Frank and Hillary were completely overwhelmed when they called Restoring Order. Frank had just inherited his father’s house full of his stuff and Hillary had no room for her things in the home. Frank’s father received a grant to build a handicap accessible wing to the back of his home. He lived in this wing with regular in-home care as he aged to the point where he needed more care. He moved into a full-time residential facility and left Frank, and his girlfriend Hillary to clean up the family home. The overwhelming amount of medical supplies, clothes, and furniture stumped them and they turned to Restoring Order.

Over a series of 8 appointments, we were able to radically transform this home for our clients. Together, we tackled the handicap accessible wing, a large closet, and the sitting room. We want to share what we did to overhaul these spaces in a 3-part blog series.

Times of Transition Sitting Room

#3: The Sitting Room

We kept the sitting room for last.

We basically worked our way out from the bedroom and into a smaller room that was set up for Frank‘s father to watch TV.  Frank and Hillary did not want this to be a TV room but a Sitting Room for them to spend quiet times together talking.

This room was filled with unnecessary furniture and drawers filled to the brim with miscellaneous items (including medical supplies!).  Electronics needed to be pruned significantly, including a bunch of CDs which were donated to the library.

Many of the hours were dedicated to dealing with the smaller items of organizing.  Each drawer was a new venture into sorting and pruning on a much smaller scale: Toothbrushes, batteries, keys, pens.  Basically each drawer had become a junk drawer.

Organizing like this takes time and each drawer we opened, Frank and Hillary felt overwhelmed but as a Restoring Order consultant, I reassured them to continue and that the reward at the end would great.  There are NO SHORTCUTS to dealing with drawers like these, you simply need to sort them and deal with each item.  Let me repeat: Deal with EACH item.

Many of the items were “Go elsewhere” which takes time incorporating them back into the home.  Other items were recyclable or trash.  We donated what we could but after much hard work, we wiped down the drawers and were able to do a full “reset” on all the furniture in the sitting room.

Once the room was emptied, Frank and Hillary were able to paint, clean the carpets and place furniture to meet their needs.  Currently Frank and Hillary use this space every day as a place to be together without the distraction of a TV.  It is a perfect “gateway” to their now organized Master Bedroom and closet.

Cluttered Living Room Before Makeover


Read Part 1: The Bedroom

Read Part 2: The Closet

Read Frank’s testimonial about his work with Restoring Order.

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