How do I remove the div `col-right sidebar` from the default theme html?

Question

I want to completely remove the div col-right sidebar from the default magento 1.9 theme.

I've tried creating a local.xml file containing:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<layout version="0.1.0">
    <default>
      <remove name="catalog.compare.sidebar" />
    </default>
</layout>

But this only removes the content of the div. I want to completely remove it from the html code so the page can contain more products on a single page.

Now:

Goal:

What should I try next?

Answer 1

You have to change the root template for <catalog_category_default> and <catalog_category_layered> inside your local.xml

i.e.

<catalog_category_default>
    <reference name="root">
        <action method="setTemplate"><template>page/2columns-left.phtml</template></action>
    </reference>
</catalog_category_default>

Notice page/2columns-left.phtml. The template you are using is page/3columns.phtml

Take a look inside app/design/frontend/base/default/template/page/ for default layout templates that come with Magento.

Answer 2

app\design\frontend\rwd\default\layout\page.xml

line 33-35 change to:

<default translate="label" module="page">
    <label>All Pages</label>
    <block type="page/html" name="root" output="toHtml" template="page/2columns-left.phtml">