Task #12: the western side of the loft

This is our upstairs loft. Originally it was going to be our "schoolroom" but it ended up being more of a rec-room while we do the bulk of our formal academics downstairs near the fireplace.

The before and after pictures don't look much different, unfortunately -- the upstairs seems to always look cluttered and un-flowing, though it's quite relaxing to sit up there as you can see (they don't ALWAYS spend their time in front of the screen, it just looks that way):

BEFORE



AFTER:




The bulk of the time was spent organizing and sorting through toys -- I got them all organized by type, as you can perhaps see:


I got 2 whole bags out of there, one to throw out and one to give away -- which brings me up to Bags 11 and 12 in the Trashbag Challenge:


The toy-sorting took over an hour, then the rest of the time I spent vacuuming the corners, dusting, wiping, and sorting books and videotapes. SO this was a time-consuming job, almost 2 hours' worth.

Next is the center loft. This will be easier because it is not quite so cluttered, though it does double as a sort of dormitory for the four younger boys.