Chapter 2
Living Space
Become a Living (Room) Legend
Housework can’t kill you, but why take the chance?
—Phyllis Diller
Fear not as you make your home your own.
If you take one key message from this book, this is it. Why? Because it’s so easy to feel intimidated, overwhelmed, even paralyzed by the thought of selecting a sofa, choosing a paint color, or even buying throw pillows. But fear won’t get you anywhere. And these decisions should be fun, not scary.
Fears might bubble up, especially when it’s time to start refreshing your living room—or parlor, den, or multifunctional room—a room that you and your loved ones plus visitors enjoy.
Too often people watch home décor shows, page through shelter magazines, or scroll through opulent home shots online and throw up their hands, feeling sure their spaces are “less than.” You might ask: How could I even begin to make my house look that good? That question has you losing from the get-go. Instead, stop playing the comparison game and ask: How can I make my space my own? Or how can I make my space inviting, relaxing, warm, and cozy for everyone who uses it?
When flipping through home images, we often get to see the “before” shot—you know the one, that photo snapped by a homeowner, with little attention to lighting or styling. In fact, the worse it looks, the more astounding the transformation appears.
And then our eyes land on the marvelous “after” shots—those drop-dead-gorgeous reveals we aspire to. But I’d argue that we’re thinking about those “after photos” all wrong. Just like models photo-shopped to kingdom come, those shots don’t reflect reality.
What we don’t see are the hours and hours of work that go into them: the culling of the space, perhaps removing a chair or two or adjusting the ottoman for better angles; the thoughtful styling of the bookshelves and shelf accessories; the careful editing of the objects on the coffee table; and the meticulous selection of flowers for the ultimate oh-so-casual bouquet. Believe me: If you had a team of pros prepping your space for a photo shoot, it would look amazing too.
I’d love to see the real “after” shot—the one with the new living room plus a mug or two forgotten on the marble sofa table, crumbs on the silk dupioni couch (I could totally clean that), TV remotes under the nesting side tables, socks on the cherry hardwood floor, a crumpled newspaper on the upholstered club chair, and perhaps even a laundry basket of folded (fingers crossed) clothes plunked down right in the middle. Now that room is living.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Don’t be afraid—whether you’re living large or living on a shoestring, you can make the living room your own.
Getting Inspired
The great architect Sarah Susanka, known for her Not So Big House philosophy, says, “In the same way that music inspires us to certain feelings, space can do the same thing.” And you don’t need to be an interior designer or have ten thousand square feet to sing that song. As I mentioned earlier, my dad was a builder and built many grand homes, but two that stand out were not more than two thousand square feet each. I got to know these houses well, because my family and the families who lived there were friends, and I enjoyed these spaces every time we visited.
One was a farmhouse whose living room extended from the front of the residence to the back on the right side of the house. The room was split into three separate areas, cleverly divided by the homeowners with furniture and small rugs that flowed and complemented each section. Family members and visitors all hung out together in this living room, each doing their own thing or doing something together, like playing board games, watching a tennis match on TV, or just chatting in front of the fireplace.
The second house was an A-frame with an incredible deck and surrounded by woods. This home’s living room featured minimal furniture: the first sectional I ever saw, an Arco metallic lamp with its signature swoop over the sofa, and a freestanding Finnish fireplace. Despite the two-story ceiling overhead, the room felt intimate and inviting.
As the old saying goes, size doesn’t matter. Moreover, when you have unlimited square footage, it’s easy to create a remarkable design. You have to be clever to do that with a smaller house, and these two homes delivered clever in spades.
What does your living room offer right now? What attributes do you love? What’s just okay? And what do you dislike or even hate? With a small budget, you can still make changes—you only need to give yourself permission. That’s true for me whether I’m washing a dry-clean-only sweater or refreshing a space in my home. Cut yourself some slack. Remember: Those too-good-to-be-true images are just that. Your spaces are real.
Consider these three questions:
- Is your living space, well, livable? How could you amp up its livability?
- How might you make your space more . . . homey, feminine, masculine, lovely, whimsical, or Zen? What word or words suit you best?
