No Place Like Home: I finally conquered the mess in the school room!

The school room in our house gets almost constant use. The kids use it for crafts and school, and I use it for sewing and crafts. There is so much stuff packed in there that I just couldn't stand it anymore. I wish I had thought to take a picture before we started, but I didn't. Here is one after I asked E to start taking things off the shelves and sorting them.

He only heard the "take things off the shelves." Sorting never occurred to him. He was so kind as to leave me the honor of throwing away gum wrappers, scratch paper and used tissues. I don't know how I ever be able to repay him! The big pile of stuff on the floor was dropped off by my mom. She was cleaning out closets and knew I could refashion their discards into something adorable. I was so excited (Until I realized that I had to have somewhere to store it all!).

After sorting and putting things up for several hours, I got things usable but not pretty.

The open shelves were still driving me crazy. We built them several years ago to use in another room. They work great for storage, but they always look cluttered. I decided that they had to have covers ASAP.

To go along with my "spend no money unless there is no other possibility" plan for this year, I made the curtain rods and holders out of PVC pipe and fittings. (Since my dh does irrigation repair work, we always have spare PVC at the house.) I was so surprised at how easy it was to work with PVC. It cuts easily and is very light weight. No power tools required - a real plus since my helpers were 1, 3, 5, and 7 years old. My mom gave me an old sheet set that had almost enough fabric for curtains. I found an old duvet cover in my stash and used it for the contrast. I severely underestimated how long it would take to make the curtains. It was all easy sewing, but there was a lot of it.