Organize Your Living Room

It doesn't matter whether you have a living room, a family room or a great room.

Taking the time to declutter, clean and organize the room where your family gathers to relax will allow you to get more enjoyment out of the time you spend together. That is a worthwhile endeavor.

Organize your living room and change the way your family lives for the better.

Organize Your Living Room
Declutter

The first step to organizing any room is to remove the clutter.

• Remove anything that belongs in another room in the house. Put those items where they belong.

• Dispose of any trash or recycling.

Helpful Tip: If you have a pile of magazines that you were saving for a few interesting articles, tear out the pages containing the articles you want and dispose of the rest.

• Remove any unwanted or unnecessary items. Move all of these items to Clutter Central.

The important thing to remember when decluttering your living room is that you can only keep as much stuff as you have room to store. If your media cabinet holds 100 movies, you can only keep 100 movies. If you own more than that, you will need to either purge your collection or get adequate storage.

Organize Your Living Room
The Clean Sweep

Now that you have all of the clutter removed, give your living room a thorough cleaning.

• Take window curtains down and throw them in the dryer to remove dust.

• Wash the windows and blinds.

• Vacuum, including using the crevice attachment to get into the corners and along the walls, use the extension attachment to clear dust and cobwebs from the ceiling and move furniture to vacuum underneath.

• Vacuum the furniture itself - remove the cushions and vacuum any crumbs that have accumulated and vacuum the upholstery using the proper attachment on your vacuum cleaner.

• If your carpet and upholstery are extremely dirty, consider calling a professional company to come and clean them. You should have this done at least once per year.

• If you have wood floors, wash them thoroughly.

• Dust all surfaces and knick knacks.

• Wash the overhead light fixture and ceiling fan blades.

Organize Your Living Room
Identify and Fix Hot Spots

Do you have hot spots in your living room? Hot spots are areas which tend to attract clutter like magnets and every home has them.

• If you have children who tend to bring their toys into the living room, you'll need a way to contain the toys.

• Do your family members tend to walk in the door and fling off their shoes into a big pile? If so, consider getting a bench that opens for storage or an enclosed shoe rack to hid the pile of shoes.

• Do you lose your coffee table under piles of mail, newspapers and magazines? If so, place a decorative magazine rack next to your favorite sofa or chair and place a basket or wall-mounted organizer near the entry door for mail and keys.

Part of a good overall organization plan is to identify the areas in your home or the habits of your family that tend to result in clutter and find solutions for them.

Organize Your Living Room
Simple Maintenance

Now that you have taken the time to declutter, organize and thoroughly clean your living room, let's talk about what you can do to keep it that way. Here are some rules to follow:

• Stay on top of those hot spots. Those are the areas most likely to disorganize your freshly organized room.

• Take 5 to 10 minutes each night before bed to do a quick pick up of the living room. If you have kids, enlist their help as part of their bedtime routine.

• Fluff couch pillow and refold throw blankets.

• Vacuum or wash the floor and dust thoroughly at least once each week.

• Spot clean the carpet and upholstery as necessary. Have them professionally cleaned at least once per year.

Enjoy your fresh clean living room!