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Hot Spots In Our Living Room

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What’s A Hot Spot?

I found the term ‘hot spot’ from a website that helps you clean and declutter your home, called Flylady.  She describes a “Hot Spot” as a place that attracts clutter.  You know the areas in your home that do this…usually, they are flat open surfaces like a countertop, chair, table top, or can even be the floor…places we put things instead of putting them away.  We all know clutter attracts clutter, so the more things we put there the more things get put there. In time, your hot spot can turn into a wildfire, one that is raging out of control and becomes a huge spot of clutter that eventually takes over the whole surface.

Last Saturday I was feeling like Hot Spots were taken over our home.  I was determined to do something about it, so instead of allowing myself to clean, I decided to tackle my hotspots.  I grabbed my camera to document the process for you, and will share my hotspots with you and hopefully motivate you to put out your own hotspots before they become raging fires!

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My Living Room & Dining Room are connected and are the first things you see when you enter our home.  Because of this, I usually keep these rooms picked up and clutter free.  I have spent time minimalizing our Living Room, so we are at the point where this room really doesn’t have clutter in it.

The one area that can tend to attract clutter is the ledge in the above picture.  It is an area that separates the Living Room from the Dining Room and is just an easy place right in the center of our home to leave items that eventually turn into clutter.

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There are only 3 things that should call this ledge “home.”

  One is the daily stack of mail, ready for my husband to grab when he comes in the door.  He is great about wanting to see the mail right away and taking it to his office in the basement to deal with it right away. If there is not mail there waiting for him, he will ask me if we got mail that day.

Another is my glasses and sunglasses.  I like having a central place where I can leave them and know where they are, to grab on my way to the basement to watch TV, on my way upstairs to my bedroom to read, or on my way out the door to drive. Mail and sunglasses are 2 things that should call this ledge home.

The 3rd and last thing that calls this ledge home is a small black square platter to collect loose change. Once it starts getting full, I can add the change add to our penny bank or my parking meter fund.

3 Things Only!

Instead…look what I found in that pile of clutter:

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Hot Spot Clutter

Receipts, pencils, scissors, rings, earrings, my daughters school I.D., a candle, nose spray, paint chips, a comb, hair elastics, a headband, fingernail polish, inspirational saying, samples, & paper clutter. Whew! Where did all of this stuff come from?

I will be honest and admit I was the one that put most of this stuff on the ledge, although much of it was stuff I found laying around the house, dropped by other family members.

I do need a place to corral miscellaneous stuff until I have time to put it away, so I put a decorative wooden box on the bookshelf that is in our dining room.  You can see the bookshelf in one of the above pictures.  It is a central location and can be emptied once a week to keep it from becoming wildfire itself!

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Hallway Hot Spot

I included one more Hot Spot in this post, as this is our hallway right off our Living Room & Dining Room area.  This was pretty much a raging fire and driving me nuts. The coat hanger fell off the wall weeks ago, so I finally nailed it back on.  The baskets were full of clean clothes that needed to be put away upstairs, along with miscellaneous items that belonged upstairs.  The stairs are right across from the wicker basket, which is why that stuff was dumped there.

The separated hamper stays in the hallway and is one of my most favorite tools for simplifying this house.  I will share about that in an upcoming post.

What will keep this hallway clutter free?  Putting my laundry away right after I fold it, instead of letting it sit around in baskets.  Also, being intentional in taking items up stairs with me every time I go up the stairs, which is numerous times a day.

Intentional Hot Spots

Every week at Anti-Procrastination Tuesday, I list my goals for the week, talk about what zone of my home I am going to work in, and name the Hot Spot I am going to focus in on. Zones and Hot Spots sure get easier and easier as I keep these habits up! I try very hard to notice what is causing the Hot Spot and come up with a solution to keep it from getting that way again, once the spot is cleared up. There are several areas in my home that still need decluttered, but tackling the clutter a spot at a time sure is making a difference.

Your Hotspots

How about you?  What are your hotspots–especially in the Living Room/Dining Room area?  Do you agree clutter attracts clutter?

Stay Tuned:

I have upcoming posts showing Before & Afters of Kitchen Hotspots, including my kitchen utensil drawer which was a mess!

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Minimalizing Our Living Room

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  • Michelle
    February 28, 2016 at 9:50 am

    Love this post! I’m staring at 1 of my hosposts now! The table in front of the TV and yes, it’s mail my doing!
    Flylady? I think it was 10 years ago when I pirinted out her journal and created my families card system to shine the sink etc… found it the other day, pulled it out and smiled.
    I too am going to tackle my Hotspot today thanks to your post.
    Way to go Amy! God bless you and thank you! ????
    Michelle

    • AmyNewNostalgia
      February 29, 2016 at 10:15 am

      We were probably printing our journals at the same time 10 years ago! I used her system when my kids were little…never fully..just bits and pieces but it sure helped me keep the house up with littles!

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