Whew. Took the tree down today (we tend to put it up late and take it down late) and it took me almost all day, with breaks for writing and hanging with the kids and dh, to declutter the living room! Not even the kitchen...I mean part of the decluttering was me moving some stuff into the kitchen area.

I will post pics tomorrow; dh and the kids are upstairs in the loft and I have to keep lights low so kids will fall asleep. Bedtime was late tonight, as usually it's 8 pm.

I have a big bookshelf from IKEA that has been a sort of designated clutter place. The bottom shelf holds the kids' school papers until I sort them (and we have kind of an ongoing portfolio of stuff we are keeping, forming on these shelves), the next shelf up is full of Jake's books. He's pretty obsessed with them and can have five or ten or more out at a time, so when we pick up they all go on that shelf. It's getting full though. Next three shelves are mostly my crap, anything that's paperwork or needs to be done, knitting books, bits of yarn, just the junkiest, cluttery stuff.

I didn't get to declutter that bookshelf. Sigh. But, I moved it from being the first thing you see when you look from the kitchen/hallway into the living room, to being off in the corner a bit. I moved it to the other side of the couch, and I guess you will see it in the pics tomorrow, LOL. But I can't even tell you what moving that one item did for the room! It opened it up, and the hanging chair and corner IKEA chair and foostool suddenly were invited to converse with the couch, and I put two end tables next to each other on that end of the couch and it became a little laptop home and will house the things that gather on endtables much better than just the one very narrow table that was there. Beyond the bookshelf the music corner and nature table are very happy.

We put up a couple more lights too; just hanging bulbs with rice paper shades. What a difference! No more dark, gloomy evenings. The light is warm and not too much. It was very pleasant.

I used this yummy-smelling Vermont Organic Soap Co soap called Liquid Sunshine, diluted in water, to mop. Mmmmmm....just brightened the whole day.

Well, it's 9 pm, and what I should do is get to clearing the kitchen table, which is full of art projects and random stuff, and the two big piles of stuff that need sorting and putting away in the kitchen. But I am tired and I know a basket of laundry awaits me upstairs. I'm tempted to go up and fold and talk to dh and tackle the kitchen early in the morning. I think I will. The only problem is that Jake's occupational therapist is coming at 8:30 am and the table must be cleared by then. I get up at 5 am so it should not be a problem. ;) Even with getting all the school stuff ready.

Thanks for listening to me babble! LOL! I had a blast cleaning today. I'm getting motivated for our move in May.

sounds like a busy day. one of my favorite days is taking down all the christmas stuff b/c it seems to open up my house so much!

I'd love to see pics!

As for moving the clutter shelf to a corner... in my rearranging schemes I've been moving things like that that are normally kind of cluttered and not pleasing to the eye to the wall where the door is, instead of right across from the door. Like my kids' bookshelves. Anyway, it makes a big difference, having those things not directly in the line of sight!

i love days like you described where you just look back on the day of cleaning and realize you had fun and it was so worth it. i've been out a lot this week. looking forward to staying home tomorrow!

Some pictures...yeah there is no "door wall" - our living room and kitchen together make a T shape with the living room the top of the T. The walls that are along the entrance to the living room where you would normally put cluttery stuff like that bookshelf, are short and one has a window on it and the other has a door. No room for shelving! :)

The kitchen is "before" - I have since cleared it and once my dishes are done I will take pics of it "after."

http://www.laurenware.com/images/livingroom1.jpg
http://www.laurenware.com/images/livingroom2.jpg
http://www.laurenware.com/images/livingroom3.jpg
http://www.laurenware.com/images/livingroom4.jpg
http://www.laurenware.com/images/kitchenbefore.jpg

just makes me realize that i NEED a huge bookshelf! lolol

You know what, we got rid of a ton of stuff before our move. In fact, we still have things in a storage unit. Yet, we still have too much stuff! It drives me nuts!

My laundry room is getting a bit out of control, and I am feeling the need to purge.

Thankfully, J is a very organized person. It's starting to rub off on me and I'm getting way better at finding the right place for things.

Your house is really neat! I'm going to have to show Nico when she gets home. She will love to get a peek at where Katie lives!

I love the sky chairs inside. We have two that we hang outside. Since we've move to this rental, we've not been able to hang them up. I can't wait to move to our next house. I miss lounging in the sky chair watching the boys play. Sitting at the patio furniture just isn't the same.

Your house looks very warm and cozy.

Thanks Suzie. We were just joking that we're building a post and beam house mostly so we can have the sky chairs inside easily! ROFL! The house we're in is also post and beam, as you can see. It sure makes it easy to put them up.

The tan one is a hemp chair from 1998, when I was pregnant with Katie. Just when we moved here we bought the green one from overstock.com. It's not quite as nice as the original sky chair but nicely suited to the kids' size (the poles are a little smaller and it has a narrower feel). Jake is soooo into swinging; we blast music and he just swings like crazy on the green chair, right at the apex of the speakers. He just loves it. So it's a nice sensory thing for him, especially when we're mostly inside in the winter.

And Heather, LOL...the huge bookshelf is way cool, it's built into the wall there and allowed me to use my other shelves for organizing in the office. The one that I have to clear is that light-colored one next to the couch...ugh! But it's functional...keeps stuff off the other surfaces, theoretically!

you should get some baskets for all the stuff on the white shelf...it would make it more visually appealing.