Front Entrance and Closet

The front closet and entrance is considered one of the most important parts of the home as it sets the mood for the remaining rooms in your home. If you tense up the minute you walk in the door because you’re tripping over the leash and can’t find a place to hang your coat or put away your shoes, your entire mood will be affected. By the same token, you want guests and family to feel welcome and invited when they step over your threshold, so paying attention to this often forgotten area is important when undertaking your March Makeover project.

There are dozens of ways you can organize your entryway storage area, but the guiding principle should always be this: keep your front entrance and closet free of clutter and free flowing. You want to smoothly usher people into your home by setting the stage in this space. Here are some practical tips for making your front entrance and closet a flowing, welcoming area in your home:

• Designate a basket, box, or drawer for mail.
• Hang hooks or set out cups for each set of keys in the home.
• Hang a stylish chalkboard or white board so that you can leave each other notes.
• If there are many people in your family, set up a coat and shoe area with one or two hooks and a shoe rack each. Include a shelf or hooks for school bags and a basket for hats, mittens, or an umbrella.
• Make space in the front closet for sporting equipment and musical instruments so that it doesn’t block the front entrance.
• Make sure there’s a door or curtain on your front closet so that you can close it up to avoid the distraction of stuff.
• Use the entire height of your front closet by installing several levels of shelves to take full advantage of storage space.
• Pack off-season outdoor gear in bins and store them out of the way in the closet or elsewhere in your home.
• Set up two bins at the front door: one for things going outside, and one for things coming inside.

Here’s our top tip for making the front entrance and closet area the most organized space in your home: buy a piece of furniture with 6-10 small drawers. A tallboy dresser is ideal, but choosing something that will fit in the confines of your front entrance area is important. Then designate one drawer for each member of the family where they can place all of the small items that would otherwise clutter the front entrance and get lost, including keys, sunglasses, wallet/purse, eyeglasses cleaner, coupons, mugs, and lip gloss. Remaining drawers can be used for other items, such as reusable bags, clean mugs, returning books to the library, pens and paper for notes, the dog’s leash and doo-doo bags, phone books, bag ties, rubber bands, matches, and other miscellaneous items that do not have a home.

Remember that keeping the front entrance clutter free and organized will keep you in a positive frame every time you come home. 

©2010 Teresa’s Family Cleaning

Want to use this article in your newsletter, blog or web site? You have my blessing so long as you include the following complete blurb with it (including links).

Teresa Ward, President of Teresa’s Family Cleaning and New York State’s Small Business Entrepreneur of the Year is often considered Long Island’s foremost authority on cleaning homes and businesses to create a cleaner and healthier environment for all. Our highly sought after, award winning weekly newsletter provides timely cleaning tips and other important Long Island information and charitable events for homeowners, businesses and not-for-profits. Visit us at http://www.TeresasFamilyCleaning.com to sign up and receive your copy today!

Family Room & Living Room

Living rooms and family rooms perform many functions in our lives: they’re spaces for entertaining, rooms in which to hide away with a good book, and the place for relaxation with the family. But so often the clutter of everyday life prevents us from doing what’s most important in our living and family rooms: living!

Prepping your living and family room for a makeover

If you’re looking for March Makeover ideas for your living and family room spaces, look no further.  At Teresa’s Family Cleaning, we approach home organization with old-world methods so that you can live Long Island style all year round.

Start by emptying out your living and family room spaces as much as is practical. Gather together all of the things that have piled up in the space over time, and as you pick things up, sort them into various boxes labelled “Give Away” (things you no longer want but that are still useful), “Recycle/Trash” (for broken and obsolete items), “Keep” (items that will stay in the living room), “File” (items that need to be taken to their rightful place in your home), and “Store” (those things that belong in long-term storage). You’ll want to evaluate the necessity of everything in your living room, including things like magazines, books, CDs, DVDs, toys, decorative items and nick knacks, games and puzzles, pictures, gadgets and electronics, linens, and lamps. Only items that are used on a weekly basis in your living room should remain in the “Keep” box; everything else should be sorted into another box.

If you’ve done a good job of sorting, the only thing remaining in your living room should be large pieces of furniture. From here, there are several big jobs to complete before your makeover is complete:

• Care for upholstery and carpeting: Take a look at all of the upholstered surfaced in your living: couch, chairs, area rugs, and wall-to-wall carpeting. Start by giving each of these surfaces a thorough vacuum treatment. For furniture, be sure to remove cushions and vacuum every surface. To thoroughly clean carpet, be sure to shift furniture around to get every inch clean. Then using green sealed certified products, spot-treat any stains according to package directions. Follow that with a steam clean of each of these surfaces.
• Clean hard surfaces: Whether you’ve got tile, hardwood, linoleum, or some other hard surface flooring, you’ll want to wash the floors down, including those spaces underneath furniture. Also wipe down hard surfaces on furniture and wash all of your walls.
• Fireplace cleansing: If your living room has a wood burning fireplace, clean that out by removing all of the ashes, wiping down the hearth, and getting a professional to clean your chimney stack.

Your living room is now prepped and ready to be made-over with a new, more organized Long Island look to transform it into a cozy retreat.

Function and form in your re-organized living room

Packing many functions into one room can be a challenge, but here are Teresa’s Family Cleanings most practical top tips for creating a warm, inviting, functional space for your family in the living room.

• Define living room zones: Space permitting, try to organize various zones within the living and family room spaces for the functions they need to perform. If TV watching is one of the functions, organize a couch and some chairs around the television in one end of the room. Likewise for reading or just snoozing.
• Make the most of wall space: Your walls aren’t just for hanging pictures—they can also be re-purposed to store items that will be useful for the activities in your living room. By adding things like shelving units and cabinets along the walls, you can turn once unused space into high-performing spaces where you store books, DVDs, CDs, toys, and other necessary living room items. Use cupboard doors, baskets, and boxes to hide away items that are unsightly.
• Choose multi-function furniture: If you’re like most of us, you’ll need to store all kinds of items for various purposes in your living room—magazine collections, board games, blankets, dog toys, and kids play things. When space is limited, choose furniture that does double-duty, like storage ottomans, wicker trunks, sofa beds, planters with drawers, and coffee tables with extra shelves. Leave no space underutilized and you’ll have no trouble hiding things away.

We’re confident that with these high-powered ideas, you’ll have a multi-functional, welcoming living room that will be the gathering place in your home. Take the time you need to makeover this space and you’ll be rewarded with many happy memories of real living here!

©2010 Teresa’s Family Cleaning

Want to use this article in your newsletter, blog or web site? You have my blessing so long as you include the following complete blurb with it (including links).

Teresa Ward, President of Teresa’s Family Cleaning and New York State’s Small Business Entrepreneur of the Year is often considered Long Island’s foremost authority on cleaning homes and businesses to create a cleaner and healthier environment for all. Our highly sought after, award winning weekly newsletter provides timely cleaning tips and other important Long Island information and charitable events for homeowners, businesses and not-for-profits. Visit us at http://www.TeresasFamilyCleaning.com to sign up and receive your copy today!