Frequently overlooked ways that you can declutter your entire home
Clutter is one of those things that tends to build up in our homes over time without us even realizing it.
You ever notice how easy it is to spend the money on material objects? Whats more, its even more difficult to remove material objects once we bring it into the home.
We begin to develop emotional attachment to objects for various reasons. Whether its because we spent a lot of money on it, it was gifted to us, or it was handed down from a family member.
The problem with having an emotional attachment to objects is that it could cause us to accumulate more than we can handle.
This can then lead to physical clutter as well as emotional clutter. Clutter can impact our ability to focus on important things in our life, it could cause us to lose sleep, and can even lead us into depression.
There are many ways around getting rid of the clutter and it doesn’t have to be as difficult as we make it out to be.
Here I’ll talk about the 10 frequently overlooked ways that you can begin decluttering your entire home:
Paint with neutral colors
You’re not actually getting rid of clutter with this step but I wanted to include it due to the simple fact that color does a really good job at playing mind tricks on us.
It all goes back to color psychology in that, color can influence us in many ways, good or bad.
Do you know why McDonald’s has the colors red and yellow in their branding? These colors are stimulating, energetic, inviting, not to mention that they are great at luring their customers in. And did you know that red and yellow can trigger feels of hunger? It’s true.
The same color psychology principles apply to calming colors such as light blue, lavender, and light green. These colors promote feelings of joy, peace, comfort and harmony.
So, when it comes to making a space feel less cluttered, think light neutral colors. Colors such as white, light grey and beige, can create the illusion of a decluttered and minimal home because, not only does it make a room appear to be bigger, brighter and more open, but we also tend to associate these colors with negative (empty) space, something that is predominant in minimal and decluttered homes.
This isn’t to say that neutral colors are the only colors to use in a decluttered and minimalist home. You can certainly get away with painting your walls other colors. Neutral colors are just something to consider when trying to create a decluttered feel in your home because this is what most people associate with minimalism.
Use solid fabrics around the home
The second way we can make a home feel less cluttered is by limiting the use of busy patterns and opting for more solid fabrics around the home.
You can most definitely have a floral pattern here, or a striped pattern there. It just means to be a little bit more mindful about the other patterns you use in your home.
The key is to not go overboard with patterns, which can create that decluttered feel within the home.
Hide things
One of the best ways to declutter is to think about all the areas in your home that you can store things, and then come up with ways to utilize those areas effectively.
Common areas to store items are in baskets and storage bins, inside of cabinets, linen closets, on the top shelves of closets, multi-purpose storage closets, garages, drawers, bookshelves and even under the bed. I personally don’t like to store things under the bed. In my mind, under the bed storage could possibly encourage more clutter to occur over time, but if you absolutely don’t have any other place to store things, then go for it, as long as it works for you.
One rule of thumb is to make sure that all your belongings have a proper home, out of sight. Now, I know that this is easier said than done. Some of us don’t have the luxury of ample storage. But it just means that we can get more creative with the way we store and hide things.
If you simply can’t hide everything, then it might be a good time to revisit all the objects you actually own and see if there is any way you can free up space. Anything that you may be holding onto that no longer has any special value to you can really help to create more space to store items that you absolutely need to keep.
One in one out
One of the things that some minimalists are great at doing is following the one in one out rule. If you bring one thing into the home, the rule is to find one thing to remove from the home. This is a great way to keep the clutter in check.
The only downfall I see with this rule is that you might end up developing the mindset that its okay to keep buying things, just as long as something always comes out. But by doing this, you’re not actually cutting down on the clutter. You’re just basically maintaining the same number of things. So, this is something to keep in mind if you’re considering the one in one out rule.
If you want to kick this rule up a notch, instead of doing one in one out, you can do one in five out or even one in ten out. This just means that if you bring one new thing into the home, then the rule is to take five things out or ten things out.
6 month rule
Let me just quickly say that I am so guilty of holding onto things longer than 6 months, especially when it comes to clothing, thinking that I’ll save it for my next formal or when I finally drop a few pounds.
I actually did this with a dress that I haven’t worn in over 4 years. I had put on some weight and couldn’t zip it up any longer and I told myself that I was going to keep it so that when I finally lost weight, I’d be able to wear it again.
Fast forward 4 years later, I finally lost 20 pounds and was able to fit into the dress comfortably. The problem was that, the dress was no longer in style or even MY style for that matter. I loved staring at this beautiful dress, but once I put it back on for the first time in 4 years, I realized that I no longer loved it.
At that moment in time, I wished that I had gotten rid of it sooner because all those years that I allowed it to sit and collect dust was years spent that I could’ve had more space in my closet.
It was a good lesson learned however, which then motivated me to get rid of a good handful of other clothing at the very same time that I got rid of that dress.
So, one thing to keep in mind when trying to declutter your closet, or any area in your home, is to look ahead into the future and think to yourself, “Will I still love this a few months later? What about a year from now? Or 5 years from now?” Will it be worth it to hold on to? Think in terms of keeping a wardrobe that is simple, timeless and will be in style years from now.