- Most important, does your space function for you and the people who regularly enjoy it?
Usually it takes a long time to make a home your own—in fact, for most of us, it’s an ongoing process. What works for a single person or a couple today needs adjusting when a child or an aging parent joins the household. As children grow up, spaces might need to mature too—maybe a drum set takes the place of the toy bin, or beanbag chairs (perfect for gaming) are added to the living room layout. Change is often good—and required to make living easier and more fun.
Time to Freshen Up
Change was on our minds when Ross and I road-tripped to Duluth, Minnesota, shortly after we bought our 1883 brownstone. We were there to visit the Glensheen Mansion.
From early childhood, I’ve loved visiting historic homes—our family toured them wherever we traveled, including the late-nineteenthcentury Biltmore Estate, a 175,000-square-foot French Renaissance chateau in Asheville, North Carolina; Monticello, designed by Thomas Jefferson and built by enslaved people beginning in the 1770s near Charlottesville, Virginia; and the Moraine Farm, a 46,000-square-foot home built in 1912, complete with observatory and indoor fountain (I still want one), in Dayton, Ohio. Their historic nature, their architecture, and their interior design enthralled me.
Glensheen, as it’s known, is a thirty-nine-room, 20,000-squarefoot mansion built at the turn of the last century by the Congdon family, who helped introduce iron mining in northern Minnesota. Today, the estate remains intact, right down to its century-old sheets in the linen closet. (Two murders also took place in this home, including one with a candlestick—yep, just like in the game Clue—in 1977. But that’s a story for another book.)
The reason Ross and I visited Glensheen was to be inspired by this stately home built during our brownstone’s era and featuring the same core aesthetic. What our tour revealed in every room was sheer splendor—opulent painting, plastering, wallpapering, glazing, woodworking, flooring, and more. What we took away were lots of ideas, including light fixtures to order for our foyer; push-button light switches, which I still plan to add; the need for walnut floors (we dyed our second-floor maple floors a deep walnut); rich, dark carpeting, plus carpeted stairs (which we added—check and check); the notion that items must be both functional and decorative; plus furniture arrangements and scale.
What home—either online or in person—might inspire you and your living room refresh? Historic home tours are available across the country, in large cities and small towns. You might sign up for an architectural tour of a neighborhood, visit open houses, watch Architectural Digest tours of celebrity homes online, spend time on Zillow, or just pore over design magazines. You never know where inspiration might come.
New York State of Mind
Next, Ross and I got to work, incorporating these ideas plus many others into our new home. New York City, one of my favorite places in the world, also proved inspirational. When NYC comes to mind, I think of Times Square, the Empire State Building, and the Chrysler Building all lit up at night—metallic and shiny, glittery and magical. That’s how I wanted our house to feel, and that’s why our home is designed to look its loveliest at night.
Our living room especially is at its most beautiful in the evening with its metallic silver walls (I applied a decorative finish); a 1920s Dutch brass chandelier that came with the house (we’ve sheathed its small bulbs with hound’s-tooth lampshades and hung an orange-and-green tassel from its center); lacquered furniture; lots of lamps; and a decorative mirror. Finally, both the living room and the adjoining den (formerly the dining room) feature chocolate-brown couches (tweed and leather respectively). At night we relax on one of the couches, read books or watch TV, often wrapped up in any of the myriad blankets we keep handy (it’s Minnesota after all), and enjoy the twinkling lights all around.
Like Glensheen and NYC, other design pairings might mix Miami’s Art Deco colors of pink and gray with the low, kickback furniture and dramatic up-lighting often found in desert homes. Or perhaps British furnishings are layered with LA cool—for example, displaying an English rose tea set on a Lucite table. You get the idea. A stylish jumble can be fun, injecting life into your space and showing off your personal panache.
What city, state, or country might inspire your living room refresh? Perhaps your hometown if you now live far away? The city you live in right now? The place your ancestors emigrated from? A favorite vacation destination? One friend of mine is head over heels in love with Venice. So she’s featured decorative objects and artworks from the City of Water throughout her house.
