DIY Furniture Moving Sliders {Cheap Organizing Tricks}

February 20, 2012 By Nony 9 Comments

Sometimes . . . decluttering/organizing requires furniture-moving.

Sometimes . . . the motivation to move furniture hits when big, strong (handsome and hairy) men aren’t available to help.

Everytime . . . motivation related to decluttering/organizing must not be stifled.  It’s just too elusive.

When I need to move furniture, I place glossy gift-bags under the feet of the furniture to be moved.  Occasionally, a certain bag won’t work for some reason, but I always have plenty.

The slipperiness of the bags helps the furniture slide across the floor more easily. I’m sure that the real furniture-sliding-thingamabobs work better, but I’m pretty sure I had some at one point, but could never find them when I needed them.

 

 

 

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Big Things Going On in the Gameroom

February 16, 2012 By Nony 18 Comments

Did you notice how I called it “The Gameroom” without any slashes, parentheses, or other explanation?

I’m doing my best to start thinking of this as a single purpose room that can adjust to other purposes when needed.

This is the second week of work on this room-overhaul, and I’m ready to see some real progress.  Last week’s frustrating furniture-moving-episode is now just a memory, and I’m beginning to adjust to the new arrangement.  I might even like it.

Might.

The new arrangement makes this room look more like a gameroom.  (Which is, after all, the point.)

My big task for this week is to get rid of the desk. The desk which (once I decided it had to go) has been getting on my last nerve. The desk which I will gladly place on the curb with a big, handwritten sign saying FREE.

But before I can get rid of it . . . I have to unearth it.

So today, I cleared the desk. Not cleaned . . . just cleared.  There is a rebellious little part of me that thinks the recipient of the free desk should have to dust it him/herself.  It’s likely the same part of me that causes a lot of my slob-problems . . .

This is my VERY least favorite type of decluttering project.  Paper.  Lots of it, and all random.

I grabbed a trashcan and began going through the clutter item by item.

I found plenty of trash.  Expired voter registration cards, school papers from when my second grader was in kindergarten . . . and lots more.

Mmm-hmmmm, totally useless stuff.

A can full of out-of-the-box staples, random Little People, faded nerf-darts, and such?

I tossed it all.

There were several moments of Decluttering Paralysis.  Knowing that I wasn’t just straightening or cleaning, or even organizing this desk . . . but completely clearing it so I can purge it from my home, was big.

And overwhelming.

Since I couldn’t go ahead and set up the new computer table (the heavy TV will require Hubby’s help to move), and I didn’t want piles all over this room for the next two days . . . I did my best to consolidate and contain.

I was particularly proud that I turned this basket into a storage spot for CDs.

I think it looks slightly better than the way I had been storing them in the desk’s cubby:

It turned out that a LOT of the paper clutter was made up of good intentions. Most of it was recycled paper that people have given me to use for printing on the other side.  I gathered it up (along with other office supplies) and placed it in this storage tub.

Yes, I’m slightly stressed about how I’m going to deal with these things on the new computer table.

After about an hour and a half, it looked like this:

Once we move the computer, we can drag the desk out to the curb!

I just have to distribute those last remaining knick-knacks to places of honor throughout the house.  Things like my tiaras (purchased, not won), and . . . .

(That’s Hubby and Me in our dating years!)

______________________________

I’ll be linking this up to Orgjunkie’s 29 Day Organizing Challenge.

I’m also linking this up to The Nester’s “It Doesn’t Have to Be Perfect to Be Beautiful” link-up. This project is far from (and will never be) perfect . . . but progress is beautiful.

 

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The Room-Rearranging Story Without a Happy Ending

February 9, 2012 By Nony 19 Comments

Last week, I shared my plan for our office/gameroom/guest room.

I LOVED the comments on that post.  They really helped me think through what I wanted to do with that room.

The main thing I got from your comments?  Embrace one purpose for the room.

Decide on a purpose and go with that one purpose.  Yes, it’s a guest room, but only on rare occasions.  For those occasions, it can be turned into a guest room.

Thinking that way helped me realize that it isn’t really an office anymore either.  I now have a laptop and do most of my writing in the living room.  The computer in there is generally for the kids now.

A computer for the kids would be something you would find in a gameroom.

And if I go with that one theme, the bar makes so much more sense!

I thought about this all week.  At some point in the week, it hit me that the dresser should be our new TV stand, the current table/TV stand our new computer desk, and the desk should be the thing that goes to the curb.

Literally.

The desk isn’t special.  I bought it at a garage sale for about twenty dollars.  It sounds cool to have all that shelf space going up the wall, but really . . . it just becomes a clutter catcher.  A LARGE and un-hide-able clutter catcher.

A first-thing-you-see-when-you-enter-the-room clutter catcher.

So . . . I had big visions of spending a little time today moving some furniture pieces around the room.  I saw a webisode in my head that ended with a satisfied “See how much of a difference just re-arranging furniture can make?”

Well, I moved the furniture.

I took this picture at the point when my pulse started racing and the anxiety over the it-gets-worse-before-it-gets-better mess I’d created began affecting my vision.

With each piece I moved, I uncovered random cr items that had fallen (or been stuffed) behind it.

I turned on my Slob Vision and decided that I wasn’t going to get sidetracked.  I was just going to move the furniture.  Randomly stuffed items would simply be re-randomly re-stuffed.  (There goes my chance at winning Orgjunkie’s 29 Day Challenge!)

I simply didn’t have time to do an entire room overhaul today.

I moved the couch where the dresser had been.  I’ve never studied feng shui but I’ve heard enough to know that you’re not supposed to block doorways.

Which is also common sense.

Soooo, I “floated” the couch.  I’ve also heard this is good decorating practice.  You’re not supposed to think that all furniture has to be pushed up against a wall.

Except now, my (overly full at the moment) Donate Spot isn’t hidden at all.  Not that it was hidden before, but I could pretend it was.


And the room looks smaller. And if I’m in a hurry to get to that potty . . . I might just break a leg when I forget that there’s now a COUCH in the way of getting to the half-bath back there.

I’m guessing that getting rid of the desk and abundance of now-much-harder-to-ignore clutter will help.

I still think that some version of this arrangement will be how we need to go, and since I don’t have the time to re-re-arrange it today, I guess I’ll have to let it sink in and hope that some masterful solution comes to me in my sleep.

But I’m still mad.

 

 

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