Interior Therapy – Spring Clean – Tips For Decluttering Your Home

As we all know our homes have an enormous effect on our mental and physical well-being. Spring is the perfect time to start re-organising our homes. Before we dive head first into this massive topic, we always advise to start with one room at a time. It sounds simple but if you try and do your whole house at once you will feel like you’re getting nowhere and give up.

Secondly, clutter-free does not mean minimal or having every surface free of the things you love, perfection is never a reasonable goal, it is what is perfect for you. So, with that in mind, here are our top tips in 2 rooms that tend to amass the most amount of people and ‘stuff’!

Living Rooms

Storage, Storage and more Storage! The first thing that comes to everyone’s mind is shelving. However, being imaginative with different storage solutions can cut down on the need for bulky or overbearing shelving systems or units. For example, these side tables are not only useful for putting drinks on when you’re sitting on your sofa but can act as storage for toys or old magazines. If what you want to store doesn’t need to be accessed often then you can even place a lamp on them.

Choosing a coffee table that allows for storage, whether drawers or shelving will help you find a home for those pesky remotes or newspapers. Objects that appear they have a deliberate place will make a room look more considered and calmer. This coffee table does that job perfectly. With a drawer for remotes and a lower shelf for books or magazines. The solid top rather than glass means you can’t see through to the potential disarray beneath.

This is a rather obvious one but if you have open shelving you can de-clutter them by using a variety of storage boxes. It is important that you choose different styles, textures and shapes. If you only use boxes with lids you run the risk of making your living room feel like an office. Whilst not for everyone choosing storage items a similar colour to the shelving unit can help storage blend into the shelving units not making them so obvious.

A good freshen up can do so much more than you think to de-clutter a home. We don’t just mean the good old spring clean, a quick lick of paint to walls, ceilings and woodwork can work wonders. We would suggest at this time to look about your living room and think about how many different colours and textures you have.

Once you start counting you’ll be surprised at the number. For a calmer room we would recommend reducing this number. It may be time to get rid of that feature wall, re-upholster sofas and armchairs so they are in the same or complimentary materials. Another good trick is to paint any shelving the same colour as the walls. We’ve included two images, one neutral and one with colour as this isn’t only for neutral décor!

Kitchens

It’s time to face the pantry….go through all the cupboards where you keep your tins, jars and spices and take out all the out of date products. You’ll be surprised to see what date they go back to (we won’t tell!).

Once you’ve done this and analysed what is left, think about what you could realistically add, then start organising. Jars are useful for dried goods as you can easily find what you’re after when cooking and it always goes back to the same spot. Finally, if you have the room don’t forget the back of your pantry door.

Another big thing that can make a difference to the feeling of clutter in the kitchen is the amount of work surface you have free. We all use and need numerous kitchen appliances, but we don’t use all of them every day so make the edit of what can go away in the back of a cupboard. If you really prefer to have most of them to hand then we would suggest trying to incorporate one of these super useful hideaway cupboards.

A little but very pleasing thing is addressing “those drawers” and thinking about what inserts will help you organise them. One drawer that always ends up a “bit everything drawer” is the on where you keep your foils and wraps. This handy drawer insert can really help tidy up those pesky rolls and add a few extra boxes for sandwich bags and those other bits.

Another thing we love to get off the counter into a drawer are spices. We always recommend a proper drawer rather than a vertical rack as it’s so more accessible when you’re cooking and spotting when one is running low.