IT’S WEEK 3! THIS WEEK’S HOT TOPIC TO TAME IS: THE TV/ENTERTAINMENT CENTER.
Moving right along!
So far for the month of January, we started Week 1 with the kitchen sink/dishes and countertops and then Week 2 was The Drop Zone. How are you doing on these? These are great habits to get into to create routine which makes life so much easier and smoother.
Are you ready for Week 3? Let’s go!
Decluttering and Organizing Challenge Week 3 - Living Room/Family Room Entertainment Center
To continue making a visual impact on the public spaces, we will move to another main living area. What we want to do is to make the spaces you actually see and live in (and where company is) be the ones we focus on first before going behind closed doors, inside drawers, and into storage areas. By focusing on decluttering and organizing spaces you physically see all the time, it will set you up to keep going.
For this week, we will focus on the TV/entertainment center.
Let’s start with DVDs, and CDs
Here is your step-by-step action plan to follow:
Remove all DVDs and CDs s from the unit. Gather additional ones from around the house.
Pick up each one and decide if it stays. Be ruthless. KEEP. TOSS/RECYCLE. DONATE/GIVE AWAY. Those are your three choices.
Determine the best way to store the remaining ones - on a shelf, in a basket.
Put away in an orderly fashion. Consider sorting and storing by genre or alphabetically or by family member then alphabetically.
Now, those that are in the TOSS/RECYCLE or in the DONATE/GIVE AWAY piles, do so immediately. Don’t look back and don’t second guess.
We have an armoire for our TV so it is behind closed doors. Even though it is not visible 99% of the time because the doors are only open when we watch TV, we want it clutter free and organized in there when we do open the doors. Who wants to be all stressed out staring at clutter when they are supposed to be relaxing for a few minutes? Not me!
Our DVDs are stored in a shallow basket that perfectly fits inside the cubby area (shown below). These have not been alphabetized yet. My primary focus initially was to get them corralled in one spot and organized neatly so as to be able to read the titles.
Basket storage for DVDs
If you have an open concept entertainment center, it is even more important to declutter and have the proper storage system to house the remaining ones. NOTE: Do not go out any buy a storage container/solution for DVDs until AFTER you have decluttered. Once you know what you have to work with and what you need to store/organize, then you can determine the best way to store them. Are you a visual person who needs to see them, therefore, if they are out of sight then they are out of mind? If that’s you, consider lining them up by color using the ROY G BIV method - red, orange, yellow, green, blue/indigo, purple then white, tan, brown, gray, black.
Do you prefer closed storage? Then a basket like I have used in the picture above or a bin would work for you.
Ready for more?
Once you do the DVDs and CDs, move on to board games and follow the same four steps above, if your board games are stored in your entertainment center. If they are not stored there, feel free to do a bonus mini challenge for the board games.
Other items?
What else are you storing in the entertainment center? Ask yourself if that is the best place or did it just end up there with no rhyme or reason. If it has to do with watching TV or playing games on the tv, then it’s obvious they should be kept there. If the object(s) have nothing to do with either, then a more appropriate home must be found.
Lastly
Tame the cords and wires. Once and for all.
Zip ties. Twist ties. Velcro twist ties. Specialty holders. Tape. Whatever it takes and whatever works best for you.
So there you have it. Let’s recap what we’ve done so far:
RECAP
Week 1 - Dishes/sink and countertop (do dishes every night, clear off countertops)
Week 2 - The Drop Zone
Week 3 - TV/Entertainment Center
Some items from the challenge will occur only once and then a periodic refresher. Some items are done every day, or on a regular basis, to form a habit/create a system.
Good luck and let me know how you are doing!
Blessings!
Melissa