I’ve had a roommate in almost every living space Iâve been in, so clutter, whether visual or literal, was inevitable. My dorm and apartments flowed between looking spotless and overwhelmed. Hereâs how to make your apartment look more spotless than cluttered.
To make your apartment look less cluttered, hide it in pretty storage items, arrange it on closet shelves and in cabinets, arrange it into clusters, store it vertically, clear as much floor space as possible and create the illusion of more space with mirrors.
The trick to getting rid of visual clutter is not always getting rid of stuff, but just tricking the eyes into thinking you did.
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Reasons For The Clutter
1. You Own Too Many Things
This reason is pretty self explanatory. Your belongings can pile up if you receive gifts during the holidays, you moved out of a bigger living space and kept all of your stuff, you shop too often, etc. Places that are small, like apartments, make clutter stick out like a sore thumb because it takes up more room than it would in a house.
2. Youâre Not In The Habit Of Putting Things Away
Forgetting to put stuff back when youâre done with it can make clutter pile up without you even noticing. Itâs not like youâre trying to create a mess. Picking up a pen to jot something down, sprinkling garlic powder on your pizza and eating half a bag of chips are all simple, everyday occurrences that can create clutter. Thatâs because, after we use the pen, garlic powder and chip bag, itâs easy to leave them out instead of putting them back. Sometimes it even feels inconvenient to put them away. This habit, however, leads to clutter. Speaking of garlic powder, if you want 23 kitchen cabinet organization ideas, check out my blog post.
3. You Donât Have An Organization Method
If you stuff all of your things into your cabinets, drawers, closets, etc. without much rhyme or reason, then youâre bound to run out of room faster. Your belongings are going to take up way more room than they have to.
4. You Have Roommates
If you live with multiple people, then the accumulation of all of your belongings can look like clutter. If you all live in a small place, then there might be little to no extra storage room to put your items. You may feel like leaving some things out in the open is your only option. Well, even if that is your last resort, you can still make your home look less cluttered than it actually is.
1. Hide Your Clutter In Pretty Storage Items
One way to make your apartment look less cluttered is to keep it out of sight. One way to do this is by filling pretty storage baskets with your things and putting them on your shelves:
If youâre worried that you wonât be able to remember whatâs in each identical one, stick some labels on them to save yourself the search!:
If baskets arenât your thing, you could use some command strips to hang some aesthetic bags on the wall and use them to store stuff in:
You could also take advantage of a storage ottoman and hide your clutter in the furniture:
If your apartment doesnât come with any storage space, then check out my 11 tips on how to organize it regardless.
2. Arrange The Clutter On Closet Shelves And In Cabinets
Closets and cabinets are a great place to hide clutter because thatâs practically what theyâre made for. If you donât have enough shelf space in your closet to hold your stuff, grab some portable, foldable shelves to fit the rest of your things.
3. Let Your Surfaces Breathe
Clear countertops and tabletops allow for visual breathing room in an apartment. If yours are covered in your things, then your place probably already looks cluttered, even if it isnât. You donât have to completely sweep everything off of those surfaces, just the stuff that doesnât visually belong there.
For example, kitchen tops are supposed to have some seasonings, napkins, a decorative vase and things of that nature on them. What doesnât belong are your toiletry bottles, random documents, that nail polish you forgot to put away, etc. Give your surfaces some breathing room and your apartment will instantly look less cluttered.
4. Arrange Some Clutter Into Clusters
In home decor, there’s this little trick that people use to make their places look more expensive. Group (preferably 3) pieces of different sized items together in different spots around the room, that way they look less like clutter and more like decor. Give this a try around your apartment and see if it makes a difference. Of course, you canât do this with every single piece of clutter that you have, but see how many you can get away with before the place starts looking tacky.
5. Store Clutter Vertically
If youâve read anything on this blog about making the most of your storage space, youâll know that vertical storage is a hack that every dorm dweller, apartment renter, and homeowner should know. One way that you could put this into practice is by getting a bookcase to put your clutter on. Better yet, you could get one of those ladder bookcases so that you can store your stuff and keep the apartment looking spacious:
For future reference, furniture that allows visual airflow (couches with legs, clear furniture, wooden chairs) makes the home look bigger. Storing your stuff vertically will take up less horizontal space, which is the difference between feeling boxed in and feeling free to roam.
6. Clear As Much Floor Space As Possible
The feeling of not having enough room to freely walk is pretty restricting. Kind of like having to jump from one rock to the next to avoid falling in the river surrounding them. Do you need to watch your step when walking through your apartment? If you have to do this in any way, itâs time to pick the clutter up off of the floor. You can keep your stuff in the other places that I suggested on this list, but just make sure that the floor is free of it. This will make the place feel and look a lot more organized.
7. Create The Illusion Of More Space With Mirrors
We have all been to at least one funhouse with multiple mirrors surrounding us, right? Doesnât it look like youâre staring into infinity? Weâre not looking to copy and paste that into your apartment, but thatâs our general inspiration for this next tip. Place a few mirrors around your apartment of different sizes and, if youâre into it, shapes. Having more images reflected in your space will make it feel a lot bigger. A bigger space can fit more things in it, so your apartment is going to look and feel less cluttered.
8. During The Day, Let The Sunlight In
Another element that makes a room look bigger is light, specifically sunlight. When we think of the sun, we think of the outdoors. The outdoors make us think of freedom and fresh air. Bring that feeling into your apartment by opening your windows to let the sunlight in. The bigger the windows, the better. You could also use sheer curtains to preserve some privacy, but let the light shine in your apartment. As I said before, making your space feel bigger will make it feel less cluttered.
9. Try To Keep A Simple, Airy Color Palette
When we think of visual clutter, we usually think of a bunch of items being out in the open. That’s true, and if those items are every color of the rainbow, then your apartment is going to look ridiculously cluttered. One way to make your place look less hectic is by playing camouflage with the stuff that you buy. If you try to buy items that fit the color palette of your home, then they wonât stand out as much when theyâre seated around the apartment. Kind of like when you turn all the books on your bookshelf around so that they look beige instead of rainbow. You could also try doing that too btw.
10. Organize Your Things In An Aesthetically Pleasing Way
Sometimes, you canât help but keep the clutter out on display. Your apartment only has so much space and, sometimes, you canât bring yourself to get rid of the things that wonât fit. Try your best to organize your belongings in an aesthetically pleasing way. We can visually forgive clutter if it looks like this: