How to Declutter Your Living Room Before Christmas

sheets on a sofa with a small table and a plant on it

We have a lot of different activities ahead of the holidays. Baking gingerbread, buying and wrapping gifts, and… cleaning the whole house! Many of us treat the Christmas period as an opportunity for general cleaning and it is when we are most motivated to do it. 

 

Usually during the year you don’t clean your house as thoroughly as you do before Christmas. So it’s no wonder that the living room in particular, where most of the family life takes place, doesn’t look unrepresentable (not to sound too critical).

 

Today we’re going to deal with the decluttering of the living room. After all, this is where you will spend most of your time together with the whole family celebrating Christmas. You certainly want everyone to feel at home. A clean home. We will help you with that!

 

Decluttering Your Living Room Step by Step

 

1. Clear the Coffee Table

a black and brown coffee table in front of a white sofa

 

The coffee table is the focal point of your living room. Therefore, this piece of furniture should fulfill its representative functions with special responsibility. Unfortunately, it is often the coffee table where things that shouldn’t be there land. Bowls of cereal, books that haven’t been put back on the shelf, your wallet when you get back from shopping and sometimes even snack wrappers.

 

2. Organise Your Bookcase

a room with a bookshelf and red chairs

Organise books and old magazines on the bookshelf

 

A bookcase doesn’t have to be just for books. You can also put candles or photo frames there. A bookcase is great for displaying beautiful sculptures and other works of art, so don’t be afraid to put them there too. After all, the name of this piece of furniture doesn’t determine its purpose.

 

Bookshelves can look beautiful. Especially if you’ll start to stick to one method of arranging books. For example, by the cover colour (gives a very nice looking effect), or by category (makes it easy to find the titles you’re looking for). Certainly, a neatly arranged bookshelf is something that you should have at your home if you want to call yourself ‘organised’.

 

3. Get Rid of Broken Things

 

Sentiment often prevents us from getting rid of things that have long ceased to serve us as they should. Unfortunately, they then take up a lot of space. And this makes the whole living room seem cluttered and eventually there is less and less space in it.

 

We know you hate to throw away things that have their unique history. But you don’t have to take them to the dump! Try to find someone who does restoration work. Take the piece of furniture or decoration to them and maybe after repairing it someone else will find it useful.

 

4. Don’t Keep Too Many Accessories in Plain Sight

a wooden wall clock and a small plant

 

Be minimalist when it comes to decorating your living room with accessories. The more stuff you have, the more dust settles on it. Which means more cleaning – and it is exactly something you want to avoid.

 

It’s worth furnishing your living room with a sideboard. This handy piece of furniture will hold all your small items and protect them from dirt. You’ll see that you will breathe a sigh of relief when all your trinkets find their place.

 

5. Remove All Unnecessary Furniture

a blue and white big corner sofa with light-blue pillows

Minimalist living rooms are easier to keep tidy

 

Sometimes a living room is cluttered with lots of unnecessary furniture. Perhaps for Christmas you won’t need everything that is currently cluttering up the space? Freeing up floor space is one of the most clever ways to make a room seem more spacious and welcoming.

 

For example, you might want to get rid of a newspaper holder that serves you well throughout the whole year but gets in the way at Christmas. So why not move it to the bedroom, for example? At least you can be sure that nobody will accidentally trip over it.

 

6. Get Into the Habit of Putting Everything Back Where It Belongs

a wooden wall clock and a small plant

Keep your living room clutter free

 

When you think about it, it seems obvious that in order to keep things clean, you have to ‘keep’ them tidy. The easiest way to do this is by putting things back in their place. It seems simple in theory, and it is much more difficult in practice. Especially when it comes to teaching this to your household members. 

 

After Decluttering, It’s Time for Cleaning

 

Now that your living room finally looks better you should clean all the surfaces properly. Simply getting rid of unnecessary clutter and putting everything back in its place is not enough to consider a living room properly cleaned for Christmas. It’s time to grab your gloves and cleaners.

 

During this process remember to:

 

  • Wipe dust off furniture,
  • Wash window curtains, 
  • Wipe down electrical appliances such as TV (remember to use a dedicated LCD cleaner) and game console,
  • Put pillows and blankets from the sofa into the washing machine,
  • Beat dust out of a carpet,
  • Finally, vacuum and mop your floors.

 

The Bottom Line

 

The run-up to Christmas is usually very busy and everyone tries to get everything done on time. One of the tasks besides preparing Christmas food is cleaning the whole house. Some people find this terribly stressful, but with our tips it should go smoothly.

 

And yes, we have to admit that decluttering a living room is not the easiest thing to do before Christmas. But the smell of cleanliness and the sight of a clear living space reward the effort. So don’t wait too long, roll up your sleeves and get to work. You can do it!