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Dear Friend,
G'Day! I hope you are all enjoying the somewhat cooler weather. I am so ready for Autumn and all that it brings for us to enjoy - changing leaves, crisp days, pumpkins and apples!!
Family Rooms are often the hub of the home where we spend much of our spare time relaxing and enjoying family and friends, so make it just that kind of place. I'd love to hear back from you with any comments on this month's newsletter or with any of your ideas about organizing family rooms. Remember, if you want some help with organizing your family room or any other room in your house, please contact The Organizing Aussie first!
Merri |
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OCTOBER IS GOING TO BE ORGANIZE THE FAMILY/LIVING ROOM MONTH |
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Ok, the kids are all back at school, and you are already running around with after-school activities and the like. Take a moment or two to create a peaceful and uncluttered family room where you can enjoy family time together after everyone's busy day.
The Family Room is no different than all the other rooms that we have addressed thus far. The name tells us that it is in fact a "family" room and should be kept as such (i.e., not a dumping ground for whatever would like to take up its space!).
First of all, take a good look at your Family/Living room. Does it invoke a sense of calm? It should. Get a basket or receptacle of some kind and fill it up with anything that does not or should not live in this space. Redirect these items to their proper home. Feel better already, don't you! It's amazing what a difference just doing this one thing can make to a room.
Now, before you go any further, what about changing the wall colour? There's nothing like a fresh coat of paint to brighten up a room. Choose a warm colour and paint it yourself or hire a professional painter to do it for you.
The next step is to give everything in the room a thorough dusting and cleaning (don't forget the skirting boards - sorry, that's Australian for baseboards). Be sure to vacuum and don't forget all the corners that usually get bypassed! Take all the cushions off your sofas, and vacuum in the base - you're likely to find a small fortune of change or crumbs here! Clean the overhead light fixture and fan blades if you have one. Talk about dust traps! While we're at it (and as I always say, if we're going to do a job, we're going to do it right!) now is the time to take down those curtains that you have never laundered and give them a good clean!
WOW! So the room is spotlessly clean now - doesn't that feel good? I feel good anyway!!
Now think about what you and your family like to do in this area. Do you read? Do you watch TV or play video games? Do you listen to music? Do you play board games? Doing an assessment like this will help you decide what should live there and what kind of furniture you should have to accommodate these activities.
If your family likes to play board games as much as ours does (actually, I'm the avid board game lover - the rest of my family plays with me just to make me happy!) then you need to consider some kind of storage unit to accommodate all the games. A cabinet, or even an over-sized Ottoman that has a lift up storage area is great to store games in and is multi-purpose. The top can be used as a coffee table as well as an Ottoman.
An Armoire is a great piece of furniture that can store a lot of items for this room. We keep our TV in an Armoire (unfortunately we don't yet have a flat screen or a gigantic TV like most people do these days!) along with all our DVD's, and music CD's. You could also store games here too. Its a great piece of furniture that can house so very much! Gotta love the Armoire!!
If you are a music lover and are still listening to CD's on a player, look at the storage system you have for them. There are all kinds out there - CD holders that can be basic or very decorative and elaborate to zippered cases that hold literally hundreds. Whatever CD storage system you have or choose to use, consider alphabetizing your CD's by Artist name for easier access. Do the same for your DVD collection. I have all of ours in ABC order, but you may want to categorize them by Disney, family, drama, etc. ABC works best for me but since I also have an extensive Australian collection of DVDS, I keep them in a totally separate area so I can quickly find the one I want.
If you are still in possession of VHS tapes that will soon be obsolete, my suggestion is to make a list of the ones that you really like and want to replace with DVD's and keep it in your purse. Then when you see them on sale, go ahead and replace them.
If you have bookshelves in this room, then think about the best way to organize books. You could have a reference shelf, a family reading shelf, a religious shelf - you get the picture - run with it!! Do an assessment of the books that you have occupying the space now. When it comes to fiction, there aren't many books that I would actually want to read over again, so do some serious purging! Make a box for them and donate them to The Friends of the Library!
Make sure that you have good lighting for reading.
If you do not have a magazine holder, think about purchasing one. Also, limit yourself as to how many magazines you have and how long you keep them for. I have been in homes where I find magazines still out that are several years old! Get rid of those old ones right now!! If you haven't read them by now, chances are that you never will. It's OK to let them go - OK!! I give you permission! The thing about magazines is that they can pile up very quickly. My easy way to deal with that problem is as you are reading a magazine, tear out anything that you think you want to keep. For example, if you see a recipe that you think you may want to try out, tear out that page and IMMEDIATELY put that it into a 3-ring binder that you call "Recipes". Also limit yourself to no more than 2 issues of any particular magazine!! Do the same with any other topic you think you may use, i.e., have a craft binder, or gardening binder, etc. If you take out articles as you are reading them it's so much easier and time efficient than saving the magazines themselves and having to go through each and every one at a later date.
Remember, as is the case for all rooms - LESS IS ALWAYS BEST - so try to keep knickknacks and clutter to a minimum.
Since this is a family room, I suggest having lots of family photographs displayed in here, either on the walls or free standing frames. Make sure that you have some warm and snuggly throws and toss pillows on your sofas. There's nothing like snuggling up in this room. Don't forget aromatic candles either. They add to the inviting atmosphere that we want to invoke.
If your Family room/Living room is also a place where you keep toys, then sift through them and keep only what your children love and enjoy playing with. Donate the rest and then store the toys in whatever kind of storage unit works best for you and goes along with the style for the room itself. (It may be wicker baskets or plastic bins). Make it a rule that all toys are to be put away in their proper place at the end of the day.
If clutter tends to form in this room, then think about keeping a permanent attractive wicker basket into which items can be easily placed and re-directed at the end of each day to where they really belong.
If space allows, consider keeping a permanent table set up with an ongoing jigsaw puzzle. It's not only relaxing but good for the brain as well!! When you are finished with the puzzle, pass it on to a nursing home - they love to receive puzzles!
Well done!!! Of course, as always, if you feel like it is all a bit too much for you to do by yourself to create this space, please give me a ring. I am ready and very able to help you create the space that you should have to enjoy your family time!
Till next month - tata!!!
Merri
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