Creating a home you love means having the general areas of the home that you spend the most time in be as intentional and chaos-free as possible.
The shared areas of the house get a lot of traffic, often with a number of people contributing to the state of the space. These areas benefit from organization specific to their functions. Here we will focus on the home office, living room, play room, and entertainment room.
HOME OFFICE
In my mom’s house her “office” is her art studio. In my dad’s house his office is a magnet for anything and everything. In my house the office is a working space as it’s where I conduct virtual sessions.
A home office takes a lot of forms.
Your first step is to look at the room you identify as an office and determine its purpose. Is a business run out of it? Does it need to have a clean background for virtual meetings? Is this a study space for the students of the house? Is it an art or craft room? Does it need to serve multiple purposes?
Write it down. If you can’t clearly write down the purpose of this room, you don’t really know what the purpose is.
Once you have your purpose clearly defined it’s time to start decluttering. Offices can be hell-holes of shelves and books and papers and piles of random stuff. Take it slowly. Divide the space into reasonable sections.
If your first section is a drawer, take everything out of that drawer. Yes, everything. Anything that is trash or doesn’t belong in this room goes into a bin to be easily removed. You can sort that stuff later.
Have a bin for all of the stuff that is staying, too. Before you go putting stuff back into that drawer you may want to clear out all of the other drawers and decide what organizational system makes the most sense.
This is where you get to use drawer dividers from the dollar store or Amazon or wherever. Create intentional space in that big empty drawer.
Each area of the room will use the same method: empty, separate stuff that goes from stuff that stays, once you have a nice, fully empty space put things back intentionally. Try putting things back by level or priority, too.
Put the “must stay” things back first. Once you’ve got those in place you can begin to fill with the other stuff. You may find you run out of room before everything gets put back with intention, which means you may have to rethink whether this is really keep stuff or if it really belongs in this space.
Remember to be intentional. Methodical.
Create a system so you know exactly where everything goes.
LIVING ROOM
Aka, the “family room”. This is a space you enjoy your family in. It’s a space you all use and all need to take responsibility for. It’s a space that easily becomes a catch-all if you aren’t diligent in keeping it tidy.
Ask yourself what the purpose of this room really is for you. For example, my living room is for watching TV, playing video games, napping, snuggling, and cat playing.
Once you’ve identified the purpose of this room, identify anything that does not fit that purpose.
My hair ties do not belong. The foam roller does not belong (I say I’m going to use it, but I’m actually more likely to use it post workout upstairs). Books with no bookcase, dishes, loose photographs, and yoga blocks do not belong.
Identify the things that do belong and create an intentional home for them. The items I listed as not belonging in my living room all have homes elsewhere and need to be removed and re-homed.
On the other hand, the 12 pillows and 5 blankets all belong since the napping and snuggling require them. We also have a basket under an end table to put those blankets when not in use.
If your living room is overcome with things that do not belong, be methodical and intentional in identifying whether those items even belong in your house, and, if they do, where they truly live.
Utilize clever storage like hidden compartments in an ottoman, to help have commonly used items close at hand.
Create systems for your belongings. That’s how nightly tidying up becomes a piece of cake.
PLAY ROOM
No one likes to step on a Lego, and playthings seem to multiply overnight like magic. Tidy is necessary for the safety and fun of all.
This is a task I encourage you to bring your kids in on. There is no such thing as too early to learn how to put stuff back where it belongs.
You always have more toys than you need. Talking to grandparents about boundaries around gift giving is a whole other article. The real problem arises when those toys don’t seem to go away once they are no longer being used.
Sentimentality kicks in and the garage suddenly becomes a toy graveyard.
There are a lot of families out there who are not able to afford the super awesome toys your kids have been fortunate to have. Consider passing them on via donation or garage sale so those toys can have a second life.
Keep in mind that plush toys like stuffed animals are generally not taken by donation centers as they are vulnerable to mildew and other thing that attach to fabrics.
As before, identify the purpose of this room. Is it a storage place or is it meant for play? Declutter and reorganize as is appropriate. Consider organization systems that are easy enough for a child to use. Label bins!
If this bin is for balls and your child can’t read yet, put a picture of a ball on it. If art supplies go in this bin, put a picture of crayons on it. General, easy categories.
Teach your kids how to put stuff away by turning tidying into a game. How many toys can you put back while mom counts to 10? Use rewards like enthusiasm to cement the habit.
Simple systems also mean you will probably keep up with them. Let’s face it, your kids aren’t going to do anything you aren’t willing to prioritize.
ENTERTAINMENT ROOM
In my house the entertainment room is the front room. It’s filled with arcade games, and sports, and movie memorabilia.
In some homes the entertainment room might be down in a finished basement with a bar. In other homes the entertainment room is a room with 2-4 recliners and a huge TV where dad hides.
I know one family where the entertainment room is the one room the lady of the house refuses to declutter because her husband will dismantle her work in seconds. She lets him have his space and closes the door.
What is the purpose of this room? Is it a cave to hide in? Is it where you take guests to hang out? Is it where the teenagers hang out? Is it a bar? A billiards room?
By now you know what to do. Start removing items from sections and putting the things that will not be staying into bins to be removed to other areas for sorting.
Keeping items in the room because you don’t know where they go will get you stuck.
If you don’t know where something goes, it probably doesn’t go anywhere.
Keep putting things back with intention. Do you have a collection of items to be displayed? Get some shelving to do your collection justice. Do you have a ton of board games? Find a tidy way to display them.
LOVE ALL OF YOUR SPACES
Take pride in your space. If things are hidden under layers of other stuff, you are not showing love for those items. If you have things that aren’t being used, perhaps you have been confused as to the purpose of your space and it’s now time to let some of those conflicting ideas go.
There are tons of other areas of the house that are communal and need systems that the whole household understands. Be thoughtful in creating your home.
There are also a lot of feelings that can come up in digging through these spaces. I’m here to coach you through the areas you become stuck on. You and your home deserve to have the support of a coach so make your first appointment today and we’ll get you headed toward your goals!
The Decluttering Series
For all of the decluttering goodness in this series make sure you go back and read Decluttering Your Kitchen With the Basics, Decluttering Your Bathroom, and Decluttering Your Closet.
Then keep your eyes open for Decluttering Special Categories and Decluttering Storage Spaces coming up later this month!