Clutterbug - Real-Life Hacks and Tips to Declutter, Organize and Clean your Home Fast - 5 Mistakes That Make Your Home Look Cluttered | Clutterbug Podcast # 11

Episode Date: November 17, 2016

Here are my top 5 mistakes that can really make your home look cluttered and messy, even when it isn't! Too many things on yoru counters Papers and magnets on your fridge Too many picture frames Knick knacks on every surface Busy bookshelves Tackle these areas and see a huge imapct today! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey guys, so welcome back to the Clutterbug podcast. Today I wanted to talk about five things, five mistakes I guess that you can make that can really make your house look cluttered, even if it is really pretty organized and tidy. So these are things that I've done in the past, and also things that I really notice when I go to other people's homes, they're distracting. These things are distracting to the eye visually, so they can really make a space look smaller, more cluttered, despite how clean and organized it could be. And I hear this a lot from friends and family and also clients that their space just feels cluttered. And usually it isn't even a case that they have too much stuff. It's sort of how it's displayed or like the flow to the space. So I'm going to give

you my top five things that can really make even the tidiest and cleanest house feel really cluttered. And the first thing I want to talk about is your kitchen counter. This is the most important space in a house. And it's funny because I've been to people's homes who have beautiful kitchens, like brand new, renovated, drool-worthy kitchens. And yet they say that even though they've spent thousands and thousands of dollars on these beautiful kitchens, that they're not in love with it. It doesn't turn out how they thought it would or that it feels cluttered no matter what they do.

And it's always the same thing when I look at these kitchens. What I see is the toaster out, you know, the crock pot sometimes out, the food processor out, things that they're not using on a day-to-day basis, or even if they are using it on a day-to-day basis, things that should be put into a cupboard and put away. And it's all these little kitchen appliances, you know, the knife block. There's so many things, so many things that people leave out on their kitchen counters for convenience purposes, but then they end up not loving their kitchen. So yes, you're saving a few minutes by not having to take your toaster out in the morning when you make toast, but the side

effect of that is you're not happy with your space. You're not loving the way it looks. It's not giving you that, you know, Pinterest-worthy, awe-inspiring feeling that you were going for. So what I would really recommend is the first thing I would do is do a counter-pack-up. So what this is is getting a cardboard box or a tote and literally taking absolutely every single thing off everything you guys everything off your kitchen counter everything and then taking that box or that tote and leaving it in the middle of your kitchen floor i know it sounds crazy it's outrageous right but here's the thing you're going to leave that there and then you're going to go about your next day so do that at night before you go to bed and then the next day as you use something out of the box you can put it back on the

counter. At the end of that night when you're going to bed at night, whatever is left in the box or the tote is something that you didn't use that day. Ninety-nine percent of the time, those are the things you only will use once or twice a week, if that. So then you know that that stuff that's still left in the box, you can pack away. So yeah, you're going to maybe have to take out your coffee maker and plug it in in the morning and that's going to be a pain. But it's just doing this exercise. It's really an eye-opening thing. So what you're probably going to notice is you're not using that knife block all the time. Or you're only using maybe one knife out of that knife block.

And why not put that in a drawer instead of having it out on your counter? You're probably going to find that things like that beautiful kitchen aid blender or that, what do you call it, that mixer that you spent a pretty penny on it. God is a gift. While it is beautiful, you're not using it very often. And therefore it can go someplace else. And if you're saying, I just don't have the cabinet space in the kitchen. Here's the thing. There will be things in your kitchen cabinets as of right now that you never use.

There are things you're storing, you know, those big pots that you probably only use once or twice a year. I would recommend relocating those, first of all, the things you never use, be ruthless and donate them. And the things that you only use when you're having like a big dinner or you're making a huge pot of soup, relocate those things to the basement or the garage. And then when you do need them, you can easily go get them, but they're not taking up that valuable space in your kitchen. And that's going to free up space for things like the toaster. It drives me crazy when people have the toaster on the kitchen counter.

I have like a problem with it. I know it's ridiculous, but I just am like, why is your toaster on the counter? It drives me nuts. So you're going to know what's a big difference. You're going to love your kitchen more. you'll get used to having to pull the toaster out. But the benefit of having that really clutter-free space and more counter space to prepare your meals are definitely worth the pain in the butt it's

going to be to have to pull that out a few seconds each day. So let's move on to the other thing that really can make your space feel cluttered and that is your fridge. And I'm not talking the inside of your fridge. I'm talking the outside of your fridge. People put magnets and papers and reminders and photos and cards, and they literally just like fill the front of their fridge with so much stuff. And it doesn't not matter how neat and tidy and beautiful your kitchen is. If you have crapped up your fridge with all this stuff, it just makes your entire kitchen look messy. It does. It just makes the whole kitchen look chaotic and cluttered. It doesn't mean you have to get rid of this stuff altogether.

