Your home is your refuge. You should be able to unwind there, free from constant reminders of the chaos and clutter of the outside world. You may have tried to organise your home to be streamlined and calm, but it still feels cluttered. It is so frustrating. You have made an effort to declutter your home by getting rid of clothes you don’t wear and knick-knacks you don’t need on your counters, but somehow it still feels like “stuff” is everywhere.
It could be that your home isn’t completely set up to encourage organisation. Unknowingly, certain items could be contributing to clutter in your home. If there isn’t a place for everything, it’s easy for things to end up in piles on surfaces or crammed into drawers.
Here are six items that may be causing clutter in your home without your knowledge, as well as some simple solutions on how to get your home back in order.
1. Things that shouldn’t be on the floor
Items that land up on the floor are probably the number one culprit for causing clutter in your home, especially if you have kids and pets. Things like toys, shoes, school bags, clothes, dog leads – the list goes on.
The best solution is to create a designated storage area for all these things that end up on the floor. Yes, putting up hooks and shoe racks on a wall can help organise these items. The truth is though, you are still looking at all that ‘stuff’ which won’t calm your senses. The best solution is to get these items out of sight and out of mind.
Fineline Wardrobe Solutions allows you to create elegant storage anywhere in your home. In fact, a popular area for a Fineline cupboard is by a front door or entrance hall. Fineline’s wardrobes and cupboards are custom made to fit the space and requirements of the area. We also design the cupboard’s interior to meet the specific needs of each client. For example, if you need shelves for all the school and sports bags, hanging space for blazers and jackets, and shoe shelves for the endless array of shoes needed on a daily basis. Toys can be organized into a toy basket and stored at the bottom of the cupboard.
The second important part of this solution is to set some ground rules. Children must put away their bags, blazers, and shoes when they return from school. Make sure everyone in the family understands the proper placement of items. The whole family needs to be on-board to control clutter in your home.
2. Bathroom toiletries and supplies
Possibly the area with the most clutter in your home is the bathroom. It is quite a challenge to manage all those toiletries, such as toothbrushes, floss, razors, shampoo, conditioner, soap, and cosmetics. But here are a few steps to keep your bedroom decluttered and organised.
Firstly, make sure you have some adequate storage. A few useful shelves or drawers will go a long way. Fineline Solutions is no stranger to installing storage in bathrooms. Because bathrooms often lead off bedrooms and dressing rooms, many people prefer the storage continuity in their bathrooms.
Fineline has designed built-in cabinets with sliding mirror doors above bathroom vanities to neatly store all toiletries out of sight while remaining easily accessible. It is also common for clients to install floor-to-ceiling cupboards in their bathrooms to store all those bathroom supplies and towels. Bathrooms are often tight on space, so sliding doors across the bathroom cupboard are ideal. A few nifty bathroom storage accessories will help too!
Secondly, as a rule, put everything away after using it. This may seem like a no-brainer, but it’s easy to let things pile up on the vanity when you are in a rush.
Finally, it is important to declutter your bathroom from time to time. The bathroom is where unused products and medicine can linger, sometimes for years.
3. Paper clutter in your home
Even in our digital world, paper clutter is still so prevalent in our homes. Open a drawer, and you quite possibly will find an old pay slip. Imagine a hectic morning when you’re frantically searching for your child’s permission slip for a school excursion or a forgotten doctor’s prescription. Often, our fridges become our go-to place for important pieces of paper, posted up with magnets. This is not ideal though, and in itself makes your kitchen look cluttered. Organising your paper clutter is essential for an organised life.
Whether we like it or not, filing is still something we all need to keep up with. We need to keep track of items such as bank statements, policies, claims, warranties, and specific pay slips in case we need to return a purchased item. A proper filing system is important to stay on top of things and to prevent the paper clutter in your home.
Fineline’s cupboards can be customised to store any items you need. For your home office, we can build a cupboard with file-height shelves. Fineline is also capable of crafting functional pigeon holes. These pigeon holes, with the help of organisational baskets, can keep things compartmentalised and organised.
4. Power back-up systems
Unfortunately, having alternative power backup systems has become an essential part of everyday life in South Africa. They’re often bulky, ugly, and take up space causing clutter in your home.
Keeping these systems in a cupboard keeps them nicely contained. Sliding doors across the front of the cupboard means the system is out of sight yet still easily accessible. You can include vents in the sliding doors to ensure proper aeration and prevent the system from overheating.
5. Decorative items
Your eye naturally gravitates towards the area with the most visual interest when you walk into a room. Too many small objects clutter a room, making it overwhelming and difficult to focus on one thing.
For a more aesthetically pleasing environment, it’s important to declutter your decor items. By choosing a few larger pieces that are more impactful, you can achieve a more stylish and uncluttered look. Here are some tips on how to decorate without the clutter.
The same goes for decorative pillows. Too many decorative pillows can quickly turn a room from chic to cluttered. Decorative pillows do add style and a warm, homey feel to any home, but make sure you don’t overdo it. Need some help to style those scatter pillows? Here are some tips from the pros.
6. Device chargers
In our digital world, our phones and devices have become extensions of ourselves. However, the continuous presence of phone chargers (especially for every member of the household) can create a lot of clutter in your home.
One way of combating this is to create a hidden phone charging station. Tucking chargers away in a drawer or cupboard can eliminate unsightly cords from countertops and surfaces. It also prevents anyone from tripping over them. If you create a charging station in a Fineline cupboard, we can make sure we include areas for plugs in the drawer or cupboard for charging cables to pass through easily.
Fineline Solutions is the perfect fit anywhere in your home
Indeed, the bedroom is the most common location for our Fineline wardrobes, providing elegant and beautiful organisation solutions for your clothes, shoes, and accessories. However, why should it end there? Fineline’s cupboards will work absolutely anywhere in your home that needs storage and organization. The only way to deal with clutter in your home properly is to make sure all items have a ‘home’ and keep as much of it out of sight. This is what we do best. We custom design each Fineline wardrobe and cupboard to meet the specific needs of our clients. Contact us today to help you organise your home to create the restful haven you deserve.
For more creative tips and ideas, look at our trendy blog.
