9 Neat Hacks For Reducing Clutter in Your Home

Clutter; none of us like it but most of us have it. It’s hard to keep things organized and tidy in the hustle and bustle of everyday life. Decluttering your life (and keeping it that way) can seem so time-consuming that it’s no wonder that it’s also a full-time job. In short, decluttering in a short amount of time is hard, so it doesn’t hurt to have some useful decluttering tips to make things easier. After all, it’s worth the effort and implementing the hacks; having a home that is clean and organized is a great way to boost your mood, promote productivity, and reduce stress. 

Unlike those ‘trendy’ tricks that only work on TikTok, these decluttering hacks are brilliant and effective solutions for decluttering your home. They are a great reminder that the art of tidying up doesn’t have to be difficult nor strenuous. Sometimes, all you need are a few small changes to make a big difference in your home, and that in turn can make a big difference in your daily life. 

Start With Your Bathroom

The drawers and shelves of your medicine cabinet are a great place to start your efforts to declutter your home because they are often full of stuff you can get rid of. Old toiletries, expired makeup, empty shampoo bottles, and outdated medications are all things you can throw away to greatly reduce clutter. If you have a collection of hotel soaps, consider giving these away or throwing them in the trash since you may be unlikely to use them. To keep clutter at a minimum, try to only have one of each toiletry in use at a time. This means only one lip balm, one bottle of shampoo, and one soap bar should be open at a time.    

Decluttering In the Bathroom

Move On to Your Kitchen

There are a bunch of ways to greatly reduce clutter in your kitchen. The first and simplest way to reduce clutter in your kitchen is to install a wall-mounted magnetic strip. This strip can be used to store all of your metal knives and cooking utensils, saving you counter space and keeping your drawers from overflowing. As for your kitchen drawers, get some nifty drawer trays so your silverware has a cool place to live. As you reorganize your kitchen, be sure to sift out any duplicated items. There’s no need to have two toasters or two blenders, so consider selling or even donating one of them.

Tricks to Keep Your Countertops Clutter-Free

If you have loads of spices, sauces, cupcake tins, and other kitchen items that have just been sitting in your cabinets for more than a year without being used, get rid of them. We all get a bit too ambitious from time to time when shopping for kitchen supplies and equipment, and often, you won’t ever need those fancy things. So, be sure to regularly filter any junk from your kitchen that is taking up valuable shelf space and not doing much else.

Organization Technique Matters In the Most Used Room In the House

Lids for pots and pans can often be some of the most difficult items to keep organized, so cut through the guesswork with a magazine rack. Mounting one of those in a cabinet allows you to store your lids in so they’re easy to get at and simpler to sort through. If you have a penchant for sauces and spices, putting a lazy susan in your spice cabinet gives you an easy way to access all your dry ingredients.  

Get Some Boxes (or Bins)

You’ll initially need at least four boxes to sort through your belongings. One box will be for things to throw away, one for recycling, another for items to donate and/or sell, and a fourth box for things to keep in the house. Whatever ends up in the fourth box should be stuff that is considered ‘essential’, meaning it is used on a regular (weekly) basis. Once you have filled the fourth box with such items, be sure to store them somewhere where they won’t get in the way but where you can easily find them when you need to. 

By contrast, the first three boxes should be filled with stuff that is “clutter” and is therefore not essential. In general, you want your first two boxes to be filled with things that are too old or misshapen to be sold or given away. If you can, try to recycle as much as possible so that your decluttering process is more sustainable. Also, be sure to get a shredder so you can cut up all your junk mail and guard sensitive information before disposing of it.  

How to Declutter, 101

Tackle One Room at a Time

The best way to overwhelm yourself when you want to reduce clutter is to bite off more than you can chew. Instead, your decluttering efforts should focus on taking one room at a time for the best results. If you choose to use the box sorting method, you may find that you need individual sets of boxes for each room, especially if you have a lot of clutter, aka stuff. As you declutter each room, you should take this opportunity to do some spring cleaning as well. That way, you can reduce clutter and banish dust bunnies in one fell swoop. If you choose to do that, be sure to close the doors to the room you're working in so the dust doesn’t spread. Once you’re done with one room, you can move on to the next. 

