Teen Bedroom! Extreme Organization Part 1

This post may contain affiliate links. Please read our Disclosure Policy for details. My 11 year old granddaughter asked me to makeover her room.  Being that she’s now a tween, she felt that her bedroom was badly in need of an update.  Although she’s at the age where everything is of the highest priority, she agreed that if I was going to do this for her, it will take time and she will have to be patient.  Easier said than done, right?

Since we were all children once and for those of you with children, you’ll understand why I didn’t post any “before” pictures.  But no worries, I will show you pics along the way.

As always, Step 1 is the Decluttering.  Considering she has grown at least 3 inches in the past year, we bagged up the multitude of clothes she has outgrown. Fortunately, we were able to share the gently worn clothes with another very appreciative family.

Step 2 is Cleaning and Organizing.  Vacuuming, dusting, and creating a place for everything made a significant difference in the room’s appearance.  Summer clothes, we stored in under bed storage purchased from Wayfair.  This opened up more space in her closet.  Notice that I said “we”.  The plan was destined to fail if my granddaughter did not help.  The agreement was that she had to participate in the redesign process or it would be just another futile attempt on my part without her input and cooperation.  My objective was to engage her in the process so that she’d be vested in the outcome and be more inclined to keep it clean and organized.  Time Will Tell.

Most of her shoes went into the over-the-door shoe bag.  Because having both a dresser and chest of drawers would overcrowd the space, I opted for a door mirror and a larger chest of drawers to replace her kid-sized chest of drawers; and a king headboard and mattress to replace the full bed.  The new headboard was purchased from Wayfair.

I searched high and low for the perfect chest of drawers for a DIY project. I found this one in a resale store about 30 minutes from my home.  I made the trip there to pick up another one the storekeeper had posted online. My husband nixed that one and just as we were about to leave, I turned around and saw this beauty. I immediately asked and he offered to sell it at the same price as my initial choice.  That was literally music to my ears.  We loaded that baby up and off we happily drove.  Okay well, I was happy.  I think my husband was simply relying on my enthusiasm. 

As a side note, I must return to that store again soon.  I was in love.  It was packed full of goodies.  Ahhh … (the sound of relief or relaxation).  Even though the place was old and dusty, it gave me the warm fuzzies.  Sounds weird I know.

Back to the room … Yes, I’ll have to get back to the room at a later date.  My granddaughter grew weary of the hours of work and I grew weary of the complaining and her constant lunging onto the bed in exhaustion. We both had to laugh about it.  I had to resign myself to the fact that the room didn’t get to that state in one day, so I should break it up into bite size pieces.  I was losing her as we were biting off more than she could chew.  Please excuse the puns.  It just seemed like a good place for it.  I guess I am tired silly.  LOL.  We will get it done, I’m sure. She really was a big help to me, even though she was begging to stop.

Stay tuned for Part 2.