I used to think an IKEA organizational unit would solve all of my storage problems.
If I just had the right storage my stuff wouldn’t be so disorganized. If the right shelf combination and drawer unit was in place the toys would be out of sight and my t-shirts would magically fold themselves into a GAP worthy pile.
Organizing sucks. I hate it. Making the perfect pile of t-shirts every Sunday, and watching it turn into a big mess by Tuesday, is so deflating. I don’t need a perfect pile of t-shirts on a shelf. I need fewer clothes so that those t-shirts can be hung up in a closet or thrown into a drawer.
When I have less stuff I need less furniture. That bookshelf squeezed into the living room or that monster night stand that really holds overflow jewelery and more books and your underwear – it’s there solely because you have too much stuff.
This week we’re going to recreate our home as if storage was not a factor.
Today’s task: identify once piece of furniture you can get rid of today. It doesn’t have to be big. It could be a foot rest, an extra dining chair or the end table.
Here’s another thing: you don’t have to get rid of it. Just think about it. What would this room feel like with one less piece of furniture?
What would I get rid of? We’re in a furnished rental but one thing we could get rid of is the wardrobe unit in the kid’s bedroom. It’s about a third full and what’s in there could easily fit in the dresser that holds my older son’s clothing.
More about ditching furniture:
We are moving the kid into separate bedrooms, so I have a few furnitures to get rid of:
– an armchair
-2 floor cushions
– an IKEA trouserhanged from our wardrobe.
We are also selling our bed!
Any takers? All on e-bay/gumtree. 🙂
🙂
Happy ebay-ing/gumtree-ing!
We have added 2 children to our family since we moved into this house 4 years ago. We recently moved the changing table from the main area of the house into the office with all the other dressers, and it now doubles as the baby’s dresser. Wow. The main part of the room looks so much more spacious! Granted, we only moved the thing to the other room, not to the curb! We will be donating the baby swing before we move this summer.
I used to work as a professional organizer and this was the point I would try hardest to hammer home when preparing to organize any space. We can arrange your closet alphabetically by designer name, item type, and color and you still are going to lose that blue summer dress that looks great on you if you have 500+ clothing items. You can have the most elaborate system to categorize and prioritize incoming mail but if you don’t actually have the time or want to spend the time utilizing it, you’re still going to be eating dinner on the sofa because the dining table has been swallowed by newspaper and bills.
I would tell people to imagine a tiny tornado came through and sucked every single thing out of the cupboards closets and drawers. If your attention span for cleaning/sorting is only two hours then you should never have more stuff than you can clean in 4.
I’ve been emptying the big bookshelf in the spare room for a while and gleefully planning where it’ll go in the shed and how things will fit on it. There’ll only be a little extra space at the foot of the bed in the spare room, but it’s been a repository for the non read books for a while – access for the bottom shelf is from underneath the bed, guess how much we need those books?
I could easily get rid of my nightstand, I´ve painted it twice and now it sits downstairs waiting for the last layer of color. But I´ve rearranged our bedroom, I don´t need it anymore… Also a dresser in our bedroom, we only use the top drawer but it sure look nice in it´s place 🙂
This is very true! We have been getting ready for our second baby, due early Feb, and I’ve been slowly decluttering our house the last few months. This week I’ve managed to clear out a huge sideboard which we are going to get rid of, to make space for a sofa bed for guests. We also got rid of a huge toy box last week (shelves are much better for storing toys as you can group things together)
This is perfect timing! I have a client who is wanting to get new furniture for organization. I went home thought about it, and sent her this simple question:
Do you need to store more stuff or do you want less stuff to store?
I think the answer to that question is obvious, but it even made me stop and think for a second 🙂
I think I have got rid of all of the furniture that I can at the moment… recently I have got rid of a tall CD rack which made the living room look really cluttered as it was so tall; also a bathroom cabinet which was going mouldy. All the stuff from those has been rehomed, and we have lots more lovely space!!
There are a few baskets which could go eventually- I have excessive supplies of knitting yarn, and when I have knitted up most of the yarn, the storage containers can go. (Or perhaps be repurposed, as I really like handmade baskets! But I shall cross that bridge when I come to it).
I am also reading my way through some books, rather than buying more, which probably won’t result in removal of a bookshelf, but might mean the shelves look a lot less cluttered!
Finally, I have to say that getting rid of a piece of furniture has to be the most satisfying decluttering- I have been plotting the removal of the CD rack for quite a long time!
Any tips on dealing with “sentimental” large items? Example: when my daughter was born, my FIL repainted my husband’s old toybox (which FIL had made) and gave it to her, as he had with my SIL’s when her first was born. But then she had a second and I had twins, and so to be fair he made them all toy boxes. So now I have THREE large toy boxes. to find space for in two small bedrooms. I have 2 of them in the closets and one downstairs, but they aren’t really even being used at all. My husband doesn’t want to hurt his dad’s feelings, and neither do I – they are fine toy boxes, But we simply don’t have room for them, and honestly they aren’t my style at all.
In the meantime I’m getting rid of my coffee table and a corner chair.
Could you find another use for the toy boxes? I have a large (and not actually that pretty!) trunk next to the bed, which I use to store fabric and knitting yarn. I have a knitted throw over the top to hide the ugly (although I will paint the trunk, eventually) and limit what I put on top of the trunk (bedside light, alarm clock) so that it is fairly easy to access contents of trunk.
Maybe store out of season clothes in trunks and get rid of another piece of furniture to make more space…?
Oh, but I love love love Ikea! It’s a good thing the two closest stores are six-hour drives away (in opposite directions!).
We don’t need our loveseat. It came with the sofa, but we only use it when we have guests. It’s nice and we have the room, but we don’t need it. Similarly, there is an old nightstand holding my toddler’s shoes in her room. It’s in good condition and my husband’s nostalgic about it because it’s the only remaining piece of bachelor furniture. A basket on the floor would house her four pairs of shoes just as effectively. Better organization would probably allow me to get rid of a bookshelf, too.