Hey guys! It’s August and this month on my Deep Cleaning Schedule we have the living room organization and the laundry room organization. Read on for my tips and ideas for cleaning, organizing your living room, and making it functional for your family!
Living Room Organization & Deep Cleaning
If you’ve been following my Deep Cleaning Schedule with me, you’ve already cleaned the windows, walls, baseboards and other trim, light fixtures, and fans earlier this year. But, you can give them another quick wipe down if you notice dust building up or any marks on the walls. We’re mainly cleaning the furniture and decorations, as well as organizing in the living/family room this month.
What You’ll Need:
- Microfiber Cloth
- Dusting Spray – I make mine using water, white distilled vinegar, fractionated coconut oil, and lemon essential oil. I shared the recipe here.
- Wood Oil Soap – I use Murphy Oil Soap to give the the wood furniture a good cleaning and make it shine. It’s not toxic-free. So when I finish the little bit I have left, I plan on switching over to a little less toxic version, like Method Wood for Good Polish.
What To Do:
1. Clean Couches and Chairs
First up, we’re going to clean out those couches. Maybe you’ll be lucky and fine some loose change! Take the cushions off and use your vacuum cleaner’s hose attachment to vacuum out all the lint, crumbs, sand (we have lots of that here!), etc.
Then dampen your microfiber cloth and wipe the bottom of the couch to get any excess stuff that the vacuum cleaner missed.
We have leather couches, which I love because they’re easy to clean. I spray a little bit of my homemade dusting spray on the leather. It’s safe on leather and works well to get all those food bits off the coach! Then I just wipe it down with the cloth. I clean all sides of the cushions before replacing them on the couch. Then I wipe the back and sides of the couch as well.
If you have cloth couches, like my big comfy chair is, I’d recommend getting those professionally steam cleaned once or twice a year. Between cleanings, you can spot clean with a mixture of Dr. Bronner’s Pure Castile Soap and water. Be sure to always test a small, inconspicuous section of your furniture with any new cleaner you use to make sure it works for your particular furniture.
Watch my video on living room deep cleaning here!
2. Wash Pillows and Blankets
Grab all your throw pillows and blankets and take them to the laundry room to wash. I wash two throw pillows at a time and wash two at a time for the blankets as well. I recommend washing the pillows on delicate cycle and then drying them on low heat (especially if you have any down pillows).
3. Clean Other Furniture
Next up, we’re going to clean all the other furniture – your coffee table, end tables, TV stands, etc. I use my Murphy Soap Oil to clean the outside of all the wood furniture. This works better than my everyday dusting spray at cleaning and polishing the furniture. I spray a small section of wood at a time and rub with the microfiber cloth in a circular motion until it is clean and shiny. Repeat on the entire surface are of the furniture. Make sure you clean in all the grooves as well.
Then, going one piece of furniture at a time, take EVERYTHING out from all the drawers and cabinets. To clean the inside of the drawers, I use my homemade dusting spray. I spray and wipe away any dust. If there are crumbs or dirt that you can’t clean out with just your cloth, use your vacuum cleaner’s hose attachment again to suck all that stuff up.
Check to make sure all the knobs are screwed on all the way. If not, go ahead and tighten them up. I’m not sure if anyone else has this issue, but we have a little 3-year-old that likes to twist the knobs off ALL THE TIME!
4. Organize drawers
Now that the furniture is clean, it’s time to put everything away in an organized way. We use our coffee table for storing board games and other games. When the kids get done playing a game, they don’t always get put it away neatly. Again, this little trouble maker here likes to get everything out of the drawers. Then when it’s time to pick up, he tends to throw all the game pieces in the drawers.
So I enlisted my helpers (aka – kids) to help sort out all the game pieces. We made sure all the game pieces were in their matching box.
Some of the boxes were falling apart. So, for those game, I tossed the pieces in a gallon-sized Ziploc bag and threw the game box away.
I did the same with all of our card games. Those little boxes fall apart so easily. And little hands have trouble fitting all the cards back in the boxes. So, we sorted all the cards that were previously thrown in the drawer. Then we put each card game into a quart-sized Ziploc bag. I stood the card games up vertically, so we can see each game easily.
We keep our DVDs, CDs, and Video games in our TV Stand cabinets. As you can see, it’s not always kept nice and orderly…
I went through all the DVDs and made sure each one was in the matching case. I organized them by genre. For the kids’ DVDs, I sorted them in these groups:
- Bible stories,
- Christmas,
- and then all other DVDS.
And then I arranged them alphabetically in their groups as well.
For my husband’s and my movies, I organized them into these groups:
- action/adventure,
- comedy, and
- romance/romantic comedy.
And then again, I put each genre in alphabetic order. While I was going through them, any DVDs that I knew we wouldn’t watch again and didn’t want anymore, I set aside to get rid of.
Our CDs are organized by genre and alphabetical order as well. Although, we’ll probably end up getting rid of many of those, as we really don’t listen to CDs anymore. When we listen to music at home, we either play music off of our phones or through the Apple TV. Do you still listen to CDs ever?
5. Dust Mantel and Decor
Finally, dust the mantel and all the decorations. Start by taking everything off your fireplace mantel. Spray the wood with your dusting spray and wipe away any dust. Use your microfiber cloth to clean in all the grooves too. Then replace your picture frames and other decor. If your mantel is made of untreated wood, don’t spray the directly on the wood. Just dampen your cloth a little bit and then wipe the wood.
Spray a few squirts of the dusting spray onto your cloth and use it to dust all your picture frames, candle holders, vases, etc. Make sure you dust picture frames on the wall and any other decorations in the room. If you have wreaths, you can use a feather duster to dust them.
As you’re dusting, evaluate the decorations you have. Do any areas look too cluttered? If so, decide if there’s anything you don’t love anymore and that you can part with. Or, take note of anything you need to update your decor. As I’m organizing, if I notice anything I need, I go ahead and add it to my Amazon wish list before I forget.
That’s it for the living room organization! Let me know how it goes for you. Did you get rid of anything to make your family room less cluttered? Do you have any solutions for keeping games and DVDs orderly with kiddos? I’d love to know!
[clickfunnels_embed height=”710″ url=”https://nourishwithbritt.click/optin1664488621126″ scroll=”yes”]
