Where to Put Your Holiday Gifts in the Living Room

'Tis the season for gifts galore, and within the next week or so, you and your family will likely be accumulating all sorts of wonderful presents from your friends and family members. While it’s fun to play Santa and rip into the wrapping paper, at some point, you have to put all of your new items away. Toys can go into the playroom or in the kids’ rooms, but what about things like board games, video games, video game consoles, DVDs, CDs... the list could go on and on. If you are hoping to store some of your new gifts in the living room or media room, here are some ways to fit everything in your storage space:

If your kids have received a lot of video games or DVDs, look through your old ones to see if they have outgrown any. Doing this each year may be enough to carve out enough room for new items received. This is a great way to help teach your children about giving; you could drop off the games or movies at your local children’s hospital or donate them to the library.

You can store things like board games or CDs on a bookcase, if you have some spare room. (Purging outgrown or not-to-be-used-again items extends to the bookcase!) If you’re afraid that they will fall over and look messy, remember that you can store items laying down and stacked, rather than standing up on shelves. You could also use bins, baskets or cute boxes on your shelves and fill them up with items that might look messy if not contained.

You may have pieces already in your home that could be relocated to the living room to fulfill some double duty. For example, if you have a hope chest or antique chest taking up residence in your bedroom, you might consider using it as a coffee table, instead. If it’s currently holding blankets, those might find a new home in your closet, and board games (or living room blankets) could be relocated to the chest-turned-coffee table. A hollow ottoman could also offer storage space.

How many of us have board games that are being halfway-contained in boxes which are falling apart? Instead, consider taking out the board part of each board game and storing it (folded as it comes in the box) on a shelf. Then take the place markers, dice, cards and other little pieces that come with games, and place them in a resealable bag. Label each bag with the name of the game, and store these in a pretty basket. You can do the same with puzzles; just cut the face off of the box and slip it into the gallon-sized bag so you know what picture you’re trying to make. No more lost pieces!

Storing holiday gifts in your living room can take some ingenuity and creativity, but it can usually be done. We wish you a happy holiday season as well as a successful new year!