Week Three Challenge: Family Room/Living Room
This week, we finally move into the living spaces of the house. If you have a family room and a formal living room, consider this week's challenge the room you use the most. For most of us, that's the Family Room. The room where we gather to watch television, read, hang out and generally schlump around. For those that do not have a formal living room space, it's also the room where you entertain. It's a versatile room that needs to serve many masters. So, let's get to it.
Now that the weather is getting cooler in my part of the world, the nesting instinct kicks in hard. Making a pleasant, clean space for cozy winter nights is beyond appealing. The first thing we need to do is clean. For some of us, this means shoveling out the clutter before we find floor, but that's okay. Look at this as a chance to figure out what you want your space to be.
I don't think I need to explain the holy trinity of de-cluttering - The "Toss", "Keep", "Give Away" bins. Our goal is to empty the room down to furniture. Take a hard look at all the clobber that has accumulated in this room, if it belongs in another room (shoes, toys, clothes, etc.) put the there now. If it is just the sort of stuff that ends up in the room, use the holy trinity bins as you empty the room. We'll come back to these later.
Once the room is empty you can get to the nitty gritty of cleaning. Think about the last time you really did a deep clean in this room. Once a year? Twice? Not since you moved in? Trust me, the room will glow with a little bit of extra attention.
For the hardcore here's your cleaning list (cribbed shamelessly from the Holiday Grand Plan):
Step One: Cleaning
Start by washing the outside of your windows.
Take everything down off the walls, take down curtains etc. Wash, vacuum or dry clean as needed.
Sweep ceiling corners and other nooks in the room - tops of doorways, windows, arches, bookcases, etc.
Wash inside of windows and sills. Polish and touch-up stain on wood.
Re-hang window coverings.
Take cushions off furniture, vacuum thoroughly. Vacuum cushions, checking for wear and turning as needed. Spot treat any stains or shampoo furniture as needed.
Wooden furniture and anything with drawers: Empty, sort, and throw away what you don't really need. Put the rest where it really belongs. Dust/Polish the piece you're finished with, repeat as necessary. Do shelves the same way.
Baseboards - dust or wash as needed touch up scuffs on wood or touch up paint on painted surfaces.
Clean the TV screen. Dig out and sort all the accumulated electronic equipment--games, tapes, camera parts, wires, connectors, etc. Put everything where it belongs and get rid of the rest. If something doesn't work, take action--if it is worth getting fixed then decide when it can be done. Otherwise just liquidate it now.
Vacuum the entire room. Use a whisk broom to get into those hard to reach areas and around the baseboards if your vacuum doesn't clean close enough. Yes, get help and move the furniture. There may be a wealth of lost treasures hiding under the sofa right now!
Clean/change silk flower arrangements for the season. It is also a good time to clean, trim, and/or repot live plants. They can't absorb CO2 and light through a layer of dust!
Other items needing attention if you have them are: Fireplace/mantel/chimney/glass doors Lamps - cleaning and/or replacing shade/bulb/wiring Light switches (clean)
Mirrors and anything framed under glass clean it.
Door handles--and the area around them-- if you have little sticky fingers be sure to get the area below them clean too with an appropriate cleaner. Polish the wooden doors and retouch scuffs.
Clean shake/wash/vacuum/take to professional-- any area rugs.
Now is a good time to reorganize the video tapes and CDs ,Cassettes etc. If you have not viewed or listened to them in a while, donate or take to a consignment shop or a second hand music store and swap.
For those of you who are hyperventilating thinking about all that, modify the list to suit your time and inclination. At the very minimum, clean the windows, wash/clean the curtains, and give the room a good dust and vacuum. This is about your comfort level, not living up to a random list.
The Next Step
Once the room is clean take a hard look at your "Keep" bin and the various knick-knacks and tchotkes you pulled out of the room prior to cleaning.
Before you touch one thing, take a few minutes and envision your expectations for the space. (I know this sounds hokey, but it really does work) Once you have and idea of what you "want" the space to be, be very realistic about what the space "needs" to be. If you want a quiet, calming neutral room but live in a house filled with bright plastic toys and rambunctious children, there is a disconnect that needs to be dealt with before you're happy with the space. The idea is to meld your dream into your reality. The easiest way to do that is to look at everything every critically. Ask yourself does this *need* to go back into the room or do I *want* it to go back in the room. If the answer isn't yes to those questions, the item doesn't go back in. Period. With the remaining items, try to find a way to bridge the gap between your reality and your desires. If you need to have the bright, plastic colored toys in the room, look for a storage solution that fits your calm, neutral asthetic.
