Organising and Tidying your Living or Family Room

Whether your home has a single large room and no living room, or has both a living room and a family room, organising, cleaning and tidying these room(s) is an important factor in making them a homey refuge for your family and sorting out and tidying your home in general.

First, take a careful look at the room. Look at it from the point of view of a guest in your house. Is the room filled with stuff? A first step in making your room more homelike, and more appealing, if you are thinking of selling it, is to cut down on the amount of stuff scattered around.

Take a look at the type of things you see in the room. Can you see newspapers, books and magazines, children’s – and adult’s – toys and shoes and other footwear? Start by sorting the items that don’t really belong in the room. Get some storage boxes and fill them with those things whose proper home is elsewhere in the house. Now take a look at any periodicals. Those such as newspapers and television guides that are out of date can simply be thrown. Others should be filed away, perhaps in a magazine rack or the drawer of a coffee table, or possibly discarded if it’s unlikely they will ever be read. Toys should be put into a storage container and placed where appropriate. Place footwear either in the relevant bedroom cupboards or, if there is a place for all the footwear in the house, put it there.

After finishing this, take another look around the room. Has its’ condition been improved? If anything needs redoing, do it now before moving on to the next step.

Now take a look at the furniture. Does the furniture have a thick enough layer of dust on it to write in, or is it smeared with fingerprints? Check the television screen, is it so thick with dust that the picture is partially obscured?  Or are there other marks all over the screen? Are the flat surfaces covered in paper or other items? Flat surfaces tend to attract paper, whether the surface is furniture or floor. Start by clearing away the excess from the surfaces. Put the remote controls for any electronic items with them or away when they aren’t being used. Do a little each day if there is a lot to accomplish.

Once all your surfaces have been cleared, now clean them. Use glass cleaner and cloth on glass and furniture polish and a duster on the furniture. Check the insides of the windows and clean them too, and check the curtains or any draperies at the same time. Vacuum the floor and carpet, and then mop it if you have a tiled or laminate floor.

After finishing with the floor, take a look at the ceiling. Are there cobwebs in the corners of the room? Get a feather duster and clean them away.

Once all this is finished, your family or living room should be much more homely. Take one more look around to see if there’s anything you’ve missed. Once the room is finished and tidy, keeping on top of it so that it remains in the same state should be much easier.