Make A Rustic Sawhorse Table For Under $40
8 Clever Organizing Tricks
Hey Schwarzenegger -- Keep the weights at the gym. Photo: Ugly House Photos
Here's why:
Keeping a "storage room" in your home is the worst decor idea yet. You know how goldfish will grow to the size of its bowl, provided the bowl is large enough? Your stuff is like that. Collections, memorabilia, paperwork --- If you've got the room, you've got a mess. Instead, designate one closet in your home for miscellaneous storage (or better yet -- make use of that attic!). When the closet is full, find a new way to organize, or trash something you no longer need.
Parting is such sweet sorrow, but then again, so is a hideous-looking room. And don't even get me started on that useless treadmill...
Want more Decor Don'ts? Read on:
-Decor Don't: Kill the Animal Decor
-Decor Don't: Too Much Lighting
Reader comments (Page 1 of 1)
I use one simple old rule when it comes to EVERYTHING in my home..."If you haven't used it, worn it, read it or needed it in a year, TOSS IT."
ReplyIt works!!
Sorry, but I disagree with what you call junk. Collections and memorabilia are NOT junk. Stuff that's broken or missing a piece or pieces is junk. It also depends on how the stuff is displayed too. You could have valuable art, but it'll look like junk if the pieces are on the floor leaning against the wall. Caption on the photo, at least, is correct. All that gym equipment just doesn't belong with everything else. Is that a cocktail table full of dolls? What's with that? Along with the photo, you should have identified what everything is in the picture.
ReplyOrganizing and cleaning should be a priority when decorating your home. Even when you have sparse furnishings, keep your rooms free of clutter and organized. Everything looks better when cleaned! Start with one closet or only a part of a room first. I tell my customers just to do one thing a day. Eventually your whole home will reach the pinnacle of organization. See lots of tips on our blog, The Designer Insider.
ReplyA home should be decorated to suit the persons living in it. If others don't care for it, SO WHAT?
ReplyI do not have any closets in my house. As a genealogist, I have a huge collection of family papers, pictures, etc. These are NOT junk, but I have no place to store them where I can go to them when I need to look something up, other than my sewing room. It is my house, and I will use the space in it as best suits my needs.
ReplyVery frequently we do have to use rooms for multiple uses, but it doesn't mean that they will necessarily look messy. Organization is the key. Genealogy materials can be kept in storage file boxes in shelves that are large enough to accomadate them or look for large file cabinets at your local thrift store or on craigslist. Everything will be a lot easier to get to if it's placed in properly labeled boxes or cabinets. A coat of spray paint can even be used to tie mismatched pieces together.
I certainly agree! We all can do better at organizing things and items that are important to us, but this gal sounds like the kind of person who would throw out her inherited grandma's favorite fruit bowl because to her, it is ugly. And please, don't discourage we Americans from having a working treadmill! Put a TV in front of it, and use it! All of us who live in most of the country have snow on the ground right now, and we can't get out and walk everyday. And not everyone lives close to a gym/health facility.
This picture kind of reminds me of cars that have "this and that" plastered all over the back. Perhaps the driver likes them, but to everyone else who is at the back of the car....tacky!!!!!
ReplyI suppose to those of you who support "junk rooms," you might want to consider detouring your guests around it.
My home is my own little corner of the world. Its not dirty or cluttered and I don't save things forever just for sentimental reasons .....the memories are still there even if you don't keep everything loved ones have given you over the years.
Its not a showcase to impress others. The people who feel the need to set their homes up to be completely perfect(in their eyes) are lacking in some area of their lives. Who cares how anyone else lives in their own homes?? Is that really so important? Besides that the people who you would least expect to live in a dirty ,cluttered home...are usually the ones who do.
i started four years ago (it takes a long time to "let go") getting rid of cheap crap. the silk flowers were the first to go. little by little, a closet here, a room there. four years latter, the house is clear of clutter and looks fabulous. it is hard at first, but it gets easier. then paint! and no, i do not have a room that looks like the one they are showing!
ReplyI wouldn't call this a "junk room". It is obvioulsy being used as an exercise room and kid's play area. Where else would you provide a special area for recreation? Even if you could store all this equipment in a closet, where would actually have the space to use it. It's much better in a designated room of a large home rather than all over the house.
ReplyThe problem with designers and decorators is that they expect every home to be a "showplace" rather than a place that's "lived in". The only time it's necessary to stage a home for aesthetic reasons is when you're selling it. Otherwise, enjoy living in it, and keep your things where it's convenient and practical for YOU and YOUR family---not where it will impress visitors.
We live in a house with five bedrooms, and one of them has always been my "spare" room. I clean it up and clear it out about once a year, but it's my space to put the miscellaneous stuff I want to keep--for future projects (I'm an artist and a seamstress) and all the other stuff that I collect--I do a lot of "repurposing" of furniture and decorative items. If I didn't have this room, I would have to put things in the garage (not convenient) or get rid of them (not an option). So I have one room that isn't used for a bedroom--we only use one anyway since the kids are grown and when they come home, there's still one extra--if I were selling the house I would clear it out and make it a bedroom, but otherwise, who cares?
ReplyIt's your house ... decorate it however you want. People are lucky to still be in their homes with so many foreclosures. Just keep your house clean and nobody will care how you decorate your home. I've never liked entering homes that seem stuffy. A house that's lived in is always welcoming and cozy ... just keep your house clean.
I love tossing things out, it's so liberating! We recently moved into a larger home and I have been finding so much junk in boxes that have no purpose. All of my important papers get filed, I toss magazines after flipping through them once, and mail gets sorted the second it comes in the house. One rule that has helped keep the place neat is not buying trinckets and memorabilia whenever we travel, I also tell my family not to give us figurines and stuffed animals (for some reason they like doing that). It's easy to keep your home neat, clean, and clutter free. You just have to learn to let things go and not buy junk, you'll also save money.
ReplyPeople visiting me don't make my mortgage payments... it's my HOME, not a Model Home. It's comfortable and clean, but I have a large play room with trains, tvs, ping pong and craft tables that is there for everyone to have a good time. If you dont' like my house because I actually LIVE there, then the door is right over there.
ReplyThis isn't a "junk room". It's a playroom/exercise room, and obviously being used as such. The only thing I find weird is the two-toned paint on the walls with the walls being different combinations of colors. Maybe it was initially done to distinguish a boy child's stuff from a girl child's stuff? Sorry--it's still weird. But as long as the house isn't going on the market for sale with the weird looking paint job--so what? My husband's a realtor, and we also just relocated, so I've seen a LOT of weird things in people's homes over the years, just like this paint job. No matter what your personal taste, PLEASE make your house look more "normal" when trying to sell it! Believe me, it MATTERS.
ReplyThis article struck home! I used to live in a much bigger house.When I moved, I had no place to display or store much of my collectibles. I'm now on a mission to de-clutter my living space.
ReplyThanks for all the advice and tips in your article!!! My sister's husband's uncle's slob of a wife twice remarried got hit with one of life's curves ball( and nobody liked her anyway), so when her mother got questionable news regarding early stages of breast cancer(almost was the straw that broke the camel's back)-she and her mother wanted to be surviror's!:) Again the tips in this article is a reminder to get off my lazy butt and trash the junk!
Reply