How to Decorate: Phase Two, i.e., What Do I Have, What Do I Need

[icarusancalion]

How To Decorate

Continuing the decorating series (see How To Decorate: Phase OneIn my first apartment, I made the mistake of trying to decorate it before I put things away. The result was sort of a band-aid effect. Pictures on the wall and a total mess around them. Visually, the mess dominated. I called myself an "unrepentant slob" but in reality

Comments

[busaikko]

These are so interesting! Sadly, my 20 years of junk and my husband's 42 are drowning our poor house. Storage! We need to be cleverer about using it! (I don't suppose your mother has good ideas for living with kids? It seems just as I get the living room floor clean, suddenly someone is laying out traintracks or doing battle-tops....) I want a nice house, someday.

[icarusancalion]

My mom said that with kids, she had to work all day to keep the house looking the same as it started out that morning. She did institute a rule that the living room remain clean and toy-free when we were seven, so there was always one clean room in the house.

[_sabik_]

I hope I'm not out of line in responding on a stranger's LJ to another stranger's comment, but perhaps re-evaluate phase one? Or, if the list already includes children playing, figure out why the current play area is not being used? Is it too small, too remote, unsupervised, cold/hot, poorly lit?

With growing kids, that'll probably have to be re-evaluated regularly anyway, as play and homework needs change.

η

[busaikko]

No worries! We actually did a big clean-up over winter break and just went with the assumption that kid stuff would be in the living room, so I cleared out bookshelf space for toys and video games (if you can't beat 'em, give them storage). (And right now I shouldn't complain about the kids; we have one heated room in the house, and this is it >.< )

[maraceles]

I'm really loving this series!

[icarusancalion]

Cool! I just posted the next one.