My longarm is in the unfinished house. Someday we will finish it. 

The boxes were big enough to organize things such as riding toys and seats and pack n plays and such. Even his roller coaster and train bed fit into the big boxes! Now he has an “office” where he can work for a while until the weather gets too cold. He can have a change of scenery from his classroom thanks to a mobile hotspot from the school. I may get to longarm quilt something..

The plan was for us to work cleaning the room an hour or two a day. Owen was so excited to go through so many things and reminisce. He’s an amazing worker. He puts things on piles and carries things to the trash without complaining. He comes up with ideas. He loves to hear about stories of when he was a baby!

Here’s the room of an organized hoarder. I can't believe we got this much sorted and done!

He loved playing with old toys.  He would take things to the trash can when asked.  But I did hear him have a conversation with Daddy when he got home for work that they would stow some of the toys in the pole barn...  He is also super excited to be able to smash some of the broken toys with a sledge hammer so that they fit into the trash when my husband gets home from work.  He LOVES jobs!

This little bike has a broken training wheel.  We do not want to donate it or any of the car seats to anyone that could get hurt on them.  Some we will give away and donate.

I had to go to the other house for a bit.  (You can see the distance in the above photo from the house we live in~ green house~ to the new house ~the garage Owen is riding the little bike in).  The original plan was to demolish the green house once the new house was built and have a big flowing lush yard with some pretty trees that change color in the front here and there...  But then we had Owen.  We made updates to the green house.  We are hoping he would like to live there independently some day.

I couldn't find Owen when I got back from the errand in the green house.  Here he is on the phone telling Dad how excited he is that he cleaned his room and he wanted to show it off.  My husband was in disbelief when he saw how much we got done.  In the photo below you can also see the pole barn where I think some of the toys I think need to be thrown away may be stored...  The fall leaves are just GORGEOUS this time of year.  Behind the pole barn is the neighbor's property.  Their house is on a different road.  It is full of those yellow weeds that look like goldenrod but aren't.  It's a beautiful color right now.  

Remember when we could only go as far as the phone cord would let us when we were younger?  Well, I had some searching to do before I found him.  He's a good kid.  He makes safe choices for now.

Here's our family photo taken while the camera was on a timer on a tripod last year in that field...  I love this photo.  I blew it up and had it printed as a canvas box for the living room wall.