Whether it’s cozy movie nights or cocktail parties, the living room is often the hub of the action when it comes to gathering with friends and loved ones. And because it’s such a well-used space, it also tends to accumulate its fair share of clutter. Here are some ways to clear the clutter and create a beautiful, comfortable living room space.

What You Really Want From This Space

Beginning your space-clearing process with a positive mindset will help make your decisions about what to keep and what to let go of easier. Which activities do you imagine doing here? How do you want to feel when you enter the room? Come up with a list of three to five words that encompass the mood, look and feel you want to create.

Take Action: 

With your vision for the space firmly in mind, walk through your living room and begin removing items that do not mesh with that vision.

◦  What colors fill you with joy?

◦  What sort of artwork, textures and shapes do you love?

◦  What is taking up space that you don’t you really love or need?

Paring back is an ongoing process, and you may need to repeat this step several times before you reach a balance that feels good to you.

Calm The Visual Noise

Papers, magazines, movies, games and electronics can be helpful to have on hand in the living room, but that doesn’t mean you want to look at them all the time. By hiding away most of these items, you can create a more peaceful feeling in the space.

Take Action: 

Cabinets are ideal for stashing media and electronics out of sight. Make room in your cabinets and shelving by sorting through your media, books and papers and choosing to keep only the items you truly love and use.

If you don’t have cabinetry in your living room, you can still hide those DVDs and Blu-ray discs inside attractive bins or baskets on shelving, or tucked beneath a coffee or side table. For the most streamlined look, choose containers that are all the same and that either fill the space completely or come with lids to hide the contents.

Design For Real Life

If you have young kids at home, is your living room an easy place to hang out as a family — or do you find yourself constantly watching out for easily tipped furniture and breakable decor? Design the room for your current life phase; your household will be the happier for it.

Take Action: 

Realistically consider your needs right now and whether your space is meeting those needs.

◦  If you have young children or pets, consider washable slipcovers and easy-care

    fabrics on upholstered pieces.

◦  If you use your living room more for movies and lounging, choose a deep, cushy

    sofa. If you use it more for chatting and parties, upright chairs and sofas will be

    more comfortable.

◦  If you have a baby or young child, furniture with soft edges and unbreakable

    materials — an acrylic versus glass coffee table, for example — may not be

    necessary but it can provide some parental peace of mind.

◦  If you’re an empty-nester but your living room is still designed for a young

    family, consider how you can reclaim the space and put your own stamp on it.

Take Action: 

Come up with a list of things you love — passions, interests, activities, hobbies — that you’d like to incorporate into your life more.

◦  For book lovers, edit your book collection, letting go of those you didn’t love and

    choosing some favorites to spotlight on a shelf.

◦  For crafters, select a bowl or basket where you can keep your current project

    close at hand.

◦  For parents, consider which screen-free activities you’d like to encourage in

    this room and gather the necessary items in an appealing arrangement.

◦  For entertainers, clear space on the coffee table for sharing small plates of

    food, or organize a drink cart/bar.

Cultivate Your Passions

Whether you’re a big reader, an art lover, a wine connoisseur or a board game aficionado, let your passions take center stage. Curate your book collection and pull up your coziest chair to create a reading nook beside the fire, frame a new art print or dust off a portrait from the attic. When you shine a light on the things that matter to you, you allow your living space to nourish and support you.

Bring In Nature

Living plants clean the air, soften hard edges and bring a welcome touch to any room. Large potted plants can transform the look and feel of a room with their lush texture and vibrant color. If your room has very little natural light, you can display cut branches in a tall vessel for a similar effect.

Take Action: 

Bringing in even a single small houseplant can have a surprisingly large impact on how your living room looks and feels. If you haven’t had good luck keeping plants alive in the past, get recommendations for easy-care plants that will do well in your space.

◦  Bring in large potted plants like split leaf philodendron or fiddle leaf fig for a

    dramatic look.

◦  To start small, try an easy-to-care-for houseplant like a potted aloe or

     spider plant.

◦  If you have a sunny window ledge, why not grow a few pots of fresh herbs?

◦  If houseplants won’t work in your space, bring in cut branches and fresh flowers

    whenever possible. Even a single bloom in a bud vase has a remarkably

    cheering effect.

More people are making small, daily changes in their homes to live a more eco-friendly life. These greener-living ideas are driven by concerns of global warming, pollution and habitat loss.

Here are some simple ideas for making your household greener.

