If you've been reading, you know we recently moved. For good. We bought a home and expect to be here for a long time. There are many great things about our home...and also a few challenges. One of the challenges is the size and layout.
We were in a house that was about 1500 square feet. We had two living areas, one of which we actually lived in (TV, couches etc) and the other was the girls' toys and other stuff (i.e. junk and clutter). The bedrooms were decent sized and each girl had their own room.
Our HOME is a little over 1100 square feet. We have one living area--a combined living room and dining room. The bedrooms are on the smaller side and Miss Rose and Gracie are sharing. The third bedroom is under construction and is being used for storage and baby stuff currently. Hopefully by this summer it will be a functional bedroom.
Bean and I are actually excited about the challenge of living in a smaller space. We didn't utilize the larger space too well. We'd rather have less clutter and a peaceful small home, than a large home full of stuff that is unused. Of course as the kids get older, we'll need less baby/toddler stuff and they will be more of a help in keeping it clean as well.
I desparately don't want a home that is full of clutter. I have a tendency to be a bit of a pack-rat. I like to save things and can be too sentimental. I am always worried that the minute I throw something away, I'll need or want it. In our living room we have one bookcase. Currently it's full of books (surprise, surprise). I plan to rearrange it to hold some baskets and nice storage boxes to help with organization.
How do you keep your home clutter free? How do you organize and store your children's toys? I need to get the girls' room to a point where they will go in there and play--but right now there is no organization to their stuff, so they don't spend much time in there.
I'm at a loss as to what to do with paperwork and bills and mail. We had a large counter in our other house that became a catch-all for this sort of thing. It was actually a huge eyesore and I don't miss having it. But as a working mom of three children, with a husband who has 2 jobs...sometimes I have to stack things up before I can go through them and figure out where they belong.
How do you keep your home clean? According to the counter I have on my blog, there are a lot of people reading it...so come out of the woodwork (even anonymously) and give me your ideas!!
Skelly’s gone
7 years ago
Excuse me while I clear my clutter to find a place to sit and respond.... okay, now - ahem.
ReplyDeleteWell, while I feel cluttered on most days, I'm thankful that others have said it doesn't seem cluttered. So here's how we survive in our 800 square feet:
-Get rid of things continually (seriously) and just stick with the very basics
-We got a desk from IKEA that closes in on itself. We can shut the mess away when we need to:
http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/10059151.+
-For toys, we have one big basket with a lid in the living room, and then a toybox in their room. If that can't hold everything, then we give it away. (Unless it's a big toy we leave out)
Don't know if that helps much, but those are just a few ideas...
When we added Owen to our fam - I felt so overwhelmed with the clutter! I've never been one to collect it . . . It does collect itself you know! I read flylady's book, while it has lots of good stuff not everything is for me, but the principle of having routines for everything, including clutter, is really helpful.
ReplyDeleteYou mentioned mail/paperwork . . . for me I sort it as quickly as possible. If it lands on the table, I get to it by dinner. Toss the trash and put bills in my desk, business stuff in another area, and pass out what belongs to others. If I haven't looked at catalogs within a day or two, they usually get tossed. If I really need something in there I can find it online.
Not sure if this helps . . . in all the org. shows on hgtv they use wall space to organize - lots of shelves with bins and such.
Good luck figuring it out!
for the girls room - add shelves up high that are deep enough to hold baskets of toys. If you put it too high for them to reach, then you can make sure they clean up the first box of toys before they get a second box down to play with - will at least help keep their room organized :)
ReplyDelete