10 Tips for Organzing the Family Room

10 Tips for Organzing the Family Room  1. If your family likes to play board games, buy one of those ottomans that not only act as a foot stool, but also as a chest that you can store your games in. If  you have lots of games and their boxes are falling apart, try removing the contents of each box and storing them in small plastic containers along with the game’s directions. Corral plastic bags in a basket or shoebox. Game boards can be folded and stacked together nearby. 2. Anytime you can use a piece of furniture for organizing, please use it. Possibly you have an oversized entertainment center or a large armoire. Use it to store DVD’s CD’s and games. 3. Keep an attractive basket with a lid in the family room to store even more small, regularly used items. 4. Keep the coffee table clear of items. If an item is put on the table, it needs to be picked up and placed where it goes. Remind others in the family to keep items off the table. Placing a nice vase of flowers helps people to realize it’s a nice piece of furniture, not a dumping ground. 5. Keep only a minimum number of items on end tables and on the top of your entertainment center. The less you have out, the less cluttered it looks. 6. Be sure to keep the bookshelves nice and tidy. Get rid of books you no longer want to read or will never get to. Try to keep the number of books to a minimum, but if you have a lot, try to break up the monotony by dividing them up and placing a nice item in between them. You have the knickknacks so use them wisely. 7. Look around for wasted space in your living room/family room. Is there space under a staircase where you could knock the wall out and create storage space? This is another option and it doesn’t take up floor space. 8. Another good idea is purchase furniture that has storage space. An earlier tip was to have an ottoman for storage. Furniture makers have sofas that have storage drawers underneath. Storage can also be found under cushions as well or in the arms of the sofas. If your furniture has space underneath it and you can put under-the-bed storage units under the sofa, try that as an option for keeping toys, extra pillows or blankets for guests. 9. Pillows on a sofa are great and look nice, but they also provide clutter. Most people sitting on the sofa take them off so they can sit on the sofa so the floor looks like a mess. They also get thrown on to the sofa so the easy thing is to get rid of them. 10. Take a look at your walls. Are they full of pictures, artwork and shelves full of knick-knacks? One easy way to make a room feel less cluttered is to only have a few pieces of artwork hanging on the walls. Just have a few family pictures placed throughout the room on the walls. The same goes for a fireplace mantel. The less you have on the mantel, the less cluttered it looks and it is more appealing to the eye.]]>