by Eileen Roth
Speaking of music, here’s where I put in my plug for a piano in the living room. Not only may playing it improve the mechanics of your mind, but gathering around the piano to sing together is serious fun. Store sheet music inside the bench and keep any extras in coffee-table drawers. A piano light on top can illuminate the page when the room lights are low. Don’t use the top for display if you have a grand piano that opens. Otherwise, keep it simple.
Keep the piano keyboard cover down to prevent dust buildup on the keys. If the piano is used often, tune it once a year; if not, every two years.
For a quick-reference summary of how to streamline the living room for sweet and elegant repose, see Table 8-1.
Table 8-1Living Room Do’s and Don’ts Yes Nix
A conversation circle composed Bulky or too-casual furniture
of a sofa, love seat or chairs,
and coffee table
Beautiful art, sparingly arranged Exercise equipment
A display case to show off Television (if you have
decorative items in good order a family room)
Tables with drawers and closed Computer
shelves to keep surfaces clear
Crowded, jumbled displays
Magazines and papers
Toys and games
Good Food and Company: Dining Room
Whether you sit down here every night or reserve it for formal occasions, the dining room is a special part of the house. Yours may be a grand hall with a 12-foot table and candelabra that reaches for the sky or a small corner of your apartment marked only by a modest chandelier. No matter what its architecture, the ideal dining room is a serene place dedicated to the gift of good food and company.
The dining room is essentially an extension of the kitchen, so keep the pathway clear for easy serving and cleanup. Move anything that stands in the way between the stove and the dining table. If the distance is long, a rolling cart can be a great help in delivering dinner and clearing away plates afterward.
Many dining rooms look into the living room, which can be an advantage when you add tables and chairs for large groups. This setup also enhances the flow of a dinner party, facilitating movement from cocktails to dinner back out to coffee by the fire. If your home’s blueprint opens the dining room into the living room, remember that you can always see one room from the other, and maintain strict standards for order and beauty in both.
Serenity in the dining room comes from clear views into other rooms and a pleasing, peaceful décor that feeds the spirit with no stacks of unpaid bills or schoolbooks. The dining room is not an office, and no matter what you do there during the day, you need systems in place to keep its original purpose sacred. P-L-A-C-E provides a quick reminder of these principles.
Purge: Toss serving pieces and flatware that you haven’t used in three years. You may want to give these to family members (make sure they want them); otherwise, donate to a good cause. Pitch unmatched napkins and placemats, and tablecloths you don’t like or that don’t fit your table.
Like: Group china, stemware, and serving pieces by type in china and buffet cabinet shelves and drawers, and flatware by type in drawer dividers.
Access: Arrange decorative pieces in the display area of the china cabinet. Keep spare table leaves and pads in a closet or the basement. Move extra dining chairs to the edge of the room. Remove papers, books, and anything unrelated to dining to other parts of the house.
Contain: Use the china and buffet cabinets and drawers to hold serving pieces, stemware, flatware, tablecloths, and napkins. Put delicate china in storage sets with foam dividers to protect it from chips. Keep silverware in chests or wrapped in bags or cloths to keep it from tarnishing. Use plastic bags to keep serving pieces clean between uses.
Evaluate: Can you easily pull out everything you need to serve a fancy or informal meal? After a party, does everything find its way back to its place without trying your patience? Do your meals here nourish at many levels?
Dining in style: The dining room table
The table is the raison d’être of the dining room, so why not go grand if you can? A nice, long table enables you to invite all your loved ones to share special occasions. To adjust for more intimate occasions, get a table with removable leaves.
The best spot to store spare table leaves and pads is not leaning against the dining room wall. A closet on the same floor is fine; can you tuck them behind the coats in the front hall? If space is short, the basement is the next stop.
Think singular for the table’s centerpiece. More than one decoration can crowd your dinner and give you more to move at cleanup time.
Match the number of dining chairs to the size of your usual group. If you have more chairs than you need when your table is in small format, place them around the edge of the room. Keep extra folding chairs on hand for large gatherings. The wooden models available at import and furniture stores are much nicer than the metal kind.
As host, seat yourself at the end of the table with closest access to the kitchen to save you steps and from stumbling over guests as you serve and clear.
Display and storage: The china cabinet
In the dining room, the real dish display is on the table, so when purchasing a china cabinet think storage first. That means closed shelves alongside the exhibition area on top, and drawers and cabinets on the bottom. Put your prettiest pieces on the display shelf. Crystal looks nice under the lights, as do decorative plates, tea or liquor sets, candlesticks, and figurines. Don’t crowd the display or you defeat the purpose.
Consider access when arranging your china cabinet. Contain good china in the closed shelves on top of the cabinet, along with stemware and barware. Reserve the bottom drawers for tablecloths, mats, and napkins, which are light and easy to lift out.