what I would recommend is picking maybe the side of one of your fridge, not the front of your fridge, the side of a fridge if you can, and picking that or a spot in your kitchen where you can have a bulletin board and contain the things that you want to have up to that, creating a little kitchen command center, a spot for your calendar, a spot for to-do notes, things like that. For me, I like having a file folder, an accordion file folder in my kitchen, and that's where I keep all the school papers and things like that,

birthday invitations, things like that that I have to remember. And then on the side of my fridge, I have a calendar and a notepad and a dry erase board. But I always make sure to keep the front of the fridge clean and clutter-free. And it makes a huge, huge difference into the appearance of my kitchen. So the next thing is on my five things that can make a house look cluttered are too many pictures, too many picture frames. Not just the pictures you put on the front of your fridge, but people just have like picture frames everywhere, usually mismatched all over the, you know, their dressers in their bedroom or all over their side tables or all over, you know, their entertainment center or hung

on the wall. Pictures, pictures, pictures. And while it's lovely to look at memories of friends and family, when you have a lot, it sort of takes away from the ones you love the most and it can really make your space seem cluttered and just small. And that's that's just the truth. So again, same thing that you did with getting a tote and taking everything off your counter. I'm going to recommend that you take a lot of the pictures down. And I'm just going to throw in the fourth thing here. It's, it's knick-knacks. So I want you to take all the out of your living room, out of your living space, all of the knickknacks down, all of the picture frames down, all of the things you have displayed everything down and put it in a box. And then really step back and just try putting

one or two things back at a time and then standing back and seeing what it looks like. A really good hint of making things if you have things you love and want to display but you don't want it to look really cluttered is to group them in groups of three, five, and seven and tucking them nice and close together on one side. So instead of spreading five knick-knacks across the top of your maybe entertainment unit, instead group those five things or those seven things all together in a cluster on one side, it's really going to make it look less cluttered, more minimal, and definitely not as distracting to the eye.

So remember the three, five, and seven tip. and when you take everything down and you're putting things back a little bit at a time, always pick your favorite pictures or your favorite knick-knacks first, and then see if you can get to a point where you love it, you're happy with it, but it's not overwhelming to the eye. So that is definitely something I would recommend. The last thing that can really make a space look cluttered is busy shelving units. And what I mean by this is bookcases or inside a china cabinet,

things like that can sometimes look really busy just because there's so many different patterns or colors or sizes going on. And I have actually a friend who in her kitchen, in her dining area, she has these open shelves where she just like has extra things from her, from her kitchen. So Tupperware, maybe extra food that doesn't fit in the pantry, food containers, things like that, just sort of sitting out on open shelves. And this really makes the entire space. look really, I'm throwing kind of to the bus here. I'm sorry about that, my friend, if you're listening, hopefully she's not, but it makes the whole space look cluttered, even though it's not. I mean, it's not messy. It's not, you know, out of control, but having that on the wall like that

really makes the whole space look messy. A solution for that without having to spend money, a lot of money, or work or time is just to get some nice solid colored baskets or bins for those shelving units that fit on them, put those on there that are all the same color or coordinating colors, and then putting the stuff inside. Because it's all the same color or it's all the same shape, it's really going to sort of blend together and not be as distracting to the eye. So that's a really good tip for bookshelves as well. If you're displaying a lot of different things on a bookshelf, it can be really busy to the eye and look cluttered, getting baskets all the same. color, all the same shape, or all the same pattern, and filling your things, even your books,

putting inside there, and then having some other things out, I guess it's called dressing your bookshelf or dressing your shelving unit, can really make your whole space look cleaner, brighter, and less cluttered. So that would be my last tip. And probably one of my most important tips, actually, is just to really minimize your visual clutter in your space by utilizing bins and baskets. I know a lot of people, they used to cover books, you know, with paper to make them all look the same color. That's another really great way of making a small space that you love your books and you have a ton of books look a lot less busy. So those are some of my quick tips, you guys, my five things that can make a house look cluttered, look around your own house and see if you are

guilty of any of these things. I know I was guilty of all of those things. I know I was guilty of all of those things, let's be completely honest. And the truth is I call that this type of stuff that we just talked about, invisible clutter. And the reason is you've seen it in your house so many times for so long that you don't even really see it anymore. Like it doesn't look like actual clutter to you. It's your stuff. It's your stuff that you use. But if it's, if it's a lot and if it's mismatched colors and if it's a lot of different stuff going on, it is creating clutter. It's creating visual clutter and just getting some bins and baskets for it, cleaning off the front of your fridge, making sure your kitchen counter only has the absolute necessities. That's some small, small steps

that you can do that will have a huge impact on your home. And I learned most of these tricks when I was doing house staging, when I was doing home staging for a while. These are the things that home stagers will do. They're the top five things that they'll tackle when they go into a home before they take pictures or before they're having an open house or putting it on the market. These are the areas that they really focus on. Is minimalizing all of that stuff? You've probably heard before people say, you have to get rid of all your personalized pictures.

That is absolutely not the truth. There is no reason why you can't have a few family photos. What they are doing is saying, okay, you can't have 50 because it makes it like really cluttered. So these are my tips. recommend you giving them a try today. Obviously it's not for staging your home, but it is for making your home feel like a space that you love and can be really proud of. So thank you guys so much for listening. And don't forget to check up my website at clutterbug.me for more organizing tips. We'll see you soon.