By Sarah Miller
Content provided by Veranda Interiors
From watching the TV to entertaining guests to playing games with your family, your living room serves multiple functions. Unfortunately, that means you’re also likely to use the space as a dumping ground. Decluttering the living room can be an overwhelming task and can quickly lead to cleaning burnout. However, that doesn’t have to be the case. You can bring the zen back to your living room with a little creativity. Follow these tips to add some spice to your decluttering journey and get lasting results.
- Hang Wall Pockets
Small things easily get scattered all over the living room. You can efficiently increase storage and keep your living room tidy by using wall pockets. You can store light items such as keys, mail, and postcards inside them. Hang several of them, and you’ll appreciate their uniqueness, their beauty, and how well they keep those tiny fidgety items in order. You can easily make wall pockets yourself.
- Clear Non-Essential Books
Your bookshelf can have a cluttered look if it’s too crowded. It’s not easy to get rid of books, but you don’t have to hang onto every book you’ve ever read. Perform a side-by-side comparison of the books and choose those to keep and those to get rid of through donation or taking them to the used bookstore. For every two volumes, ask yourself which one you would keep if you only had the option of retaining one of them. Remember, you can have the books you get rid of on your e-reader. Clearing the whole bookshelf can be a daunting task, so consider tackling one shelf at a time.
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- Give the Bookshelf a Neat Makeover
The bookshelf will also look cluttered if items aren’t displayed beautifully. Look for ways to style the shelves smartly. An excellent way to achieve that is by organizing each shelf by grouped objects. For example, you can use one shelf to display sculptural accents or your favorite tchotchkes and fill a different one with books.
- Make the Coffee Table More Functional
One of the elements of the living room that accumulates most of the clutter is the coffee table. This can be avoided by giving the table more organizational capacity. Consider investing in a new coffee table with a lower shelf or drawers for storage. If you can’t fit a new table into your budget, you could add rolling baskets or low storage cubes under your existing table.
- Transform Paperwork
You can put papers in many different spots. This makes them not only account for a large portion of the clutter in the living room but also harder for you to get the important documents when you need them. Categorize every piece of paper into two F’s: Filing (such as bank statements and bills) and Framing (like your kids’ artwork). Get rid of all pieces of paper that don’t fall into any of these two categories. Designate a specific spot such as in-box tray to place all papers that need filing or framing. To avoid more clutter, learn to file or frame any new papers or trash them quickly.
- Hide Items in a Side Table
A discreet filing cabinet can serve as a side table and place for hiding not-so-cute items such as cables, remote controls, important documents, books, and video games. You can use the tabletop surface to showcase ceramic vases, sculptural accents, a reading lamp, or your best coffee table books.
- Designate a Play Area
Toys, cards, and board games are fun but can end up in your TV armoire or taking over the living room. Turn unused corners of the living room into a play zone. The walls will block any encroaching clutter. What’s more, you can add a children’s table, a small bookcase, or rolling bins to the space.
- Design Built-In Shelving
If you have the space and budget, you could add a built-in shelving unit to your living room. This savvy investment offers long-term storage and makes the living room look immaculate. And as Veranda Interior showcases that painting the built in shelving to match the rest of the room i.e. flooring to create a subtle camouflage effect.
- Donate
Check the living room systematically from right to left for items you rarely use or don’t want in your house anymore. Throw away any trash and collect what is worth donating.
- Time Yourself
When decluttering, it’s common for people to feel overworked and lose motivation. Avoid this by allotting timeframes to different decluttering tasks. For example, you could allocate 20 minutes to organizing the bookshelf and 15 minutes to dusting. If you don’t finish a particular task, schedule it for another day or after taking a relaxing break.
The living room is your home’s most public part, so it’s crucial to declutter it to keep it clean and organized.
