Declutter Your Living Room
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SELL YOUR HOME TO YOURSELF
Do you know when our home has looked its very best? Right before we’ve sold it.
Every. Single. Time.
Yep, just before we are about to move out, we get everything looking flawless. We fix the broken things, clean the marks off the walls, weed the garden, clear away the clutter, take the bits and pieces off the kitchen counter, and invest in fresh flowers and scented candles.
It’s always hard work, and it costs a bit of money, but it is always worth it. We have always been able to spruce up the house and present it beautifully to prospective buyers.
And every time we have had the conversation. “Are you sure you want to sell? This place looks great.”
I am not trying to talk you into selling your home. I hope you love where you live. But the mindset can help us look at our home with a fresh perspective. Here are two important questions that can help.
If you were a prospective buyer, what assets of your home would you want to highlight? Do you have a beautiful view obscured by dated window coverings? Do you have a large kitchen counter covered with clutter?
If you were a prospective buyer, what problems would you need to account for? Are there holes in the walls that need patching? Is there mould in the bathroom grout? What is broken that needs fixing?
Take a moment to make two lists:
The great features of my home
Broken things that need fixing
As you continue the Clutter Cutter Challenge, keep these things in mind and work through your list as you are able.
Our Living Room, as the name suggests, is where we live. It is usually the space in our home we spend the most time. It is where we relax, where we play, and where we spend time with the people we love the most. We deserve for this space to be one we love being in, a beautiful space.
As you declutter this space, keep these things in mind:
Don’t focus on what to get rid of. Focus on what to keep. Create a room full of things that you love and are useful for living the life you want. Create a space that works well for you and reflects your values and preferences.
Look around the room. What do you love? Furniture, pictures, soft furnishings, decorations. Your aim is to highlight these things in your finished room.
What are the pressure points? Identify the problem areas, the spaces and surfaces that collect clutter, and focus on solving these.
toys
Throw away any toys that are broken.
Donate any toys that your kids have grown out of and don’t play with regularly anymore.
Limit the toys in the room to the storage solution you have so that toys are easy to pick up at the end of each day. Put any excess in storage in the garage or a hall cupboard and rotate them at the beginning of each month.
Adopt a ‘one in one out’ rule. Before each of your kids’ birthdays and Christmas, get your kids to donate their old toys to make room for the new. It helped us to have a relationship with an Opp Shop at our church that gave toys to refugee and new migrant families. Our kids had a sense of purpose as they made the (sometimes difficult) decisions to let go of old things.
books
Have a designated space, usually a bookcase, and limit the books you keep to what will comfortably fit in this space.
Take all of the books out of the shelf and give it a good clean.
Box up any books you’ve read, and you know you will never read again, ready to sell or donate.
Of the remainder, find your favourite book and put it back on the shelf.
Then, of the remainder, find your next favourite book and put it back on the shelf.
Get the idea? Work through all of your books and place the ones you love the most back on the shelf. Of course, the decisions get harder as the shelf fills up if you have a lot of excess.
If possible, leave some spare space on each shelf. Space is a beautiful thing.
Take the extra books to a second-hand book store or another place that accepts donated books. Don’t delay. Donate today! (Do you like what I did there?)
pictures and artwork
Do you have photos and other memorabilia scattered in different places around the room? Collect them all into one place and create a gallery wall.
Gallery walls can be tricky to get right, so take your time and do the prep well. Look on Pinterest for inspiration, ask a friend who has pulled it off in their home to give you a hand or purchase a kit.
Choose just your favourite photos and artwork.
Plan the layout on the floor until you’re happy with the arrangement.
Use non-permanent fixings such as the Command products so as not to damage the walls.
soft furnishings
All the beautiful cushions and throws look amazing on TV but can be a bit of a nightmare in real life.
Choose your favourite throw rug and your three prettiest cushions that match.
Put the rest in a closet and rotate them each season. If you don’t have ample storage space to keep the excess, just keep a couple of spare throws in your linen closet.
Take the covers off the extra cushions you want to keep and throw away the inners.
entertainment unit
A prominent feature of many living rooms is the entertainment centre. This is also one of the greatest clutter magnets. Every new device comes with more leads and connectors. We invest a lot of money in these devices, and it can be difficult for us to let them go.
Choose what to keep based on your family’s present needs. Do you have a collection of old cassette tapes? Do you have an extensive video or DVD collection but now use a streaming service to watch your content? I know it hurts. I know these things cost a lot of money, but they are not serving you anymore. It’s time to let them go.
Do you have an old video player or original PlayStation console that hasn’t been touched in years? They can go too.
Do you have a draw of leads, chargers and connectors that you don’t even know what they fit? Yes, you get the idea. Out.
It will be hard, but you will thank me later.
If you have footage of your wedding, your children when they were small, or other precious memories locked in a format you can no longer access easily, make the investment into having them converted into a digital format. Do an online search and find a service local to you.
I’m sure you have other things in your living room I haven’t mentioned. The same principles apply.
Choose what to keep. The things you use, the things you love, the things that fit in with the vision you have for your home.
Find solutions to problems. Identify what the problem areas are and think creatively to find a workable solution. Make it as simple as possible. It may be as easy as putting a box on the sideboard to collect receipts or clearing out a drawer in the side table for the homework supplies to live.
Clutter attracts clutter. You are much more likely to dump your stuff next to stuff already sitting on a table. Keep all horizontal surfaces as clear as possible.
Step back and appreciate your achievement. Sit down and enjoy a quiet cuppa or a fun family game in your newly organised living room.
