Thrift Shop Shelves After

Last week I posted about the shelves I finally found at Sally's to bring a little sanity to a corner of my girls' bedroom. After it sat on the porch for a few weeks in its initial state, then was brought out to the driveway and back in several times for primer and paint (all paint was leftover from other house projects so I didn't have to spend any money on new paint), I finally finished.

This is what the corner looked like in its insane, cluttered, messy "before" state.

The desk was rarely getting used anymore since the dining room table is our every day workspace. But I can't toss the desk because it was mine growing up. I can't tell you how many pictures were colored and sketched and painted at that desk by both my daughter and I. So it'll go into storage until she's able to upgrade to a bigger room where it fits and hopefully gets used more again. She didn't cry about the desk leaving, which is a miracle in and of itself. Maybe its because I promised her that, when it comes out of storage, she can paint it pink, per her request. (Because I refuse to paint her bedroom walls pink....am I a mean mommy?)

So with the shelves in place of the desk, this is what the $20 storage solution looks like "after."

I haven't actually finished sorting through all their stuff to determine what will end up staying in/on these shelves for the longer term, but this is it for now. The 3 organizing cubes were something I already had in the baby's room, just collecting junk that didn't even belong in that room anyways. This gave me a good excuse to finally clean those out. I had been planning to still use them in the baby's room when I redo this piece of furniture next. We'll see where they end up for good. The basket on the bottom shelf (which was originally a yard sale find) was also a re-use. It had been crammed under the desk going the wrong direction - the only way it fit. I'm thrilled that these four existing (free) storage containers fit on the shelves perfectly.

The girls are pleased with the results too.



 I ended up moving the plastic trash bin full of dress-up clothes from the left side of the shelves to the wall under the window on the adjacent wall. And although the photo doesn't look like it from this camera angle, the new shelves are centered below the existing shelf on the wall. That collection of 1950s readers, vintage wood blocks and old Raggedy Ann & Andy dolls are for display only, much to my daughters' dismay. Little girls don't appreciate those things for decorative purposes the way I do. It may be time to take them down soon. :(

Putting the kids' same old toys in this new place has caused them to to take new interest in and play with things they'd forgot about. So even if you don't bring in any new storage or new toys, simply rearranging the location of existing toys can suddenly make them seem new again. Which may then result in a mom having a little more free time on her hands. For things like....blogging per se.