Laundry: 

Some simple changes will be healthier for you and the planet, and might save you money. Use cold water as much as possible. Don’t overdo the detergent — consult your washer manual and the detergent package.

Try using your dryer less, hanging clothes on a rack indoors or outside in warm weather. If you are using the dryer try using wool dryer balls.

If you wash lots of fleece and acrylic items use a washing bag that collects microfibre particles that are released during the wash, so they don’t go into the water.

These are just a few simple things you can do and know that you are doing something good for the environment.

Cleaning: 

Check under your sink and in your cleaning closet. Are there rows of cleaning products in plastic bottles? How much do you know about their formulas?

Some people are passing on harsh chemicals and creating their own cleaning solutions using baking soda, vinegar and lemons. You can also seek out brands with plant-based, natural or nontoxic ingredients.

People think cleaning in an eco-friendly fashion will be less effective, more expensive and more work, but that is just not true.

Organizing: 

Recycling, repurposing or donating clutter is a worthwhile project. But don’t buy unnecessary organizing supplies. Look through your house first. You maybe amazed at what you find. Spray-paint glass jars and cans, or dip them in paint, to make them into decorative storage containers.

When sorting, use a colour-coding system to mark items and bags — for example use red for trash, yellow to donate, blue is sell and green to keep.

Rugs: 

When shopping for a rug, look for those made of wool or other natural materials such as jute, sisal or linen; padding made of wool or felt; and no stain or waterproofing treatments.

Try choosing rugs free of PFAS (per/poly-fluoroalkyl substances) — a category of chemicals that do not break down in the environment and can cause health issues. Try rugs with backings made of natural rubber, and not PVC.

Furniture: 

Cheaply made plastic or particleboard furniture (fast furniture) is likely to end up in a dump before long. Instead, consider giving an old piece of furniture a new life.

With old furniture, you can get a lot of bang for your buck and you get your own signature look, instead of the same style everyone else has. 

Moving to a smaller home can be a great opportunity to take stock of what you have and start fresh in your new space

When it comes to downsizing space, moving may not be as simple as just packing everything in boxes and unpacking them at your new home. Moving in any situation can be overwhelming. But if the new space is smaller or the room configurations aren’t the same as in your current home, it will take some planning and thought on where you should place and store your belongings.

Moving may feel intimidating, but it’s also a great time to take stock of what you own and to start fresh with your new home layout. Here are a few key considerations to think about before and after your move.

Declutter Before Downsizing

There are so many details to manage and tasks to complete during a move. It may be tempting to quickly pack everything in boxes and deal with decisions on what to keep and toss later on, after the move when you’re not on a deadline. In reality, I’ve found that post-move decluttering takes enormous discipline and motivation and rarely gets completed. Therefore, if your moving timeline allows, I recommend putting in the hard work before the move to review your belongings and decide if they belong in your new home and your life.

Keep Your New Home in Mind

Potential Lifestyle Changes

If downsizing reflects a lifestyle change for you, such as moving to a retirement community or splitting households due to divorce, your new home will serve you differently. Social gatherings may take place in restaurants, so it didn’t make sense to keep home entertaining items such as punch bowls and large platters, or multiple sets of dinnerware and glassware if you don’t have the space.

Multifunctional Spaces

If your new home is much smaller or if you’re losing rooms, the new spaces may need to do double duty and cover multiple activities. For example, will your dining table also serve as your work desk? Will your bedroom also include an exercise spot? If so, consider if there are any duplicate items you may be able to eliminate. 

Home-Specific Decor

Sometimes decor and holiday items can be very home-specific. What worked in your old home may not work in your new one. If you have much less wall space, your artwork and wall decor may not all fit. If you’re losing any outdoor space, you can perhaps pass along your outdoor decorations to a neighbor who will appreciate them. If you have beloved framed photos that you don’t want to dispose of but don’t have the space to display, consider saving the photos only and donating the frames.

Remove Unwanted Items Before Moving

I recommend removing all items marked for donation, recycling or trash promptly and before moving day. This will eliminate any confusion about what you’re keeping and minimize the risk of accidentally moving unwanted items to your new home. It may also be helpful to schedule several donation pickups so you can remove items in stages.

If your timeline is short, consider donating to one organization that will take a variety of items instead of splitting up donations to several specialized organizations that take limited items. Return all items that belong to others.

Consider Outsourcing Tasks if Necessary

Downsizing and moving requires a lot of energy. If it’s beyond what you can manage and if you have the budget, it may be worth outsourcing these tasks.

