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Four Methods to a Cleaner Living Room

You can spend hours cleaning your home but still it looks like it is not clean � what is the real trick to having a clean and roomy house? De-junk it! De-junking your home is the key in keeping your home looking cleaning longer. Looking around your home, do you have areas that are looking a bit too full? Do you have areas of your home that you are always stacking things up so that they are out of the way? These are the spaces in your home that we are going to attack, how you are going to de-junk your home, and make it a habit to keep less stuff in your home and in your possession so that your home looks cleaner, bigger and more welcoming!

Let�s start by going through your living room. Do you have shelving or bookcases in this room? You need to go through these and throw away any magazines, books, papers, or other items that you don�t use, want, need, or that are outdated. Keep items that you really feel are important, that you want to read, but if you have already read it and don�t need it, throw it away. You can give your old magazines or books to relatives, elderly, schools, or anyone who might be interested, or you can recycle them as well, but getting them off your shelves is a first important step to a clean and clutter free home. 

Arrange your books in a neat fashion so you can see what you have and what there is on your shelves. Going through your shelves about once a month and pitching �older� material will help you keep this �neat� look. If you find that you have too many things that you want to keep, maybe you need to think about a larger shelving system so you can keep everything arranged in an orderly fashion without it looking cluttered. 

The next subject we are going to attack here is your end tables and your coffee table. What exactly are you keeping on these tables and why? A few remotes most likely keep their home on your end table or on your coffee table, and you might find that there is just one that you use the most so you should be keeping the rest in the drawer of the coffee table or the end table. These will be within reach but hidden away so you living area has a cleaner look. 

The magazines, papers, the mail and cups, bowls, candy dishes and knick-knacks that you have on the coffee tables or on the end tables are they necessary. If this is your formal living area, you don�t want to have to much stuff floating around on your tables. The less that you have sitting around the cleaner your home is going to look even if you haven�t had a chance to sweep in days, and the less that you have sitting on your tables the easier it is going to be to dust through this room. 

Do you have more than one entry way into your home? Do you have a pile of shoes in the living room that actually should belong in the basement, in the entry way or in the bedroom? Putting shoes where they belong makes your rooms seem much cleaner as well. If you have three pairs of dress shoes and a pair of tennis shoes out, they are going to make your space seem so much more cluttered and dirty, put your dress shoes away in the closet, and pull them out, as you need them, leaving just your tennis shoes by the door. The less you have sitting around, the cleaner your house is going to appear, and the less you are going to be tripping over when they are not arranged properly by the door. If you have an entry way, a mud room, a basement entry or another way in the house, your shoes shouldn�t be sitting in the living room at all which will make this area much cleaner looking without them. 

Another method that you can use to make your home seem cleaner, bigger, and less cluttered is to look at the number of houseplants that you have and how they are arranged. There are various ways that your houseplants can make your home seem overwhelming and cluttered if you don�t arrange them properly. Houseplants that are hanging in your corners can be made to look �neater� when you use hangers that are sleek and less obvious. The plant hangers with the big frillies on the bottom will seem to draw you attention to them, but if you use smaller strings, and less frills the focus is going to be on the plant itself giving you a less messy over all appearance. Use plant stands that will hold various smaller plants instead of having them sit all over your coffee tables or shelves. Plant stands make your walls or your room complete while displaying your plants in a manner that is very organized. You can find plant stands that will also keep your plants from spilling on the floor because they are more out of the way, which will cut down on your cleaning if you often have these types of spills. 

A cleaner looking living room or living area is just a few simple steps away when you organize, put things away where they belong and when you throw things away that are outdated or not needed anymore.