Tuesday, June 21, 2011

Living Simply: The Living Room

Our family spends a lot of time in the living room. In this space most of our reading, playing, visiting and relaxing happen.


As you can see I have a some books here and there. Actually, most of them are downstairs. Books are a difficult thing for me to simplify. I enjoy accumulating books and the fact that books are so inexpensive to get at garage sales and thrift stores doesn't help. I keep an active record of all the books I own on LibraryThing, but there are books that I'm not completely happy with and those should be sold or donated.


My children don't have a separate play room; the living room is their playroom. I try and keep toy clutter under control by making only a few toys available at any given time. When my little ones loose interest of a toy I switch it with a toy I've stored downstairs. This system has been working well. I would like to invest in a few more good quality toys for my little ones (any toy suggestions?) as well as a few more nice baskets for storing toys on the shelf.


There are few areas that need fixing in the living room. One, is the fire place. The existing tiles broke off and we've been meaning to install new tiles. I'd like this to be done. Two, the lighting in this room is terrible. In the summer it's no problem because the sun doesn't set until 10pm anyways. In the winter, however, it's gloomy. I'm going to try and find another lamp of two. Three, there are a couple holes in the walls. These holes need to be filled and repainted.


I also have a variety of plants in the living room, and some are looking shabby. I think these old plants will be meeting the compost bin.


Finally, my Husband and I want to create a prayer space for the little ones in the living room. We've been talking about the importance of putting time aside to create a special and consistent prayer time. I'm going to find a small table for the corner of the room for this purpose. What kind of things should I put in the prayer space?

I'd love to hear your suggestions! Also, Elisa is decluttering her linens this week, be sure to go over and check our her post.
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2 comments:

  1. MeadowJune 21, 2011 at 6:40 PM

    My house needs work in the simple living area so I'm really enjoying your house posts. We have a prayer area in our dining room. I keep some of our prayer books and CGS materials near the prayer table and a music area is right near by too. On our actual prayer table is a crucifix, a Bible on a Bible holder and a statue of the Mary. Well actually the Crucifix has been moved to a higher place near by because Cupcake likes to touch it.You can see our prayer area in the backround of a post I did on our Pentecost celebration this year. Perhaps I'll take photos of this area in the future. If you look you'll see a knick kack shelf near by we have Saint statues in there. On the prayer table you'll also see a Triptych the kids made for the Feast of the Annunciation a while ago. I was going to take it down but the kids wanted to keep it up a little longer. http://meadowmagic-meadow.blogspot.com/2011/06/pentecost.html

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  2. ElisaJune 27, 2011 at 6:31 PM

    I love your living room. It's such a big open beautiful space. I have been using Library Thing, but I only have a few books in there. I want to put all my books in there so I can see what I have. That might take forever though.

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I would love to hear your friendly thoughts.