Tips for maintaining an organized living room

Need help keeping your living room tidy all year long? Here are our top tips for maintaining an organized living room!

The living room is the heart of the home. That means that it sees a lot of traffic - and most likely, a lot of clutter.

If you can take a day - or a weekend - to purge and organize the space, then you will feel great with a fresh start.

However, it takes work to maintain a stylish and organized living space. It takes planning and dedication to keep your space looking great.

Here are our best tips for keeping a living room organized!

Tips for maintaining an organized living room

Here are our best tips for how to keep your living room tidy!

Choose smart furniture

It is key to have the right storage solutions - for a small living room or a large one! Pick furniture with hidden storage - like cabinet doors, a lift off top ottoman, or a shelf that can hold baskets or bins.

Choosing pieces of furniture with storage space helps you to create a dedicated spot for everything. And, if things have a specific spot where they always go, they are much more likely to end up put away!

Personalize with a purpose

It's important to choose decor that makes your space feel personalized and like a reflection of you. However, you don't want to clutter up the space with a bunch of junk. More clutter = more cleaning!

Instead, be selective with what you display. A few meaningful or special pieces look better and are more showcased than dozens of small trinkets from TJ Max.

If you want to add more items, consider things like decorative boxes or baskets. They can add color or texture to your space and be used for storage. A double win!

Declutter regularly

Even if you get your living room looking perfect, new things are going to come in the door and clutter up the space. Set a few times a year that you will declutter and purge your space.

For me, this is usually school breaks. The start of summer, the end of summer, Christmas break, and Spring break. I use these times to do a deep purge and make a big pile of items to sell, donate, or recycle.

Having these dedicated times multiple times a year will help to keep rooms from getting too overcrowded and keep your space clutter-free long term.

Create zones

You probably have heard of zones in your home before. For example, in an open living area, you might have a seating area, a dining zone, and a kitchen zone.

You should plan your living room storage in zones, too.

If you want to store blankets - store them all together. If you need to store a backstock of candles - keep them all together.

Bins and baskets are crucial for zone storage. Have a dedicated bin for each category of item, and you'll never lose them again!

Create a living room cleaning schedule

Deep purging is important, but every day cleaning is important, too. It's easy to say you'll pick up before bed each night - but is that realistic?

You need to set daily habits for a clean living room that are really going to work with your schedule and lifestyle.

I personally like to say I will clear off the coffee table and put anything away in that space each night.

But there's no way I'm going to clean the whole living room nightly.

Instead, I try to clean up the space every Sunday night. This makes sure we head into a new week with a clean space!

Make it a habit

Making cleaning and picking up a habit is the key to keeping your space clean.

For example, pick up while you watch your favorite TV show once a week.

Personally, I love to set timers for tasks like this. I often think, ugh I can't clean up it will take too long. But, if I set a 10 minute timer, I can stomach cleaning for that short period. And, usually I can get these tasks done before a 10 minute timer goes off!

My favorite "10 minute timer" is to play All Too Well by Taylor Swift. It's a 10 minute song and I can almost always be done with a chore I've been procrastinating in 10 minutes!

Commit to seasonal refreshes

One of my favorite decluttering tips for the living room is to cycle out your decor. You don't need to decorate for holidays to decorate seasonally. Instead, pull out different textures or colors to reflect each season.

This is a great way to cut down on the number of items out in your space - and to keep the space feeling fresh all year long!