Visual Spring Cleaning Guide - The Living Room

It's Spring! And you know what that means? We get to fucking clean shit!

WOO-HOOOO!!

I know everyone is excited as can be. But really this is once a year, so let's all bitch together about how much it sucks, pull our big girl panties on and snort a whole bunch of meth* to be the most productive spring cleaners ever. 

*actual meth use optional

Let's take a look at what we will be cleaning in the living room, shall we?

The Good Husband and I spent one Saturday morning cleaning a rearranging the living room. We were able to dust every fucking surface and reorganize in a way that made the living room look awesome.

If you recall the TV and entertainment center were on the wall to the right of this photo. And it was horrible for flow. All the traffic had to walk in front of the TV to get to the dining room and kitchen or the bedrooms and bathroom. When we moved in, we actually had the TV on the wall where the couch is now and that was a stupid idea. With the TV on the wall on the left of this photo, it helps to create a space for viewing the TV and for the kids to play on the floor and the wall where the TV once was will become a sitting area with a bookcase, chair, lamp and small table and chairs for the kids (once we finish our debt snowball and have money sometime next year.)

So rearranging the living room was a great excuse to clean everything from top to bottom. Here is what we did:

1. Dust the ceiling and corners
2. Dust the vents and fans
3. Wipe down walls
4. Remove and clean all art and photographs from wall
5. Take down draperies, curtains, blinds, etc, to wash or have cleaned 
~TIP: Prolong the life of your curtains by spot cleaning immediately when dirty. Vacuum weekly with a brush attachment on your vacuum cleaner or shake outside for delicate fabrics. Follow the instructions on the tag for machine washing or dry cleaning.~
6. Wash all windows
7. Dust and clean all lamps and knickknacks (Don't forget to dust the light bulbs!)
8. Dust down and clean all furniture
~TIP: Consider having your upholstery dry cleaned. The couch was the first thing TGH and I bought when we moved in together 12 years ago. It is holding up really well for what we paid for it. We have never had it dry cleaned but this year was the year. Having dirty, sticky little fingers all over it and a dog that sleeps on it all day justified the professional cleaning. They even repaired a small rip in one of the cushions. It was well worth the money spent and will be able to go a few more years until we need to do it again. If you cannot remove your covers, spot clean immediately when dirty, vacuum weekly and consider buying or using fabric protectors like scotchgard.~
9. Remove and dust all books from bookshelves
10. Remove and dust all movies and cds ~See how I organize mine here~
11. Clean any mirrors (N/A)
12. Clean the switchplates
13. Clean the outlet covers
14. Dust and wash the baseboards
15. Clean flooring
~TIP: In addition to vacuuming daily and spot cleaning when needed, spring is the time I like to shampoo the carpets. Just don't do this more than once a year with a professional cleaner or you run the risk of ruining your carpet.~

That wasn't so bad, right? 


Bask in your hard earned clean living room and remember that you are fucking awesome!

How to Organize Card Games

Way back when I talked about how I organize toys and games, they looked like this:

Board and card games live in our entertainment center in our living room. That hasn't changed.

But kids are destructive little a-holes and in the years we have been playing card games, the boxes when from nice and pretty as seen above to shitty and torn.

So I needed a way to organize them. Originally I wanted individual cases to hold each game. But I couldn't find any that were large enough. And I am cheap. I really didn't want to buy 5+ cases for a couple bucks each, when I could just buy one and be done with it.

So off to Target I went. And I picked up this storage box. 

It was just the right width to fit the cards.

So I cut the boxes to help keep each game separate.

Games that need the directions, I cut out and taped to the heavy cardboard that was inside of each box.

Then I stacked them neatly inside.

And I shut that baby up.

Now all the games are in one place. I will probably use some rubber bands to secure each game so they don't get all higgly piggly in the box. But for now they are happy in there.

And they live all nice and neat in the entertainment center again.

Week 18 of the Weekly Organization Challenge

This is week 18 of The Good Wife's Weekly Organization Challenge! This week focused on photos.

I never got into the scrapbooking craze that was popular years ago and thank god. I can only imagine the amount of time and money I would have spent on books and printing photos. No, instead I decided to keep all my photos (save for our wedding and honeymoon since I was digital camera-less back then) on the computer. Mostly it was just random shit. A family reunion here. A vacation there.

It wasn't until after the birth of The Good Daughter did my picture taking increase 11 fold. And that is when I really fell in love with photo books. 

Just take a look at my baby.

Years ago I had made a photo book of our wedding photos, but since all of those were scans from originals, there was a lot of crappy editing after the fact. Now that all the photos I have of TGD are digital and I know what the shit I am doing in Photoshop (to a degree) I am able to edit the images in a way I want.

To make the book above - an overview of the first year of TGD's life - I used My Publisher. There are other sites too. I have used Shutterfly to make calendars and liked how they turned out.

