Have you ever thought you needed to minimize the amount of stuff you have?
What about specifically in your closet?!
I’ll be the first to admit that I LOVE shopping, especially for new clothes and shoes! I’ll also be the first to admit that I need to minimize what I have going on behind those closet doors. This was my motivation to try out a capsule wardrobe.
If you have never heard of it, I’ll explain very briefly.. Creating a capsule wardrobe is simple, but not necessarily easy! Basically, you choose between 30-50 items of clothing that you can mix and match easily without thinking, based on your style and activities you do on a normal basis. For example, I am a stay-at-home mom of 4 children who is active, but laid back. I wear mostly athletic and casual clothing with the occasional dressy outfit for dates, events, or church on Sundays. This means I can mostly stick to athletic and casual wear like leggings, joggers, jeans, t shirts, tanks, athletic shoes, loafers, sandals, and add a few dresses, heels, and nicer tops (I would still wear a nicer top with jeans, personally). I am unsure about where jewelry, hats, and accessories fit in, but I rarely wear those items so I am adding a few of them to my wardrobe to make 50 items total. If you are interested in that specifically, there are many other sites that would be able to provide some extra info on that.
Here are some other sites that provide much more info on creating a capsule wardrobe, for instance: – investing in good quality items that will last – seasonal necessities (like you don’t need to add winter coats to your summer capsule) – How to even start a capsule wardrobe – and other helpful information
Both of those sites are super helpful! I would argue the second one is actually the best because she gives you great direction on colors to start with and essential pieces, and so forth.
Anyway, Here is the capsule wardrobe planner printable so you can plan out your capsule 🙂
I don’t know about you, but our living room is our family sanctuary. We have made it a point to tell the kids, “we don’t bring a bunch of toys in here” and “we don’t wrestle all over the couch”; this may sound strange to some, but it has really helped us create a more restful place when we need it. This is the place we enjoy books and movies together, where we do bible studies and picnic lunches, and nap on the couch when we really need it (this is more of a rarity with younger children, but it does happen sometimes). This is the main room in our house and the one we try hardest to keep minimalistic. I look forward to sharing with you how we minimize and organize what we keep, and how we decorate the living room. Enjoy!
Minimalist Mindset
You probably read that title and thought of one of those Ikea homes with all white walls, modern and clean furniture, and almost no decor; then, you probably thought.. wait.. isn’t this lady a mom? How in the world does she keep a home like that? Let’s be real, my friends, I don’t! Our home is very lived in with a mixture of traditional, farmhouse, and modern decor. Our furniture is not spotlessly clean and our walls get marked up by dirty little hands. We typically have shoes laying by all of the doors and we trip over a few toys here and there. When I mention a minimalist mindset, I mean keeping things simple; I’ll explain.
Keep decorations simple. When you decorate your space, try not to cover every inch of each wall. Instead, create small collages on big walls and leave small walls blank or with one or two decorations (depending on the size of the wall). For example, we have one big wall in our living room and we only decorate in the middle of the wall (see picture below). Our other walls are filled with windows and a door, a small space next to the fireplace, and if you consider over the fireplace a wall then there’s that too. The only other space we have decor is above the fireplace and we keep the mantle as empty as we can, with a few decor pieces. The reason for simple and minimal decor is so when you are looking around your house it doesn’t feel cluttered even with everything put away.
Only items used exclusively in the living room stay in the living room. If possible, keep only items that you use in the living room in that space and put it away where nobody can see them (more on that coming in the next section). For us, this means only movies, video games, books, and a basket of throw blankets stay in the living room; this is aside from decor including couch pillows. Anything else needs to go! The only exception to this is if you use the space as multiple rooms, for example, your living room and office or living room and toy room are the same space. In that case, I would recommend trying to create some kind of separation if at all possible; it could be something as simple as keeping all toys on one side of the room while seating and tv are on the other side.
Keep furniture to a minimum. Most people may already do this, but I thought it was worth mentioning. You may have enough seating for 10 in your living room, but only have a family of 4. There’s no reason for this. You may say, “Well, Marissa, we have company over often so we need additional seating”. I totally understand, BUT I would say you probably don’t have company over more often than just your family, so here’s something you can do to keep your furniture minimal but have enough seating for company.. Get portable furniture! There are many options for foldable seating that are comfortable and classy, then, you can put seats away when you don’t need them but get them out when company is coming over. I’ll link some options here:
Now that you have a minimalist mindset, it’s time to organize and declutter your living space. Some decluttering took place in the first section when it came to decor and furniture, so this section will focus on all of those smaller items you store in the tv stand, table drawers, storage ottoman, or any other storage furniture you use. Below, I’ll share with you tips based on how we organize all of these items in our space using simple techniques and materials to help (materials are linked below each section they are talked about).
