Wednesday, January 23, 2013

Living room organizing challenge...

This weeks challenge in the New Year's Organizing Revolution Challenge is the living room/play room. Fortunately, the living room was not nearly as bad as the office and closet were but I have 2 areas that get particularly cluttered and I have not found a good solution yet for the one area. Let me show you with photos. The first is the coffee table. I am guessing that all coffee tables become a magnet for clutter as they are a flat surface for anyone to put anything. This is what mine looked like before.


The bottom shelf gets loaded up with old magazines and things that were on the top that I didn't want to deal with at the time so they just get moved down to the bottom shelf. I sorted out all the stuff and have a pile to go to my studio and a pile that got thrown out and a pile to get passed on to some one else. Done. Now to keep it that way. The only things that got put back were books that we are reading.
I also put all the remotes into one basket. I need to find a smaller one but for now this one will do.


The sofa got spruced up too. I have a basket at the end of the couch that I have throws folded up for when we are chilly and need to snuggle up under a nice warm blankie, which right now we are doing a fair amount of since it is 3 degrees outside. It makes me want to stay inside and not go anywhere until it gets back up to 50.

This ledge has always been a problem area for clutter to build up. On the end we have our mail station.

My husband is very good about putting the mail in the top basket when he comes in and then I sort it out at my convenience. Thats the problem. I take the important stuff out right away but then the junk stays in there until the basket is about to fall over. The top basket is for our mail and the bottom shoe box (please can't I find something a little more classy than a shoe box) is for mail and stuff that we want to give to our son when he comes home for a weekend visit, unfortunately, he doesn't take the stuff with him most of the time and leaves it in there too.
The ledge becomes a catch all place for items that need to go down stairs to my studio or out to the hubby's office and doesn't make it there. Here is the after photo all cleaned up.


If you have any ideas on any solutions to help tame these problem areas leave me a comment. The rest of the room works pretty well and I am happy with it. I hope you enjoyed my reveal today and it sparks some interest to tackle some area of your home.

Have a great day.