I have a 14 year old boy, I am a single mom. My son's room is in need of some serious help.
I hate the size. It is so small but, I have to deal with it for now. He is in need of some reorganizing that is simple enough for him. I think maybe there is too much in his room that is why it seems smaller.
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I have some galvanised shelves that I bought at Walmart. They run about $30 and they have particle board shelves (don't cringe yet! lol). I ahve yet to do so, but ONE day I am going to gloss paint the particle brd in bright colours. You could do the same for him. They are about 6' tall, 36" wide and about 12-18" deep (can't remember exactly and I can't find me tape msr!
Well it sounds like you are very limited with what you can do. You can get a new comforter and curtains...maybe a bean bag chair. Painting some shelves sound like a good idea. What about a shelf that runs about a 18 inches from the ceiling all the way around the room.
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I'd start with a 3 bag declutter with your son - any clutter will make the room look even smaller. Go through the closet and every shelf and cupboard and sort into 'Give away', (to friends, family or the charity shop - anything he doesn't use/has grown out of), 'Put away' (anything he doesn't use but insists on keeping - can be stored in a box in another area, ?garage, and maybe disposed off later), and 'Throw away' (anything broken or stained, general rubbish). 14 is a good age to be getting rid of all his 'childish' toys/books/little plastic freebie toys, etc. Allowing him to sell things he doesn't want on e bay would be a great incentive for him to declutter!
Once you have removed everything you can then look at the layout. Can you rearrange the furniture to make the room appear bigger? A bookcase against the bottom of the bed uses that wasted space. He is at an age now where he may be looking for a quiet area for serious study. Have you thought about one of those 'raised beds' with a ladder and a desk/storage/study area underneath? Here in Australia you can buy these with a tubular steel frame in the primary colours he likes quite cheaply. Any dual purpose furniture in a small room is a bonus.
Present storage/shelving may be adequate once you get rid of the clutter. Start with the bed as it takes up the largest space in the room and get bedlinen which is all one colour, (no busy patterns), e.g. red or yellow or blue, and matching curtains. Choose one of the other colours and paint all the furniture, including the bed if you can, so they match. This will co-ordinate the room so it doesn't look so jumbled. Keep wall decoration to a minimum, e.g. one or two large posters, rather than a jumble of smaller things.
Have all your son's stuff on shelves or in drawers/cupboards/containers - nothing rowed on the flat surfaces in the room, or on the floor! LOL! Separate his clothes into summer/winter and store the off season clothes in a box in the closet.
I assume you've thought of trying to find somewhere else for your summer clothes/linens, e.g. linens could be stored under the mattress of the beds they will be used on. Have you used space/vacuum bags for these things? They are protective and will give more room.
Regards
Jo
I'd start with a 3 bag declutter with your son - any clutter will make the room look even smaller. Go through the closet and every shelf and cupboard and sort into 'Give away', (to friends, family or the charity shop - anything he doesn't use/has grown out of), 'Put away' (anything he doesn't use but insists on keeping - can be stored in a box in another area, ?garage, and maybe disposed off later), and 'Throw away' (anything broken or stained, general rubbish). 14 is a good age to be getting rid of all his 'childish' toys/books/little plastic freebie toys, etc. Allowing him to sell things he doesn't want on e bay would be a great incentive for him to declutter!
Once you have removed everything you can then look at the layout. Can you rearrange the furniture to make the room appear bigger? A bookcase against the bottom of the bed uses that wasted space. He is at an age now where he may be looking for a quiet area for serious study. Have you thought about one of those 'raised beds' with a ladder and a desk/storage/study area underneath? Here in Australia you can buy these with a tubular steel frame in the primary colours he likes quite cheaply. Any dual purpose furniture in a small room is a bonus.
Present storage/shelving may be adequate once you get rid of the clutter. Start with the bed as it takes up the largest space in the room and get bedlinen which is all one colour, (no busy patterns), e.g. red or yellow or blue, and matching curtains. Choose one of the other colours and paint all the furniture, including the bed if you can, so they match. This will co-ordinate the room so it doesn't look so jumbled. Keep wall decoration to a minimum, e.g. one or two large posters, rather than a jumble of smaller things.
Have all your son's stuff on shelves or in drawers/cupboards/containers - nothing rowed on the flat surfaces in the room, or on the floor! LOL! Separate his clothes into summer/winter and store the off season clothes in a box in the closet.
I assume you've thought of trying to find somewhere else for your summer clothes/linens, e.g. linens could be stored under the mattress of the beds they will be used on. Have you used space/vacuum bags for these things? They are protective and will give more room.
