Apartments are traditionally considered “easy first homes”. They usually have less space than a house and seem like they’re easier to set up… Until you end up with a whole life’s worth of stuff scattered all over the place. A cluttered apartment can go from bad to worse very quickly, and it can be difficult to even think about how to start decluttering. Welcome to Hello Cleaner’s DIY and Here are ideas that’ll help you declutter your apartment in no time!
1. When we’re looking for extra storage space, it’s very easy to forget just how much the corner of a room can add to the overall space. Pick the corner that’s the farthest away from the door and add a large shelving unit there. It can easily store everything from books to random trinkets that would otherwise end up on the floor.
2. No matter how organized you are, you’re definitely going to need some bins around the apartment. Their uses will differ according to the room you’re tackling. In the bedroom, you’ll benefit from adding a laundry bin and a “fold later” bin to hold clothes that would otherwise end up on the “clutter chair”. In the living room, a small bin can hold all your remotes and controllers in one place. You can even use bigger bins to store things like winter coats and other large items and just tuck them away under the bed so they’re decluttered and out of sight.
3. When you’re in an apartment and have children, toys are probably your biggest decluttering nemesis. An easy way to deal with them is dedicating a shelf with storage boxes to storing toys and label them according to the type of toy, like “Legos” for example. Instead of having to carefully put away each toy, you can dump them all in their respective storage boxes and put them back on the shelf – out of from sight and all in their place.
4. Simply moving clutter off the floors and into boxes and drawers won’t actually declutter anything. You have to get organizing. Get one of these drawer organizers to separate the clutter inside each drawer, too. You can even lay organizer trays on top of each other and create double (or even triple) the amount of storage space you started with!
5. Even if you’re not an avid hat wearer, hat racks are a great addition to the entryway of your apartment. They can be used to hold chunky jackets, big scarves, purses and anything else that you might otherwise end up throwing on the floor as soon as you enter the house.
6. If your children go to school, you know all too well how backpacks are like giant boulders of clutter in the middle of the house every day. Schoolbags can’t exactly be stored away because they’re in use all the time, so it’s important to dedicate a space for them. Pick a corner of the house and add one strong hook for each child’s backpack. This way they can easily hang up the bags when they get home, and they’ll still be accessible if they need to do their homework.
7. Sometimes, it’s not the small things taking up space and adding to the clutter; it’s your furniture. Having a giant sofa that leaves no space for anything else will make even one stray remote look like clutter. Go for appropriately sized furniture for your rooms instead.
8. Most shelving units don’t even get close to the ceiling. If you’re a collector of books, figurines or anything in between, get a shelf installed that reaches slightly below the ceiling. This is a great place to display all your collectables and still won’t take up unnecessary space in the room, leaving your walls empty to store other things.
9. If your mail has taken over what used to be a clean entryway to your home, it’s time to do something about it. For apartments that can’t fit a storage space in the entryway, you could get these walls hanging storage boxes. They are narrow enough not to get in the way of anyone walking through and can be the perfect solution to sort your incoming mail, junk mail, coupons and bills.
10. When the biggest room in your apartment is the living room, it’s easy to bring all your chores in there. You might finish laundry and end up bringing the clothes into the living room to fold or iron. But when you do that, it’s likely that you’ll end up getting used to having clothes and other random items in the room that don’t actually belong there. Make sure that all of your things are stored in their own “home” before you go to bed each day. It’ll help keep the clutter to a minimum. If you really need to leave things out, place everything that doesn’t belong in the room into a large storage bin instead, so it doesn’t clutter your living space.
11. Ever since the day Pinterest introduced the world to throw pillows, we’ve been going ham with them. It’s very easy to lose track of just how many throw pillows you have until they end up taking over your whole apartment. Keep in mind that you need to fit into the space too, and adjust the number of cushions accordingly.
12. This famous steel trolley from IKEA is every de-clutterer’s dream. Although these were originally made for holding utility tools, they work perfectly in any room! You can use these as a breakfast or tea trolley or to hold your cleaning supplies, and they even work great for bathrooms! The best part about them is that you can move them away and bring them back whenever you need the things you’ve stored in them.
13. This one works for all closets but especially for those that are walk-ins, where most of the closet space is devoted to hanging rods. Using one of these chain-link hooks can be the perfect way to maximize your hanging space. You can literally fit to t-shirts on one link. This minimizes the clutter that clothing lying on the floor always creates while keeping everything visible and functional!
14. When you’re decluttering your apartment, having set places for everything to be put away out of sight should be the goal. Something like a storage ottoman bench works even better because it provides a sitting space and adds ample space to store things in. The best part is that you can put these ottomans anywhere without having to worry about it actually “belonging” because it works with all types of rooms.
15. If you’re not into the idea of having your remotes and phones lying around on a table, or simply don’t have space for it, something like an armrest organizer might work perfectly for you. These simply hang over the armrest of your sofa or chair and have pockets where you can put remotes, phones, pens and even magazines. You’ll have everything within your reach while keeping the room clutter-free.
16. Pots and pans are an essential in every home. You can’t cook on a daily basis without them! In most homes, pots are either thrown into an empty cabinet that no one dares to open, or they’re hung on hooks right above the counters. Unfortunately, both of these options add an insane amount of clutter to the kitchen. You could have an entirely spotless kitchen but it’ll still look messy because of the disorganized pots. Getting a tucked-away cookware organizer like this one allows you to store cookware out of sight while keeping everything perfectly organized and easy to reach!
17. Cabinets are great for storing things, but there are plenty of ways to maximize the use you can get out of them. Using an over the door cabinet organizer is one of the best ways to do that. These simply hook onto the door of the cabinet and become a whole extra space for you to store anything, from cutting boards and baking dishes in the kitchen to straighteners and blow dryers in the bathroom, effortlessly.
18. When you’re already dealing with a cluttered apartment, having full shelves will only visually make the place seem even more cramped and cluttered. Switching out traditional shelves with a few floating shelves instead can create the perfect storage and organization spaces without adding any unnecessary mess to the room.
19. Apartments usually have pretty small bathrooms, and these bathrooms often become the hub of what seems to be all the clutter in the world! An easy way to deal with this is to get an over-the-toilet storage cabinet. These can store extra towels, toilet paper, linens and anything else that’s scattered all over your bathroom, in a space that would otherwise be empty and wasted.
20. Lazy Susan are one of the best ways to organize cluttered things that you use all the time. They take up a fraction of the space that all those things would usually take up while still keeping everything just as easy to reach! You can use these to store your makeup, cleaning supplies, spices or a random assortment of things. They’ll work with everything!
That’s a wrap for Awesome Apartment Decluttering Ideas. Which one of these will you be using to declutter your space? Let us know in the comments below. Make sure to give this article a thumbs up, and subscribe to our BLOG for more articles like this. See you in the next one!
2022 Hello Holdings Limited. All Rights Reserved.