Now that you’ve thought about homes and places that might influence the look of your living room, let’s consider the items that actually make up a living space.
Giving it a light touch. Besides natural light from windows, three types of lighting illuminate any room: ambient (or general) lighting, task lighting, and accent lighting.
That’s true in every room of your house. Additionally, placing lamps at varying levels creates a homey and more interesting space. Take a peek at your living room and count up the lights, noting their positions. Go ahead—I’ll wait. Are you surprised by how few or how many you have? Are they all on one level or are they at varying heights?
Our living room shines thanks to more than a dozen lights: the aforementioned brass chandelier, a small black lacquer lamp with a green silk shade sitting atop a storage basket, a decorative light with lots of tiny light bulbs next to our hutch, a simple little lamp plus a pink salt lamp on our bookshelf, wax candles and electrified candles on our mantel, two tiny lamps with prisms, a wall sconce, and—the pièce de résistance—a Statue of Liberty light on my rolltop desk. Oh, and there’s the wood-burning fireplace, which we sometimes light; a tall floor lamp tucked away in a corner; and a big glass bubble light, very 1970s, next to my desk.
Like I said, the room features lots of lights—a great trick to make a room both attractive and inviting. A second trick: using 7-watt light bulbs. They’re in practically every lamp in our living room except for the lamps we read by. Think about upscale restaurants: They don’t use overhead lighting in the evenings. Instead, lights are dimmed, and often a candle glows on every table. At night, do you want to relax in a living space with bright lights overhead? Or do you want a softly lit room? My point exactly. Why not mimic that look in your own living space?
Speaking of light bulbs, LED light bulbs let you use whatever wattage you want in practically any lamp. That’s thanks to their greatly reduced ambient heat compared to incandescent lighting. You can also tailor the color of your light bulbs—choose soft white (surprisingly, the warmest of the bulbs), warm white, cool white, and daylight (almost blue light). Light bulbs are rated on the Kelvin scale, which measures the bulb’s color temperature. The higher the number, the cooler the bulb. I’d suggest warmer bulbs for a living room, especially one used mostly at night. You can also select colorful bulbs like pink, red, orange, yellow, blue, and green. While you may not want to use them every day, a single pink light bulb in one lamp might offer a fun pop of color on a bookshelf or sofa table. Or swap your standard light bulbs for colorful bulbs for a party. You might also consider Edison bulbs; these reproductions look like Thomas Edison’s originals; they come in myriad shapes and sizes and offer a warm glow.
Personalizing the art. As you’ve guessed by now, I’m a “more is more” guy. What I’m not is an “art for art’s sake” guy. Minimalist or maximalist, art should be personal, reflect you and your likes, and cost just what you can afford. Even the idea of art—what is art?!—should be up to you.
That’s certainly true of the art in our living room. We have a striking woodprint that cost more than a couple of pennies. But we also have a mirror framed with what looks like twigs over our fireplace, a New York City souvenir plate, a decoupage plate, a framed postcard, and a framed DVD cover.
Lots of people select artwork to match their furniture, but that’s not a rule. Honestly, nothing hung in our living room was chosen because it matches our couch, chairs, or desk. Our art reflects our wide-ranging interests, is often sentimental, and simply matters to one or both of us.
Art should make you happy. That’s according to me and according to science. Even better, art improves our health and well-being, say psychologists Stefano Mastandrea, Sabrina Fagioli, and Valeria Biasi (“Art and Psychological Well-Being: Linking the Brain to the Aesthetic Emotion,” Frontiers in Psychology, April 4, 2019). Indeed! Why hang someone else’s idea of great art in your house? Show off what you love, whether that’s a landscape oil painting, a Buddha sculpture, your kid’s art, a poster of your favorite soccer team, or a print of cats playing Parcheesi.
