Living in a Magazine

Nobody lives in a magazine. I see this sort of entryway clutter lots of times. It is NORMAL, (if not our dream decor). The trick is not "to look like a magazine all the time." The trick is to develop systems that mean we know how to clean up such clutter in 15 minutes effectively without sweeping it all into a box in the closet.

Paperwork can be some of the most time-intensive aspects of clutter-clearing. It can feel the least satisfying because we might tidy a small space VISIBLY, yet we have cleared a lot energetically and emotionally. After conversation and creative thinking this young man now has strategies for all of the categories of things that were piled up on this table. He may not follow through on the strategies all the time, but he now knows how to tackle the clutter when it builds up again. 

His place will not look like a magazine ninety percent of the time because he LIVES here.  But he will have the ability to make it look good quickly now, should he want it to look good.

Then we tackled the main seating area, adorably just what I expect to find these days with tech bachelors. The angle below doesn't show the bulk of the items lying about on the coffee table, nor the two cardboard boxes that had not been fully unpacked from the move.

I asked his permission to try a different arrangement of the furniture. We moved the small bookshelf and the end tables and swapped the sofa with the two chairs. We put the larger end table under the printer and put the smaller end table between the two chairs. This changed the flow and also the "homey feeling" of the space. We left it as a trial. He is free to switch it around if it doesn't work for him. But he seemed to be really happy. EVERY. SINGLE. LOOSE. ITEM. was cleaned and put away. I showed him tricks about placement that keep the place looking good. We found homes for everything, tucked other things out of sight but kept them accessible, and finished unpacking the boxes from his move that had yet to be unpacked. He was very happy with the results.  His place will quickly look like the tech bachelor place it is again.  But should he want to clean it up for company---should he want it to look more photo-ready for GoodHousekeeping---he now knows what to do.

Project time: four hours.