Our Fall organization challenge continues this week in the Living Room. I have a great strategy to help you organize this space in preparation for the holidays. Question is, can you maintain it until your company arrives?? Well, I have good news! I have 5 secrets that will help you maintain your newly-organized living room!!
First things first, you’ll need to organize the space, and I have a fabulous strategy you can use! After that, I’ll share my 5 secrets to help you maintain your organized living room! Let’s get started!
**Some of the links in this post are affiliate links. This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, we will receive an affiliate commission at no extra cost to you. We appreciate your support. (disclosure policy)
Use the 6/P Strategy to Organize the Living Room
Do each of the following steps that start with the letter “P”:
Prepare
Grab a trash bag, a box, and 2 laundry hampers to use for the following categories:
- Trash
- Donate
- Relocate
- Replace
Purge
Remove everything in the space and put it in one of the four categories
- Trash goes in the trash bag.
- Place any items you wish to donate in a box.
- Put any items that need to go into a different room in laundry hamper # 1
- Place any items that need to stay in this space in laundry hamper # 2
Polish
Now that the space is empty it’s time to deep clean using a top-down approach:
Personalize
The room is clean so now it’s time to personalize the space! Ask yourself the following two questions:
- How does the space need to function for my specific needs?
- How can I make the space more visually appealing?
Use my Personalize the Great Room printable to help organize your thoughts!
Place
Now, it’s time to place everything back in an organized manner.
- Trash-Take out the trash
- Donate-Take to the nearest donation center right away
- Relocate-Put the items in laundry hamper #1 where they belong
- Replace-Put the items in the laundry hamper #2 back in the room
Put Back
Remember, a place for everything, everything in its place!
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5 secrets to maintaining an organized living room
You’ve seen the 6/P strategy which will help you organize your living room, but now, I have 5 ways to help personalize the space so you can easily maintain it.
1. Incorporate an entertainment center with storage
We purchased this television console table for its beauty and storage capacity. We needed a place to store DVDs, CDs, and a few albums we couldn’t bring ourselves to get rid of lol!! I love being able to showcase decor items in the glass doors. If that’s not your thing, purchase a piece with solid doors.
2. add Shelves to use vertical space
We chose to add two bookshelves to either side of the television console. This gives us vertical space to store books and display decor and seasonal items. If you are a collector, shelves would be a great addition to show off your treasures.
The bookshelves we chose have a drawer at the bottom.
I keep our organized collection of Disney pins and our wedding videos in one drawer.
In the opposite drawer, I store an extra throw blanket.
3. use Furniture with storage
This cute little table has a drawer where we store our remote controls. If you don’t have a drawer to store your remotes, consider using a small basket, or a book with hidden storage!
There are all kinds of furniture made with extra storage like ottomans that have lids that lift, or coffee tables that have large drawers.
Speaking of furniture with hidden compartments…our couch has a queen sleeper inside of it, so we have an extra bed if we need it!
4. use decorative Baskets
I love to use baskets to contain all kinds of items. They can be beautiful and functional at the same time! Baskets are perfect containers to use in your living room. I have three examples of how I am using baskets in my living room right now!
Baskets for throw blankets
It’s Fall so I wanted to add some cozy vibes to my room, so I brought out two baskets to hold two of my lighter throw blankets. We still have the air-conditioning on here in Florida but sometimes I get cold when watching TV at night!
Baskets to contain toys
If you have kids or dogs you can store their toys in cute baskets! It’s so easy to grab the basket and walk around the room picking up all the toys!
Baskets for items you want to hide from sight
We are using the baskets in the TV console to store lots of DVDs and CDs. I was tired of how cluttered they looked and how much space they took up, so keep reading and see how I magically made them disappear in step number 5!!!
5. look for Specialty storage items to reduce clutter
We decided to purchase sleeves to hold all of our DVDs and small cases to hold our CDs. It’s amazing how much less space they take up when they’re not in those plastic cases!! If you’d like to see this simple organization project click here!
I hope my strategy and five secret tips to maintain an organized living room, have motivated and helped you with your own space! If you’re having company for the holidays now is the perfect time to get started on this room!
Don’t forget you can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest!
Blessings, Donna and Rich
More organization inspiration
To see how we organized our living room in “My Old Kentucky Home” click here
To see how we organized other spaces in this home click on the links below:
- Perks of Switching Out Clothes for the Seasons
- How to Organize Your Kitchen Using Zones
- Organize Your Kitchen Pantry
- Simple tips to Clean and Organize Your Car
get the look
For your convenience, we have added links to products we use in our house. If I could not find the exact product, I linked items that could give you the same type of look.
**Some of the links in this post are affiliate links. This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, we will receive an affiliate commission at no extra cost to you. We appreciate your support. (disclosure policy)
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