Regards
Jo
For some awesome helpful tips, search for "dorm room decorating/organizing ideas" on the net. Because dorm rooms are usually very small, there are some really good ideas out there on how to make a small bedroom useful and cute. However, I agree with the previous poster, you HAVE to de-junk the room before you start anything. That activity alone will make a huge difference in the space and look of your son's room. Also, you can often have someone build a loft or find instructions on how to build one yourself in order to raise the bed up for space underneath like a bunk bed.
Since your boy is 14, he's coming into his own. He should be involved every step of the way from the weeding out of clutter, to picking out things to go in. He may not realize it right this moment, but his room should inspire him everytime he goes in there. Pictures of good times, accomplishements, places of honour to put ribbons and tophies, posters etc. I just painted my 16 year olds room, then left the decorating up to him. It's coming along and doing well, and it's all his. Pride in ownership hopefully helps them to keep it cleaner. You may not have much floor space, and organizing may be the bigger part of this job, but you've got walls.
FlyLady.net is your best choice for decluttering. We usually have way more then we need. FlyLady shows you that 5 pair of underwear, socks, jeans, shirts, etc. are all you need. Maybe that's why our laundry was always behind and clutter was in our closet. Mission Orgnanization on HGTV has amazing ideas. PBTeens.com has simple ideas for teen boys rooms. I use a solid colored comforter then accessorize with inexpensive themed pillow cases, pennants, etc. As his interests change so can the room without double the expense. Shop the clearence. I just picked up a King bed skirt for $4.99 at Linnens 'n Things that was $79. I need a full size but can hem up the middle to make it work. Also try ContainerStore.com and iKea.com for more inexpensive ideas. Buy a little each pay check. Have him mow lawns, walk dogs, dog sit, etc. to make money to contribute to his room. He'll be proud of his accomplishments and he will have learned how to budget his money on what he wants. You can do it!
I use this dot com web site for getting ideas
http://www.kidsthemebedrooms.com
I have 3 boys and in their bedrooms I have bookcases that we bought at Wal-Mart for 30.00 each and I have small colorful plastic boxes for putting in small things that make their room look messy along with their books. Each bookcase has 5 shelves. 2 plastic shoe boxes fit on one shelf and 3 plastic flip top boxes fit on another and there is still 3 shelves for books.
I have 3 under the bed boxes for toys the 10-yr. old has a lot of little cars and he puts all his cars in one box the box is big about 20 inches by 3 foot it is on wheels. 3 of them fit nicely under his twin bed. My 17-yr. old uses his for CD's, DVD's and PS3 games, one is used for his car magazines and one is used for model cars. He has a king sized bed so he has 6 boxes. He has his socks, etc. and sweaters and I think collector T-shirts in the other 3. My 12-yr.old has a comic collection and a star wars collection and he loves to write stories and draw so he has that kind of stuff in his boxes.
You can double your closet space by hanging 2 rods. You can buy a rod on 2 chains with "S" hooks at a department store or you can get out the tools and make one like I did. I had a wooden dowel rod that was about 1-1/2 inches round and 4 foot long. (Any length that fits your space. Add a chain in the middle if you go past 4 foot if you use wood.) I used 2, 30 inch chains and 2 radiator hose clamps and 2 screw type chain link connectors. I wrapped the chain around the top rod and connected the end link close to the rod to hold the chain to the rod. (That was cheaper then buying 2 "S" hooks but check at your store.) Then I opened the radiator clamps with a screwdriver and put it through the last chain link. Then I wrapped it around the dowel rod and tightened it up with a screwdriver until it would not slip off the dowel.
Also you might try over the door shoe organizers. We use the cloth kind for small items. Things that the kids take to school each day so that they can just grab and go My 17 yr.- old has his car keys in one and his MP3 player, his wallet and water bottle for his morning run. The younger boys have marbles, bouncy balls and tiny toy part for action figures, one-shoe space holds 2 or 3 action figures. We have a wire shoe rack for shoes over the door on the inside of the closet and the cloth one on the outside facing the room.
If you have room in the closet on the floor after the shoes are on the wall then you might consider totes on the bottom of the closet.
When we finished organizing my 17 yr.-olds room he had so much room left over that he has 2 armchairs and a small table in his 10x12 room
I hope that this helps
.
Finding space in a teen boys bedroom is often a real challenge as teens in general tend to have so much stuff and aren't usually too concerned about putting things away and keeping their rooms tidy. Adding in some built-in storage and making the most of the space he already has is a good place to start. Have you considered adding more storage under his bed e.g. bed risers and some under the bed storage containers on wheels? A good closet organizing system complete with shelves, an extra rod, and possibly some hanging organizers may be helpful.
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