Recently, we went on vacation. The trip back was exhausting. I woke up the next day and took a look at my furniture and began moving it around. Why? I find that a trip anywhere, even for a weekend, gets me to look at our home with new eyes. Often, when I come back I begin to give things away and reorganize our house.
This time it was the living room. For a couple of years I have been overwhelmed by the amount of toys in our living room. Our bedrooms are small and while my daughter keeps stuffed animals in the bedroom, she doesn’t have room for a lot of toys. In her first five years, she also wasn’t all that interested in playing somewhere away from the family, so most of the toys made their way into the living room. From our front door, the living room looked like a mess. The first sight that greets you coming into the house should not be a mess.
Now my living room is glorious and empty and cleanable. What did I do?
I got rid of three pieces of furniture. Two of them I placed in other rooms where they were needed, and one of them is waiting for a home. Then I created space in the middle of the room by moving some of the furniture close to the walls. This is the first thing that you see when you enter our home: a direct view out into the garden, no clutter involved. It’s beautiful.
I moved a lot of toys out of the nook where the television sits and placed the less-used ones in drawers instead, out of sight. The frequently-used ones are still in baskets, but they are in baskets that are not visible unless you are actually sitting in the space. Hiding toys is big for me. Most of our toys are hidden in attractive baskets, drawers, and chests.
The result is wonderful, and I feel happy every time I go into our living room.
Have you been decluttering and rearranging lately? What changes did you make, and how did they make a difference?