I deep clean our schoolroom annually in August. It feels good to start a new school year in a clean room. Every year, I rearrange the furniture to suit our current needs. This year is quite different than the rest. I have two children homeschooling, one who goes to a local Catholic high school, one who is attending college remotely, one who is working and living at home; and my oldest son lives in his own apartment. The room has now become a schoolroom-bedroom-gameroom-library-family room. Let me show you around.

When you first come in, the left side (shown above) is the area where we work at tables. Here we do schoolwork, arts and crafts, play board games, cards, and ping pong, draw, and paint nails.

On the right side, you can see the area where we watch movies, TV shows, or a Latin lesson. We play games, read books, go to Zoom meetings, listen to music, hang out and talk, and sometimes nap.

Behind the three book shelves, or “the library”, is Rachel’s bedroom. Rachel is fourteen now. In my Girls Room Tour, I showed the room she shared with her two younger sisters. This summer, she moved into the schoolroom temporarily, to give them all more space. It seemed to work out well for everyone, so she’s hasn’t moved back. This is her space.

Because she goes out to school early every morning, we are not bothering her when we are in here during the day, and I guess you can say that she is also not bothering us. Rachel keeps her room neat. We have been putting all of our school stuff back into the closet around three o’clock each day to keep the room tidy and available for other activities.

The cabinets and drawers (shown above) store our arts, crafts and office supplies. I posted interior pictures in 2018, when I decluttered the schoolroom. This area hasn’t changed much. I did get rid of our old computer cabinet and the two cherry cabinets, so most supplies are now stored in the schoolroom closet. The toys were moved to the closet in the girls’ room, and I also moved our games from downstairs into the schoolroom closet. The top two closet shelves still hold the the sentimental items I want to deal with before I’ll call myself a minimalist. This will require finishing up scrapbooks and much scanning.

Some of our games I put on the shelves of a new TV stand we purchased this year. When my mother was moving into her condo, she gave us a large TV she no longer wanted. Here’s the set-up.

This room is above the garage, so it can be chilly during the cold weather months. I think the fireplace insert might warm up the room. If not, it’ll make it look cozy.

I’m feeling grateful to have so much space, comfort and beauty to enjoy during this time of quarantines and social distancing. And we have no shortage of things with which to occupy our bodies and souls.

Thanks for joining me on this tour of our schoolroom. If you like room tours, check out my Room Tours category.

This is the first post in a new category that I have created called “Room Tours”.  As an aspiring minimalist, I always enjoy seeing the homes of others, who are also trying to simplify their lives. So I’m sharing mine for people like me to enjoy.  If you’re a kindred spirit, you are someone who sees the benefits of living with less, and you are likely striving to pare your home down to the essentials. You may also live in a large home with a spouse and six children who do not have any interest in living with less, who are perfectly happy with things as they are, or may even think more is better.

First, I’ll share a little history of this room. Our home was custom built in 2006. This room (which I think is the largest bedroom in the house) first belonged to my two sons, Matthew and Joseph.  Eventually, Matthew moved down into the basement, and Joseph had this room to himself for a few years.  But this year, I moved Joseph into the room next door and gave this room to my three youngest children, who were sharing the smaller room that Joseph moved into.  Hannah wanted them each to have their own beds, which they do have now.  In fact, they each have their own space.

So this is Rachel’s bed, nightstand and dresser.  (Rachel is currently 12 years old.)

This is Hannah’s bed, nightstand and wardrobe.  (Hannah will be 10 soon.)

And this is Mary’s area.  (She is 7 years old.)  She stores her clothes and treasures in the three drawers below her bed.  Most of the things on the shelf belong to Mary and Hannah.

The girls have a walk-in closet which is mostly for toy storage.  There are a few dresses hanging in there, and their dirty clothes go in the laundry basket.

These bins store: Shopkins, Beanie Boos, blankets, slippers and more.

I encouraged the girls to get rid of items they no longer used or loved.  I let them keep whatever they really wanted to keep. We even went shopping for furniture together and bought the wall hangings, bins, lamps and doodads to go with our pink, gray, white and gold color scheme.  They loved that part of the move.  Rachel and Hannah LOVE to shop.  My main goal (that I reminded them of every day) was to assign a home to each and every item.  So far, that has made picking up the room quite easy.  They know where everything goes.

A place for everything,

And everything in its place.

I always put my toys away,

So I can find them another day.