First let me say that I generally think of myself as an organized person. I can't stand clutter, and I can't stand to have things around that aren't useful. Thus, every 6 months or so, I clean out. We did a huge cleaning out last summer in preparation for the child we were adopting (didn't know it was Kristen at the time!). However, we had some spaces that we felt like weren't being utilized properly, and could be better organized.
I have to thank my fabulous family for sticking with me as I went through literally every single thing in our house, to decide whether or not we were keeping it, and if so, where were we going to store it? We moved entire closets, rethought how we were using our space, and have made some pretty big changes around here! This involved many nights of eating out (sometimes we couldn't even get near the kitchen because I was storing stuff in there!)
We had some criteria for whether items stayed or went:
1. Do we love it?
2. Is it useful to us? (More specifically, have we used it in the last year?)
3. If we keep it, will our children still have space for the things they need? I'm not saying they need tons of things, and we try to keep toys, etc. pretty minimal, but obviously, they need space for clothes, a few toys, etc.
Just a quick background. We are staying put in our 2 bedroom 800 sq. foot apartment for the time being. There are lots of reasons for this- but we feel like this is the best decision for our family right now. We figured we better start making some space for Samuel's November arrival. So the plan is to give him some closet space in Kristen's room, and clear out some space in our room for a pack-n-play where he will sleep. (We don't want him waking up Kristen in the middle of the night.)
So... without further delay, here's what we did in the living room.
(No, I didn't take before pictures- I was too embarrassed!)
The problem: We needed space for our home office needs, some homeschool materials that I use with Kristen, and my craft things.
What we had: Craft stuff was just everywhere, and I couldn't get to it when I needed to, didn't know what I had, etc. Our homeschool stuff was in a pile by the kitchen table, and our office stuff was stored (mostly) in a desk that we had. It was also in piles (to be filed, paid, etc.) on my dresser. (Lovely and peaceful for sleeping at night, right?)
When we analyzed our use of space, we realized that we weren't even using the desk. We used it to pile stuff on, and that was it. No one sat at it. K does homework at the kitchen table and we usually use our laptops while sitting on our couch. Also, the desk was old, and falling apart.
The solution: I bought these 2 shelves from Walmart. They are prefab. from Better Homes and Gardens. The baskets I got on sale at Target.
The right side holds our office stuff.
On top, we have a mail sorter that has 2 labels: "file" and "respond." Now, instead of piling our mail up for days, we open it immediately and put it into one of those 2 categories. Trash goes immediately into the trash. When I pay bills, I put away anything that needs filing, and I respond to anything that needs responding.
The middle basket has paper. I also have a small filing box on this shelf. When I pay bills, the things that need filed go into this box. At the end of the year, my plan is to take those folders, sort them,
and put anything that we need to keep into our larger filing system that is in our bedroom closet.
The bottom shelf has all of our homeschool materials.
We've been living with this system for a few weeks now, and it's working wonderfully! I love that everything has a place. Also, most of my baskets are not full, and I have more space on my shelves that I can utilize if needed. Another plus is that now that I can see everything I have, I won't be buying duplicates (we seriously had like 5 bottles of glue before I went through them-- and Kristen has more in her room!) It also takes up less space than our desk did. And the best part, is that there isn't anywhere to lay down our junk! We have to put it away, or throw it away immediately!
The rest of our living room was pretty functional, so we didn't really make changes. I went through, and straightened up the bookshelf, the drawer under our TV cabinet, and our DVD's, but nothing in those areas needed to be reorganized really.
Anyway- that's our living room organization! Next up, the kitchen!
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