30 Days to an Organized Life Day 17
One of the main areas most families use day-to day is the Family Room or Living Room. It’s where we watch television, play games, read, relax and hang out. It’s also a magnet for clutter.
Because we use the space every day surfaces like coffee tables and end tables gather books, magazines, newspapers, dirty dishes and other miscellaneous clutter. The floor may be strewn with toys, coats and book bags.
Keeping the space clean is a daily challenge but a little trick I like to use is the 10 Minute Tidy. Every evening I ask family members to clear out and put away anything belonging to them. I then straighten the pillows and make the room as neat as possible so it’s ready for the next day’s fun.
This before photo was actually taken a few months before the 30 Day Challenge but it shows you the way my livingroom looked on a regular basis.
If you saw my $26 Room Makeover Post then you know that we are in a rental home and I am stuck with this dark accent wall and a tan color on the other walls that looks pink at certain times of the day — not my favorite wall colors. To brighten things up I added turquoise accessories to bring in some cooler colors but I wasn’t thrilled with the way they looked with the burgundy.
I was so happy to find the $24 painting that is now on the wall on the left. The colors in the painting tie the other colors in the room together perfectly and it just makes me happy when I look at it. I am still not excited about the entertainment center that I attempted to paint but I have not made time to start working on it again.
Now that I have a nicer room I am much more motivated to keep it clean and uncluttered so I actually had nothing to do in this room for today’s challenge.
Today’s Task 1: Spend 10 – 20 minutes decluttering and clearing surfaces in your Family Room or Living Room.
Today’s Task 2: For extra credit set up a FOR SALE box and add cds, dvds and games that you want to sell. Click here for Tips on How to Sell Your Stuff.
I would love to hear what you plan to do or see photos of your before and after. Leave a comment or a link below.
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Have you asked if you can paint the wall? We bought our house a few years ago and have slowly gotten around to painting most things we disliked. What I have been surprised by is how much more calm I feel when I walk into a room once we have repainted. It’s just so much more of a difference than I could have imagined. To explain more, our master bathroom has a TON of tile with pink and gold accents, and a giant mauve bathtub and sinks (we replaced the mauve toilet for water savings). It will be years before we can redo this bathroom (it’s functional, just ugh). Part of the room was painted this dark red color. I hadn’t planned to do anything about the paint until we could do everything, but finally decided to paint over the red. I have been completely amazed at what I difference it makes when I walk into that room, despite the fact that all the other hideous stuff is still there. Every time I see someone post that they painted something red I completely cringe. If you pay for the paint yourselves and get their approval for the color, it seems like they ought to let you.
I am just imagining this bathroom and cringing Sheila. I can imagine that painting made a huge difference!
I will have to see if we can work out something with the landlord — thanks for the idea. 🙂