Tips for Maintaining an Organised Living Room

If rubbish tends to accumulate in the living room, adding a bin might cut down on clutter. Few living rooms actually have a rubbish bin in them; they’re not attractive and they can smell. Counteract this by choosing a can that fits your room’s decor. If you know food will be thrown away here, get one with a lid and some deodorising trash bags.

Papers, books, brochures and magazines tend to accumulate on flat surfaces all around the house, and the family room is no different. In fact, the living room is often more cluttered because it’s a central gathering place in the house. A two drawer file is our ideal recommendation. If you don’t have the floor space, a stackable file cart will do.

Make a quick sweep of all flat surfaces by piling papers in a bin, then sorting and purging as necessary. Take a vow, and get your family to follow it, to put papers in files rather than on the coffee table.

Until the world goes wireless, we’ll forever be stuck with tangled cables behind our TVs. Fortunately, there are several options for taming cords in the living room. The most attractive is a slim cable cover. They can neatly coils up to six feet of cord and usually come with an adhesive backing that sticks onto nearly any surface. A cable caddy usually sticks onto a desktop (or behind the TV) and has a space for several cables to clamp into. Your cords will still dangle freely, however, so a cable zipper, which encloses all the cables in a tube, might be the best bet.

If toys are taking over your living room, it’s time to put them in timeout. Unused corners of a family room transform into great play areas because the walls serve to block encroaching clutter. Corners are also good areas to put a small bookcase or children’s table. Add rolling bins for toy storage so your child doesn’t have to feel confined, but is encouraged to pick up after he or she is done playing.

If you have a coffee table (or forgot you had one due to the clutter) it’s time to reassess its organisational capacity. Coffee tables that look great but don’t have any storage for magazines, remote controls or even drink coasters, are probably making life more difficult. If you don’t have the budget for a new one, consider adding low storage cubes, rolling baskets or bins to stick under the table.

For a family that likes to play together, a game cabinet for board games and cards is both functional and fun. It’s helpful to designate a separate space for them, whether in another shelving unit, a bookcase or in plastic containers below the sofa (if the sofa has a skirt). Creating a single game space will free up other areas of the room for storage.

If you have a lot of small, photo frames that tend to clutter your living room it’s time to take control by displaying them in new ways. Photo albums and collage frames are great options for storing lots of photos at once, and a digital photo frame is especially handy for those who don’t use film. Don’t just use the mantel or side tables; use vertical space on the wall. Organising your photos by date or occasion in photo boxes is especially helpful for scrapbookers, who can keep these in one central location on a bookshelf.

Organise extra blankets, pillows, candles in an accessible place – behind the sofa. It’s a great place to put a trunk, cabinet or low bookcase. Plus, it gives you another surface to put a lamp or show off some treasured objects.

Multimedia like DVDs and CDs are staples of the living room. Take 30 minutes to begin sorting your entire collection, making two piles: one for keeping and one for selling or donating. If you no longer listen to the music or haven’t seen the movie in ages (and don’t plan on seeing it again), it’s time to let go. There are plenty of options for storing your sorted collection: DVD towers, in a bookcase, ottoman or the drawers of a coffee table. Find a system that works for you.

It can be a jungle in the living room if you have a green thumb. Organise your plants with a cute plant stand or several decorative pots. The type of houseplants you have will determine where you’ll place them in the room, so keep that in mind when looking for a stand. Stands typically come in corner, pedestal and tiered configurations and some even have drawers so you can keep your fertiliser and watering can nearby.