How To Make Your Home Feel Less Cluttered

Spring Cleaning can only do so much. At a certain point, you have to look around yourself and ask whether your space is being used neatly and efficiently. If you’re in a one-bedroom apartment in the heart of Toronto, the task becomes trickier (though totally not impossible), but even people with sprawling suburban houses have to deal with clutter. It is a universal annoyance, one born out of our desire to have things we don’t necessarily need, but there are ways that you can make you’re home feel less cluttered, regardless of size, that don’t necessarily involve throwing away everything.

The first way to go about making a space feel less cluttered is by choosing certain furniture with clean lines and a minimal design. That’s not to say every piece of furniture ought to be minimal. Many of our Woodcraft solid wood furniture pieces are large, and not necessarily minimal in design, and you can absolutely make them work in even a small home (more on that below). But for pieces at the center of a room, like coffee tables and dining tables, you do want minimal designs. Our Malmö Glass Dining Table is a great place to start when thinking about creating a less cluttered home, as the glass top gives the illusion of an open space – just make sure to keep the top clear of items and debris!

Also, wherever possible, choose furniture that pulls double duty as storage. Of course, this doesn’t necessarily apply to dining tables, but consider getting a buffet hutch, an entertainment unit, or an elegant new bookcase to contain and compartmentalize some of the clutter in your home. It’s better to consume the space in your home with a closed-drawer, closed-door piece of furniture containing clutter, than have the clutter strewn about in random places. Once the clutter is neatly tucked away in drawers and on shelves, it can’t really be called clutter anymore, can it?

With big furniture items, the rule of thumb is to stick them around the perimeter of a room, away from any room entrances. The thinking here is that if you push them against the wall, they become a feature of the architecture of the room, rather than an item the room contains. And keeping large furniture away from the entrances improves the flow of a home, as well as keeps an unobstructed sightline of the room when entering. If you’re on the market for effective furniture that will provide storage and sophistication, for a great price, check out our latest promotions on our website.

To further promote spaciousness, open those widows and draw the blinds – allow a view of outside to become a feature of the room, and let that lovely natural light in. A lot of people also swear by mirrors, which have long been used to trick the eye into thinking a space is larger (and therefore, they contend, less cluttered), but if all you’re mirroring is a cluttered room, then you’re just doubling the clutter, aren’t you?

At a certain point, then, it’s wise to let go of a few things. If the storage room in your closets and furniture is starting to get stuffed to the brim, unfortunately it is time to start paring down. Take a day to assess everything – ask whether you need to keep those old cloth napkins, that encyclopaedia collection no one uses (because phones), or that stack of paperwork from a job four years ago. You’d be surprised, once you get started, how easy it is to toss things out!

You don’t have to have access to rooms upon rooms of free space in order to make a home feel less cluttered. With some wise furniture choices, clever placement, open windows and a little bit of cleaning, your home will feel open and efficient.