Professional organizers can guide you through the decluttering process, pack for moving, unpack and organize your new home, space-plan for efficiency, create a functional storage system and arrange for disposals.

Movers and freelance labor can provide the muscle to move your items quickly so you can spend your time and energy setting up your new home.

Incorporate Storage Units When Necessary

Keeping long-term storage units for housing items that need to be reviewed is not ideal. Many “I’ll-look-at-them-later” boxes kept in storage units contain items that are ultimately unwanted. Consider the cost you may be paying to store potentially unwanted items. Of course, there may be situations where renting a storage unit temporarily is the best option, when you’re unable to review and edit your belongings at the time.

Longer-term storage units may be necessary, in cases such as temporary downsizing due to home construction or remodeling or when the storage unit is used as an addition to a small home with inadequate storage. If the latter scenario describes your situation, consider organizing your storage unit so it’s truly a working, active extension of your home. Shelving units that allow easy access to boxes — as opposed to stacking boxes — make retrieving and putting things away relatively easy.

If your storage needs are potentially long-term, investing in shelving units may save you time and energy. If your items are organized and easy to locate, it may even save you money: You won’t repurchase items you can’t find buried in a chaotic storage unit.

Occasional Use

If space is limited in your home, review which items are truly used daily and which don’t need to occupy prime space. For example, items used solely for planned entertaining, such as tablecloths, napkins, serving bowls and platters, can perhaps be packed in storage, along with extra dinnerware and flatware. Likewise, suitcases and travel accessories can take up valuable space and may be better kept in storage if you don’t travel often. Keep these types of items within easy access in the storage unit for when you need them.

Annual Items

Holiday decorations, seasonal clothing, sports equipment and other items that will be used for only a small portion of the year can be stored away and taken out as needed to free up space in your home. Think beyond the obvious holiday items and consider how often you need to use other household things — guest bedding, camping equipment, portable heaters or fans, vacation-only items — and whether it may make sense to keep some of these in storage.

Deep Storage

You may have some items, such as sentimental T-shirts, childhood and school mementos, photos, wedding keepsakes, archived files and documents you don’t plan on using any time soon but are too sentimental or important to part with. Categorize these items as deep storage and place them in less accessible parts of the storage unit, saving the easier-to-access spots for actively used items. Other items that you might use only once every few years or less can also fall into this category, such as baby clothes and equipment reserved for another child.

Be sure your items are packed properly before storing, using the appropriate containers or boxes that will protect any valuable contents from moisture, pests, temperature extremes, acid and light. Remember that you’re paying to store your belongings, so assess whether the items are worth storing. Where possible, and if it makes sense for how you plan to use your storage unit, place boxes on shelves around the perimeter to allow for easy retrieval.

If you have a lot to store, you can maximize your space by using deeper shelves, which can accommodate two or more layers of boxes. The deep-storage items can be stored in the back, keeping more frequently used items in the front. Keeping the layout efficient and convenient will allow your storage unit to serve as a truly functional addition to your home.

Organize Your Downsized Space

One of the keys to staying organized, regardless of the size of your space, is to have a system where every item has a home and items go back to its home after use. Spend some time evaluating how you use your space and your belongings, and keep these guidelines in mind when deciding where to place things.

Keep categories together. Organizing your items in categories makes sense and may make locating what you need easier. However, be sure you’re categorizing correctly. Think more about how you use your belongings and less about what the actual item is. You may want to store all your drinking glasses together in your kitchen cabinets. But if you have 20 glasses and regularly use no more than eight, perhaps 12 of those glasses can be stored with your entertaining supplies, freeing up space in your main cabinets.

Store Frequently Used Items Within Easy Access

Prioritize what you use most frequently and be sure to reserve easy-to-access space for these items. Your daily dinnerware and drinkware deserve prime space. But perhaps your coffee bean grinder that you use every day can also take a spot conveniently in the front, whereas your less-used water pitcher can take a back seat.

The priority list will differ for everyone, so decide what yours is. You can also switch out what occupies your prime space seasonally if that makes sense for you.

Make It Easy To Put Things Away

A system only works if it’s actually being used. In the case of keeping organized, success occurs when you’re able to maintain your space by putting things back where they belong.

When thinking about storage, consider what it will take to create an easy return system. This may include using open baskets, where you can simply toss things inside, or making sure you don’t store an often-used kitchen appliance in the back of a crowded corner cabinet.