Six months after I had organized her, Carolyn called looking for her silver butter dish. I can’t possibly remember where every client’s things are kept, but by referring to P-L-A-C-E, I deduced that it should be in the first drawer under the china display cabinet with the other small serving pieces. There it was. Organizing just might make you psychic!
Handle with care: Storing china and stemware
Okay, maybe it makes you feel like your grandmother, but there’s nothing like a quilted china storage set to protect your most delicate dishes. With different cases sized to hold plates, platters, coffee cups, and sugar bowls and creamers as well as foam to place between pieces, these sets protect your dishes from chipping and keep them dust free.
Storing china in sets is a bit of a spatial puzzle. First you have to figure out which dishes go into which containers; you may need to mix and match to maximize space. Next is fitting the containers into the cabinet in the most efficient way. Then there’s the question of finding what you need, which is easily answered by labeling each container with masking tape and pen or a labelmaker — for instance, “12 salad plates, 2 soup bowls” or “Gram’s creamer and sugar.” Make putting dishes away easier by adding a cabinet location to the label, such as “top right in back.”
Stemware can be arranged on shelves in columns of like type. If you have room, place them upside down to keep out dust. You can conserve space by turning every other piece right side up, but you may need to wash before you pour.
Now that’s entertainment: The buffet cabinet
A buffet is a beautiful addition to the dining room, especially if you entertain often. With extra storage space underneath and a surface that you can use to serve up a family-style meal, a Thanksgiving feast, hors d’oeuvres, or an assortment of desserts, this piece solves problems and supports good times. Some of them even open up to reveal a special serving surface for hot and cold dishes.
Buffet drawers are a good place to keep your formal flatware, while the shelves can hold serving pieces, chafing dishes, and fondue pots.
Keep serving trays and bowls clean by containing them in plastic bags, so they’re ready for action without washing e
ven if you only use them once a season.
If you love candles, buy a supply that fits your décor and frequency of use (you don’t need dozens if you only light them on holidays). Keep just enough candleholders to cover casual, fancy, and holiday occasions; five or so sets should fulfill every need. Store your year-round candle gear and a box of matches in the china cabinet or buffet. Keep holiday candles with other holiday supplies (see Chapter 12 on the basement and attic).
Keep candles away from curtains and other flammable objects and blow them out when you leave the room. If children are present, place candles out of reach and accidental bumping range. A base or drip tray underneath keeps your table safe from falling wax. Candles that don’t drip or jar or lantern-style holders are an even better bet.
Go for the glow: Keeping silver shiny and bright
Air tarnishes silver, so if your silver or silverplate sits around marinating in oxygen most of the year, plan a polishing session before you need it. (That doesn’t mean the night before. Think November 1 for Thanksgiving and the winter holidays, March 1 for springtime celebrations.) You can save yourself some elbow grease if you prevent tarnish in the first place by protecting your silver from air. Wrap pieces in cloth or purchase special antitarnish bags sized to hold single servings of flatware or larger serving pieces. Another alternative — and more expensive — is a special coating that blocks out air. You take your silver to a professional silverplater (check the Yellow Pages) and pay by the piece. The most effective way to keep the shine on your silverflatware is to store it in an antitarnish chest. Be sure to buy a chest large enough to accommodate your full set.
To help prevent tarnishing after meals, handwash silverware in warm, sudsy water — never in the dishwasher. Let the pieces soak while you clean up the rest of the dishes to loosen food and prevent contact with air. Be especially quick to clean silverware that has been used with salad dressings, vinegar, fruits, or salt, as these contain reactive molecules that start oxidizing before you’re even done with dessert. After washing and towel drying, let silver air dry at least overnight, turning pieces over halfway to dry the other side. Don’t put silverware away until it’s completely dry.
Organizing and stocking the bar
If you have a bar area with shelves and possibly a cabinet, this is the spot for all your libation supplies. Resist the temptation to buy more glasses than you need just to fill the shelves. Arrange those you do in neat columns by type, turned upside down to keep out the dust. Other bar supplies to stock here include
Liquor, grouped by type (clear, dark, sweet)
Mixers, grouped by type
Corkscrew
Foil cutter
Bottle opener
Bottle stoppers or vacuum system
Lemon zester
Cocktail shaker
Pitcher
Decanter
Ice bucket and tongs
Cocktail napkins
Special supplies — margarita salt, bitters, and so on
If your only bar accoutrement is a corkscrew you use once in a blue moon, store it with your kitchen utensils or above the refrigerator with party supplies. On the other hand, if you have a bunch of bar supplies but no bar, dedicate a spare dining room or pantry shelf to the cause.
Wine racks are best placed in a cool, dark spot of the basement or the coolest closet in the house to prevent oxidation of your wines. Arrange by varietal or appellation, with reds on one side and whites on another. Enthusiasts may want to check out catalogs for the many types of wine racks and home cellaring options available.
