So, I Need To Clean My Room....

In my household, we have four bedrooms, and six people to fill them. One of the rooms is being used for a homeschool room, so that leaves three bedrooms for everyone to pair up into. My room-mate just so happens to be my 16-year-old sister, Hannah.

Now, I love Hannah. She is an amazing girl. But sometimes we have a little trouble. Because Hannah is kind of a neat freak. And I am not.

Usually this actually works out to my advantage. I've only had to clean our room a handful of times, because Hannah usually takes care of it. It's great. I'll just come up to my room randomly and find that not only is the floor clearly visible, but there's also clean laundry folded on the bed and soft music playing in the background. This is the effect my dear sister has on our room.

However, Hannah has been out of town the last three days at snow camp, and I have found that left to my own devices, I have a slightly different effect on the room. Yah... I'll leave you to imagine. Just know it's not pretty.

This morning when I woke up I looked around the room, thought about how messy it is, and then I realized... she is coming home from snow camp. tonight.

So I have two options here:

1. Greet her at the door with a, "THANK GOODNESS YOU'RE HOME I NEED SOMEONE TO CLEAN!!!!"

or....

2. Surprise her and clean it for her!

After much consideration, I chose option one.

Juuuussstttt kidding, I chose option two, of course! ;)

Now, on the rare occasion that I clean my own bedroom, I always like to do something different so it's not just the same old same old. I decided to go on pinterest and see if I could find any inspiration for better organization.

First I looked for jewelry organization ideas. The top of both of our dressers are so over-run with jewelry! Here's what I found:

• Pinterest is just teeming with jewelry organization ideas, but I especially liked the idea of using recycled teacups or plates to organize rings and bracelets. I don't think I would do that with necklaces, though, like they have it in the picture, just because I hate untangling necklaces. 

• Doorknobs screwed into a piece of driftwood (or even regular wood) makes a really unique necklace hanger. I love the mis-matched, vintage handles, also. They remind me of the beautiful ones Anthropologie sells. (Here is a lovely turquoise one that's on sale for about $3.00 right now! You can get it in a few colors, so they don't all match, or take a look at their other knobs on sale.)
• For special occasion jewelry, I found one idea in which you take a shadow box, remove the back, and just lay it over top of your jewelry. It will protect your gems, and it looks absolutely gorgeous. J. Crew displays their jewelry in their stores similarly, and I drool over it every time I see it. It's just such an elegant way to do it! 

Next, I looked up scarf organization ideas... We literally got a million scarves for Christmas this year. I love scarves, don't get me wrong, but there are only so many you can drape on the end of your bed before it starts getting frustrating.

• I found this tutorial for using shower curtain rings on a hanger to hang them up in your closet... great idea! (Although I'm thinking this might not work for bulkier scarves.)

• Here's what I would LOVE to do with my scarves except I know this would only last about three seconds... but it just looks so appealing!

Last, I looked up some ideas for a makeup station/vanity. Currently, all of our makeup is in a little container on the floor next to our mirror which is also on the floor. Also, Our room is not well lit at all, so it's really hard to see how your makeup actually looks until you go to a brighter room. I would love to have a little vanity table/dressing area with a lamp and a mirror to make things easier. Not to mention that just seems so glamorous! 

• I love the idea of having a big mirror and a small mirror on your vanity. Big one for hair, small one for things like eye makeup and plucking eyebrows. 

• If you have too much stuff on the top of your table, it will start looking cluttered. Yucky. However, a few pretty brush holders could help organize things, and still keep them within reach. I love the white, lacey ones in the bottom right corner. I bet you could find something just like that at IKEA or even Target for very inexpensive!
• I. want. a. vanity. tray. They are so beautiful! I saw pictures of some that didn't have a mirror on the bottom... you could just use an old picture frame and add a thin piece of wood to the bottom if you didn't want the mirror. However, I happen to love how the mirror reflects light upward and, just like the shadow box with the necklaces, it seems so glamorous!

So It looks like I have my work cut out for me today! I am going to hopefully be taking a trip to goodwill (as long as they are open on MLKjr. Day... crossing my fingers) to find some things for my vanity and for organizing. Hannah's going to love it... :)