A chaotic environment does not breed positivity or relaxation. Clutter leads to our homes feeling disordered, and, over time, can have a negative effect on our mood and how we feel when we’re at home. Fortunately, it doesn’t take an interior designer to find order. If you’re ready to make your living space an organized oasis, check out the following insight from Caramel Chic.
Make a Purge
The hardest part of decluttering is going through your precious belongings. Keeping a home clean and orderly will be much easier once things are sorted, organized and cleared. Gather the whole family to examine every room, even if it’s just a little each day, and leave no drawer unchecked. Make separate piles, and determine which items to keep, which to donate or sell, which to upcycle, and which to throw away. Have a critical eye, and know if it’s been two years since you’ve worn a sweater, it’s time to let it go. Once you have fewer belongings, maintaining a cleaning schedule will be less daunting.
Hack Your Storage
When we live in compact environments or we simply don’t have enough closet space, storage can be tricky. Thankfully, there are plenty of ways to overcome a home that lacks space. The bedroom is one of the most important areas for these hacks, so start there. Add recessed shelving to your walls to make storage vertical, or take it under the bed in decorative trunks or sliding racks for convenience. You can build a window seat with cabinet space or add painted wooden crates that double as ottomans at the foot of the bed or in the living room. If your kitchen is cluttered, vertical storage comes in handy with mounted spice or pan racks. It’s a bit of a DIY job, but you can maximize space in each room with a few clever maneuvers.
Upcycle
For items you can’t bear to part with but currently have no use for, you can experiment with upcycling. A beloved chest of drawers from childhood could become a unique planter, or your grandfather’s ladder can be hung and used as shelving. Clothes can be transformed into fun, fresh items as well. You can turn a worn-out T-shirt into a vegetable bag to cut back on single-use plastics for your weekly shopping trip, or adapt worn-out jeans into a new skirt. Not only do you save money by not purchasing new garments, you now can wear custom-made, totally unique clothes no one else has.
Host a Yard Sale
If your purge yields a pile of items you no longer want, you could donate them, or, better yet, host a yard sale to offload them. It’s a great way to clear out the house and make extra cash. Host it on more than one day to get the best possible turn out. If you and a few neighbors want to increase traffic, hold a joint sale by scheduling on the same day, and consider advertising through your social media, neighborhood signs or your homeowners association.
Open an Online Store
If you’re tech-savvy and your belongings are in excellent condition, you could open an online store to sell your stuff at a higher price than you would at a garage sale. This works especially well for niche items or goods you have upcycled that you don’t personally need. There are many websites to choose from, including ones that host ads for free, like Facebook Marketplace, and others that allow you to ship wares without worrying about meeting strangers, such as Mercari.
Makeover Your Space
A thorough purge and cleaning can give you a whole new appreciation for your home. Enough that you may have inspiration to make updates that can considerably enhance the changes. Maybe you now have room for the art gallery wall you’ve always wanted since this decorating technique can go a long way in a minimalized space. Or perhaps bare walls have you thinking about a bold move like wallpaper. With modern designs and textures, coupled with peel-and-stick varieties from sites like Spoonflower, you can take a room from bleak to chic almost instantly. No matter what you decide, a foundation of organized space will go a long way when it comes to decorating.
A full-on clearing out and decluttering isn’t something you tackle and achieve in a single afternoon. It’s a commitment to living in a healthy environment worthy of you and your family. With good planning and adaptive storage techniques, you can have the organized home you’ve been dreaming of.
Guest article written by: Natalie Jones, http://homeownerbliss.info/blog/
Photography: Toa Heftiba, Heather Ford, Junko Nakase, Micheile Henderson, Orlova Mariadan, Gold Dane, Deaner Sarah Brown
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