[Please forgive my poor photography.]

When we moved into this house almost two years ago, I hated everything about it – but I hated the master bedroom the most. [I wish I had a photo to show.] It had stained green carpet and brown walls and a popcorn ceiling full of cobwebs and a ceiling fan that had literally not been dusted once since the house was built. But we had more pressing projects so we didn’t even update the paint [we did clean and change the carpet] until a year ago when I decided to give birth to my third baby at home and nearly had a panic attack when I thought of bringing my baby into the world in that bedroom.

So, one night when we thought I was going into labor, my husband painted the whole room and we got all new bedding and we hung new blinds and new curtains and we made a wooden sign to hang above the bed with words from the song that was played at our wedding [“Come What May” from Moulin Rouge].

And it looked beautiful.

It still had [and still has] the popcorn ceiling, but it is much, much better.

[I didn’t even end up giving birth to Josephine in the bedroom – we were in a birth tub in the living room – but we did take pictures there after, so it was worth it.]

[The photo above was taken by a professional – not me, obviously!]

Fast forward one year, to three weeks ago, and the room was cluttered and filled with boxes we never unpacked and basically a disaster.

Seriously, I can’t even believe that I’m sharing these pictures. The saddest part is that this is how the room always looked.

Well, anyway, to wrap up it up and get to the point of this post, I wanted my bedroom to be an oasis again. I wanted it to feel like a spa – calm and quiet and clean and most of all…free of clutter.

So, I spent the better part of a day decluttering every surface, every drawer, every nightstand, every corner until everything had a home and everything that didn’t was no longer wasting space in our room.

The result was magical.

I actually love this room now.

And the best part, since I didn’t just clean the room, I actually cleared it, the room has stayed this clutter-free for three weeks. No really. I took the “before” pictures on August 28th before I started and I actually took the “after” pictures last night before bed because I was amazed that we’ve managed to keep a clean room for three weeks! Our room literally always looks like this now!

One thing I’ve noticed is that I’m much more motivated to keep the room clean now that it is free of clutter. When the room looks pristine, I’m a lot less likely to throw clothes on the floor or leave the bed unmade. It’s so clean, I don’t want to mess it up. And I think that is what has allowed us to keep it tidy for so long – and hopefully from now on!

Karis