My Minimalism Journey: The Living Room!

First of all, I should have said this before...

I am not a professional organizer. I am not an interior designer. We don't have lots of money. I am not a good home decorator. I am just a normal mom who wants to clean up my house, minimize the clutter, organize my life, and feel more at peace with my daily life without my STUFF holding me down. 

So, when you see the pictures of my home, it's just a basic home of a family of three little ones. I'm not the one who thinks my photos will EVER be in a magazine. NONE of my furniture is new. It's mostly all hand-me-downs and second hand. We make it work. So, that being said....

I decluttered my living room!

We have a TINY house. Well, it's not super tiny. We all fit. But, with 5 of us living here, the living space seems smaller than it really is. I think after minimizing the clutter in my home, it will make it feel much bigger and the space more useful. 

I started my cleaning with the toy drawers. We have a plastic, rolling 3 drawer cart in our living room that holds toys. The top drawer is for the X-box games and controllers, remotes, batteries, and chargers. This was overflowing with junk. When someone needed batteries, they would open the package and leave it there. Multiple packages and scratched old DVD's that no one watches, and random wrappers that someone shoved in there. Completely cleaned out. The bottom two drawers are for our one-year-old's toys. We made a decision a couple months ago, before fully immersing ourselves into the minimalism journey to have a cart of drawers for each kids toys. Just enough for them to have toys to play with but little enough that my house wasn't consumed by toys. Her two drawers had so many random things in there that toys were sitting next to the cart, not able to fit in. I got rid of about 8 stuffed animals, some musical books that didn't work anymore, baby toys she was too old for and broken toys. I put her doll house and blocks on top. Those are the toys she plays with and whatever doesn't fit in the drawers doesn't stay. She does have her little ride-on toy that is sitting next to it, and she rides that multiple times a day. 

From cluttered to organized!

My little corner of the living room was what I was dreading the most. I do most of my photography work sitting in this little corner next to a table that holds everything I need. But, things just keep getting added. Old, dried up pens, water bottles, opened envelopes, an old laptop I don't use anymore. This TINY table was stacked with CRAP! I cleaned it up, wiped it down and put the essentials on it. Everything else went into the trash. (Except the old laptop that I may need later, that went into the closet). Underneath the table is the diaper basket. Diapers, wipes, creams. Again, as time went on the basket was filled with dried up wipes, binkies, paper, shoes, and I just shoved them aside to get a diaper. No more. Completely cleaned out and organized. Everything else was thrown away. Into the dumpster outside. Never to come back!

Clean and organized side table! Much more functional!

I have two other side tables that have cupboards in them. I would love to eventually get rid of them. I don't use the cupboards (I cleaned them completely out and found Christmas catalogs in them) and they are old and falling apart. But, again, we don't have the money for it, and they are functional, so here they sit. Cleaned out, wiped down and nothing in them. Clutter... GONE! 

I vacuumed, swept and mopped the floors. Within minutes the kids had toys on the floor, but it's called a living room for a reason. However, having the extra clutter cleared out of the room, made it feel less overwhelming when they had toys out. 

Living room, DONE!

Again, I am NOT a professional at this. My house isn't Better Homes and Gardens material. I don't know how to "Stage" a house to make it look trendy. Just a mom with 3 littles with a basic, ordinary house, trying to make things calmer, more peaceful, and less CLUTTERED! 

I'm really enjoying this journey. I thought it would be much harder than it actually is. These rooms have been the easier ones, but I'm excited to keep going.

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Like what you read? Leave me a comment! I would LOVE to hear from you!

Want to try decluttering and minimizing yourself? I want to hear from you. I love fresh, new ideas!

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