Easy Steps to an Organized Life in 31 Days: Living Room (Day 10)
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Day 10: Living Room
A living room or family room is the room that collects and showcases the best of who you are as a family. A place to gather, have fun, relax, mingle, and show hospitality. An intimate room that should be warm and invigorated and, above all, be functional.
Look at your room with fresh eyes, and consult the list you made during your walk on Day 1.
The goal is to eliminate anything that detracts from the best of who you are.
Clutter can be beautiful trinkets, photos, books, magazines, collections, as well as items accumulated with other places to call home or those without a home.
The idea today is to pair back, contain, and showcase.
Take a look at your living room layout. Does it invite conversation? If family game nights happen here… is there a dedicated place?
Is there furniture no longer in use that could be eliminated to repurpose that space for something else?
For ideas on room layout and makeovers, Better Homes and Gardens has compiled 20 furniture layouts that make the most of your space. Ideas like placing the largest furniture pieces first and finishing the room with accent pieces to warm up your living spaces.
The living room does have its share of clutter challenges. Remote controls, DVDs, magazines, books, photos, etc. Create attractive storage for items that will stay in the living room. Like, baskets or trays for controllers and so on.
Finally, and most importantly, showcase items that tell the story of your family. There are some inspirational photos at the foot of this post to give you some ideas.
When the room is finished… celebrate with a family movie night or game night, or invite some of your neighbors in for coffee!
Checklist
31daily-easy-steps-to-an-organized-life-living-room-day-10
Objective: To pair back unnecessary clutter, create functional and attractive storage for small items, and showcase who you are.
- Begin by clearing the room of everything that belongs elsewhere and put it there.
- Make piles of magazines, newspapers, books, controllers, etc. Anything that is sitting on surfaces. Set them aside and out of the room.
- Consider furniture arrangement and whether it promotes conversation and flow in the room. If not, rearrange the pieces, even removing some, until you like how it feels.
- Thoroughly dust all surfaces, including electronics that stay in the room, artificial plants, blinds, bookshelves, books, etc.
- Vacuum every corner, behind and under furniture that can be moved.
- If you have bookshelves or mantels, take a hard look at what can be removed, and what can be showcased. Fewer items displayed together in collections of 3-5 pieces are always the most attractive.
- Retrieve the items you previously set aside. Sort and create functional contained storage. Create designated areas for these small items.
Celebrate your new room!
Tomorrow
GET THE BOOK:
Easy Steps to an Organized Life in 31 Days or Less (Amazon.com)
Living Room Inspirations
Comfortable Seating
The furniture arrangement promotes conversation yet is functional for family viewing events. The bookshelves are attractively displayed.
Highlighting Built-In Features and Storage
Comfortable Seating
Upcycling and Creating Functional Storage
Conversation Areas
Arranging the seating pieces to face each other over a shared coffee table makes conversation easy.
Creating Storage Pieces
Using unconventional furniture can provide additional needed storage and display favorite collections.
Creating a Frame Gallery
Perfect for family photos, vacation photos, or a genealogy wall.
Trays
Trays help keep the look organized and are a great foundation for stacking candles, books and other objects.
Pumpkin Bread is Yum. Made it.
Great! So glad you liked it! We love it too. However, my local market told me yesterday they had run out of canned pumpkin and wouldn’t be getting more in until October. I’m stocking up when I find some!