How to Reduce Visual Clutter in Your Home in 4 Easy Steps
Inside: Use these easy steps to reduce visual clutter in your home and create a space that is more calm and relaxing.
When it comes to clutter at home, there’s probably some stuff that bugs you more than others.
The stuff that’s out of sight and out of mind probably doesn’t bother you too much – like the items you’ve tucked away in closets or hidden in drawers and cupboards, or placed in the spare room you never need to access. Sure, it’s there, but it doesn’t have much of an impact as you navigate your daily routine.
It’s the visual clutter that really bugs you. The stuff you can see when you gaze around your living room, or the things piled up on countertops and kitchen tables.
It’s the stuff that clearly doesn’t belong where it’s been placed. This visual clutter is a major contributor to feelings of stress and overwhelm at home – and fortunately, it’s something you can take care of.
Not sure how to reduce visual clutter in your home and restore a sense of balance and simplicity? Keep reading for some key tips and strategies you can implement today to declutter your space and feel more at ease.
Learn How to Reduce Visual Clutter at Home in Four Simple Steps
The good news?
Reducing visual clutter doesn’t have to be hard. There are some simple, straightforward steps you can take to make it happen.
And unless you’re dealing with a serious clutter problem, it shouldn’t take too long to see the results of your hard work. A good afternoon cleaning session is likely all it’ll take to restore a sense of order and calm to your home.
The bad news?
It will require a little work and dedicated effort.
So roll up your sleeves, put on your favorite playlist, and get ready to reduce that visual clutter for good.
Step 1: Get rid of unneeded clutter.
In its most basic form, clutter can be split into two categories.
You’ve got your needed clutter – the stuff you should actually keep. Important letters and bills, clothes you actually wear on a regular basis, books you’ve revisited again and again, and sentimental items all fall into this category.
This is clutter that needs to be put back where it belongs.
But then you’ve got your unnecessary clutter – things like junk mail, literal trash, things that are broken, and stuff you simply don’t love or use anymore. These items are ones to get rid of to clear up space in your home.
If you’re feeling that your home looks visually cluttered, a great place to start is looking at your home decor. If your house is looking like a Hobby Lobby store, it’s time to do some serious culling. Less is more in this case and the select items you love will stand out more when they aren’t crowded out by a bunch of extra stuff.
Next, check all flat surface areas in your home. Are there items sitting out on them that either need to be decluttered or put away? Removing these items is a really quick way to immediately reduce visual clutter in your home.
Also, look around your home at how things are organized (or not organized as the case may be). Do you have too much stuff to fit the space in your home? If so, reduce your collection to something more manageable.
Depending on what you’re getting rid of, you might want to discard, recycle, donate, or sell it. However you choose to get rid of it, the goal is to act fast.
Don’t start a ‘donate’ pile that’s going to sit in the corner (or the trunk of your car) for weeks. Make a point to get rid of it as soon as possible.
Step 2: Put things back where they belong.
Now, let’s move on to the clutter you actually need to keep. There are various things that make your house look cluttered and one of them is leaving too many items out.
Often this happens because people either get distracted or want to keep an item out so that they remember a particular task they want to take care of. There are better ways to do that though that don’t involve leaving clutter out.
Every item needs to have a ‘home’ – a place where it fits and belongs.
Books belong on the bookshelf.
Your phone charger goes in your desk drawer.
Documents for your personal records belong in your filing cabinet or converted to digital copies before being destroyed.
Clothes belong in your laundry hamper or put away in your closet or dresser drawers.
Take the time to put items back where they belong. Initially, it may take some time to do this, but once you get everything put away and adopt daily decluttering habits, it will become second nature.
And anything you need to keep that doesn’t have a home? Set it aside – we’ll deal with that next.
Step 3: Invest in storage solutions to keep your stuff out of sight.
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While open shelving might be trending, if you’re sensitive to visual clutter, it may not be a good option for you.
As you navigate the process of tidying up, you might find that you don’t have the right storage for all of your stuff.
Maybe you have way too many books than you can reasonably fit on your bookshelf, or too many clothes for your too-small closet. Or maybe you love to cook but just don’t have the space in your cabinets for all of the gadgets you’ve picked up over the years.
The solution is simple – invest in the right storage solutions to meet your needs.
There are virtually endless options out there when it comes to storage and organization solutions that can work with your space and budget. Some of these are great things to buy secondhand in order to save more money.
Here are some organizing solutions to consider:
- A countertop or wall-mounted mail organizer to keep letters, bills, and magazines confined to one place.
- Over-the-door storage to optimize kitchen pantries and linen closets.
- Pantry organizers, like spice racks or shelving for cans, to optimize space and let you put more stuff away.
- Extra shelving to hold books, board games, trinkets, and anything else that might need a home. Consider closed cabinet options to further reduce visual clutter.
- A comfortable ottoman with a hidden storage compartment for your living room or bedroom.
- Stackable storage boxes for things you don’t need to access on a regular basis.
You can buy all kinds of shelving, bins, boxes, and organizers to keep your stuff tidy and neat. The key? Wait until you actually understand the full extent of what you need to store before you shop for storage solutions. You should always declutter before attempting to organize.
That way, you can buy what truly meets your needs – instead of guessing and running the risk of still having insufficient space and continuing to try and manage too much stuff.
