Dining room... check!

Another item was crossed off our de-cluttering list!

January
Living room
Dining room
Hall closet

That's right, the dining room is finished! To complete this room, I did the following:

• Put the boxes of Christmas decorations back in the guest bedroom closet and storage unit (they have been down for a couple of weeks, just not put away)
• Took the high chair out of the box and set it up on the chair (we opted for one that isn't free standing and so far we love it! It saves space and the tray can go in the dishwasher!)
  
• Wash the windows on the sliding door, inside and out
• Dust the flowers on the center of the table
• Clean the glass table tops
• Remove a few random items that didn't belong in the dining room
• Clean the dust off the baseboards
• Dust the mantle and arrange a few of my favorite decorative items
• Vacuum (my husband actually ran in the room after I started to ask if he could finish... he likes vacuuming even more than I realized!)

Here are the pretty after pictures! I forgot to take before pictures before I dove in. This first one is the view from the living room.


Here's the fireplace. The items on the mantle are a candle from my mom, a Willow tree figurine of a couple with a baby that our good friends gave us right after we found out our son was being transferred to the NICU at another hospital and had something wrong with his heart, a love sign from my mom, and a picture of us in a frame we got as a wedding gift.


Usually kitty toys are all over the floor, but when I vacuum or company is coming over I throw them in this basket. I found it at the Dollar Spot at Target a few years ago.


Here's a close up of the centerpiece on our dining table. I used compressed air to get the dust out of the flowers and a damp paper towel to dust the leaves. The vase is sitting on a platter we received as a wedding gift.


Here's our cross collection! I think that grouping like items looks a lot less cluttered than scattering them throughout a room or home.


And here's Sketch enjoying the cleaned up space. At least he still has one place to perch.


This is definitely my current favorite room in our apartment! I just want to sit in it smiling. The next step is to keep it this clean and organized! No clutter allowed!

Once Mr. Baby is mobile, all we have to do to baby proof this room is move 1 picture frame to a higher shelf, add a couple of outlet covers and put away the kitty toys. I will need to find some bigger, non-choking hazard toys for the kitties so they don't get too bored.

Now, on to the living room to complete our January goals! I can't wait for the whole apartment to look this good!

I think one of the reasons I'm so excited about organizing and de-cluttering is that it will allow me to spend more time focused on my family and friends because I won't be spending so much time dealing with "stuff."

Do you have any tips for keeping rooms clean? Do you put things away every day or wait until it gets crazy messy?