For some, seeing empty space feels like an invitation to fill it. I recommend leaving some literal wiggle room and not packing your spaces, if possible. It’s much harder and more discouraging to put things away when you have to squeeze them in. 

Create a Flow

Finally, try to create a flow when deciding where to situate your belongings. This goes beyond keeping categories together and means thinking more about the big picture. I don’t keep my sunglasses and knit hat with my accessories and I don’t keep my wrist weights with my workout equipment. Instead, I put these items in my entryway cabinet as I always use them on my walks, and the cabinet nicely corrals them for me to grab on my way out.

Traditionally the vanity has taken on the bulk of bathroom storage, with an occasional assist from a medicine cabinet. But lately tower bathroom cabinets have been taking hold with homeowners. Tall cabinets are most often installed atop a counter or as a freestanding piece of furniture adjacent to a vanity.

Tower cabinets offer handy storage at eye level and provide easy access. They are also a great place to conceal electrical outlets, whether inside or on the side of the cabinet. 

Stylish Division

Stacking two cabinets can divide the sink area from a makeup table area. The cabinets can also anchor two floating shelves. Countertop towers provide storage at eye level, which is especially nice to include in a bathroom that doesn’t have room for a medicine cabinet.

Takeaway: 

When placing a countertop cabinet between two areas, consider which side of the room it will serve the most. Then have the door open up to that side.

Linen Storage

When planning a contemporary renovation for their bathroom, a countertop tower can be placed in a corner to keep the room feeling as open as possible. Integrate the design by matching the room’s molding around the top of the cabinet.

Takeaway: 

Install an electrical outlet on countertop cabinets rather than cluttering up the nice lines of a backsplash with it.

Backsplash Frame

Countertop cabinets can provide pleasing boundaries for a tiled wall backsplash. Careful measuring allows the square tiles to fit between the mirror frame and the cabinets.

Takeaway: 

Note bottom drawers are great for storing jewelry, electronic devices or everyday items like hairbrushes.

Full Height

The towers atop a vanity can extend all the way up to the high ceiling, but make sure the scale is appropriate for the size of the bathroom. The top cabinets are hard to reach, so they’re best for storing infrequently used items. But even if they remain empty, these upper cabinets are key to the pleasing proportions of the towers.

Takeaway: 

Outlets and pullout shelves installed inside the tower makes them great for storing and plugging in electric toothbrushes and shavers or for charging phones.

Display Space

A vanity, can also be styled for display — it’s always nice to bring art and organic elements into a bathroom. But the open look also can be functional and attractive. Neatly folded towels and toiletries corralled into baskets would look great.

Takeaway: 

When planning for open shelves, add closed storage on the bottom to provide balance.

Symmetrical Arrangement

Twin storage towers gives cabinetry a more traditional furniture-like feel and provides symmetry that’s easy on the eye.

Takeaway: 

Use the sides of towers to your advantage. They provide a convenient spot for hand towel rings.

Handy Hampers

Often a hamper is a freestanding piece in a bathroom — an afterthought brought about through necessity. Towers can provide hampers that make collecting and sorting dirty laundry easy and attractive.

Takeaway: 

Don’t forget to plan for a hamper or laundry chute when renovating a bathroom, laundry room or closet.

If you are ready to transform your garage from dumping ground to a useful, well-organized space, this plan is for you. It breaks down a huge task into manageable steps, so you can stop fearing your garage and finally start using it again. Not only are garages generally filled with cars, oil spots and an assortment of stinky chemical stuff, they also have a reputation as the black hole of the home, the place where you put things and then never see them again. Here’s how to change that.

Make a Plan of Attack

Depending on the state of your garage, you may need to clear a weekend to kick off this task. Get help if you can — and keep an eye on the weather. You need to be able to drag stuff out of the garage so you will have more space to go through it. The first two days include the hardest work; the rest of the week is about putting things back together and creating storage that functions well. Read over the whole plan before beginning and make adjustments as needed.

Also, before you get started, take a moment to envision the way you want your garage to look when you are done. How do you want to use your garage? Do you need to make room for your cars, carve out space for a workshop or create a smartly organized storage space for seasonal gear? Keeping your goals in mind will help you stay focused.

Day 1: Purge

Before diving, it will help if you take a moment to set up several areas: hazardous waste, garbage, recycling, donate, sell and keep. Rent a Dumpster if you need it, but keep in mind that you may be able to recycle, donate or sell most of what you no longer want or need. Once you have your zones in place, begin pulling things out of your garage and sorting them. Don’t try to sort stuff in your garage — you won’t be able to really clean or organize if you try to sort it in place.