Use furniture you cannot see inside. This may be personal preference, but I find it helpful for a put-together space to store everything in furniture where you cannot see the stuff inside. My reasoning is because no matter how organized a cabinet or set of drawers are, I do not like seeing stuff. If you are like me, then this tip is for you! That was short and sweet, but I had to mention it. We use a short, long dresser as a tv stand (we actually got it for free from Facebook marketplace and fixed it up for a total of about $20), a small storage ottoman, and a large hamper basket for blankets (you only see the top blanket when all are inside, so this works fine for me).
– Large Woven Hamper: https://amzn.to/3cdYtSM (I love this so much, I got another for our toy room)
Use drawer dividers and/or storage containers. If you use a dresser like we do or a tv stand with drawers, I highly suggest using drawer dividers to keep your items organized. These are perfect for separating charging cords (another great item for cords linked below), remotes, game controllers, or anything else you need stored. (Notice I didn’t say movies or games. I have another tip coming up for those *wink*.) Alternatively, if you use a storage cabinet or tv stand with cabinets and no drawers (or combination), I recommend organizing with storage containers. If you read my last post, you know I love storage containers, BUT I actually recommend using different containers for the living room items. Something more structured is most helpful (I linked some we love below)
Put DVDs and games in a CD case. Before I fully get into this tip, I first recommend going digital with all of the movies you can. With streaming services and the ability to purchase movies digitally, we do not need to keep DVDs in the house as much as before. BUT.. you are probably like us and still have some because why purchase digital when you already have the movie. I totally get it (and we watch movies on the car DVD player during long trips), so in that case I highly recommend getting a few of the high capacity CD cases I linked below to minimize the clutter of DVDs and game cases. To explain more on this, our DVDs used to fill 3 full drawers (half of our tv stand dresser), but since we threw away all of the cases and filed them in CD cases they now take up half of one drawer! WOW! I was more excited about this than I probably needed to be, but I just love decluttering and organizing.
Label everything! Seriously! Label everything you can: drawers, cords, CD cases, storage containers, all of it! That’s all.. See the label maker I use below:
There you have it! The living room is my favorite place in the house and I try my best to keep it minimal and organized so we can enjoy living life in it. I hope you learned a few new things and I’d love to hear from you to know how you use these tips in your own organizing and decluttering. If you use any of these tips or grab any of these awesome products, tag me on instagram to share how you love them!
I’m not sure about you, but I despise an unorganized space. I do not function well when a space is not put together. In our house, the toy room (we call it our play room) is the absolute hardest space to keep organized.
From a very young age we have taught our children to pick up after themselves (around 18 months old). This doesn’t mean it has gotten easier as they have grown; if anything, it has gotten harder! They will pick up their toys after some enticing or the setting of a timer and the threat of a trash bag coming for their stuff, but they rarely put everything back where it’s supposed to go. Because of this, I have spent hours that probably add up to days organizing and re-organizing the play room so it’s VERY easy for them to remember where their toys go. Through all of this trial and error I have come up with some advice I would love to share with anyone who is in a similar boat.
Let’s be real with ourselves
My biggest tip for those going crazy (like me) in your unorganized toy room is… Train yourself to be okay with every little thing not being in its place. The more important thing is that your kids are learning to do independent tasks; this means things will be out of place sometimes. With that said, I make it a point to gently explain to my kids we aren’t JUST trying to get our toys off of the floor, but we are wanting them to be in their homes so we can find them next time we play. Don’t be fooled into thinking since I’m telling you this I do it perfectly. Remember when I said I hate an unorganized space? Well, I struggle with this most in this specific room.
The next tip is another one regarding training your mind… Remind yourself there are many other spaces in the house where you have full or close to full control. This helps me tremendously because I can focus my attention on getting these other spaces the way I want while giving my children control over their space. This works hand and hand with the first tip because when your attention is shifted to something you can control more closely, you are able to train your mind to be okay when the toy room is not perfect.