Additionally, framing and hanging your own photos or even blowing them up to poster size can lift your mood. Happiness expert Gretchen Rubin says, “One of the best ways to make yourself happy in the present is to recall happy times from the past. Photos are a great memory prompt.” That family wedding on the beach? That stunning hike you took in Acadia? That once-in-a-lifetime trip to Italy? Get those photos on the wall and be reminded of precious memories every time you walk into the room.
HL Tip: Ensure that you and your companions are breathing the cleanest possible air. That’s true whether you own your home or you’re renting. In fact, if you’re renting, it’s likely your landlord is not buying top-of-the-line filters for your heat and/or AC. So swap out the provided filters with the best ones you can afford. It’s a game changer, especially for those who have allergies, live in a household with three or more people, and/or have pets. If you’ve got pets, consider buying high-efficiency particulate air (HEPA) filters, which can trap up to 99.97 percent of airborne particles. And be sure to change your filters at least every three months, increasing their efficiency and saving money on your utility costs in the long run.
Taking that idea a step further, a friend of mine bought a digital picture frame for her father and then invited the extended family to email him photos that automatically populate in the frame. Now new images pop up constantly in his den, reminding him of the people and places he loves. Plus, he knows family members are thinking of him every time they hit send.
Here’s one more compelling reason to personalize your art: I believe the greater the variety of art, the higher the room’s chic quotient. Framed matchbooks, an estate-sale watercolor, a needlepoint pillow by Nana, framed vintage sheet music, or a finger-paint masterpiece by your toddler—it all belongs.
Not long ago, someone asked what I’d do if I had too much art. Like if I ran out of wall space? What a question! I’d simply hang it from floor to ceiling like in the Louvre (if it’s good enough for them . . .).
Setting the mood with paint. Dozens of online articles offer advice about choosing living room colors, including “21 Best Living Room Paint Colors, According to Designers,” “40 Best Living Room Paint Color Ideas,” and even “80 Living Room Paint Color Ideas.” What do these titles tell us? That you can paint your living room any color you like. I remember accompanying Nancy to a paint store when, in one fell swoop, she bought all the paints she needed for much of her house. Of course, embracing change is just who Nancy is, but there’s a lesson there: Change can make your life better, brighter, and more colorful!
HL Tip: If your home has more than one level, a stair basket is a great solution for returning items to their proper places. Designed to sit on two steps at a time, this basket is the perfect place to stash an item whenever you find something that belongs upstairs. The next time you take the stairs, grab those items—or the whole basket—and carry them with you for delivery.
It’s true: Paint is an easy and cheap way to dramatically change a living space. Consider swapping neutral walls for mossy green, or flat white walls for inky blue. Or paint three walls gray and one hot pink. Change your mind in a couple of years, a month, or a week? Just paint a new color.
For my first apartment, I selected the colors of Key lime pie: The living room walls were awash in soft yellow, which flowed into the hallway. There, the chair rail divided the top of the wall, which I painted that same yellow, from the bottom of the wall, which I painted green. Hence, the Key lime pie palette. Meanwhile, the living room featured stylish dark green curtains of heavy brushed twill, which kept out noise and light when closed. And I hung them from a metal pipe, which I’d spray-painted black and added cheap arrow finials painted gold and stuck into a cork at either end of the pipe. (Fancy doesn’t need to be expensive.)
Here’s the truth: There’s not one perfect, elusive color that’s the end-all or be-all color for your living room—or any room in your home, for that matter. Just like there are lots of fish in the sea, lots of colors will look spectacular on your walls.
If you find yourself stuck choosing a color or a color palette, consider the way in which you primarily use your living room. If its primary function is serving as your day-in, day-out office, choose a paint color that sets the mood for your day and will make you happy for hours on end. If it’s a lively space with lots of family members interacting at all times of the day and night, consider selecting an energetic color like orange, pink, or yellow. If it’s a space used mostly for unwinding, nature-inspired colors like blue or green make a fine choice. If you plan to entertain guests, consider a refined, muted color with gray undertones, like dusty blue, soft green, or delicate pink. Once you’ve got a general idea of the color family you’re considering, get some paint chips, a sample can of wall paint, or even a peel-and-stick sample or two, and try them out on your wall. Now choose one and commit. It’s highly likely that you’re going to love it in your space. And if you don’t? You know what to do.
