Space Bag Amazing-ness and the playroom!

I have two little posts I put together for you, but since they are both from stuff around the house..I decided to just make it one big post!

First up..Space Bag Amazing-ness! 

Now that we are settled back in the house, I have been spending most of my free time during the days trying to get everything better organized!  We definitely have more stuff then we have room for.   I think I have been to Good Will to drop off like 5 times in the last couple weeks!  I am going through everything and trying to simplify as much as possible.  Still, there is so much stuff that we want to keep, too!  This is hard because we have such limited storage space.  The other day I was at the store grabbing more containers and I saw the little box of "space bags".  I have seen these so many times and been hesitant to grab some, but this time I bought a box.  They are the coolest thing ever!!! I'm silly and I seriously was way-too-excited about these bags! SO excited that I decided to take pictures and make it a blog post :) Ha!

So...beware....because I'm about to let you in to the chaos usually behind my closed closet doors...

This was the top of my linen closet pre-space bag amazing-ness.  There are several sets of sheets and some blankets as well.

 There was also a quilt being stored underneath the bottom shelf that we use under the comforter in our room when it's really cold.  During the warmer months, there is never a good place to put it..

 The box of bags I bought was a variety pack so it came with a couple really large bags and then several smaller sizes as well...

 You just stuff them full and vacuum all the air out..piece of cake!

 And VOILA!  You are left with a flat bag..

I decided to slide the quilt and another larger comforter I bagged under the bed in our room since that is where they are used most.  The rest of the sheets and blankets went back in the top of the closet.  I used some of the smaller bags to bag up full sets of sheets.  It worked perfect!  Last week I had company, so I just grabbed out a set of sheets to make up my fancy-shmancy air mattress ;) After she left I just washed the sheets, sealed them back up, and put the back in the closet.  

Here is the "after" shot of my closet.  Still a lot of stuff up there, but it at least looks more organized. 

And for the second part of this..my random post about the new playroom!!

I know I've mentioned it on here and some on facebook, but a couple of months ago I decided I needed to do something different with the kids bedrooms.  They each had their own room, but since the rooms were small it was just so crowded and it seemed like toys were everywhere..all the time!  So I decided to try something new.  For right now, while they are still young enough I can get away with it, I decided to have the kids share a bedroom.  I moved their beds and all of their clothes into the smaller room (noah's old room).  We used the bigger room (ella's room) to make a playroom.  I have wrestled the pros and cons of this over and over again.  Probably the biggest regret is not being able to have Ella's "girly" space anymore.  Since this is only a temporary fix, I just remind myself that we will have that again one day.  The bottom line is that this has been overall the best thing ever for our house!!  It has kept the toys more organized and way easier to clean up.  I also just love the playful environment it gave the kids. They play together so much more now.  

I realized I never shared any pics with you, so I thought I would do that today :)

I had one last project for this room once we got back in the house and that was organizing the closet.  I hadn't done it yet and it was sort of just a catch all.  The first thing I did was put her comforters in....can you guess....another space bag LOL!  After I sealed them, I stored them under our bed in the MB. 

Closet before..

 I also went through a bunch of the toys and organized the ones that I wanted up out of reach.

Things like Polly Pockets that have so many tiny pieces.  I babysit during the day and wanted these out of the "little babies" reach..

This box was for the randoms...hats, bags, and weather gear..

 Here is a little tour of the room...

 Also a view of the closet after I re-organized..

Now it's all ready to PLAY!