How to Make a Cluttered Room Look Nice

Inside: Learn how to make a cluttered room look nice in your home. You can have a room that contains a lot of stuff and still look good!

Do you have a room in your home that needs to house a lot of things? There are a variety of reasons that this can happen.

But it is still possible to make a room look nice even when it needs to have a lot of items in it.

In this post you’ll learn:

• how to make a cluttered room look nice
• tips for making the room appear less cluttered
• the ultimate solution to too much stuff

Sometimes, You Can’t Help Having a Cluttered Room

There are a variety of reasons why you may have a room in your home that’s cluttered. Here are a few common scenarios that lead to having a lot of stuff in a room.

Other peoples stuff

Maybe you live with a partner who isn’t ready or willing to declutter their things. This can be a challenging situation.

If you have more stuff in your shared living spaces than you’re comfortable with, be open and honest about how you are feeling.

Work with your partner to create a solution that you both can live with. While it isn’t kind or respectful to declutter someone else’s stuff without their permission, you can create work to create boundaries that work for both of you.

Living in too small a space

Perhaps you’re in a situation where you downsized your square footage considerably, but still have too much stuff for the space you are living in.

You might not be ready to let go of some things as you still love and use them. Having too much stuff and not enough space can be a challenge.

No one wants their home to feel crowded or uncomfortable. When you look at your mindset and how you think about your stuff, it becomes easier to downsize to the appropriate amount of things for your space.

A temporary living situation

Life happens and sometimes that means you end up in temporary situations with roommates you hadn’t planned on or adult children returning home for a time.

It’s tough when you have the right amount of stuff for your home, but now your home is suddenly needing to house additional people and their stuff.

Use the tips below on how to make a cluttered room look nice, but also keep in mind that the situation is temporary. At some point, you will regain your space.

Not enough time to deal with the stuff

Do you feel like there simply are not enough hours in the day to deal with the things you have right now? Maybe you know you need to declutter at some point, but you currently cannot find the time.

There are seasons of life where you feel like you’re in survival mode. You’re focused on the highest priorities each day and decluttering doesn’t make the list.

Have patience with yourself if you’re finding yourself in a season like that. You don’t have to have every area of your life together all the time. That’s not a realistic expectation.

Work on what you can when you can and if you can’t declutter right now, that’s ok too.

How to Make a Cluttered Room Look Nice

As you work to make your cluttered room look nice, avoid the things that make your home appear cluttered. Regardless of why you’re currently needing to have a lot of things in the space, these tips will help you make the best of your room right now.

1. Put clutter in pretty boxes or baskets.

Assorted odds and ends sitting out make the room appear more cluttered. Use cute baskets to keep your things organized and to make your space look nice.

Make sure to get the right size basket to suit your needs and ideally, don’t throw a bunch of random stuff into the baskets. That would make items difficult to find and you will likely forget where you have things.

Consider adding labels to your baskets to help you and your family members remember what is stored where.

2. Clear surfaces as much as possible.

Minimizing or eliminating tchotchkes will go a long way in helping your room look nice.

Look around at the flat surfaces in the room and see what items can be removed or relocated. This will go a long way in making the room appear less cluttered.

As a bonus having these areas clear makes dusting significantly easier!

3. Vertical storage and functional wall décor are your friends.

When you have a room with a lot of things in it, you want to carefully consider how you’re using the space in the room.

Could you store some of the things vertically? Our living room has a kallax shelf unit that initially we used horizontally and it doubled as a bench. Once we added a desk to the room, we opted to use it vertically to give us more floor space.

Opt for functional wall décor when possible. Consider the purpose of everything in the space and how items can do double duty. Creative thinking can go a long way in a cluttered room.

4. Minimize non-functional décor with the exception of mirrors.

When your room needs to store a lot of things, work to minimize anything that is not necessary. Keep décor to a minimum as it will make the room appear more crowded and cluttered.

Mirrors can be a helpful addition to make a room appear larger. Before you hang one on the wall though, check to see what it would be reflecting.

In some cases, it could make the room appear more cluttered if it’s reflecting the excess stuff in the space.

5. Keep like items together.

If you have a lot in a space and the varying items are competing with each other, it will draw your attention from one area to the next and feel unsettling.

Sorting like items together in the room will make the space look more organized. It also makes the room easier on your eyes.

When similar items are kept together it is less distracting. It also makes it easier to locate your things.

6. Aim for cohesion.

Rooms look more cluttered when they have a bunch of random things in them that have no relationship with each other.

While some call this eclectic, it can come off as cluttered depending on how it’s executed. Even if your space needs to house a lot of things, you can still go for a cohesive appearance.

Choose furnishings that work together. Select a color palette and stick to it. A cohesive room will look nicer and less cluttered even if it still has many items in it.

7. Cabinets are a great solution.

If you’re sensitive to visual clutter, cabinets are a great option. Keeping items stored behind doors or in drawers will give a more calming feel to the room.

An armoire or cabinet allows you to keep your things well organized without having them on display for all to see.

Cabinets aren’t an excuse to keep extra stuff or to be disorganized. They do, however, let your eyes relax since you won’t see all the things all the time.

If you’re using a cube organizer system, opt for some bins to not have all stored items visible.

The Easiest Way to Make a Cluttered Room Look Nice? Declutter

There are situations where it may be necessary to have a cluttered room for a time. While you can use the tips above to help the room appear nice, they aren’t a long term solution to the problem.

The goal would still be to declutter the items when you’re able to. The steps to declutter are simple and you may find that you can get more done than you thought in short bursts of focused time.

Ultimately, you don’t want to miss out on all of the benefits of having a decluttered home and you can’t experience them if every room in your home is overloaded with excess stuff.

In the meantime, work to make your cluttered room look nice, but then plan for when you can begin to tackle the decluttering process.

Are you struggling with making cluttered rooms look nice? Share your thoughts in the comments!

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