Packing a design punch with pillows. Want to transform the look of your room fast? A switcheroo of your throw pillows is often all you need—whether you do it seasonally or whenever the mood strikes.
But there’s no need to buy new pillows. (Sorry, TJ Maxx.) If you’re crafty, you can make pillow covers with scissors, fusible tape, or a sewing machine. Or take that vintage shirt you love but doesn’t fit or your grandpa’s old wool jacket to a crafty friend (along with a platter of brownies) and beg a favor.
Or if you’re like me, search for pleasing pillow covers online. They come in every possible color, shape, size, and style. And the great thing about pillow covers is they’re always removable, so you can wash them!
Let’s say, however, that you don’t own any pillows or you want to start fresh. Then begin by purchasing pillow forms, the plain or uncovered pillow shapes tucked inside pillows and found at fabric stores or online. But there are so many types—which ones should you select? If you want your pillows to look perfect and decorative, but you actually plan to throw them aside when you plunk down on your sofa, buy inexpensive foam forms. But if you want to use your couch pillows for cozying up during a movie, napping, or even propping up that sprained ankle from too much grooving while you clean, then purchase down or faux-down pillow forms.
On my sofa I use both—down inserts in our large pillows and inexpensive foam forms in our small pillows. In no particular order are our twenty-six-by-twenty-six-inch pillows: a Coogi pillow (like the Australian sweaters), a KISS album-cover pillow, a black beaded skull pillow, and a velvet pillow in a leopard print. The combo is very rock and roll. We also have two small pillows—a lumbar cushion in a cover I made from scraps of one fabric in three colorways and a tiny orange-and-brown cashmere pillow that says CHIC. I saw the latter at a department store and had to have it because I thought it was so ridiculous.
Against our traditional camelback sofa, our pillows are hilariously subversive. They’re our personality and design style—what I like to call “Andy Warhol at Monticello.”
Who’s your design style? Cher meets Frank Lloyd Wright (bright, beaded accessories in a sea of handsome wood furniture)? A neutral Harry Styles (bold natural prints—e.g., kiwi, sunflowers, watermelon—in grays, blacks, and whites)? Or perhaps Diana Ross at the beach (bold colorways and accessories against a sea of blue)? Determining your signature style in celebrity parlance can be fun and help hone your spaces and home purchases.
Spacing out. Keeping storage on display is the trick to maximizing living room square footage. For example, a decorative basket under my hutch is filled with extra candles and coasters, while a throw on top hides everything underneath. A few decorative boxes on my bookcases store small items I don’t need out all the time. I also keep things tucked inside my desk and under a skirted table. Meanwhile, vases and bowls serve as decorative objects on our bookshelves most of the time, but they’re within reach when needed. I’ve also placed a white platter on the top of my desk; it makes a great backdrop for my architecture souvenir buildings, but it’s ready in a moment for serving.
Where might you find storage? Flat containers under your sofa can store photo albums, back issues of favorite magazines, or your latest knitting project. Assign each end table a function, like storing candles in one and vases in another. Some ottomans offer secret storage for blankets or games. And, of course, baskets come in all shapes and sizes and add visual interest as well as storage.
Allowing for flexibility. If your living room wears many hats, including homework hangout, binge-watching space, frequent dining room, yoga studio, and more, congratulations! You’re making the most of that room. A friend told me about her elderly neighbor’s comment when he dropped by to check on her. She apologized for the laundry stacked in piles around the living room. “No apologies necessary,” he said. “Today, your living room is your laundry room.” I love that. It’s your house and it should serve you, not the other way around.
In my first smidge of an apartment, I had to get creative to make my furniture multipurpose. Sometimes I used my drop-leaf table (whose leaves folded down to save space) as a console table, placing it against a wall and topping it with a lamp and some decorative items. Other times, when friends came to dinner, I pulled it out from the wall, flipped up the drop leaves, and set it as our dining room table. That’s the thing about living room furniture—it can flex.
