Day 4 Mini Challenge - Living Room Clutter

The living room is probably one of the most used rooms in your home. Its where you and your family gather and spend quality time together so its bound to get cluttered and messy from time to time. Since my fiance & I have only been in our home for a couple months, ours hasn't had much time to get really cluttered so today I'll share general tips that I've came across to help you get your living room organized.

Here's a picture of my living room and this is pretty much how it looks all the time except there are usually dog toys scattered on the rug. There is a love seat to the right against the wall which I couldn't fit in the picture. We haven't really decorated much because we'll be remodeling the entire house starting next year. Originally I wanted an earth-tone color scheme but with all the natural light this room gets, I think I'll focus on neutral colors with pops of color instead. 

This is one way we've organized what little living room clutter we have. I found this long, narrow box at TJMaxx for about $5 and its worked perfectly to house our remote controls and keep them from getting lost. 

This is what I refer to as our "catch-all basket" and it does just as the name implies, catches all the junk. When my fiance comes home, he'll toss his keys, wallet, phone, etc. in there. The lawn mower key has been hanging out in there for a while as well. Just any random stuff that would normally end up scattered throughout the house goes in that basket. Eventually I'd like to upgrade to a bigger basket so when we have things that need to leave with us, we can put them there the night before or whatever. 

Here's some more tips on organizing your living room. 

• Use a decorative basket to store all your pet's toys. Make it a habit to pick them up before bed. If you're expecting company, it'll only take a minute to collect them all & store them away.
• Roll up throw blankets and store them in a basket. I personally love vintage wicker laundry baskets, trunks, and/or ottomans as storage options.
• If you have children that play in the living room, get a big basket to store their toys. Rotate which toys are in there every so often.
• You could also get a cubicle shelf system (IKEA Expedit, closetmaid, etc.) to store toys and other living room items.
• For even more storage, consider a sofa table with drawers or even repurpose a buffet. Buffets look nice behind the sofa or underneath a wall mounted TV.
• Use a vintage (or new) magazine rack next to a sofa or chair to house magazines.
• Instead of a coffee table, use an ottoman with a tray or crate on top to hold remote controls, candles, and/or decorative pieces. 
• Swap out traditional DVD cases with jewel tone cases or fabric/paper cases to minimize the space they take up. Store them in a decorative photo album box, basket, or a fabric cube if you have a cubicle system. 

What are some ways you organize your living room? Share in the comments!

~Taylor

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