Back in June I posted pics of our problematic living space, and you all gave us excellent suggestions to fix it. I wouldn't say these are "before and after" pics, because we still have more that we want to do. But we've made some small, subtle changes that already make me feel less crazy when I look around the room ...
THEN: OK, so here's the view through the hallway from the foyer into the living space ... note record collection and random liquor bottles on left, AA's toy kitchen & the cat's house thingie that AA also plays with more than Noodles does.
NOW:
The liquor collection fits on two shelves, there's much less junk on top of the shelving unit, and you can probably see there's less clutter on the kitchen island.
THEN: Here's a view from the corner of the kitchen, looking over the island, that attempts to capture as much of the space in one shot as possible.
NOW:
Less kitchen clutter, one less entertainment shelving unit in the far corner.
THEN: Here's the kitchen straight-on ... very small space. The stuff that's out pretty much has to be out; we've used most of the cabinet space to its capacity.
NOW:
Found storage for most food stuff, moved coffee station to corner, moved our most-used spices out onto the counter.
THEN: Here's the dining room/crafts room. The sewing cabinet is behind the dining room table; the sewing machine lowers into it, which is super sweet because it's one less bit of "stuff" visible. To the left is my pet peeve, the sewing supplies storage unit.
NOW:
You can see AS's project in progress, cutting down on amount of fabric and storing it around pieces of cardboard for a more uniform look. (The stuff on top of the cabinet will get stowed away once our new bed frame arrives.) Also, no more kitchen supplies in this cabinet; it's all sewing or household supplies.
THEN: Here's the view of the DVD/CD/videogame storage that AS finds problematic. I will admit that the clock which was there when we had a much taller entertainment center looks sort of silly and off-center.
NOW:
We reduced our CD/DVD collection, getting rid of some, putting others in books. Some CDs are stored in the drawers under the TV, but once we get more shelves to put in that narrow CD shelving unit, most or all of them will fit there. I also moved the weights that were visible under the TV, to under the couch where they can't bee seen. This is very incomplete; we want to take down the clock and those little white pieces of paper and put in a single, striking piece of art in that big blank space.
THEN: This built-in cabinet is against the wall by the window, and in the lower right you can see the toy shelf and the board games shelf just peeking out behind the couch -- the couch is about 8 inches away from the shelf, so getting games is a pain, but we don't play them that often now that we have kids, so it doesn't matter too much. If we had room elsewhere, that's something I'd consider moving (the board games).
Closer view of the toys and games:
NOW:
We got rid of a TON of toys and books so that we could simplify here and put the rest away in the girls' room. We moved some of the puzzles and games under the couch. We still have a few DVDs we're getting rid of, and we'll be able to put more puzzles and games in the TV drawers once we move the CDs out of there.
THEN: And, just so you can see some of the more "necessary" clutter -- AA's blackboard, our rocking chair, the bassinet up on two chairs, the swing, the bouncy seat -- so you can see why I want to simplify elsewhere and give my eyes a rest! (To the left in this shot you can see the balcony door covered by the brown curtain.)
NOW:
A slight overall improvement, to my eyes.
If I get a chance today, I'll do a beginning-middle set of kitchen storage pics. That is more complete than the overall space, but there's still some work we're planning there.
Beginning and middle: Part 1 of 2
July 16th, 2012 at 09:29 pm
July 17th, 2012 at 12:24 am 1342484641
July 17th, 2012 at 01:43 am 1342489412
July 17th, 2012 at 01:51 am 1342489904
www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/40224319/#/00224316
If you alphabetize or categorize your media, just group them into a box or boxes. It's still easy to find, by choosing the right box. And then the boxes fit side-by-side on the shelves and look really sharp.
The only question would be whether your shelves are deep enough to hold something like this. But if they are, then you should be able to fit more than you currently have because you can stack CDs from front to back in the boxes instead of just side-by-side on the shelves.
Just a thought.
Your after pictures look great so far!
July 17th, 2012 at 01:59 am 1342490370
www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/40224319/#/30224287
July 17th, 2012 at 03:06 am 1342494373
July 17th, 2012 at 04:04 am 1342497873
The more refrigerator magnets one has the more cluttered their space is.
Now that I have my Kindle and Gutenberg.org has Kindle formatted public domain books for free, I am seriously considering going through my books for classic public domain books, load an electronic copy on my Kindle, and sell books to clear my bookshelves.
July 17th, 2012 at 04:54 am 1342500899
July 17th, 2012 at 06:38 pm 1342550281
I'll be happier when we get a bit more cleared away. We tried some test swatches of fabrics covering the units and just didn't like the visual effect, so our only option (besides buying expensive new storage units with doors) is to reduce what we have, and store as much out of sight as possible.
We're getting a new bed frame with a lot more storage underneath, and AS is going to use the cardboard from this and other recent purchases to create containers for her larger pieces of fabric for under-bed storage (we also bought a skirt so the storage will be invisible). If this works, we won't even need to purchase new containers.
We're also considering fabric "tiles" that we saw on an HGTV show, so we could customize the shape of our living room rug, make it long enough to go under the rocking chair, and be able to eliminate that mismatched throw rug that protects the floor from the rocker. That would be our most expensive switchup, but if we can find it on Amazon, we've got some Amazon bucks we could use to offset the cost.
The baby will outgrow the bassinet soon, so that will be going away. However, soon after we'll be bringing in a big bright plastic exersaucer, so the space won't be any clearer. Eventually, however, all those baby-holding devices will go away and our living room will look much less full. I just need to be patient with that part!
July 17th, 2012 at 08:03 pm 1342555438