Step 4: Establish a decluttering routine that works for you.
Once you’ve managed to declutter and clean up, step back and admire your hard work. Enjoy the feelings that your peaceful, tranquil, tidy space brings. And then make a plan to keep it that way!
Of course, the goal is to keep your home clutter-free moving forward. But let’s be realistic. Old habits die hard. If you’ve tossed the mail on your kitchen counter every single day for the last ten years, you might be able to stop – or you might find yourself unable to change that habit.
If changing your habits and putting your stuff away immediately after using it isn’t an option for you, the next best thing you can do is establish a decluttering routine for yourself.
You might carve out 15 minutes each evening after dinner to reset your space to keep it neat and tidy, or save the task for the weekend and spend an hour or two restoring order to your space.
It’s up to you and whatever works best for your schedule – as long as it’s something you can commit to and incorporate into your regular routine.
And if you share your space with family or roommates? Make sure they’re on board, too. Sit down and come to a mutual decision on what’s manageable – then hold each other accountable.
How have you managed to successfully reduce visual clutter in your home? Leave a comment and let me know!
To make your home feel calmer and more peaceful, look for ways you can reduce visual clutter. Start with some of the items on the checklist below!
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The problem I have is that family aren’t on board. I’d love a more de cluttered space but others just don’t see it as a problem. 😕 I do insist on a space that is just mine but other than that others don’t help… even as much as bikes in the dining room!!!
Hi I share your concern. With kids growing up still the chore helping hand is a myth in my house. It’s far energy efficient to go alone than badgering them and that is where I stand with CLUTTER.
Clutter to Clean is a goal I shall get to!
If it were me I would lay down some hard and fast rules and stick to them! I perceive you are the mother and this is your home and you are the one who pays the mortgage? I always told my children when growing up, “When You leave home you can do whatever you want but not in this house!” It may be tough love but it is your sanity! Do not be afraid to speak up. You are the adult here.
I take photos of sentimental items and make them into slim little photo books on the Apple app. I can then move the items on to charity if other family members don’t want them. I started doing this after my daughter died and ended up with much of her stuff.
Doors. I find doors helpful. I shove a much as possible in a room and shut the door. This had not been ideal long-term.
Like others have mentioned, the main issue is getting everyone else in the house to do the same.
What jumped out at me in Step 1 is throwing unneeded clutter away is not always such an easy thing. You can’t throw just anything into the trash can and believe it or not, many charitable organizations have gotten pretty picky about what they will or will not accept. Nor is it likely that you are really going to have that giant garage sale you’ve been dreaming about. Also, trips to the city dump with a truck bed full of old appliances, vacuumed cleaners, and old furniture adds up quickly. I have had a lot of success with renting a dumpster for a few weeks and filling it with every and anything that isn’t valuable, sentimental, or absolutely necessary.
Buy Nothing is a great resource for this too 🙂
Yes! These groups are wonderful resources.
I wholeheartedly agree Julianna! 💯 😊
in my home anything flat is an area for my husband to pile up. frustrating. he does no like the containers I gave him to separate stuff into
For every piece of clothing you buy, you must donate something you own and do not wear.
I am a glutton for saving too many of my child’s items in bins that I store in my garage.
However, I DO also purge every week, but I am the person who lets that basket full of donations sit in my foyer or hallway or in my car for another two weeks before I actually get the chance to drop the items off. I need to get better at this.
I do this, but even if it does take two weeks, at lest it’s on the way and will soon be gone!
Sometimes we set up roadblocks in our way to avoid decluttering. You have to take a hard look at yourself and ask if you are making excuses to not do the difficult work. For example, ” I might need this someday”, or “this is worth money”. I have had to get in a “let it go” frame of mind to really declutter and stop making excuses! Until you adopt that frame of mind, it’s hard to make progress.
Yes, that’s true, Sandra. I wrote about some of those reasons in this post: https://thesimplicityhabit.com/reasons-you-keep-clutter-and-how-to-overcome-them/. It helps to understand why you’re holding onto things.
Buying one of those collapsible fabric bins has helped corral the clutter on the lower shelf of my coffee table. I use a separate small basket just for cat grooming brushes, and another for remote controls.
One thing that has helped me reduce family created clutter is having a drawer for keys and wallets and other things we need as we head out. That stuff goes in there and isn’t laying around creating visual clutter. It doesn’t always happen perfectly but most of the time it does 🙂
It helps me to not pretend that I will declutter everything in 5 minutes!!
I took nearly three month to sort & mail decades worth of family photos left to me by my mother.
I have 8 siblings. I sent each of them a package with permission to give away or toss anything that they did not want to keep. I was shocked at how grateful they were for lost memories.
Then I went on vacation!! I came home to a mostly empty garage, rather than a nearly full one.
I am now ready to tackle the remainder of junk in the garage. Then my closet. Then my office. I figure the whole process will take about a year. But imagine the luxury of what I will have at the end of that year. I will have space and time to get back to music: singing and continue my guitar lessons!!
I have major cleaning of my things that I have kept over close to 50 years of keeping / most things that come in my home. Not sure if this is the right place to be? Stuff needs to go. My husband and I want to do some major work on our house. NEED HELP with being the NORMAL as a child. I am soooooo anxious could you guide through this?