Summer Clutter Detox Day 2: The Family Room

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Today’s room was a lot easier than yesterday, probably because there wasn’t much clutter to begin with. But even areas that I deem fairly “clutter free,” have their pockets.

Our family room is a comfortable size. Not too big, but big enough to comfortably entertain family and friends.  It’s made up of a sectional couch, a chair, 2 bookcases, 2 end tables, a coffee table with storage, and 2 sideboys (one that backs up to our couch, and the other is used as a TV stand with board games inside.) The only other pieces to mention are a reclaimed wood crate that houses some electronics, and a large basket in the corner filled with blankets.

Most of the contents in our family room belong to Josh and the girls. Josh is a huge reader, so the majority of books are his.  I have some, but I often pass my books along to friends after I have read them, so my inventory isn’t that large. I did pull a few cookbooks that I never use, and put them in the donate pile. I also took 3 photo albums that were on a shelf and relocated them upstairs where the rest of our “old school” photo albums live. Not too long ago, I purged the sideboys, so they were in pretty good shape.

My next step was to send a group text to the fam, letting them know it was their turn to “SBO” the family room (*several years ago, Logan deemed Simply B Organized a verb: TO SIMPLY B ORGANIZED (v.) a means to declutter a space using an EMPTY, SORT, PURGE method of separating your goods into 4 piles consisting of KEEP, DONATE, RECYCLE or RELOCATE).

Unlike the mudroom, where we had multiple bags for donation, the family room had more modest results. Among all of us, we were able to muster up several books to donate, but the huge win came in the form of a forgotten iPad mini that Josh stumbled on in the electronics bin that NO ONE uses.

What’s worse is that I didn’t even know we owned it!

We have good friends who are serving as missionaries in the Dominican Republic, and our friend Megan is a teacher at a Christian school. Many of the kids come from extreme poverty and are developmentally behind. The school does not have the financial resources to provide current technology  that can be used to help as a teaching tool. Over the past 4 years we have donated several iPads and tablets to Megan, and they have made a world of difference in her classroom (*Last year she had the kids make a video, and to see the impact and joy on these little faces was priceless). So whenever we have any spare devices, we always send them to Dave & Megan.  

This iPad must have slipped through the cracks.  I was so excited that Josh “found” it, so we could pass it along to the kids in the DR, where I know it will go to good use.

My goal is to try to accumulate LESS stuff to begin with, so we have less to purge. 

NEXT STEP: The Kitchen.