Vicky Sanderson Decluttering your home has so many benefits. It means less stuff to clean, tidy, and keep track of. It means you’ll have more usable surface area, which makes every room more functional. It means everything will be easier to find, But best of all, it means that your space will be more beautiful, says interior stylist Stacey Smithers.
“People forget how important negative space is. Our eye needs places to rest. If there’s too much stuff, all the awesomeness gets cancelled out. It’s like wearing all your favorite clothes at the same time,“ she says.
Here a few tips for clearing out the clutter for good.
Shelve it
Next to ice cream, shelving is the greatest invention in human history. Shelves can be as small—or as large—as you like, and can easily expand and shrink to fit changing needs. They can be made out of the finest mahogany or out of plywood and a few bricks. Use them to display all your prettiest pieces. And use that other brilliant human innovation—closed cupboards —to hide less than handsome but necessary objects.
Edit, edit, edit
Commit to regularly decluttering open and shared spaces. And do a self-check on your consumption habits. Do you simply buy too much stuff? Would cutting back make your life easier, less cluttered, or happier?
Growing spaces
Keeping a lid on clutter also means giving yourself room to grow into your home. A clear, low-maintenance space is much easier to repurpose to meet changing family needs and life-stages.
Clear out/clean out
When was the last time you audited your kitchen cupboards? Do it now. Check use-by dates and rotate older items to the front of the pantry. If the cupboard is full of items and ingredients you don’t use, it’s probably time to re-examine your grocery shopping habits. Go through your re-useable food storage pieces; if you haven’t been able to find the lid to that container in the last six weeks, chances are you are not going to. Just accept that it’s gone to the same place lonely socks from the dryer go:)
Self-storage can save you
If you’re really not sure about whether it’s time to part with certain items, or if, like me, you are in the middle of a life transition (we’re downsizing) it might make sense to make use of a service such as Box and Lock. I’m currently researching local options—even the exercise of doing that has me casting a critical eye on some of the items I thought were “must-keeps”.
This is a collaborative post. It was not reviewed prior to publication.
Feature pic is from HomeSense, a great source of storage items.
