Storage & Organisation
How to Effortlessly Declutter Your Home (Without a Big Clear-out)
Minimalise your maximalist tendencies! These simple tricks will help your home feel less busy and more beautiful
If you’re a maximalist at heart, the more is more approach to interior design will probably appeal. But with interiors, as with life in general, it is possible to have too much of a good thing. So if your home is leaving the layered, eclectic and interesting camp and straying onto the rocky shores of visual overload and clutter, read on. These simple ideas will help you nudge it back towards a clearer, calmer look, with no need to undertake a major declutter.
Concentrate your collections
Rather than peppering a room with finds, bring all the pieces you love together in one display. Organise them according to colour or material, if you prefer, for extra tidiness.
Rather than peppering a room with finds, bring all the pieces you love together in one display. Organise them according to colour or material, if you prefer, for extra tidiness.
Create a gallery wall
Pictures dotted willy-nilly around a room can look messy and lack direction. Instead, confine your images to a gallery area and leave some walls completely blank to create breathing space.
See 10 fresh ways to combine black and pastels
Pictures dotted willy-nilly around a room can look messy and lack direction. Instead, confine your images to a gallery area and leave some walls completely blank to create breathing space.
See 10 fresh ways to combine black and pastels
Impose order on your collections
If you have several collections, tone down the busyness by imposing order on them. Align everything neatly and group similar items together on dedicated shelves and suddenly a multi-faceted space will look calm and collected.
If you have several collections, tone down the busyness by imposing order on them. Align everything neatly and group similar items together on dedicated shelves and suddenly a multi-faceted space will look calm and collected.
Go for a row
Instead of clusters of objects on display, which can tax the eye and create an impression of busyness, try arranging pieces in a row. Simple, but effective.
Instead of clusters of objects on display, which can tax the eye and create an impression of busyness, try arranging pieces in a row. Simple, but effective.
Beware of too many shades
Stand at the entrance to your room and count how many colours you can see. There’s no limit on the number, but that said, if you mix more than around five shades in any one space it can begin to look hectic.
This space, for example, works beautifully, but adding in one more colour, unrelated to the existing hues, could easily tip it. In your own home, pare out one shade and look again. Hopefully, the space will feel less busy.
Stand at the entrance to your room and count how many colours you can see. There’s no limit on the number, but that said, if you mix more than around five shades in any one space it can begin to look hectic.
This space, for example, works beautifully, but adding in one more colour, unrelated to the existing hues, could easily tip it. In your own home, pare out one shade and look again. Hopefully, the space will feel less busy.
Avoid numerous patterns
As with colours, so with patterns. A few clashing patterns can be invigorating, as in this gorgeous scheme, where they all pick up on colours around the space, but too many can confuse the eye and make a room look cobbled together rather than thoughtfully designed.
As with colours, so with patterns. A few clashing patterns can be invigorating, as in this gorgeous scheme, where they all pick up on colours around the space, but too many can confuse the eye and make a room look cobbled together rather than thoughtfully designed.
Paint exposed brick
Raw, exposed brick can bring real character to a space, but if the scheme around it is also packed with colour and texture, the bricks may prove too much.
Rather than binning your cushion collection, paint the brickwork fresh white instead. Its rich texture will still shine through, but the fresh, pale colour will minimise visual stress.
Raw, exposed brick can bring real character to a space, but if the scheme around it is also packed with colour and texture, the bricks may prove too much.
Rather than binning your cushion collection, paint the brickwork fresh white instead. Its rich texture will still shine through, but the fresh, pale colour will minimise visual stress.
Lose the rug
The floor is the second biggest surface in any room after the walls and by keeping it unadorned, it can help a space to feel open and calm. So remove that rug and notice how much cleaner the room feels. Now the eye can glide over the floor and concentrate instead on objects and furniture.
The floor is the second biggest surface in any room after the walls and by keeping it unadorned, it can help a space to feel open and calm. So remove that rug and notice how much cleaner the room feels. Now the eye can glide over the floor and concentrate instead on objects and furniture.
Ditch the curtains
Curtains can really warm up a space, both visually and literally, but in a fairly busy scheme, they can prove too much. So take down curtains and instead install simple roller or Roman blinds that will sit neatly within the window recess when pulled up.
TELL US…
Do you have any tips for making a space feel less busy? Share them in the Comments below.
Curtains can really warm up a space, both visually and literally, but in a fairly busy scheme, they can prove too much. So take down curtains and instead install simple roller or Roman blinds that will sit neatly within the window recess when pulled up.
TELL US…
Do you have any tips for making a space feel less busy? Share them in the Comments below.
Try nudging the pieces in your room closer together. This simple trick can help individual items feel like one element or grouping, which makes a space feel less scattered and busy. Try this idea with chairs, stools, books, small coffee tables, and even rugs.
Check out these neat living room tips to steal from tidy people