Have you spent a lot of time decluttering your living room, but it still looks… cluttered?

If you’re tired of a messy-looking living space, it might come down to fixing a few of these decluttering, design, and organization mistakes.

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7 Things Making Your Living Room Look Cluttered

1. Furniture in the wrong size

Filling out a living room with furniture that’s either too large or too small for a space can make it look and feel cluttered.

Oversized furniture takes over the space leaving little breathing room.

On the other hand, if your furniture is too small, there’s a good chance you will add in extra pieces leading to more visual clutter.

2. Too many throw pillows

Aren’t throw pillows great? They can add different textures and more comfort for the ultimate coziness. They can help tie together your room’s color scheme, or change the vibe of your living room completely.

Plus, there’s always some cute ones on sale at Target!

Unfortunately, there is such a thing as too much of a good thing. Too many throw pillows on your sofa and armchairs can add to the cluttered vibe of your living room.

The fix is to pick and choose a few to use at a time, and then rotate them out when you get bored. But remember to only store excess throw pillows if you are going to actively rotate them into use.

Tip: Throw pillows can also cause unnecessary clutter in the bedroom!

3. Too many trinkets

The right trinkets and knick-knacks and pieces of decor help inject your personality and memories into your living room decor, but too many small things all over the place looks like clutter.

One trick for this is to group multiple small trinkets together and place them within a contained space, like a tray or bowl.

Are your trinkets part of a collection? Check out some tips for decluttering your collections.

Tip: This tips goes for any loose items, not just trinkets. Corral your remote controls and coasters into a small basket on the coffee table

4. Visible cable clutter

Haywire wires coming out of your entertainment unit or from a living room home office creates all the clutter to sneakily undo a good declutter job.

Taking the time to hide your cables can do wonders for a messy-looking living room.

You can try using cable ties, cord covers and cable management sleeves to control the visual clutter of cables hanging or laying around the living room.

Related: 2 easy ways to manage cable clutter

5. Not enough breathing room

This applies to every aspect of the room from the wall decor to the space between the couch and the coffee table. Not only do you need breathing room between big pieces of furniture, but you also need breathing room in each element.

Breathing room, or white space as it is often called, gives your brain a second to relax, which ultimately makes things feel less cluttered.

6. Overstuffing shelves

Breathing room also applies to your open shelves. Don’t fill up every area of your shelves with photos, trinkets and knick-knacks.

If you need the shelves for extra storage space, it helps to add baskets or drawers to contain it. It keeps the visual distraction of too many things to a minimum, providing a clean and tidy vibe.

7. No division of spaces

If your living room is more than a lounge with a TV, creating a clear division of those spaces cuts back on the cluttered feel.

Maybe you have a kids play area and a home office in the living room.

Try separating those zones using a rug, making sure there’s a bit of white space between them, or simply pulling furniture away from the walls so there is now a separate space for them.

Related: Is she naturally organized or is it something else?

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