How to Bring New Decor Into Your Home Without Creating Clutter
What’s better than shopping through the home goods aisles at Target with some fresh Starbucks? Everyone’s been there. However, frequenting stores like this can lead to an overabundance of decor in your home and empty space in your wallet.
If you’re longing for a more simplified and streamlined home, it’s time to take your home decor more seriously. Picturesque rooms don’t just happen by accident — you need to curate a selection of items that bring you joy, work together and make sense in the space. These tips will help you narrow down your current decor and prepare to bring new in.
1. Start With a Declutter
Before bringing any new items into your space, you must address the things you already have. When your home overwhelms you with a sheer amount of “stuff,” your decor is no longer serving you.
Tackle one room at a time and remove each piece from the walls, shelves and other surfaces. As you’re sitting with your pile, take an inventory of how it makes you feel. Odds are, your assortment of items is much larger than you thought it would be. You may experience guilt or overwhelm — these feelings are entirely normal and part of the process.
Once you’ve spent a moment tackling your frame of mind, it’s time to move to the actual decluttering. Pick up each item and decide if it’s something you still love or no longer like. Make a few piles — keep, throw away and donate.
Finally, take care of the throw-away and donate piles immediately, so you aren’t tempted to hang onto anything you’ve decluttered. You’re free to move on to the next step.
2. Find Your Aesthetic
Another common reason for decor looking cluttered is a lack of cohesion, where you haven’t decided on a color palette or design style. You end up with a mismatched home that looks distracting rather than inviting.
Take some time on Pinterest, think about other houses you feel comfortable in and glean inspiration for what you may love in your place. You may also see a pattern between the items you decided to keep through your declutter. Do most of them have a cozy soft vibe or do you lean toward clean lines?
You can also base this off the style of your home. Do some research on different time periods to see what kind of decor will best suit your home. Decorating a Victorian-style home with retro 1950’s elements may clash and make your space feel overwhelming. When thinking about buying a new piece, consider if it will be cohesive with what you already have.
3. Choose Objects With a Purpose
Another way to cut down on clutter is to buy functional decor. For instance, an antique storage cabinet is a solid design choice and can also hold your throw blankets and media. Similarly, a brass umbrella stand adds a punch to any entryway while still having a purpose. Make your everyday necessities make the statement, so you don’t have to add additional small pieces to “decorate” your space.
Pillows and blankets are a great, functional way to add personality to your rooms. They’re relatively inexpensive and are easy to store and switch seasonally. However, it’s also easy to go overboard with these items — they’re one of the most frequently over-purchased. Add one or two to your home at a time until you start to feel them creeping in on your clutter threshold. Use that as a natural cut-off point.
4. Consider Proportions
Along that same vein, you should consider proportions when decorating your space. You could fill the same area with a dozen knick-knacks on a shelf or one large-scale but well-curated painting. The art will make your room appear bigger, while your assortment of tchotchkes will add to the cluttered feel.
As you declutter small items, try replacing them with these large-scale options:
- Curtains
- Wallpaper
- Rugs
- Accent lights
- Furniture
- Large artwork
- Textural wall features
5. Decorate Rather Than Accessorize
Hopefully, you’re realizing your home can look far more put together with fewer total items. This final idea will help you get even closer to your goal of a clutter-free, beautiful home.
There are better ways to bring each room together than adding more accessories. Instead, you should focus on the overall design by adding other decorative elements. The right lighting fixtures, curtains, paint color, furniture and even wallpaper often make more of a statement than accessories.
Your Decor Will Need Routine Maintenance
Now that you’ve decluttered, decided on a design scheme and begun to change your purchasing habits, you may feel like you’ve arrived and can call it good. However, style is ever-shifting. What you love today may feel different in a few years. Your shopping habits also aren’t likely to change overnight, meaning you’ll probably bring home more new pieces than you intend to. To combat these phenomena, you should commit to yearly maintenance decluttering to keep your home clutter free and perfectly suited to you.
Cora’s passion is to inspire others to live a happy, healthful, and mindful life through her words on Revivalist – wholeheartedly convincing them that everyday moments are worth celebrating. Cora has spent 5+ years writing for numerous lifestyle sites – hence her sincere love for both life and the beauty of style in all things. Keep up with Cora on Twitter, Pinterest and Facebook.
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How to Bring New Decor Into Your Home Without Creating Clutter
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