The Key to An Organized Decluttering Session Is to Take It One Room At a Time

Use Baskets

Baskets are a great time-saver when it comes to decluttering your home. They allow you to skip some of the tedious sorting you tend to do a lot in a cluttered house. Instead, all you have to do is pop things in some tasteful, handmade wicker baskets and everything immediately becomes neater. You can achieve the same effect with some handy plastic boxes. Putting stuff into simple receptacles is an easy decluttering hack that’s much better than leaving a bunch of knick-knacks scattered all over the place. Label the boxes and you’re well on your way to a red belt in living an organized life. 

The Tools You Need to Sort and Declutter In Style

Electric Cord Hacks 

One constant challenge in our modern world is trying to sort through the many charging cables, extension leads, and other electric cords that accompany all our i-devices and appliances. These pesky cords tend to get tangled, gather dust, and trip up unsuspecting homeowners. You may consider that the best solution for your electric cables is to store them when they’re not being used, but that can present its own set of problems since those cables can get lost and knotted up. 

The Toilet Paper Roll and Other Organization Hacks

To avoid this, stick your unused cords in toilet paper rolls (I’m serious). That may seem strange, but toilet paper rolls give you a super-practical way to reduce clutter by keeping cables separated when they are not being used. If you want something more visually appealing, stick some colorful wrapping paper to the outside of the toilet paper rolls for a cord-storing solution that’s both practical and stylish. If you have appliances with cords that are permanently attached, attach a velcro strip so you can stick the receptacle (the thing that connects to the power outlet) to the device. This way, the cord can be attached to the device itself when it is stored away and not in use.   

If you use a curling iron, a hairdryer, or some other appliance during your glam routine, you know how tedious it can be to fish out these devices every morning. To make this process easier, attach a plastic book box to the door of your floating vanity. This will give you a great place to neatly store your devices with their cables wrapped up and out of the way.    

Create a Notifications Center

Your smartphone has decluttering down to a science, sending your myriad notifications to a specific space where they can be easily viewed and sorted. For easier sorting of your physical notifications, take a page out of Apple’s playbook and create a notifications center in your house. This can be as simple as a corkboard with plenty of room for letters, grocery lists, bills, and other mail you can’t deal with right away. You can also add a whiteboard calendar as a central place to mark important dates, todos, and upcoming appointments. 

A Non-Digital Notification Center Can Do Wonders for Keeping Your Home Clutter-Free

Go Paperless

Speaking of your smartphone, there is another way it can help you to declutter your home. While we don’t yet live in a fully paperless world, there are plenty of ways you can make your own life free of single-use paper. One way to do this is to take photos of schedules, takeout menus, user manuals, and other paperwork with your phone. This way, you don’t have to worry about keeping track of a bunch of different papers since they’ll all be in one place. 

How to Have Less "Stuff" Around the House

Plus, photographing these documents allows you to recycle the papers you don’t need (after shredding them, of course). Another way to reduce your single-use paper clutter is to avoid printing stuff out that is already available online. For example, instead of printing out tickets for flights or the next ball game, just save them ready on your smartphone. 

Use Hanging Solutions

When you run out of horizontal storage room, it’s time to capitalize on vertical space when decluttering your home. Many hanging or hook devices can radically reduce clutter. Something as simple as shower curtain rings on clothes hangers or bars can be used efficiently to store small accessories such as scarves, bags, and belts. A hanging shoe organizer can similarly be used for more than just shoes. By putting up a couple of hanging shoe organizers on a door you can make a perfect spot for gloves, scarves, bags, jewelry, or even for pantry items in the kitchen. 

Make Use of Vertical Space for Optimal Efficiency and Fun Organization hacks