10 tips to get your family room organized

Home and Garden Television 

These 10 simple tips for organizing your main gathering space will put the family back in your family room.

1. Welcome the Wastebasket
If trash tends to accumulate in the family room, adding a wastebasket might cut down on clutter.

2. Keep Flat Surfaces Clutter-free
The family room is often more cluttered because it's a central gathering place in the house. A two-drawer lateral file will help.

Make a quick sweep of all flat surfaces by piling papers in a bin, then sorting and purging as necessary. Take a vow, and get your family to follow it, to put papers in files rather than on the coffee table.

3. Control Out-of-Control Cords
The most attractive control is the slim Cableyoyo. It neatly coils up to 6 feet of cord and comes with an adhesive backing that sticks onto nearly any surface.

4. Create a Play Zone
Unused corners of a family room transform into great play areas because the walls serve to block encroaching clutter.

5. Coffee-Table Functionality
Coffee tables that look great but don't have any storage for magazines, remote controls or even drink coasters are probably making life more difficult.

If you don't have the budget for a new one, consider adding low storage cubes, rolling baskets or bins to stick under the table.

6. Designate a Game Area
Creating a single game space will free up other areas of the room for storage. If a computer is part of your gaming area, organizer Julie Morgenstern recommends against a computer armoire.

She's rarely seen them work well and recommends instead a desk that has a separate work surface, paper storage and a surface for the monitor.

7. Creatively Display Photos
Organizing your photos by date or occasion in photo boxes is especially helpful for scrap-bookers, who can keep these in one central location on a bookshelf.

8. Take Advantage of Space Behind the Sofa
Organize extra blankets, pillows and candles in an accessible place -- behind the sofa.

9. Sort Your Movie Collection
Take 30 minutes to begin sorting your entire collection, making two piles: one for keeping and one for selling back or donating.

There are plenty of options for storing your sorted collection: DVD towers, in a bookcase, ottoman or the drawers of a coffee table. Find a system that works for you.

10. Grow Your Houseplants
Organize your plants with a cute plant stand or several decorative pots.