You can also move furniture around to serve your needs. Recently a friend bought a large sectional and asked me how I’d suggest maximizing seating for party guests. Usually, the couch’s L is on one side, but together we moved it to the center of the couch so people could sit back-to-back for extra seating. Don’t be afraid to rearrange your furniture—just for one night or for a whole new look.
Addressing the elephant in the room: the television. In decades past, hiding your TV inside an armoire was de rigueur. And if you still love to close up that cabinet at the end of the night, that’s great. But a flat-screen television doesn’t need to hide. Place it where it makes the most sense. Just don’t hang it over a working fireplace, where it would be exposed to heat.
You also don’t need to have every furniture item pointed at the TV like pews in a church. You can swivel furniture to face the screen whenever needed. Or maybe you don’t even have a TV—after all, you can stream programs on your phone or tablet. Or do as a friend of mine does and use a projector. Whenever he wants to watch a show, he simply points the projector at the wall.
Here are a few more TV ideas: Hosting a party? In the background, play a fun movie that complements your theme. Don’t have a fireplace? During the holidays, flick on that video of a roaring fire. And at an anniversary or birthday party, link your phone to the TV and play a slideshow featuring the guest(s) of honor.
Before turning our attention to cleaning, let’s sum everything up: First, don’t be afraid to make decisions—about color, wallpaper, furniture, or accessories. It’s your house. Remember: You can always make a new decision—it’s okay to change your mind. Second, your home should feature items that bring joy to you and anyone who lives with you—your loved ones! In other words, don’t settle for an okay lamp from a discount store when you might have looked a bit longer and found one you really loved at a yard sale. Third, all those images online and in magazines don’t reflect real life. Don’t feel intimidated by over-the-top photos of opulent homes. You too can style your house for a party, but you can’t live like that every day. Go easy on yourself and enjoy your space. Finally, you don’t need a lot to make a living room: a gallon of paint, an understanding of the items that make you happy, a plant or two, and a really great estate sale find can make your room look just as fabulous as if you had all the money in the world. Sometimes it looks even better.
Time to Clean Up
Your living space undoubtedly sees a lot of activity. So it’s likely to need a full cleaning once a week or at least once every two weeks. If you’ve got guests coming over soon, you might clean a day or two before. But even if you never entertain, it’s just as important to clean the space for you and anyone who lives with you. You deserve a lovely space to enjoy. And like pulling on your favorite jeans after they’ve been freshly washed and dried, walking into your living space after it’s been cleaned makes the room that much more enjoyable. Let’s get started.
- When you’re making the most of your living space, random items tend to collect there. Gather up what doesn’t belong—yesterday’s coffee cups, the random magazine, a homework assignment, days-old newspapers, the stray sock, etc. My trick: I pack them up in a designated tote bag; then I carry it around the house, delivering each item to wherever it belongs.
- Next, wipe away any cobwebs gathering in your ceiling’s corners with a wool duster, and brush off all your light fixtures—ceiling and otherwise, including cloth shades—with a horsehair brush. (Be sure your lights are off when dusting.) Check to see if all your light bulbs are working; replace any that are on the blink.
- Now it’s time to dust. Simply dampen a microfiber cloth and get to work. I know people who hate dusting, but I can’t view it that way. When dusting my desk, my lamps, or my collection of miniature souvenir buildings (the Empire State Building, the Minneapolis skyline, and the Eiffel Tower, among them), there’s something about the process that pays respect to these items. I’m taking care of objects that are important to me. If the things you’re dusting aren’t important to you anymore, maybe it’s time to donate.
- Next, spray the 50/50 vinegar-water solution on a microfiber cloth or newspaper to wipe down glass-fronted art and windows. (The solution should wipe away fingerprints and paw prints with ease.)
- Remove the throw pillows and cushions from your chairs and sofa, pocket any loose change, stick the pencils and pens back in the kitchen junk drawer, and vacuum up the crumbs and popcorn with a handheld vacuum or an attachment on your regular vacuum.
