Organizing Entertainment Centers

As perhaps the single largest piece of furniture in many homes, the entertainment center can quickly dominate the living room. When it is nice and neat, it can help create a relaxed and peaceful atmosphere in just about any home. However, if the entertainment center is in chaos, then don't be surprised if you find yourself a little on edge when you go into the living room. Instead of letting the situation get out of hand, spend a little time getting it all organized. Organizing entertainment centers is pretty easy, if you take it one section at a time. Here's how.

• Appliances. Begin organizing your entertainment center by working on the appliances. What this means is that you should start off with a completely blank slate, and focus first on things like the television, radio, game system, DVD player, Blue Ray player, and so on. Most often, you will want to have everything as symmetrical as possible, so try to organize your appliances working from largest to smallest, to largest again. For example, you will want to have your television on top, then in the shelves underneath, your DVD player on top of your radio, with your game systems off to the side repeating the same pattern.
• Cables and cords. Keep your power cords and cables from getting tangled up. The easiest way to do this is to hook each cable up one at a time, and then zip tie the excess together. Label each and every cable with a little tag of masking tape, or color coded zip ties, so you know which cable goes to what at glance.
• CDs. CDs can quickly take over any space that they are stored in if you don't have a storage method. One of the best ways to organize your CDs in an entertainment center is to dedicate one area solely for their use. Do not store anything else in that area, just like you won't store CDs anywhere else. Organize your CDs according to the genre, artist, title, or whatever method you choose. Be sure that you keep utilizing your organizing method, or you will quickly find CDs all over your home.
• Movies. Movies, whether they are DVDs, Blue Ray, or even the older VHS can very easily take up a lot of space in any entertainment center. The easiest method for organizing your movies is to use the same strategy that you use for your CDs. Simply repeat the process, and maintain it in the same manner.