You can even consider a capsule wardrobe. A capsule wardrobe may consist of a few basic tops and bottoms, a couple of jackets, maybe one or two pairs of shoes, and possibly one solid colored scarf. The idea is to be able to mix and match and layer all of these clothing items to be able to create multiple outfits that work together all year round.
When trying to declutter clothing, try on the article of clothing to see if you still like the way that it fits on you. When it comes to other objects, hold it in your hands for as long as you need to and weigh out the pros and cons of keeping versus letting it go.
The important thing to remember here is to not beat yourself up for holding onto something for much longer than you should have. When you think you’ve made a mistake, learn from it, then move on.
Clear off counter tops
I don’t like having anything on my countertops. Nothing on my kitchen or bathroom countertops at all. It was a difficult feat to accomplish but here’s how I did it.
I had to rework the items in my cabinets and see what I could get rid of first. And then once I created more space, I began to pull the items from the top of my countertops and place them in cabinets where it would fit.
Now, I didn’t just stick things anywhere and everywhere. I really had to think more strategically in terms of easy access and storing items in ways that made sense.
Everyone’s cabinet storage is going to look different. There are definitely some rules you could follow, such as placing utensils near the stove for easy reach or keeping spices in a cabinet near the stove.
I do want to mention that, small appliances that you use frequently can be placed inside base cabinets and ones that are hardly ever used can be stored in upper cabinets on higher shelves or even in your garage or storage closet.
For example, I keep my toaster oven and my Instant Pot in the base cabinet where I can easily access it. I keep my blender in an upper cabinet where I don’t need to reach for it very often because that’s all that space will allow and it works for me. When it comes to heavy stand mixers, you’ll want to store that in a base cabinet or a storage closet if you don’t use it very often. If you have a walk-in pantry with lots of space, then consider storing some of your small appliances or bakeware in the pantry where you can easily reach for them.
Utilize your vertical space
When storing items, the first thing we often think about is horizontal storage such as on table tops or drawers. But you aren’t limited to just storing and placing things horizontally. If you have wall space, consider installing shelving where ever you can. You can even make use of over the door storage solutions such as on the inside of pantry doors, over the door shoe racks, or over the door coat and scarf organizers.
Going back to kitchen decluttering, one thing I did is I made use of the wall space on my backsplash area and I installed metal bars to hang things like cooking utensils, spices and dish cloths so that it stays off my countertops.
Some of my favorite go-to stores for storage solutions are The Container Store and IKEA. You could even look into more customized solutions with a closet organization company such as California Closets, or whatever custom closet organization company you have in your area.
Have a junk drawer
Some people may think that junk drawers are an absolute no-no in decluttered homes. Contrary to popular belief, junk drawers are actually very useful in any home, decluttered or not.
The reason I support the idea of having a junk drawer is because this is the drawer where you can keep small things such as lighters and matches, pens and note pads, and small random objects that you wouldn’t want lying freely around your home.
By having a junk drawer, you can store these small items where they are out of sight, out of mind.
Entry way system
I’ve mentioned this many times, in my social media posts and in other blog posts, that it is very important to have some kind of organized entry way system, especially for shoe storage. The entry way is the gateway to your home and it’s usually the first thing that guests see when they visit. Some great ideas for the entry way could be:
Storage bench
Baskets
Shoe organizer
Or if you have a nearby coat closet, store your shoes and coats or anything else you’d like to store away, inside your coat closet.
Become a mindful consumer
Last but not least, you’ll want to become more mindful about what you purchase. Obviously you need to still purchase the essentials in order to live life, but when it comes to buying random material objects, try to start thinking about ways that you can cut down on buying things to prevent from adding to the clutter in the home.
For example, if you tend to shop on impulse, you can rest assured knowing that it’s absolutely okay to shop, especially if you’re treating yourself, but try giving yourself a monthly budget or even a yearly budget and sticking to it.
If you are considering purchasing an item for your home but you’re still on the fence, sleep on it for a day or two. And then revisit it and see if you still feel like you need it or if you can live without it. This one is a great way to stop impulse buying and it’s helped me out a lot when I was still learning how to cut down on spending.
I’ve had enough practice now where I’m pretty good at stopping impulse buying, but it’s definitely not a change that will happen overnight. Its something that you have to continue practicing, especially if you’ve learned growing up how to be an impulse buyer.
A lot of the habits that we have stems from past experiences. If you can get yourself to break habits from past experiences, it can be life changing! It’s not easy by any means. But its completely possible.
You can work on changing your mindset simply by researching how to change (you can find anything on Google), or you can talk to a friend or a family member to be your accountability buddy. Have them help you when you think you might want to make an impulse buy. Have your accountability buddy talk you out of it.
Conclusion
Need more help decluttering and would like to work with me one on one? Contact me if you’re in the Las Vegas area to schedule a FREE discovery call.