Practical Organization Tips
Bookshelves! Get bookshelves for your toy room, but not just any bookshelves.. Get some with deep shelves that are sturdy and tall. Of course you are saying, “Well, duh it needs to be sturdy!” That means I don’t have to discuss that one, but let’s talk about why it should be tall. I’m not sure about you, but I have young kids (my children are under 7). Young kids, especially toddlers, like to get into anything with small pieces. Then, they dump those pieces all over the floor and promptly put some in their mouth, OR move on to something totally different leaving those pieces everywhere. To combat this, I put anything with small pieces on top shelves or on the very top of our bookshelves. Now, when it comes to the deep shelves, read the next tip to answer that.
Here are a few great bookshelf options: Reclaimed Pine Bookshelf:https://amzn.to/2SmXGrU (A really nice shelf for a rustic-like look) Ash Gray Tall Bookshelf:https://amzn.to/3yBxHxy(A more modern style bookshelf) Open Ended Bookshelf: https://amzn.to/3vrvgvh (We have these to store our baskets on with toys. I do not recommend actually putting books on them unless they are in a container.)
We use two kinds of bookshelves, one for books and one for toys in their bins! (We actually have two of each of these!)
Storage baskets! I was (and still am) the person who wants everything that is not a decor item or furniture piece to be put away somewhere you cannot see (for example, in a cabinet or dresser). The problem with this in the toy room is when the kids cannot see their toys they seem to forget where they go when it’s time to put them away. This may sound strange, but it’s definitely the case in this house and I’m assuming we aren’t completely different from every family in the world. Our solution is to put all toys in small to medium storage bins (on bookshelves) that are fairly shallow in depth or totally clear so you can see everything in them. The exceptions to this are: dress up clothes (see large hamper link below), stuffed animals (see next tip), and larger toys that we either set straight on our shelves or on the floor depending on how large they are.
Here are the storage baskets we love: White Woven Baskets (5 pack): https://amzn.to/3vhvANi(We love these for small to medium sized toys) Clear Storage Bins with Lids (20 pack): https://amzn.to/2T746eU(We use these for small puzzles, legos, etc) Large Woven Hamper: https://amzn.to/3oJoDlE (We use this for dress up clothes; it holds a ton!)
Woven laundry hamper for dress up clothes
Store stuffed animals in kids room!This is a huge tip for us! I am not sure I know a household without a crazy number of stuffed animals. You receive them as gifts constantly and if your kids are anything like mine, they struggle to get rid of any animals and they remember who gave them each one. Some of our solutions to this have been: telling everyone to stop giving us stuffed animals (haha!), having the kids get rid of one to replace a new one they receive, and storing all of our animals in storage containers with lids that roll under the kids beds (they are allowed a few on their beds, of course).
Great under the bed storage options: Storage Containers with wheels: https://amzn.to/3yGcLFq(These are the exact ones we have) Slightly Smaller Containers:https://amzn.to/3yDPjsv(These do not have wheels like the others)
Closing Thoughts
Now you know some ways we organize our toy room and I hope you have gained something from this post. If you reorganize your toy room with me in mind, please share on Instagram and tag me! I would love to see how these tips have helped you!
Oh, just a few more products I wanted to share that we love in our toy room, but also our homeschool space:
Clear project cases: https://amzn.to/3ftEJNn (These are awesome for school materials, coloring supplies, or magazines) Bungee Chairs: https://amzn.to/3bW79xj(These are comfortable and perfect for a toy room, media room, or child’s and/or teen’s bedroom)
I’m thankful you liked what you saw enough from my Instagram or Etsy shop that you followed the link to get to this blog. I am so humbled by the love and support I’ve received since sharing what I hope to be fun and simple organization tips, as well as digital content.
With that said, here is my first blog post! I am, in no way, a writer so all of my posts will be short and sweet. They will be complete with at least one photo and some will have links to awesome products on Amazon I have grabbed and loved (so much so that I had to share them with you).
A little about me before I close out this post (you can find more in the about section on my site):
– I am a silly, creative, Christian lady who has a stud husband and 4 amazing children – I wear a million different hats (well a little less, but you get it): Wife, Mom, Director of a homeschool co-op, Etsy shop owner times two, and I guess now a blogger?! – I LOVE coffee and tacos! – I love weight lifting and am dying to build a home gym (hopefully this will happen over the next two years) – I love to organize and declutter! Stuff makes me crazy, so I want to get rid of everything. With that, I’m not incredibly sentimental. Oops.
I’m excited you have decided to follow along in my crazy journey and I hope you get something out of this! Let’s connect! Follow me on Instagram and I’ll follow back: @sewist_marissa
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