Steps to ‘Clean & Clear’ Your Living Room

The steps I use when cleaning and clearing my living room (or family room) are shown below. Remember, do not burn yourself out. Do only as much as you can without feeling too stressed. You can always finish up where you leave off tomorrow. Do not stress yourself out!

As I step out of my entryway area, I’m immediately in my living room/family room. This is my largest room and has overcome many changes over the past couple of years. I used to have alot of knick-knacks that I thought I should have but later realized that I didn’t even like them. Now, the only thing I have in my living room is beautiful artwork that my children have made me at school and memory souvenirs from our family vacations … things that I truly treasure and have much meaning for me.

So, once again, I’m standing at the doorway to my living room. I’m going to take a sweeping look around this room. I generally go from left to right but you can do it however it works best for you.

Once I see an area that needs to be cleaned or cleared, I stop looking and go right to that area. Now, keep in mind, that I’ve been doing this for about two years, but with kids, this area is still needing a good daily cleaning and clearing. However, I can say that it has come a very long way from where I started and I am now proud to have company over – even if it’s drop-in unexpected company.

Remember, it doesn’t matter which order you do the steps in … what matters is that you do them. You need to customize the steps below so that they fit best and meet your specific needs. This is all about you and getting the most out of my plan of correction. Whatever steps you take, will make a difference.

Even though each of my cleaning and clearing steps (shown below) will probably take you less than 15 minutes, I promise you that you will see a noticeable difference after each step.

And, remember, don’t get stressed, you can always come back and finish where you left off.

Good Luck and Have Fun Cleaning and Clearing !!!

• I start with my furniture. It’s always good when you can sit down without worry of tipping over piles or stacks. I clear off all items on my couch, loveseat, and chairs. I put those items wherever the belong – or I have the children put them where they go, if the items are theirs. I even removed all pillows but decided that I didn’t like the look of a couch without them. To me, they seemed uninviting, so I put some back on. However, I realized what I didn’t like about the current pillows was that they were old and didn’t match my furniture anymore because I had gotten a new couch several years ago and never switched them out … so I purchased some new pillows that I absolutely love now and they match our new leather furniture perfectly.
• Then, I go to my coffee table and end tables. I take everything off and put it where it goes. Do not put these misplaced items anywhere but where they actually go otherwise they will end up staying there. I’ve found that flat surfaces, of any kind, usually become catch-alls for everything. Normally, the living room coffee- and end tables collect items such as paper clutter – unopened bills, school papers, etc. I take all of this paper clutter in a central place. and put them in their place. I started a very generic file system for these kinds of papers. I will go into that in more detail in another section. Don’t get side-tracked and start sorting these papers right now. For now, just put them in a place where you will easily be able to find them when you need them and leave it at that.
• Next, go to the other flat surfaces in your living room. Do the same thing. Put all the paper clutter in the same place and put the other items where they belong. When you’re done with this, pat yourself on the back … you’re doing Great!!!
• Now, I go straight to the floor. I pick up all items that don’t belong on the floor. Unfortunately, this is a big catch-all for things that seem to be lost, too. I pick them up and put them in piles – normally, it’s items for the children to put away and take care of.
• After the floor is clear, I pull out the vaccuum cleaner and vaccuum the floor. This does not have to be a huge ordeal. You do not need to pull out each piece of furniture to vaccuum under it. I would suggest doing this only as-needed. Just do a general vaccuum up to the furniture – that is perfectly acceptable for now. We’ll get into more steps for detail cleanings at a later time.

Each of these steps have the ability to change the whole atmosphere of your house – and, if you’ve completed them, you already know that! Give yourself a big round of applause!!!

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