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Weekly Focus Room: Guest Bedroom

July 22, 2014 by Sarah

I hope y’all had a great weekend!  Kev was gone during the day because of his first drill with the National Guard.  It was a little odd seeing him walk in the door each night in uniform.  I met Kev after he was out of the Marines, so I’m not used to seeing him in a uniform in real life.  It will take some getting used to for sure!

Last week, I introduced you to a concept I started called my weekly focus room.
{Click HERE to see my last week’s focus room and why I even came up with the idea.}
Unfortunately, this week’s focus room didn’t get much attention….at all.
I don’t know what my problem was last week, but I either didn’t have extra time many days, or was just too tired and unmotivated to tackle it.  I hate to admit it, but it happens sometimes…at least in this house!  🙂

But, the room was quickly turning into a dumping ground {lots of clean but unfolded laundry} and was in desperate need of some attention, so I figured I’d work on it today and post something about what I accomplished.  I didn’t want to devote another entire week to it, so I did what I could and we’re moving on!

My Second Room: Guest Bedroom

Our guest bedroom is the second bedroom located on the first floor of our house.  It’s small {like all the rooms in our home}, but we really like to have some space for guests to lay their heads when they are in town.  It would probably stay cleaner for longer if we had more guests!!  🙂
Here are some of the before pictures.  

UGH!  This is embarrassing, but I try to keep it real on the blog.  There is the mound of unfolded laundry that accumulated on the guest bed all week long.  It was not a good laundry week for me!  🙂

Here’s the view on the opposite end of the bed.  The dresser has piles of unmatched socks on the left and random things that needed to be put away on the right side.  If you look closely, maybe you can see Savannah’s potty training seat under some of that stuff!

Here’s the view looking from the hallway into the room.  This is why I just shut the door when it looks like this and we have company over.  My maternity clothes are sitting in the tote on the floor and the piece of MDF for my necklace board is still waiting to be used for my DIY project!

I chose the guest bedroom mostly because it’s on the main floor of our house and is adjacent to our master bedroom.  I figured I’d just make my way around the entire first floor.  It is also at the end of our short hallway, so you can see right into it when you are in the kitchen/dining room.  I figured I’d attack it next since it’s fairly visible and needed some help.  
So, here’s the thing, as I said above, I stuck to the very basics on this room because I didn’t have much time to spend on it and it basically sat until today.  I’ll show you some things I want to do next time I make it around to this room.
Here are the after pictures.
Ah, the bed looks so much better with all the laundry put away.  And now we can get clean clothes from our drawers rather than searching for them on the guest bed!  I can not let that happen this week.
I also stripped the bed and washed all the sheets.  I didn’t need to whiten the pillows because I had already done them when I was doing my Pinterest experiment.  They were still looking great!
When I have more time to think about it, I’d like to find some solution for over the bed.  It just looks so plain and boring and needs something.

The dresser is cleaned off and dusted.  I also swapped out the lamp shade on the mini lamp.  I had this one lying around and thought it looked cleaner and brighter than the one that was there before.

The totes actually aren’t completely put away, but they are no longer in the room.  The kids were asleep, so I have to put the maternity clothes tote away in the morning after they wake up.  🙁  The piece of MDF is still there because I plan to start working on my necklace board for my bedroom very soon.  
You can’t see all this, but I vacuumed and dusted everything {baseboards, blinds, ceiling fan}.  It was pretty bad and I even saw some cobwebs in the lights on the ceiling fan.  I vacuumed the ceiling fan blades as best I could and replaced one of the bulbs that had burnt out the in the fixture.  Next time, I’m going to clean the fan using the method I learned last week and I’m also going to make sure to wash the curtains.  I got as much dust off as I could, but they could still use a good cleaning.  
I wish I had more time to work on the dresser area.  Currently, the mirror attaches to the dresser and I’d like to separate the two and hang the mirror on the wall.  It’s so low that it’s not very functional.  I think it would look better and function better if it were hanging higher up on the wall itself. 
I’d also love to eventually paint and distress the dresser a light beige or white.  One of these days…
I also desperately need for Kev to find a new place for a lot of his tools.  We use many of them regularly so I can see why he wants to keep them in the house, but I’m thinking we need to carve out a space in the laundry room.  I hate that our guests only have about half of the drawers to put their things in when they visit.

And then, there is the issue with the guest bedroom closet.  This is one of those projects that didn’t get completed before we moved in right before Brady was born.  When we replaced the heating/cooling system in the house, we also moved some of the duct work {for the return vent}.  It runs down the entire right side of the closet, making the storage space in the closet even smaller than it originally was.  We still haven’t installed any sort of shelving, so there are just a couple of things shoved in there.  
I knew I wouldn’t be able to tackle that this time around, but it’s still very much on my radar.  If you have any ideas for building/buying cheap closet storage, please leave a comment!! 
The room still needs some help to make it cute and more cozy, but it is looking better.  I need to keep it tidy until I can start working on some of the bigger ideas I have for the room.  Wish me luck!

This week’s focus room:  First Floor Bathroom
I’ll report back next week Monday to show you how it went.
* * * * * *
How do you get motivated to clean when you have no energy?




