ORganizing Small Spaces - Focus on the Living Room

 The living room (den, family room, hangout space... whatever you want to call it) is the entertainment space in the home. We gather here to chat, watch movies, and sometimes play games. This room tends to look cluttered for a few reasons. We need enough seating and tables for people and drinks and we need other furniture for storage for all the entertainment stuff we have.

I recommend you start by clearing out everything but the furniture. This way, you can get a good perspective on the quantity and scale of your furniture in relation to the size of your room. You might always feel like you don't have enough seating, but you can't get anymore in the room because everything you have is over-sized and overstuffed. Consider getting smaller apartment sized furnishings. These are slightly smaller versions of sofas, love seats and chairs that fit better in small spaces. 

If you have a large coffee table in the room, think about replacing it with a couple of storage ottomans with a tray on top. These now are multi-purpose - tables or seats, whichever is needed more. I love the ottoman pictured here - the seat flips over to become a tray! ​Or, you could just replace the coffee table with a couple of smaller tables

 that are more easily moved around. ​ 

While you're at it, replace some of your table and floor lamps with wall and ceiling lights. This will free up surfaces to use for other purposes. Of course, you might want to keep at least one for task/reading light by a favorite chair. 

ext, think about storage for your living room. What sorts of things need to be stored here? Do you have a collection you'd like to display? What about entertainment items like DVDs, board games, video games or gaming systems? You'll want to have at least a little bit of open storage and a little bit of closed storage. 

PURGE!!! When you have a small space, it's important that you only keep the things in the room that really need to be there. If you have a large collection, you're not going to be able to display it all. Try only displaying only your favorite 2 or 3 pieces and putting the rest in storage (or possibly letting someone else enjoy). For the entertainment items, keep only those things in the room that you use often - have closed storage for those things. A smaller scale storage unit, cube storage, or wall shelves can be great storage.

Remember, with cube storage and with any visible (open) storage, you want to leave space. Don't fill every available inch with stuff. It will only make the room fill smaller because there is no "negative" space for the eye to land. 

Do you need some help in deciding what should go in your small living room and how to maximize your use of space? I'd love to help with organizing or design ideas. Comment below, or contact me to reserve your session.