Bedroom Transition to Fall

Update: It is now 2014, and I just completed another transformation in the bedroom. You can check it out here. 

It might sound like complaining, but I just have to reflect for a moment on how busy this last week has been for me. My plan was to write several posts on the weekends so that even if things grew busy during the week, I would be able to publish them. However, I spent this weekend at a couple of triathlons and did not have much time left over. This week the chair of my department had people over to his house one evening, and I brought a group of students into the city to do community service another night. Tonight I have Parent Teacher night at school. Needless to say, I have not done much writing, but I did manage to complete a project on the one night I was free. Here is the story.

Autumn was always my favorite time of year. Now that I am a teacher and have the summers off, that season is quickly becoming my favorite, but fall will always have a special place in my heart. I love the cooler weather and being able to sleep comfortably with the windows open. I like the clothes; pants and sweaters are so cozy. There is a newness to the beginning of school unlike the other seasons when the students (and teachers, I must admit) are burnt out and tired of the routine. Football also starts back up in autumn, and I have always been a fan. Fall seems like a new beginning to me much more so than January. I should be Jewish so my new year would be Rosh Hashanah in September. (The picture below is from here.)

Monday, my windows were open when I got home and the curtains were blowing in the breeze. It made me so happy to see that. I decided that it was a good time to transition my bedroom from summer to fall. I do this every autumn at some point, some years earlier than others. The idea of a switchover appeals to me because I get bored if things stay the same for too long. You may have seen a picture of my bedroom in my post of Before and “After” Pictures.

As you can see from the picture below, it was not looking that good on Monday. I tend to pile clothes on the chair beside the bedside table. Douglas leaves his in a pile on the floor on the far side of the bed, but at least you cannot see those in the picture. The bed is also slightly less than ideally made. Douglas leaves the house later than I do. He “makes” the bed because he knows that I prefer it that way, but I usually have to remake it when I get home because it looks like this. We both have a tendency to stack books on the bedside tables. This bothers me less because I think that it is great that we are both such avid readers, but it does need thinned regularly. He keeps more objects on his bedside table than I do. It feels as though I am constantly organizing it.

Below is a picture from the other direction. My mess is often on top of the dresser. My jewelry rack also needs organizing, but that is a project for another day.

My first task in making the transition from summer to fall was to clean out my closet. It was full to overflowing.

Unfortunately, it does not look much different in the after picture, but there is actually more room in there now.

These are the clothes I culled from the overflowing closet. The three stacks have distinct destinations. The stack on the left contains clothes that I am going to recycle into different things. I am currently working on a braided rug and a quilt. The clothes in the middle are things that I am getting rid of. I will sell them at a garage sale or give them to Goodwill. The pile on the right has my summer clothes that I will put in storage until next year.

The next step in the transition was to clean the room. Ahhh… much better!  Crème de Menthe does try to get in every picture!

And from the other side….

Lastly, I changed the bedspread. The cream-colored one is nice and light for the warm weather, but I like something cozier in the cooler temperatures. The light one also needs cleaned since Kahlua and Cream sleep on it every night. (Check out An Introduction if you do not know who they are.) The red duvet cover came from my local Goodwill store. I bought it and the two pillow cases for $5. Inside is a down comforter from Bed, Bath and Beyond. I got it on sale and had a 20% off coupon.

So, now our bedroom is ready for the cooler weather, and I have really enjoyed sleeping with the windows open the past couple nights.

Happy Homemaking!

P.S. Apparently all of the cleaning made the kitty want to start drinking!