Gebenco
The living room is the one space in most homes shared by everyone, which means it accumulates everyone’s loose ends — remotes, mail, chargers, books mid-read. Organising it well means giving those shared, low-value items a fixed, unobtrusive spot, rather than trying to hide the fact that people actually live there.
Entertainment storage: contain the cables first
A media console or entertainment storage unit does its real job when it hides cable clutter, not just the devices themselves. Cable management inside the unit — ties, channels, or a simple box — matters more than the unit’s capacity for gadgets you rarely use.
The hallway drop zone, even if it’s technically in the living room
In smaller homes, the “drop zone” for keys, post, and remotes often ends up in the living room rather than a hallway. A small tray or wall-mounted organiser near the main seating area does the job a proper entryway would, without needing a dedicated hallway to work.
Reading and display: fewer surfaces, better ones
Books and display objects compete with everyday clutter for the same surfaces. A dedicated bookend system or a small display shelf keeps what you want visible actually visible, instead of it disappearing under the day’s post and remote controls.
Surface organisation: one tray per surface, not one per item
Coffee tables and side tables clutter fastest when every small item has its own spot on the open surface. A single tray per surface, holding coasters, remotes, and current reading, does more to keep a living room looking calm than several small organisers scattered across it.
A practical order of operations
- Sort out cable management inside the entertainment unit before anything else.
- Add a shallow tray near the main door or seating area for keys, post, and remotes.
- Give current reading and display objects one dedicated shelf or stand.
- Replace scattered small items on coffee and side tables with a single tray each.
- Do a five-minute reset each evening rather than a full tidy each week.
Frequently asked questions
What’s the single biggest source of living room clutter? Shared, low-value items with no fixed home — remotes, post, chargers. Give each category one spot and the rest of the room tends to follow.
Do I need a full media console, or will a simpler unit do? A simpler unit with good cable management usually outperforms a larger console with none. Capacity matters less than whether it’s genuinely easy to keep cables contained.
How often should a living room actually be reorganised? Rarely, if the initial setup is right. A daily five-minute reset — putting the day’s loose items back in their trays — does more than a monthly deep organise.
Explore the Living Room collection for the pieces mentioned here, or take the Reset Quiz to find where to start.