What to Keep:

◦  Important memorabilia

◦  Things you have used within the past 12 months

◦  Things you have a definite plan to use in the near future, such as workout gear

    you forgot you owned

◦  Spare materials for your home, such as paint and tile

Categorize Your Keepers:

◦  Holiday decorations

◦  Gardening supplies

◦  Tools

◦  Paint and home repair

◦  Car care

◦  Memorabilia

◦  Seasonal gear

◦  Sports equipment

◦  Miscellaneous

Get rid of everything else. Thinking you might someday want to use something is not a good reason to keep it. Each item you keep that you do not use, love or truly need is taking up precious space in your home and in your life, space that could be used for something more worthwhile. Give it away, sell it, pass it on … let it go.

Day 2: Clean and Inspect

Because they can house everything from cars to paint cans, garages get dirty. Sometimes really dirty. And while a little dirt is to be expected in a garage, keeping up a basic level of tidiness can help deter critters who may think of taking up residence in your boxes of stuff. Today is the day for a clean sweep.

Decluttering Tasks: While your floors dry, visit your piles of stuff left from yesterday.

* Transfer things from oddly shaped containers or falling-apart cardboard boxes into sturdy plastic bins. Cardboard: rats and other rodents can easily chew their way in and use any soft material they find inside to make a nest.

* Use smaller open-top bins to organize frequently used supplies like gardening gear and tools.

* Use color-coded labels to identify the contents.

* Don’t mix contents. If you start with a box of childhood memorabilia, don’t toss swimming suits at the end. That will make it impossible to find things later!

Day 3: Make a Storage Plan

Standing in your garage with a clipboard, draw a rough floor plan of the space. Mark where each category of stuff will go. As you complete the rest of this week’s tasks, fill in details about where you are storing what. And be sure to keep this plan — it will come in handy when you’re ready to pull out the holiday decorations!

Day 4: Get Everything Off the Floor

Storing stuff on the floor of the garage invites mildew and water damage, and makes it easier to let things get messy again. If you do not already have a storage system in place, now is the time to get one.

Use Vertical Space

Consider adding tall shelving units and a ceiling-mounted platform.

Use the Walls

Don’t let a wall go to waste! If you have two walls filled with shelving, fill the other one with wall-mounted storage. It can be as fancy as a custom storage system or as simple as a pegboard and a row of wall hooks. Bikes, tools, shovels, rakes and sports gear can all be hung on the wall, avoiding the dreaded floor pileup.

Ceiling-Mounted System 

Makes excellent use of space. Stack plastic bins, just be sure you label them and face the labels out, on top, and hang bikes and other gear from hooks underneath.

Store the least frequently used stuff in the highest spots:

Top-level Storage: Childhood memorabilia and old documents that must be stored long-term

Medium Height: Holiday decorations and seasonal gear

Lowest: Gardening supplies, home improvement tools and sports equipment

Day 5: Finish the Job

If you still have a pile, don’t freak out. Now is the time to finish the job so you can move on to more important things — like rewarding yourself with an ice-cold drink.

Take your hazardous waste to the proper disposal or recycling facility. Check to find a place that collects hazardous waste and other recyclables. You may be surprised at what can be recycled — even old clothing and textiles, coat hangers, running shoes and broken appliances, to name a few.

Donate items if you can. See if any shelters or nonprofits in your area are accepting donations right now.

Sell or give away other items. If you have things left over, you may be able to use a digital marketplace to list items for sale or to give away. Or see if anyone you know is in need of your items.

Day 6: Make an Entrance

If your garage connects to your home, you probably use it as an entrance — which means you could use a mini mudroom in the area near the door. Put down a doormat to trap oil and dirt before people step foot in your house; provide a boot tray or shelving for shoes, and a few hooks or a standing closet for coats.

Day 7 and Beyond: Keep Up the Good Work!

Decluttering Tasks:

Stop thinking of your garage as a dumping ground for things you don’t know what to do with, and start thinking of it as the useful, accessible storage area that it is.

When you put something new into storage, be sure it is in a secure, labeled container, and mark it down on your storage plan.

Cleaning Tasks:

Wipe up oil spots as soon as you notice them and sprinkle on kitty litter to soak up the most of the stain before it sets.

Keep a box in the garage to collect items that need to go to a special recycling or waste center, like motor oil and paint, and make a trip there whenever the box is full.

Set a date for at least once or twice a year to give your garage a thorough cleaning.