Operation Vintage Makeover: Cleaning and a Long Promised Photo Dump
March 13, 2019
Well, I'm pleased to announce that today, I'm delivering on that promise! This post will concentrate on the cleaning process, which occurred between October 2017-February 2019. Photos were taken several months apart to give a semblance of progress - I should note that I didn't constantly work on my room, but tackled it in small pieces.
And now, I will escort my dear reader into the Wayback machine and we will go back to October 20, 2017. It was on this rather ordinary, unremarkable date that Catherine Hawthorn kicked off her room renovation by taking several pictures. Lot of work they were, LOL.
To give you a bit of background, I had just come home the previous week from a failed stint at an out-of-state graduate school. 3 months before, I had come home from a summer internship, which was also out-of-state. And then 3 months before that, I had come home from graduating college (which was again....out-of-state).
Needless to say, there was a lot of luggage...in addition to all the other mess that had been steadily accumulating over the other 12 or so years that I've lived in this room....which you can see in all it's glory in the following 3 photos.
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| East Wall - taken October 20, 2017 |
As you can also see, my decor is rather eclectic to say the least. I was heavily involved in 4-H as a youth, so many things that you see on the walls are 4-H related (the ribbons on the mirror, the craft projects on the walls). Behind the door were several targets that I had kept from gun training. Mixed into the decor are other pieces of art from my childhood as well as several embroidery pieces that either I or my relatives have made. Oh yes, and the doll cradle and shelf that have been in my room since I was....six.
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| South/West Walls - October 20, 2017 |
As you can see, many of the things were simply shoved in there from all the comings and goings of that year. If you're wondering why the curtain is askance, it's because we didn't have any more hooks for it. Rather embarrassing, but the other curtains were simply too thin, so it was better than nothing.
Moving in this room, never mind unpacking, was rather difficult....to say the least. To give you an idea, there is a defined space where my wall crucifix is supposed to go in the next photo.
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| West/North Walls - October 20, 2017 |
Oh, and you see that dreamcatcher there? Yeah, it had been there since high school...this gives you an idea of how little I changed my decor....and before I realized that the Catholic Church considers them amulets. *cringes* Needless to say, as soon as I found that out, it disappeared.
Talk about a mess, right?
And now, let's step forward about two months.
Now that I had firmly settled into home with no plans to go anywhere, plans could be made to shunt stuff into the basement. After all, it was getting just a teeny bit crowded in there....
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| East/South Walls - December 18, 2017 |
It was now time to sort out all of the junk. And believe me, that was a task in and of itself. Already, several bags of clothes had been taken out of the closet and clothes drawers, which allowed me to close them properly for the first time in years *ignores dresser drawer hanging open*.
You may notice that at night, the room is extremely dark. There is, in fact, no central light or chandelier in the room. True to the inexplicable style choice of the nineties, there is no central lamp source and the two switches in the room only control half of the outlets. I could write a whole treatise on how nineties lighting really stinks.
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| West Wall - December 18, 2017 |
By the time March 2018 rolled around, I had figured out how to fit most of the room into one panoramic picture instead of three. I simply had to stand in my doorway....figures that it would be a simple solution to a seemingly daunting problem.The only wall that isn't visible is the one with my closet.
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| East-West Walls - March 10, 2018 |
During this time, I had packed up a lot of the extra craft supplies and clearing out all of the broken trash that was littering the place. I told you, the packrat gene is strong with this one.
About six months later, I finally was able to clear most everything off the floor and vacuum it for the first time in ages. Of course, I had to document it with a picture - my family wouldn't believe it otherwise. Literally, they didn't. I may or may not have a reputation....
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| East-West Walls - October 20, 2018 |
And there is the peach carpet in all it's disgustedness. Actually, to be quite honest, that's not the worst of it. The furniture is hiding a lot of the stains. When we do the carpet reveal, you'll see what I mean.
I didn't realize this until I was adding in the captions, but this above photo was taken ONE YEAR TO THE DATE of the first photos being taken. Talk about freaky?!
But does it surprise anyone that it took a full year to clear out all the junk on the floor, considering what I started with??
This next picture may seem out of place, as there are items on the floor again. But, I assure you, it is indeed a later picture.
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| East-West Walls - February 9, 2019 |
All of the art was stripped from the walls, so that the latter could be spackled. Ugh, there were so many holes in those walls, I wish I could joke about it.
In the far corner next to the bookcase, there is an empty space where the desk was. Within a few days of that picture being taken, the desk had been moved out into the family office to house my desktop. Believe me, it was a heap more useful that that silly record cabinet....
Also, the bed has been raised about 5 inches in this photo. In order to have the under-bed storage actually *hem* go under the bed, I had to raise it up. Besides, I was used to having my bed raised in college and missed the height.
Oh, and in this picture is a sneak peak of the black lace veil that I am in the middle of making at this moment (it's the white board with the black flowers on it).
This last picture was taken on the morning of the 16th of February - again, a rather unimportant date. Between February 9 and February 16, a lot of things happened. All of the the loose items got packed away, the storage cabinets and the closet door (among other things) were shoved into my brother's room (which was unoccupied, at the time), furniture was moved....so much work!
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| East-West Walls - February 16, 2019 |
(is it just me, or does the room seem a lot smaller because of the lack of...stuff? Weird how the eye tricks things, doesn't it?
Soon after this picture was taken, there was another moving of furniture, which will be much more apparent when you see the post detailing the actual painting process, which will be in a couple of weeks!
And now it's your turn! What's the longest time you've taken to clean your room? Are you also a packrat? What is something that you've left in your room from when you were a child? Any mystery items that you found in my room that you want to know the story of? Chat with me in the comments!
Old-fashionably yours,
Catherine
4 comments
Since I share a room with two younger sisters, it doesn't get TOO messy (besides the random barbies on the dolls and stuff). I recently added some picture decor to the wall by my bed, but the thing that gets really messy is my closet. It looks like a bomb went off in it when it's a mess. Last week (?) my sisters and I switched closets so we had all our clothes, dress, shoes, and old dance costumes on the floor. Oof, it took two days and a huge garbage bag to sort through everything and get everything put away.
ReplyDeleteCan't wait to see the final result of your room!
~Ceci
You've made progress since you started in Oct. 2017! I am very excited to see what the painted walls look like! I share a room with my two sisters, too, which is hard because everyone always wants different things on the walls. That job now belongs to my little sister and she changes it every month. Can't wait to see it when it's finished!
ReplyDeleteWOW! So I own a ton of books, but I'm mostly a minimalist and clean freak. When I was younger my aunts and uncles used to say I wasn't normal because I loved showing off my organized room ;p It's sometimes messy when I've had to share with siblings, but normally (now) I clean about once a week or so.
ReplyDeleteLoved seeing your progress!
keturahskorner.blogspot.com
Yeah, my family and I are the opposites - we save everything. Because we never know if we're going to need it five years later or something, LOL.
DeleteIt's weird - I'm really strict on some organization but in other things, not so much. Like you can't find anything on my computer because it's so organized, but you also can't find any paper files because they are unorganized. Figure that one out....
Once a week is a good system - once my room is functional again (everything is piled every which way until it's time for carpet) I'll probably follow something similar!
Thank you Keturah!