Linking up with:
Cindy for Made by You Monday
Sarah for Homemade Mondays
Kristi for Inspiration Monday
Emily for Create Link Inspire
Kathy for Titus 2 Tuesday
Leslie for Twirl & Take a Bow
Kelly for Whimsy Wednesdays
Lisa for Wake Up Wednesdays
Rachel for Wednesday Whatsits
Ruth for Thrifty Thursday
Carrie for Think Tank Thursday
Allison for Handmade Hangout
Wendy for Frugal Friday
Cheryl for I’m Lovin It
Jerri for Friday Favorites Linky Party
Nichi for Best of the Weekend
Melanie for Skip the Housework Saturday
Six Sisters for Strut Your Stuff Saturday

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Filed Under: Organization, Simple Home Tagged With: Guest Bedroom, Homemaking

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Comments

  1. SuzyQpon says

    July 22, 2014 at 2:06 pm

    Looks to me like you got a lot done considering you are pregnant and have 2 little ones running around! I found this blog and think that you might like some of her tips/ideas. http://www.livelovediy.com/

    • steddins@hotmail.com says

      July 23, 2014 at 5:31 pm

      You are very kind! I think my problem is that my desire to get more done doesn't always match up with my energy level. Thanks for passing alone the blog – it looks like a great one!

  2. kristi dominguez says

    July 30, 2014 at 7:49 pm

    Looks great, Sarah!

    • steddins@hotmail.com says

      July 31, 2014 at 12:23 am

      Thanks so much, Kristi!

Meet Sarah

Hey, I'm Sarah (a.k.a. The Teacher's Wife)! Wife to a history teacher and mom of 5 kids (2 in heaven). I'm a coffee addict, budget nerd, who's obsessed with good chips and salsa. I love finding ways to organize & manage my home and life...all on a budget! I'm thrilled you stopped by and I hope you'll find something inspiring! Read More…

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Any guesses as to what I'm doing here? I promise, Any guesses as to what I'm doing here?  I promise, the kids did not play a prank on me! 😂
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I'm actually cleaning/dusting the ceiling fan in our guest room. I saw this tip years ago and I've been doing it ever since, although probably not as often as I should! 🤪
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Snag an old pillowcase and drag it off each blade so the dust stays inside of it. Then, wash it in your next laundry load for easy clean up! 
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Happy Friday!!
This is where the meal magic happens in our house. This is where the meal magic happens in our house.  Don't ever let anyone convince you that you have to have a large (and often expensive) kitchen in order to feed your family. 
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Is there anything wrong with a large and expensive kitchen?  Nope!
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Can they be helpful?  Absolutely!
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This house was built in the 1940s and likely housed a family our size, or maybe larger.  It's amazing to think how our concept of wants and needs have changed since then.
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Maybe someday we'll have a larger kitchen, but for now, I'm thankful that this small kitchen allows me to have everything at my fingertips quickly! 😁
"The answer to the purposelessness and hollowness "The answer to the purposelessness and hollowness we feel is found not in us but outside of us. The solutions to our problems and pain aren't found in self-love, but in God's love.

The God who created us, who created the universe, who is the same yesterday, today, and forever, is the one who provides us with the purpose and satisfaction we're seeking. While self love depletes, God's love for us doesn't. He showed us his love by sending Jesus to die for our sins so that we could be forgiven and live forever with him. Self-love is superficial and temporary. God's love is profound and eternal."

"The first myth that you are enough. My counter was this: you're not you'll never be enough, and that's okay, because God is."

--Allie Beth Stuckey

***Go read Ephesians 2:1-5!  It wrecks me every time!!***
You know you are a perfectionist when you look up You know you are a perfectionist when you look up "how to cut hydrangeas for a vase" on Google.  It's a rough life sometimes, but these beauties are helping!😉 😍
It's time to finish tidying my entire home, so I'm It's time to finish tidying my entire home, so I'm picking up where I left off....kitchen kimono!  I took some before shots and I'll share the afters once I'm done (with a writeup for my blog too). 
.
Thank goodness, I've learned so much as I've gone through different categories that it truly does get easier and I've actually purged prior to officially getting to this category.
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It is so worth it to only keep what you love and
After trying this for a few times now, I can offic After trying this for a few times now, I can officially rave about cooking bacon in the oven!  I bake mine for 14 mins at 400 degrees. 
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Keep an eye on your bacon at first because you will need to figure out what works best for your oven and cut of bacon. 
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Give this a try if you are tired of grease splattering everywhere and having to stand at the stove for way too long!
Kev asked me recently what I wanted for mother's d Kev asked me recently what I wanted for mother's day.  Here's what I came up with this year.  Can you tell that service is one of my love languages? 😜
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What is your love language?
I was finally able to visit The Container Store in I was finally able to visit The Container Store in person now that they opened a store near me!  Can you spy my recent purchase that I made to organize my Kcups?  I think it's time to resume my Konmari method posts and tackle the kitchen next!  Do you love The Container Store?
It was a fun, eventful week for us! Daddy and daug It was a fun, eventful week for us! Daddy and daughter celebrated their birthdays. Sissy got her ears pierced, and then had some sweet friends over to celebrate!
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