Generally there is one room in the house where most of the "family living" takes place. In order to have a pleasant and welcoming living area for your family, and a place you can be proud of when you have visitors, you need to come up with some type of organization and storage for your main room, whether it be the living room or family room.

Step back and take a look at your room as a stranger would. Is it cluttered? Are there newspapers, catalogs and magazines pilled up all over the tables? Kids toys thrown all over? Shoes lying around? What is the condition of the furniture, would you feel comfortable sitting on your sofa, or does it obviously belong to the family dog?

One great way to start organizing any room in your house is to start with empty baskets with the name of each family member. Anything that you find in the living room/family room that doesn"t belong in that room goes into that person"s basket. That pair of sneakers, those comic books, that old sweatshirt, the toys. Deliver the basket to the appropriate owner. Once you"ve gone through the clutter, focus on newspapers, catalogs and magazines. Throw out the old ones. If you must have your magazines and catalogs get a nice magazine holder you can put next to your chair.

Now that you"ve cleared most of the clutter take a look around again. Just how dusty was that furniture under all that "stuff"? Get one of those nifty magnet-like dust cloths and dust, dust, dust. It"s likely that once you see clean and shiny surface you"ll be more apt to keep it that way. Use some Windex on your TV and stereo cabinet. Looking much better by now isn"t it? Now it"s time to vacuum. If you have the time, do it thoroughly. Have someone help you pull the sofa and chairs out, vacuum behind them. If you don"t have the time, vacuum around the furniture until you do have the time for a thorough vacuum.

Now it"s time to focus on the furniture. If your sofa has been stained and shredded by the kids and the animals, and if the site of it make you cringe, imagine how your guests feel when you invite them to sit on it. It might be time for a new one. If a new one is out of the question, you can easily give your sofa a new and updated look with a slipcover. There are lots of fitted slipcovers available in wide varieties of colors and patterns and there is sure to be one to suit your decorating taste.

There, wasn"t that easy?