Need help organising home

[Mere2]

Well after all the moves that I have done - you would think that I would know how to do this! My house is in a constant state of looking like some has ransacked it. Part of the problem has been moving/living in very large houses and downsizing into a small house with a packrat of a husband.

 

However I have worked very hard at getting rid of stuff but i'm still overwhelmed with stuff.:tongue_smilie: I keep thinking if I just could organise it better, then it would work.

 

Main bedroom is largish and I have bed, tv, antique lounges (cant give away), large antique wardrobe and a table. Yep it is squashy. Ensuite has robe space and thats where everyones clothes are stored. (2 kids).

 

Then there are another 2 bedrooms. 1 room (tiny) just fits 2 single beds and 2 night tables. Both kids sleep here (well ment to when not invading my bed). Other room is slightly larger and is the playroom. They have lots of toys and play with them. All stored in Ikea trofast storage units but not alot of play space on the floor. Tend to drag all the toys into lounge.

 

Front room (ment to be formal lounge) overlooks the street, so has a nice "view". Has 7 bookcases, 4 Ikea trofast units, large computer table, paino, large keyboard, 2 small school desks and a LARGE treadmill. This room is ment to be the school room, if I could actually make my way to a desk.:glare: Its crowded and busy. Have culled alot of books but need alot of stuff for all the paperwork etc that comes with having a busy life.

 

Rest of the house tiny kitchen, tiny dining area, another bathroom/laundry, and small lounge area with tv and amoire with games etc. I am "happy" how these areas work although I wish I didn't have the train set all over the floor. Kids like to play in this area. I think its the light and space that is appealing to them.

 

Any ideas? DS is almost 5 and loves pulling everything apart and seeing what he can get up to. DD is 7 are very arty. They love having lots of space to get really creative in whatever game they are playing. They play alot and generally very well together. I dont know if this will change when they get older.

 

Do I have a seperate office and then school/play room? do I give them their own bedrooms and have toys in their rooms? Really need the treadmill easily accessible so it is used. Do I turn the current school room into a bedroom for the kids with their toys in it?

 

Any ideas/ suggestions?

 

TIA

Fi

[Peela]

Do you use your treadmill a lot? Consider walking around the neighbourhood instead?

If I had a tiny space I probably would cull my books to less than 7 bookshelves, though I understand everyone has different priorities :). I love books but I have 3 bookshelves, and one built in bookshelf. I cull books regularly.

We have two armchairs in our dining area, and the main loungeroom is our schoolroom with TV and sofas and computers. Since we spend more time here than anywhere, it made sense to take the main lounge area and use it for us. Guests are secondary and either sit in the school room on our comfy sofas, amongst the living chaos of the schoolroom, or in the dining room.

If you took one area and made it your office, how would that impact on the house- would it mean another area was less cluttered?

Could you use bunk beds in the kids' room and make some more floor space there?

When you say you can't "give away" your antique sofa that is in your bedroom- did you mean no one would want it, or that it's too emotionally valuable to you? Is it just "stuff" you really need to let go of?

When I was a single mum and my kids were your kids' ages (actually a bit older), I put their bunk bed in my bedroom so we all slept in the same room. Then, their bedroom was available for play space. It worked well at the time and made them feel secure, and also gave us a spare bedroom where I stored my laundry (those were my pre-Flylady days and I often had a mountain of clean laundry on the spare bed waiting to be sorted).

Its hard to know without really seeing it or knowing your emotional connection to your "stuff", but it sounds like you need to get a little more ruthless :)

[kalanamak]

Two bits of advice have helped me in a general fashion:

 

1) a portable file for current paperwork (bills, etc). I try to cull monthly and have what is needed long-term go to the big filing draw.

 

2) Make things (esp for kids) hard to get out and easy to put away. A bin has to be looked through to get what you want, but putting away is a toss. If everything is in lined-up alphabetical order, it is easy to get out, and hard to put away. This was a hard one for me to accept.

 

Something I came up on my own has helped my store room. When I come down to look for the, e.g. vac bags, I have put them in THIS room on the same direction of wall the vac is in the room upstairs. The canned tomatoes are on the same wall as the cabinet where the canned tomatoes live in the kitchen. I walk in, orient myself, and walk RIGHT to the extra, replacement, backup whatever.

Edited June 12, 2009 by kalanamak