Keep track of an extensive wine cellar with special computer software, a database, or a word processing table listing vintage, brand, varietal, appellation, date bought, number of bottles, and price. If you like, add slots for tasting notes.
With your living and dining rooms done, you’re ready to share your organizational victories with the world, so get those invitations issued!
Chapter 9
The Hangout Spot: Family and Media Room
In This Chapter
Creating a space for pure comfort
Enlightening your entertainment center
How to be a well-ordered bookworm
Managing magazines with expertise
Better family relations through organization
A h, home at last. You kick back on the couch, crank up the VCR, and prepare to lose yourself in your favorite film. But the tape in the box marked Casablanca seems to be projecting singing dinosaurs onto the screen — not at all the thing for your tension headache — the remote is nowhere to be found, and is that an old pizza box peeking out from under that pile of magazines?
The model family room is comfort defined, a casual place for letting it all hang out. But you can’t relax among piles or while hunting for the remote control or digging through a stack of Rolling Stones CDs in search of some soothing Bach. Promote family harmony with a well-organized family room, and watch your recreation quotient rise.
How can you let everyone do their own thing in the family room, yet still have some semblance of order? Teach all the room’s occupants the power of the principles of P-L-A-C-E.
Purge: Toss any malfunctioning, obsolete, or duplicate equipment; videos you no longer watch, music nobody listens to anymore, and books you won’t read again; and old magazines, including back issues you haven’t read.
Like with like: Arrange video- and audiotapes and discs by format and category, books by fiction/nonfiction and category, and photos by date in boxes or into albums or frames. Group remote controls together with a remote caddy.
Access: Arrange furniture for conversation, watching television, and listening to music. Place home-entertainment equipment in a media unit designed to accommodate units and make connections easy. In the bookcase, place heavier books on lower shelves and lighter ones higher up.
Contain: Store and contain tapes and discs in drawers, shelves, or storage units, books in the bookcase, current magazines in a rack, and games, toys, photos, and collections in closed shelves and drawers or the playroom or basement.
Evaluate: Can you straggle into this room after a long, hard day and quickly access the recreation you crave? Is the room so comfortable and peaceful that you sometimes fall asleep in your chair? Do the members of your family get along, find what they need, and have fun when they’re here?
Casually Neat Is Not a Contradiction
Though the family room is a great place to forget formality, that doesn’t mean order can go out the window too. Neatness counts extra in this room because it’s usually the most lived-in. The den’s image permeates the consciousness of your home’s inhabitants. Wouldn’t you like that picture to be one of peace?
Furnish the family room with comfort in mind. Like to get lazy? Indulge in a reclining chair with a built-in or separate footstool. Or go overstuffed with big, comfy armchairs. A nice, long couch can accommodate the whole family at movie-watching time; point the couch toward the screen and angle chairs on either side so you can talk or watch. Add enough end tables to hold drinks, and double up their use with drawers and shelves underneath for photos, coin and stamp collections, games, and toys. Store some TV trays or lap trays in the closet if you’re inclined to have snacks or casual meals here.
Fun or Frustrating: The Media Center
A media unit is a must to provide easy access to a full complement of equipment — television, VCR or DVD, and stereo system. Designed to shelve the various components of your system and accommodate all the connecting cables, media units also have drawers to store manuals, program guides, cleaning kits, extra cables, tapes, and CDs. Built-in units offer the best stability, but you can also buy a freestanding system. If you must make do with a bookcase, drill holes in the back for cables and cords. Use extra shelf space and shelf-top organizers to store CDs and tapes.
The media center is the focal point of many family rooms — and face it, it tends to be a mess. Some of my clients c
ould be buried alive beneath their tapes and CDs, and if I had a dollar for every unlabeled videotape of a TV show or movie I’d be too rich to bother writing this book. Imagine settling back, thinking you were in for last night’s late-night talk show only to have a horror movie come on instead. No wonder relaxing is so hard to do these days.
Some people call this the Information Age, but I suspect it’s really the Equipment Age — and if you accumulated an epoch’s worth of unused entertainment equipment, clear the stuff out. The eight-track tape deck? History! The skipping CD player you keep thinking you’ll take in for service? Either do it or give it away. Your little tabletop TV is shamed by the new big-screen model you just installed. Move the smaller version to the kitchen or call a charity for pickup.
TV, VCR/DVD, and stereo equipment
Does your remote control like to play hide and seek between the couch cushions? Take control with a caddy that has a place for your remote unit and current program guide. You can even attach it to your favorite easy chair. See Figure 9-1 for ways to take control of your controls. If you have several remotes for the television, video player, and stereo system, a universal unit can combine them all into one.
Figure 9-1: Remote control caddy stands keep you in command.
Fight media burnout with a scheme to make home entertainment easy again. Four easy steps can enlighten your entertainment collection and put hours of fun at your fingertips.