The killer items are those that hold sentimental value. The vase from your great aunt, art projects from your children, vacation souvenirs that you're holding onto. Now's the time to apply a bit more psychobabble. Are you holding onto the items because you like them or because of the memories they invoke? Is there another way you can capture the feeling of that person/time/place without having the physical item cluttering our today? And (this is a kicker) is the clutter of the past holding you back from living the life you want to lead right now? Some people are drowning in the "memory" items to the point their every day life is a mess of disorganization and clutter. Now is the time to look at these items, in your main living space, and think about how you want to live *now*. /psychobabble
Now onto the practicalities. One piece of advice that I've gleaned and has been invaluable, is to learn to work with your inclinations. For example, if you have a chair you always plop into to read and has stacks of books scattered like leaves around it, are you really going to train yourself to re-shelve all those books at the end of the day? Yeah, not so much. However, you *could* put a pretty basket or bin next to the chair to catch all the overflow. Instant tidy (just remember to empty when it starts to overflow!). If you always kick your shoes into the corner and find that you cannot break that habit, put a shoe organizer or some other container there. It's about making the space work for you in a way that is pleasing and makes you happy.
Maintenance
Hey, anyone can clean a room, it's the living in and maintaining it that's the killer. The key (oh, and it's a bitter pill) is diligence and cleaning things (hold your breath) that aren't obviously dirty. Now, I'll be the first to admit this was a crazy hard concept for me to grasp. Where's the satisfaction of taking something utterly grimy and making it shiny and clean? The problem is, letting something get utterly grimy is sort of disgusting and means your living in ick for some period of time.
The first step is tidying. Once you have everything back in the room you need and want, take the time every night to make sure they are in order. Empty the book basket if needed, put away the toys, put the newspaper in recycling, tidy up any dishes or snack items. If things creep in (as they will) put them back where they belong. Now, set a time once a week (write it on your calendar!) to dust and vacuum, whether it looks like it needs it or not. That minimum bit of maintanance will ensure that the room is *always* presentable and, more importantly, make it a pleasant place to live and to create. If you are really ambitious, look at other cleaning tasks that your room needs (windows, sofa cushions etc.) and decide how often they should be done. Write it on your calendar! If you do things in pieces you're never faced with an overwhelming mountain of a task.
This week's challenge had a LOT of information about decluttering and "stuff" management which is inevitable when dealing with this room. If you're interested in reading more about methods and philosophies that have made my "A HA!" lightbulb go off, I recommend the following:
It's All Too Much: An Easy Plan For Living A Richer Life With Less Stuff
A very "why we do what we do" sort of book but it made me think about *why* I held onto certain things.
Sidetracked Home Executive: From Pigpen to Paradise
As I said before, a bit too twee and precious but helped me develop a system. This is book that inspired the FlyLady and her special brand of crazy (I know she's helped a lot of people but I find her to be too intense and her method clutters my brain).
Next week I'll be asking the community to recommend homekeeping and lifestyle books that have made a difference to them. In the meantime, take this weekend and give your family/living room the attention it deserves!
Now that the weather is getting cooler in my part of the world, the nesting instinct kicks in hard. Making a pleasant, clean space for cozy winter nights is beyond appealing. The first thing we need to do is clean. For some of us, this means shoveling out the clutter before we find floor, but that's okay. Look at this as a chance to figure out what you want your space to be.
I don't think I need to explain the holy trinity of de-cluttering - The "Toss", "Keep", "Give Away" bins. Our goal is to empty the room down to furniture. Take a hard look at all the clobber that has accumulated in this room, if it belongs in another room (shoes, toys, clothes, etc.) put the there now. If it is just the sort of stuff that ends up in the room, use the holy trinity bins as you empty the room. We'll come back to these later.
Once the room is empty you can get to the nitty gritty of cleaning. Think about the last time you really did a deep clean in this room. Once a year? Twice? Not since you moved in? Trust me, the room will glow with a little bit of extra attention.
For the hardcore here's your cleaning list (cribbed shamelessly from the Holiday Grand Plan):
Step One: Cleaning
Start by washing the outside of your windows.
Take everything down off the walls, take down curtains etc. Wash, vacuum or dry clean as needed.
Sweep ceiling corners and other nooks in the room - tops of doorways, windows, arches, bookcases, etc.
Wash inside of windows and sills. Polish and touch-up stain on wood.
Re-hang window coverings.
Take cushions off furniture, vacuum thoroughly. Vacuum cushions, checking for wear and turning as needed. Spot treat any stains or shampoo furniture as needed.
Wooden furniture and anything with drawers: Empty, sort, and throw away what you don't really need. Put the rest where it really belongs. Dust/Polish the piece you're finished with, repeat as necessary. Do shelves the same way.
Baseboards - dust or wash as needed touch up scuffs on wood or touch up paint on painted surfaces.
Clean the TV screen. Dig out and sort all the accumulated electronic equipment--games, tapes, camera parts, wires, connectors, etc. Put everything where it belongs and get rid of the rest. If something doesn't work, take action--if it is worth getting fixed then decide when it can be done. Otherwise just liquidate it now.
Vacuum the entire room. Use a whisk broom to get into those hard to reach areas and around the baseboards if your vacuum doesn't clean close enough. Yes, get help and move the furniture. There may be a wealth of lost treasures hiding under the sofa right now!
