March was the month of the Deep Clean Bedroom Challenge. If you didn’t get the Deep Clean Printable, get your copy here.
As I mentioned before, the bedrooms were all switched around. When we talk about deep cleaning this month, we emptied every single thing out of all the kid bedrooms. It was great to be able to only put back the things that we truly wanted to keep. We implemented the Kids Clean Bedroom Checklists to help each kid choose how to organize their room.
Our bedrooms stay fairly clean, so the majority of this month focuses on clothing. Switching out the clothes is seriously like a two-week process of chaos in the hallway.
Kid Clothes
The weather is just starting to change and we usually have a week or two where the kids want to wear shorts. I have to remember every year that those two weeks will be followed by two weeks of cold, rainy weather. The same happens in Fall, only in reverse. The way I get around this is to be selective about the clothes that I keep out. Each kid usually ends up with about 2 or 3 pairs of pants and 4 or 5 long-sleeved shirts in addition to their summer clothes. All of the rest of the clothes are organized and stored away for the next kid to grow into.
Shirts:
In order to keep a shirt out, it must fit well and be dark colored, or be a favorite shirt that I am not planning on passing down to the next kid. With this criteria, any long sleeved shirt that I keep out in the Spring will also be great for any evening outdoor adventures in the summer. If it is a shirt that I don’t care to pass on, I also don’t have to worry about getting the boxes back out just to store one or two shirts. If it is dark colored, but still good condition, I don’t have to worry as much about it getting stained before it gets passed on to the next kid.
Pants:
I store all the pants that still look brand new. If there was a pair of pants that is starting to look worn out, we will wear those until the holes start coming through. This way I don’t have to worry about storing and passing on a bunch of semi worn-out pants.
Switching out the clothing also brings with it the fashion show of the year. My girls love to try on each outfit, while the boys’ clothes usually go in piles in their room. Each morning when they get dressed they come show me their outfit and we decide if it will fit them or not. It’s a long slow process, but it gets done.
Seasonal Clothing
All the coats, snow boots, hats and other winter accessories are washed and stored away. We keep out a thick jacket for each kid to not freeze on those crazy rainy days. Swim suits and other swim clothing are pulled out and tried on so that we can jump on the sales as they happen.
My Clothes
My clothes were kind of interesting to go through this time. I was pulling out all the maternity clothes and realized I have so many things that I just really didn’t love. When I tried the clothes on, if they were bugging me at all, out they went. In March and September, I always do the old ‘turn the hanger around’ trick. I turn all the hangers the wrong way. Once I have worn the clothes, I turn the hanger the right way to hang it back up. If there are clothes that are still on the backwards hanger after the six months, they get donated. I figure the clothing may fit me great, but if it was something that I didn’t wear during that time frame, it’s obviously not something that I am choosing to wear.
I have been trying to really embrace the “Remixable Wardrobe” Idea and staying within certain colors and basic styles while focusing on layering/finishing pieces. No longer do I feel a need to own a shirt in every color of the rainbow. I have never loved to wear brown or red. All brown pants, skirts, shoes, and shirts got donated. One less thing to have to try to match and coordinate with.
How Did I Do?
Because of the overhaul on the kids’ rooms, I would say this was definitely a successful month. I went through every article of clothing and scrap of paper and really tried to simplify everything in their rooms. We are going to be hopefully buying and installing some closet organizers soon to eliminate dressers and provide a bit more space in some of the smaller rooms. (which in turn eliminates the clutter of ‘treasures’ out in the open for little siblings to get into).
Much of the clothing we didn’t need was donated. A bunch of clothing, coats, blankets, and other things that we weren’t using went to friends and family. I sold more things online which brought in a little cash, and have a few more things online waiting to be sold. I think I ended up donating a total of 5 bags of clothing from the kids’ closets. Between my clothing and clothing my husband ended up donating, there were 4 more bags.
Just in case you missed the checklist, here it is!
How did you do on your Bedroom Deep Clean?
Other great posts to check out on how we store clothing:
I started my deep cleaning and need to finish it. My cleaning included my closet.
That’s a great start!
I love the idea about the dark/light clothing (it is so true!!) ! Great tips on deciding what to keep, store, and get rid of, this is always something that I seem to struggle with. I am printing out these checklists as we speak to add to my “to-do ” list! Great Post!
Yea! Glad I could help you out!
This is awesome! And something we desperately need to do since we still have moving boxes that need to be unpacked from a year ago. Oops
Isn’t that the worst? It seems that there are always 2-3 boxes that get shifted around after a move and we don’t know what to do with that stuff. We have been slowly sifting through those boxes and finally getting rid of what we don’t use. It’s so nice!
I love the “backwards hanger” to help with the decluttering process. I have an easy time parting with my things, the rest of my family holds tightly to their possessions. For a long time I have battles with them but now I just lead by example and slowly they are coming aboard 🙂
That is good to hear that they are all starting to follow your example. My kids are luckily young enough that getting rid of stuff is just part of cleaning up. I’m hoping to raise this rising generation to not be so attached to stuff.
We’ve been at our new home now for a little over a year & I can see things are starting to pile up. Rooms we hardly had stuff in are now full and I desperately need a full clean out like this. Definitely taking some tips for myself. Thanks for sharing.
Isn’t is weird how when you first move into a house it seems so big and open with lots of empty spaces and we quickly fill them up? Getting those empty spaces back has been really nice!