The reason I used My Publisher for TGD's book, though was I got a killer coupon code for a buy one, get one (which you can score yourself too if you are a new customer). So to create her book, I chose the classic hardcover book with a book jacket. A standard size, 20 page book is less than $30 and that is a killer deal. My book was 100 pages, so it made it just under $114. But I got two. So I gave one to my mom for mother's day.

Some of the features I love about creating photo books, is the ability to print the photos to the whole page. There is no edge and you can fill a page with a single image or several. There are also several different layouts to chose from and each page can be different and unique.

And you can fit a ton of photos in the book. I think there is something like 400 photos of TGD in her book. So when highlighting all her first foods, you can fit up to 12 photos on a page. 

I have a photo book for every year of her life so far and plan to continue to do it for The Good Son. Once they get older, the books will turn into a family year book of sorts, highlighting our vacations and our little family as it grows.

Another great thing about using photo books, is you can design them over a period of time. So at the end of each month you can create a few pages and save your work. Then at the end of the year, you can complete your book and order it. Plus you still have all the originals on your computer but also in a high quality photo book that everyone will love to look at.

DISCLAIMER: I was not paid, in any way, by anyone to write this post.

Organize along with me in The Good Wife's Weekly Organization Challenges

Week 17 of the Weekly Organization Challenge

This is week 17 of The Good Wife's Weekly Organization Challenge! This week focused on CDs and DVDs.

In the living room we have media storage in the center the houses the TV, DVD player and the cable box. But since we are not big movie collectors, the media center is mainly used for housing games.

Of the two drawers in the middle of the entertainment center, the top one houses our small movie collection.

I like to categorize movies by genre (action, comedy, drama, family, war) and within each by title. So the action category contains the following: 300, Bad Boys, Fight Club, Seven and Transformers. Since we have such a small collection, we can keep each movie in their box. As our collection grows we can use the bottom drawer, which is currently empty, as additional storage.

As for CDs, with the invention of the MP3 player, they are going the way of the dinosaur. Both The Good Husband and I have our music stored on our computer and MP3 players. TGH alone has like 1500 hours worth of songs. He was a bit of a techno/bass head in high school and had a TON of CDs. 

I, on the other hand, had quite a small collection and after I transferred all files to my hard drive, I sold what I could at a second hand store. I tell you, there is nothing better in the world than being judged by a 17 year old boy when you are trying to sell your Korn CD and he offers you $2 and a wicked side eye. Trust me, junior, at one point I had glow-in-blacklight hot pink and platinum blonde hair, a tongue ring, a tragus piercing and a tramp stamp. I know it's hard to imagine my 30 year old suburban mom ass as being anything other than lame, but trust when I say I was bad ass and I have zombie decals on my mom wagon currently, thank you very much. 

What I couldn't sell at the second hand store, I sold at yard sales with slightly less judgement or donated. I like to organize both my movies and music by category and then by title/artist. You can check out Netflix to get an idea of movie categories to help you. 

Organize along with me in The Good Wife's Weekly Organization Challenges

Week 16 of the Weekly Organization Challenge

This is week 16 of The Good Wife's Weekly Organization Challenge! This week focused on the magazines and newspapers.

There was a time when we had both magazine and newspaper subscriptions, but in our efforts to go green, we eliminated most of them. We still occasionally get newspapers delivered to us, but we use them to clean the windows and mirrors.

But every now and then I will get a random magazine subscription come my way. After I had The Good Daughter, copies of Parents magazine started showing up. I would keep an issue for two months, usually putting it out on the coffee table in the living room. When I had several collected, I would then go through them and save the pages I thought were worth keeping.

In the back of my Brains of the Operation, aka Household Binder, I have several clear pockets were I like to keep the pages I save from magazines as inspirations.

I have them divided into several categorizes for easy access.

 I have recipes.

 Organization and decoration ideas.

 Craft ideas.

And kid stuff including games, ideas and food.

Even with saving only select pages from magazines, I still find that my inspiration section of the BotO can get a little full. So I like to try a craft or a recipe one or two times before deciding to keep the page or not. Some of the times the inspiration is a dud and I throw the page out. Sometimes I find something similar on Pinterest, and I don't need to keep the original.

Saving only select pages from magazines is a great way to cut down on clutter and organize all the magazines that can gather in the living room.

Organize along with me in The Good Wife's Weekly Organization Challenges

Week 15 of the Weekly Organization Challenge

This is week 15 of The Good Wife's Weekly Organization Challenge! This week focused on the coat closet.

 When we moved into the house, I was pregnant with The Good Daughter and had some help unpacking. One of the areas I delegated was the coat closet. And it was a hot mess. 

Games, coats, hats, scarves and a whole bunch of other shit got thrown in there.

The leaf for our kitchen table found its way in there along with some boxes of unpacked shit, that I had no idea what it was. For the longest time, I didn't tackle the coat closet, since we had the coat rack for guests. But adding our coats to it left little room for other coats.

