Dogs Don't Eat Pizza

Formerly The DIY Bungalow

  • Home
  • About
    • About Karen & the Blog
    • Thirty Days of Gratitude
    • Habitat for Humanity ReStore Workshops
    • Stories from the Bungalow
    • Dogs Who Don’t Eat Pizza
      • Bear, the Original Dog Who Didn’t Eat Pizza
      • Hank Dog
      • Elvis Parsley
  • Project Index
    • DIY
    • Decorating
    • Shopping Tips
    • Repurposing and Upcycling
    • Paint and Color
    • Organizing
    • Cleaning
    • Recipes
    • Gardening
    • Holidays & Seasonal
    • Friday Five
  • Home Tour
    • The 1929 House
    • The First House
    • Room Reveals
  • Advertising
    • Disclosure and Privacy Policy
    • Advertising
  • Media
  • Contact
You are here: Home / Organizing / Family Room and Its Closet – Day 2, Thirty Days of Gratitude, Tidying Up Edition

Family Room and Its Closet – Day 2, Thirty Days of Gratitude, Tidying Up Edition

November 2, 2015 By Karen Cooper Leave a Comment

Welcome to Thirty Days of Gratitude, Tidying Up Edition! Although today is November 2, it’s the first real day of Thirty Days of Gratitude Tidying Up, because yesterday we were recovering from Halloween! (And I was definitely grateful for the extra hour of sleep!!)

Today, my focus is our family room and the closet in the family room. The family room and its closet always seem to be a mess. The closet was literally overflowing with stuff. I’m going to start with the family room, then get to the little closet under the stairs.

This is the “before” of our family room, taken the other day:

family room before - family room tidying up - thediybungalow.com

There are pillows everywhere. My kids have said there are too many pillows on our couch, so they end up piled up on the brown chair. (I might have a slight pillow hoarding problem.)

There are remotes in the Coke crate, where they belong, but several out of the crate, too. There’s a blanket flung on the couch. You can’t see it in the above picture, but the DVDs are a mess and there are some stacked on our media cabinet, instead of inside, where they belong.

DVDs before - family room tidying up - thediybungalow.com

Here’s what I did:

  1. All remotes back in the Coke crate.
  2. Checked under the couch cushions for anything and vacuumed there. I found a magic wand under one of the cushions (no, sadly, it didn’t work).
  3. Vacuum the rug, including under tables and chairs.
  4. Go through the dog toys and toss the old, ratty ones (they were Bear’s anyway).
  5. Organize the DVDs. I like them alphabetized.
  6. Remove some of the pillows from the couch and store them in the room.

Here’s the “after”:

View from breakfast room - family room tidying up - thediybungalow.com

family room side view after - family room tidying up - thediybungalow.com

I changed out the side table in the family room. Before, the one in there was too small and too low. Now, this table – which was my mother’s – fits better here, and the smaller table that was there is now a night table in the guest room.

Table moved to guest room - family room tidying up - thediybungalow.com

DVDs are now organized and alphabetized (yay!):

DVD organization - family room tidying up - thediybungalow.com

And Hank went through his toys and kept only the ones he loves.

Even Hank went through his toy basket - family room tidying up - thediybungalow.com

Dog toys in family room - family room tidying up - thediybungalow.com

Extra pillows are now in this trunk/table that was in the guest room. We can use the trunk in the family room for storage and extra seating.

Extra pillow storage - family room tidying up - thediybungalow.com

Remote controls in Coke crate - family room tidying up - thediybungalow.com

Now, for the closet. This is a little closet in our family room that was carved out from the space under the stairs.

closet under the stairs before - family room tidying up - thediybungalow.com

I know – it’s such a small little closet, right? Um, well…here’s what came out of it:

Everything that came out of that little closet under the stairs - family room tidying up - thediybungalow.com

I’m surprised Harry Potter didn’t come tumbling out of it with everything else.

(I forgot to take a “before” pic of the stuff actually inside the closet because I was so excited to get everything out of it. The stuff fell out of the closet every time we opened the door!)

I added hooks to the closet wall for Dear Husband’s guitar bags. They now hang on the wall, instead of being piled up on the floor.

Closet under the stairs after - family room tidying up - thediybungalow.com

Our board games are now in this closet – rather than in the kids’ hallway lockers – so that they are in the room where we use them most.

Games in family room closet - family room tidying up - thediybungalow.com

I am grateful that the family room is tidied and organized because we spend so much time in this room. It’s great to have space for everyone to relax, without clutter (clutter = stress for me). And I’m grateful that the closet is now cleaned out and organized because (1) now things don’t fall out of it when you open the door and (2) the games are in the room in which we use them!

family room after - family room tidying up - thediybungalow.com

Click HERE for tutorial on how I DIY’ed that coffee table!

family room side view after - family room tidying up - thediybungalow.com

Are you joining in this year’s Thirty Days of Gratitude, Tidying Up Edition? What did you clean/organize today? What are you grateful for today? Share in the comments!

You might also like:

  • Tallying Up the Tidying Up
    Tallying Up the Tidying Up
  • Getting It Done and Letting It Go - It's All Good.
    Getting It Done and Letting It Go - It's All Good.
  • Thirty Days of Gratitude, Tidying-Up Edition, 2015
    Thirty Days of Gratitude, Tidying-Up Edition, 2015

Filed Under: Organizing Tagged With: Living/Family Rooms Leave a Comment

About Karen Cooper

Hi! I'm Karen. I call myself a “recovering lawyer” - I traded in my power suits for power tools and a life of DIY adventures. Join me for DIY, home decorating, repurposing and upcycling, and organizing projects and tips as I transform a 1929 Tudor bungalow into our home. I believe in merging old and new to make a house a home.

« In Case of Emergency Pet Printables
Basement – Day 4, Thirty Days of Gratitude, Tidying Up Edition »




Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Hi! I’m Karen. I call myself a “recovering lawyer,” because I turned in my power suits for power tools and a life of DIY. This blog is all about DIY, home decorating, repurposing and upcycling, and organization. I believe in merging old and new to make a house a home.




find projects here!

My Daybed in This Old House Magazine!

Daybed from Old Doors featured in This Old House Magazine
Best of 2016 - Best Blog DIY Category - thediybungalow.com

Disclosure

Dogs Don't Eat Pizza is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.  Dogs Don't Eat Pizza also participates in other affiliate programs.

To see my complete disclosure and privacy policy, click HERE.

About Karen

A "recovering lawyer," I turned in my power suits for power tools and a life of DIY. I believe in merging old and new to make a house a home. Read More…

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter
© Copyright 2012-2021, Dogs Don't Eat Pizza, LLC (formerly The DIY Bungalow LLC).