How do you feel when you walk into your home? Are you happy and energized, or are you anxious because you see clutter on shelves and countertops?
If your space is feeling a bit disorderly, one of the best ways to give it a refresh is to get rid of visual clutter.
What is Visual Clutter?
When we say visual clutter, we’re talking about all the items of multiple sizes, types, colors, label styles, etc. that we typically leave out on countertops, surfaces, and shelves. Even though we may need and use these items, too much visual clutter can make a space feel messy.
Take this closet shelf, for example.
You can see that the issue isn’t that there’s too much stuff, but that it’s not visually arranged in the best way. The bins aren’t uniform and, in some cases, not big enough to hold their contents. This makes the shelves look cluttered and chaotic.
Now, here are the same shelves after we took some steps to reduce the visual clutter.
We used the same style of bins to create a more streamlined look and added labels to help our client maintain this system. We also opted to leave a few items on display to make the area feel more personal.
3 Tips for Refreshing Your Home
It’s amazing how a few small changes to your space can dramatically transform how you feel in it! Give it a try in your own home. Use these tips to help you get visual clutter under control:
1. Choose only your favorite, most aesthetically pleasing items to display. If you find it beautiful or it makes you smile, that’s how you’ll know it’s right. This is especially helpful in a smaller space, like a bathroom or on a kitchen counter. Typically, displaying items in odd-numbered groups of three or five looks best. Everything else should go into a bin, a basket, a cabinet, or a drawer (you can always rotate your favorite items if you need to!).
2. Leave a little space. White space gives your eyes a chance to rest, which makes a space feel less chaotic. If there just isn’t any extra room to spare, it might be time to purge some items.
3. Create uniformity. A uniform space looks less chaotic and more pleasing to the eye. To do this, use the same style of bins and labels, and stick to a simple color palette.