De-cluttering-freeing time and space!

After a trip to my sweet SiL this past Easter weekend, I was so inspired by her ability to make her house a home! She has an amazing abiblity to organize and decorate to fit HER family needs and I was so inspired I came home and gave it my all. :) I have a few pictures below

Below are two shots of the Living room "before"

This is after I removed the two couches and replaced them with the furniture from our den.Never did like the pink.. SOO... Below: This is the point I am today. I "faux finished" the wall and we bought up to date and much smaller lamp shades :)My plan is to make a large painting on canvas to hang above the couch.. but for now..my favorite picture of the kids will have to do :)

This isnt a very good picture but its the only one I could find for a before picture. This is the den. (we were celebrating Cats birthday :)

Below: This is after! Must more open .. and I think will be a LOT easier to keep clean! We have LOVED having our Dining Table up and extended all the way (it is a drop leaf and is usually tucked away and not open)We now are able to eat our meals together without having to set up the table PLUS the kids have another great space to spread out their school work, puzzles, or other projects :)

The kids love this chair here.. Cat asked last night if she could sit there and read instead of reading in bed! I also got a much smaller lamp shade for this lamp and it looks LOTS better.. but I was too lazy to take a picture just for the new lamp shade so you will just have to visualize :)

I read many years ago in a homeschooling book that if you werent happy at home.. in your surroundings.. homeschooling would be stressful. I also read that you shouldnt even start homeschooling until you have your house under control and manageable. That has always been in the back of my head. After de-cluttering these two rooms and living with them for the last 5 days I have to agree that homeschooling is going to be sooo much less stressful because I have control of my house hold surroundings. For me more open space, a cleaner area equals less stress over household chores and has left more time for the important part of life!
So.. if you having issues with being happy with your house.. make it a home. And with the conversation I had with my SiL in mind "Dont worry about what other people have or how they live.. make your house work for YOUR family." (Thanks Angell for inspiring me to do this!)