Quick Tips to Organize your Living Room

Home Decluttr

8 May

Written By Shelina

Quick Tips to Organize Your Living Room How often do you walk into your living room after a long day and get exasperated and stressed by the state of it? If this negative feeling is happening everyday; it's time to clear the clutter and get organized. Here are a few simple tips to help you get organized:1. Have a place for everything - Papers on the table, medicine sticking out of drawers, lighters for the candles in random places? Put those papers either into your filing tray, act on them or toss them (remember my favourite acronym FAT - file, act or toss), put the medicines in your medicine box and put the lights into a little bowl next to the candles. Kosui Glaze Catch-All Dish This bowl from Urban Outfitters is perfect for putting bits and bobs such as lighters in them. You can buy similar bowls in The One or Zara Home.I use a box similar to the one below from Zara Home to store my tv remote, coasters and other little bits and bobs under my coffee table. 2. Have a wastebin in the room - Yes it is not the prettiest thing in the world and it won't get you into one of the Home Interior Magazines (well they would hide it anyway), but if you have a family that accumulates rubbish in the living room, the best solution will be to have this in the room. I would recommend that food does not get thrown into this basket, but is thrown in the kitchen bin.Choose one that will go with your decor such as this one from Crate & Barrel. You can buy nice ones in Home Center and Pan Emirates also.3. Move the toys to a play area - If you have a playroom which is not being utilised properly, buy storage units such as these ones (from Ikea) below and store all the toys there. DeCluttered Playroom by DeCluttr Me If you do not a spare room for the play area, create a play area in an unused part of the living room. Install a small bookcase to divide the area and add rolling bins/boxes so that your child can move the box around the room (especially when their friends come to visit). By having the bins, the child will be encouraged to pick up after he or she is done playing with the toys.4. Control the cords - Tangled cables are the bane of our lives, especially as not enough plugs are installed in flats and villas in this side of the world. I like using cable boxes such as this Bluelounge one to hide the extension plugs and all the plus in one place. Bluelounge CableBox 5. Get a functional coffee table - If you have a family or spend a lot of time in your living room, get a coffee table that is functional (as well as aesthetcially pleasing). I bought this Hemnes coffee table from Ikea as it had a shelf underneath to store my baskets, magazines and for my cats to rest there (the description on their site even advises it is perfect to keep organized!).6. DeClutter the DVDs and CD's - with everything downloadable nowadays, go through your collections of movies and music and see what you want to keep or donate. With the music, you can upload the music onto your computer and play it on iTunes or equivalent player. With the movies, first make a pile of the movies that you never liked, watched or want to watch again. Then go through the pile left again and decide what you want to keep to play on DVD or have already downloaded digitally. There are plenty of places to donate the DVD's and CD's. I usually give them to my maid or the security guards in my building but charities will take them as well.7. Ditch the multiple photo frames - Have you run out of space for the photo frames of your family and friends? I decided to remove the clutter of the frames (and reduce the amount needed to be dusted by my maid) and bought a digital frame. Now all my favourite digital pictures can be seen continuously and I no longer have to look for a photo shop that will print a few pictures to put in the frames. This Touchmate frame is good to start with and has a USB port. TOUCHMATE DIGITAL PHOTO FRAME TM-PF790 Try out these tips and let me know how organized your living room is now. If you need more help to get your living room or other areas of your room organized, contact me at any time by completing this contact form. Shelina Jokhiya [twitter-follow username="decluttrme" scheme="dark"]