I decided the coat closet would best be served as a home for our coats, leaving the coat rack free for guests. The table leaf still lives in there but I have cleared out most everything else. The bulk of the games were moved to the living room, leaving the top shelf fairly clean.

 

Using the coat closet as our primary storage for is a great way to accommodate both guests and us. By limited the area to one or two specific things - winter coats and accessories, it allows the space to avoid becoming the cluttered mess it once was.

Organize along with me in The Good Wife's Weekly Organization Challenges

Week 14 of the Weekly Organization Challenge

This is week 14 of The Good Wife's Weekly Organization Challenge! This week focused on the Entryway/mud room.

Since, much to my disappointment, I don't have a mud room, this post focused on the entryway. If and when we ever move, however, mud room is on the list of shit we need in a house.

I suspect like in most suburban homes, the entryway is just not a part of the house I use on a daily basis, considering we mainly enter and leave the house through the garage door. So the entryway becomes a spot to welcome and organize guests and to sign the receipt for the pizza boy.

Thus the entryway contains little storage. There is a table for guests to put their purse or other belongings and a coat rack that is used mainly for guest coats. And despite being so totally awesome that we could charge a cover at the door, the piggy bank is mainly just for The Good Daughter's College Fund, currently. 

The left side of the entryway is empty, since my goal as a homeowner and host is to get people from the door and into the living spaces of the house as quickly as possible. So any purses can be set on the table, coats hung on the rack and then they can move into the living room.

I keep the coat rack near the end of the entry way to allow for more than one persons to use it at a time. One person can stand in the living room and hang up their coat, while the other is still in the entryway. And while we might be a shoe free house, I don't ask guests to remove shoes, making entry into our house quick and easy.

However, there is only little person that uses the entryway daily and that is TGD. Every day when she comes home from daycare, she hangs up her coat and backpack. We installed kid-height hangers on the coat rack that are hers alone for her stuff. She also has a bench where she can sit and remove her shoes. It is small enough that it can stay in the entryway and still be out of the way.

The main goal of the entryway is to provide a welcoming spot for guests (and I welcome the shit out of them with my cool family photos on the table and framed art) as well as a place where they can put their shit quickly before entering the living spaces of the house.

By keeping the area clutter free and organized with storage for guests, the entryway can become a place where guests can feel relaxed and happy when entering your home. 

Organize along with me in The Good Wife's Weekly Organization Challenges

Week 13 of the Weekly Organization Challenge

This is week 13 of The Good Wife's Weekly Organization Challenge! This week focused on the living room/family room. This post kicks off our six week living room/family room organization mission. 

For most homes, the living room/family room is the first room that people see when they enter your house. It is the best place to give a strong first impression. There are several organization principles you can employ to help your house appear neat and organized.

 view of the living room from the entry way

The first one is to limit clutter. I know I talk about clutter on here all the time, but it really does give me hives if the house seems messy to me. And I don't like giving that impression to anyone that walks into the house. I make sure to vacuum and pick up the living room daily above all other rooms in case someone stops in. Even 15 minutes of nightly tidying up is helpful.

The second organization principle is to have plenty of seating. We are currently lacking in seating, which most of the time is fine with our little family of 3 but as soon as guests come over, our sofa and one chair seem mighty lacking. In a few years, the plan is to upgrade the living room furniture and move what we currently have into the family room in the basement. The new seating will consist of several single chairs, sofa, love seat and possibly a recliner (I'm still fighting The Good Husband on that). Since most of the furniture we have now, save for the entertainment stand are all hand me downs or college furniture, we are past due for an upgrade.

living room as seen from the dining room

The third organization principle is to create a smooth flow to the room. We currently suck in this department too. The tv is currently on the wall where all of the traffic flows. So if you are on the couch or in the chair, everyone will have to walk past the tv to get to all the other rooms of the house. To create a better flow, I will reorganized the room and move the tv to the wall where the chair is currently. It is also really the only option for the tv since we have to work around the features of the room - the half wall, the fireplace, the patio door, etc. But once we rearrange, the room will have a better flow and be more appealing and practical.

The last big tip and this is controversial, especially if you have young kids, is to keep the kid clutter to a minimum. It is very easy to have their shit take over the room and the last thing I want to do is give everyone the walks in the door the impression we are Toys R Us Lite. When she was smaller, we had ONE basket of toys in the room but as she got older it evolved into this:

A toy area behind the chair. It is out of the way and not the very first thing you see when you walk into the room but it is still cluttered and unnecessary. With The Good Daughter getting her own Big Girl room soon, all of these toys will find there way into her room and we will return to the ONE toy basket after The Good Son is born.

Get ready for next week - the entry way/mud room! 

Organize along with me in The Good Wife's Weekly Organization Challenges