Decluttering the Living Room

One of my goals before the baby comes is to declutter the house. Our living room serves as livingroom/diningroom/playroom, so it gets cluttered easily. In addition, my 17 month old loves to look at her books and rip them. (Seriously, my son never did this, but she loves to tear up books, even cardboard ones. Do other kids do this?) Every time she started to rip a book we just shoved it somewhere higher on the book shelf, which is part of the reason we had the disaster in the first picture:

BEFORE:

My son's books are on the second shelf, but we had to pack them in tightly so my daughter couldn't pull them out or she would rip every single one. The end result, though, is that my son also has a hard time getting his own books out, so I cleared out the entire second shelf and will make room for the books in his room, where he can read in peace.

I also found several items to sell on eBay and some to put on paperback swap. I filled a box with items for the garage sale and recycled quite a few items. Here is the end result:

AFTER:


The next area to tackle was their toy area.

BEFORE:


I weeded through quite a few unused items and added them to the garage sale pile. I also spread out the toys, putting my daughter's stuffed animals on the second shelf where my son's books used to be and creating a separate bin for all of the baby rattles, etc. I also put some toys (the big ones) up for awhile as they hardly get played with. I will probably bring them out in a few weeks so they will feel "new" to the kids. Here is the final result:

AFTER:

It feels so nice to have this cluttered space cleaner. I still have to do deep spring cleaning (hoping my mom will help me with this), but I think I am off to a good start.

I shared this post at Money Saving Mom.