Clean/change silk flower arrangements for the season. It is also a good time to clean, trim, and/or repot live plants. They can't absorb CO2 and light through a layer of dust!
Other items needing attention if you have them are: Fireplace/mantel/chimney/glass doors Lamps - cleaning and/or replacing shade/bulb/wiring Light switches (clean)
Mirrors and anything framed under glass clean it.
Door handles--and the area around them-- if you have little sticky fingers be sure to get the area below them clean too with an appropriate cleaner. Polish the wooden doors and retouch scuffs.
Clean shake/wash/vacuum/take to professional-- any area rugs.
Now is a good time to reorganize the video tapes and CDs ,Cassettes etc. If you have not viewed or listened to them in a while, donate or take to a consignment shop or a second hand music store and swap.
For those of you who are hyperventilating thinking about all that, modify the list to suit your time and inclination. At the very minimum, clean the windows, wash/clean the curtains, and give the room a good dust and vacuum. This is about your comfort level, not living up to a random list.
The Next Step
Once the room is clean take a hard look at your "Keep" bin and the various knick-knacks and tchotkes you pulled out of the room prior to cleaning.
Before you touch one thing, take a few minutes and envision your expectations for the space. (I know this sounds hokey, but it really does work) Once you have and idea of what you "want" the space to be, be very realistic about what the space "needs" to be. If you want a quiet, calming neutral room but live in a house filled with bright plastic toys and rambunctious children, there is a disconnect that needs to be dealt with before you're happy with the space. The idea is to meld your dream into your reality. The easiest way to do that is to look at everything every critically. Ask yourself does this *need* to go back into the room or do I *want* it to go back in the room. If the answer isn't yes to those questions, the item doesn't go back in. Period. With the remaining items, try to find a way to bridge the gap between your reality and your desires. If you need to have the bright, plastic colored toys in the room, look for a storage solution that fits your calm, neutral asthetic.
The killer items are those that hold sentimental value. The vase from your great aunt, art projects from your children, vacation souvenirs that you're holding onto. Now's the time to apply a bit more psychobabble. Are you holding onto the items because you like them or because of the memories they invoke? Is there another way you can capture the feeling of that person/time/place without having the physical item cluttering our today? And (this is a kicker) is the clutter of the past holding you back from living the life you want to lead right now? Some people are drowning in the "memory" items to the point their every day life is a mess of disorganization and clutter. Now is the time to look at these items, in your main living space, and think about how you want to live *now*. /psychobabble
Now onto the practicalities. One piece of advice that I've gleaned and has been invaluable, is to learn to work with your inclinations. For example, if you have a chair you always plop into to read and has stacks of books scattered like leaves around it, are you really going to train yourself to re-shelve all those books at the end of the day? Yeah, not so much. However, you *could* put a pretty basket or bin next to the chair to catch all the overflow. Instant tidy (just remember to empty when it starts to overflow!). If you always kick your shoes into the corner and find that you cannot break that habit, put a shoe organizer or some other container there. It's about making the space work for you in a way that is pleasing and makes you happy.
Maintenance
Hey, anyone can clean a room, it's the living in and maintaining it that's the killer. The key (oh, and it's a bitter pill) is diligence and cleaning things (hold your breath) that aren't obviously dirty. Now, I'll be the first to admit this was a crazy hard concept for me to grasp. Where's the satisfaction of taking something utterly grimy and making it shiny and clean? The problem is, letting something get utterly grimy is sort of disgusting and means your living in ick for some period of time.
The first step is tidying. Once you have everything back in the room you need and want, take the time every night to make sure they are in order. Empty the book basket if needed, put away the toys, put the newspaper in recycling, tidy up any dishes or snack items. If things creep in (as they will) put them back where they belong. Now, set a time once a week (write it on your calendar!) to dust and vacuum, whether it looks like it needs it or not. That minimum bit of maintanance will ensure that the room is *always* presentable and, more importantly, make it a pleasant place to live and to create. If you are really ambitious, look at other cleaning tasks that your room needs (windows, sofa cushions etc.) and decide how often they should be done. Write it on your calendar! If you do things in pieces you're never faced with an overwhelming mountain of a task.
This week's challenge had a LOT of information about decluttering and "stuff" management which is inevitable when dealing with this room. If you're interested in reading more about methods and philosophies that have made my "A HA!" lightbulb go off, I recommend the following:
It's All Too Much: An Easy Plan For Living A Richer Life With Less Stuff
A very "why we do what we do" sort of book but it made me think about *why* I held onto certain things.
Sidetracked Home Executive: From Pigpen to Paradise
As I said before, a bit too twee and precious but helped me develop a system. This is book that inspired the FlyLady and her special brand of crazy (I know she's helped a lot of people but I find her to be too intense and her method clutters my brain).
Next week I'll be asking the community to recommend homekeeping and lifestyle books that have made a difference to them. In the meantime, take this weekend and give your family/living room the attention it deserves!