Recently I went through a huge purge and a lot of reorganizing since our family has grown. Things were in total chaos, which is expected when you have a bunch a little ones. As we were approaching a new school year, it was time to get everything in order. I want to share how I fit my family of seven (and five cats) in a small living room (the good and bad). Lets start with our makeshift entry way. Here is how it looked before…
Junk piled everywhere! There was no rhyme or reason to anything in this area of our living room. This wall is also covered with kid scribbles.
We moved our wall rosary over to this side of the room. I love this wall rosary so much! It was gifted to us this past Christmas. We have plans to add a picture of all the kids baptisms around it. The red Ikea shoe bins were replaced with an old laundry basket. Inside the cabinet we have a bin to store any cold weather accessories (glove, hats, ect.), a bin for all our baby carriers, one bin has all the kids church shoes, and my other handbag is stored here. On top is a small basket that is a junk catcher and where I keep my main handbag. We also keep larger baby gear in this general area of the living room.
Sadly, this is what the other side of the room looked like.
This is actually a well representation of life with 5 kids… lol.
We decided to get another couch since it was impossible for all of us to comfortably sit together to read together or watch movies. The whole living room had to be rearranged. In the corner next to the window we have a curio of our religious items and we keep the Ignatius’ swing tucked over there as well.
**since taking the above picture we replaced the cubbies with a white eight cubby shelf
Here are close ups of our wall gallery. We have pictures of all the kids and bible quotes framed on the wall. The beatitudes picture was one of my first Cricut machine projects. The shelf is where I keep the pictures of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary along with some seasonal decor.
We store toys and throw blankets under the couch. We were able to get these under the bed storage bins for a really great deal since it’s back to school season.
Next to the couch we now have an eight cube shelf for diapers and school stuff. This is also serving as a charging station for our laptop and phones. Our history timeline is on the wall and we hope to maybe put up a family portrait on this wall too. The two bottom chalk board cubes is where we keep our cloth diapers.
We moved our TV by the stairs where our diaper station use to be. We keep extra baby clothes, baby blankets, and baby towels in bins I got from the dollar store here. There are also two bins for CDs and DVDs. The kids also keep their legos over here too. We keep our rosaries hanging on the wall right under our crucifix. There is a cute little plaque of the Holy Family with a family prayer on it right above the rosaries. There is a plastic crate I keep over here as the designated throw any school stuff, like backpacks, in. Not shown in the picture, we also have a small little cat tree that stays in this general area. The small coat closet is over here. Here is the before picture the closet.
Our coat closet is a storage area, instead of its intended purpose of where you would put your jackets due to limited space. Even though things are semi labeled, nothing was put where it should have been. I could never find anything in here. Now…
On the top shelf I store scrapbook papers, sewing stuff, workout/ birth ball, tools and hardware, and a binding machine. There are two wire shelves that fit perfectly into the sides of the closet. One shelf has all my craft stuff, empty containers, and extra home stuff like paper towels. The other shelf has a box of all our pictures that are on discs, batteries, workout stuff, and my Cricut machine. We keep Ignatius’ car seat in here too.
So that is how I fit my family of seven in a small living room.
That was worth of my time. Thank you so much for sharing.