Have you been decluttering, but for some reason your home still looks cluttered? I had decluttered for 6 months and my home still looked cluttered. My home should look minimal! The whole reason I started decluttering is I wanted a simple clean home. After a lot more decluttering and some tweaks, I can finally share 20 reasons your house looks cluttered.
20 Reasons Your Home Still Looks Cluttered!
1. Declutter!
I know you are probably already decluttering, but maybe you have not decluttered enough.
One of my goals was to have a super organized and pretty-looking closet.
After 6 months of decluttering, I questioned why I wasn’t happy with my closet.
It turned out I simply still had too much. Once I became ruthless with the decluttering, my closet finally looked organized and clutter-free.
Here is the exact decluttering process I used in an actionableDecluttering E-Book.
Check out my Get Things Done Printable to stay organized and on task.
2. Too Much Decor
We all want our homes to look beautiful! I use to think the more decorations the better my home will look.
It turns out too much decor can just look really busy and almost messy.
That saying, less is more, is true if you want your home to look less cluttered.
3. Small Decorations
If you have a lot of small decorations, your house might look more cluttered than it should. In my last house, we had six shelves.
I felt I had to fill each shelf with stuff or it looked funny being empty.
Finally, it dawned on me that I could remove 2 shelves and only have to fill 4 of them! This changed the whole look of this room.
Instead of filling the shelves I just had one or two pieces of decor that were larger. I could still have decorations without them looking so cluttered.
4. Too Much On The Walls
If you have too many paintings or photos on one wall it can look super cluttered.
Try fewer, but larger pieces of art. This will be less strain on your eyes and look less cluttered.
5. Too Many Signs
It is very stylish to have those cute signs that say welcome or stay awhile, but it can look kinda cluttered to have too many signs with words.
Keep the ones you love and declutter the extras.
6. Small Furniture
If you have a lot of small furniture this can make your home look cluttered.
We use to have 3 small side tables in our living room and I could never understand why the room always looked cluttered. I would empty off the tables, but they still looked cluttered.
Finally, I realized I didn’t need these tables, and ta-da my room looked less cluttered. Try one larger table or no coffee table at all.
7. Too Many Toys
If you have kids and your home seems cluttered with toys you might have too many. We use to have a kid’s kitchen with a ton of play food.
The play food was never played with but instead dumped all over the house.
Once I got rid of that my home seemed way less cluttered. I just pay close attention to what they are playing with and everything they ignore I donate.
8. Too many Small plants
You can never have enough plants! Until you have too many LOL. I got into the habit of buying plants until I realized they were starting to make my home look cluttered.
If you have too many plants on every surface your home can start to look cluttered.
Try spreading them out into different rooms or grouping them together as a centerpiece on the table.
9. Unorganized Items
Another reason my closet still looked cluttered is I was storing the ironing board, camera gear, sewing machine, and a lot more in with my clothes.
Once I grouped items together my closet looked much better.
If your home looks cluttered try putting like items together.
All the cleaning stuff in one area, all the craft stuff in another. This can help a closet look less cluttered.
10. Shoes
If you make everyone take their shoes off at the door, but the shoes just live in your entryway, your home will always look cluttered.
Try buying a shoe organizer for the entry or use a basket to store the shoes. Maybe everyone will put their shoes away (like that’s going to happen LOL).
11. Pots & Pans
If you have too many pots and pans your cupboard may look super cluttered.
Keep the pots and pans you use the most and declutter the ones you rarely use. I just pulled out 2 pans that we never use and now my cupboard looks so organized.
12. Kitchen Counters
Do you have a lot of stuff on your counters? If you keep a lot of appliances or dishes and knives on your counter your home may look more cluttered than it really is.
Try to find places to store your less-used appliances.
The quickest way to make your home look clean and clutter-free is to clear all the countertops.
13. Too Many Dishes
Do you have too many dishes? We had over 40 cups for a family of 4! I would say that is too many.
Now we are down to about 10 cups, in case we have company.
Too many dishes will make your home look cluttered because instead of someone washing a dish they will just continue to grab clean ones. This will make so many dirty dishes that your counters will always be covered with stuff.
Keep the number of dishes you truly need and use, declutter or put the rest away in a faraway spot.
14. No Drop-Off Zone
Do you have a designated place to put your things when you walk in the door? I have a large basket where I store my keys, purse, sunglasses, and everything I need to get out the door.
This basket hides all that junk that used to be all over the counters.
It also helps to keep me organized, I never have to search around for my things.
15. Junk Drawer Clutter
Try to get rid of your junk drawer.
I am sure everything in that drawer could be put into its proper place or organized until it is no longer a junk drawer.
The reason why this can look cluttered is that in a lot of cases the drawer can’t even shut.
16. Too Many Pillows
If you have too many pillows on your couch your home can look more cluttered. I love throw pillows, but at one point we had too many!
Try keeping out the ones you actually use and put the rest away.
See if this makes a difference before you actually declutter your pillows.
17. Too Many Throw Blankets
The same thing goes for blankets. Too many can make your home look cluttered.
Especially if you have kids and they are always throwing them on the floor.
How many throw blankets do we really need?
18. Lamps
Too many small lamps and decor pieces can make your home look cluttered.
Any time there are a lot of small things on a surface it will look more cluttered even if you are using these items.
Try a larger lamp that can be used as decor or install overhead lighting.
An added bonus is the less you have out the easier it is to clean!
19. Rugs
Rugs that are too small for your room can make it look cluttered. We had a 5×7 rug in our living room, but it wasn’t large enough to fit under our couch.
The small rug always made this room look a little off.
Once we purchased a larger rug our room looked more put together and less cluttered.
Make sure you invest in rugs and furniture that fit your room properly so you don’t have to buy things twice.
20. Collections
Collections of items can make an area look cluttered. Glass collections, figurine collections, stuffed animal collections.
Any collection of items can make an area look cluttered.
I would suggest only keeping the collections that are super important to you and try to let the others go.
Let me HELP you Declutter! SOMETIMES ORGANIZING JUST ISN’T ENOUGH. I WANT TO HELP YOU GAIN SOME TIME TOO!
If you are spending a ton of time continually organizing the same area, check out The Declutter Your Home Minicourse. I created this course for anyone who is sick of all the time wasted tidying their home. This course is easy to follow and helps you figure out a decluttering schedule so you can declutter your entire home.
This is the perfect course for you if:
- You worry about your home before having people over (aka shoving things in closets).
- Things are always “missing” in your home.
- You wonder why your home doesn’t ever look clean or tidy, no matter how much cleaning you do.
If you need direction on how and where to start on your decluttering journey check out The Declutter Your Home Minicourse!
I hope you can find what is making your home look cluttered. Usually, a few small tweaks can change your home from looking cluttered to looking fabulous.
If you liked this post then you will probably like “How to Deal With Paper Clutter” and “10 Lessons I Learned After a Year of Decluttering“.
More inspiration on my Pinterest.
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