- Return the cushions to the furniture. Now flip each throw pillow upside down and fluff; then return them to the couch. Refold any blankets and drape them over the arm or back of the sofa or place in a basket. Now give your upholstered couch and chairs a light spray with vodka to remove any unwanted scents. Or, if it’s been a while, consider removing and washing the pillow covers and the throws. By the time you’re done cleaning, you’ll likely be hanging them up to dry.
- As for the upholstered cushions, remove any spots quickly and easily with a horsehair brush and laundry soap. And once every couple of months, unzip the chair and sofa cushion covers and remove the sofa cover (if possible) and wash. When they’re damp, right out of the wash, replace them on the cushions and the sofa, and stand to dry. Machine-drying may cause shrinkage and make zipping them back onto the cushions difficult.
- If you’ve got a small area rug, roll it up and shake it out in your garbage can or outdoors. Before replacing it, sweep the floor with a broom or vacuum. If you’ve got a large area rug, simply vacuum. (To actually clean your small or large rug, see “Called on the Carpet.”)
- If you’ve got a laminate floor, give it a sweep with a stiff corn or straw broom. If your floor is hardwood, use a horsehair broom, which is much softer. If your sealed hardwood floor could use more than a quick sweep and you’ve got a steam cleaner, use that multitasker to disinfect, sanitize, degrease, deodorize, and clean your sealed floor. Now stand back in amazement to admire your handiwork. (Don’t use a steam cleaner on an unsealed wood floor or an engineered floor; a steam cleaner can damage both types.)
- If you’ve got wall-to-wall carpet or a large area rug, grab your vacuum. Be sure to first scan the carpet for coins, hair clips, etc., to pick up before vacuuming. Also, I highly recommend leveraging all those tools that came with your vacuum. My favorite is the crevice tool that concentrates the power of your vacuum to suck up dust and dirt from any place, including room corners, ceiling corners, sofa cushions, bookcases, you name it. It’s so satisfying! Plus, you can set your vacuum in the middle of the room and use the long tube attachment to reach practically anywhere. I also like the brush attachment, which I use to remove lint from my woodwork and pleated lampshades. Making vacuuming your final cleaning step almost feels like graduation. You’re finished! Now you can slowly back out of the room, vacuum in hand, as the strains of “Pomp and Circumstance” play.
- Throw your cap in the air, Mary. You’ve made it after all.
The Ten-Minute Clean: Living Space
Your in-laws, your boss, or—oh no!—Simon Cowell (or someone equally judgy) is coming over (or you can pretend they are)—and time has gotten away from you. Not to worry! It’s time to scurryfunge—an old-timey word that means to quickly tidy up the room before guests arrive. Here’s how to clean your living room in a flash.
- Pack up anything that doesn’t belong in this room in your designated tote bag or in a laundry basket, and set it aside until later. Or tuck these items away in your favorite stash-away spot—a spare bedroom or perhaps under the couch? To paraphrase Julia Child, “Only God sees under the sofa.”
- Now it’s time to dust. Generally, there’s no need to lift every lamp or knickknack. If you can write your name in the dust, just wipe away with a soft cloth and you’re done. However, if you can write the Declaration of Independence, it’s time for something stronger: Grab your feather duster or a damp microfiber cloth and get busy.
- Sweep and/or vacuum the space. It doesn’t need to be perfect, just clean enough that the vacuum lines look like you made an effort.
- Plump the pillows and drape that refolded throw in your favorite spot.
- Straighten everything on the coffee table and turn on your lamps (which you’ve also dusted).
- Set out a bowl of snacks, pour yourself a cup of tea (or a glass of wine), and await your guests’ arrival.
My Ten-Minute Cleaning Playlist: Living Space (Upbeat)
- “Strike It Up” by Black Box (4:58)
- “Vogue” by Madonna (4:49)
My Ten-Minute Cleaning Playlist: Living Space (Mellow)
- “Our House” by Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young (3:02)
- “Any Place I Hang My Hat Is Home” by Barbra Streisand (2:43)
- “Home” by Diana Ross from The Wiz (4:02)