The new year gives us a perfect opportunity to take a long hard look at our homes and have a rethink about just how much stuff we have and whether we need to declutter to free up some space and create a calmer more comfortable environment. Whilst Spring is traditionally a time associated with big clear outs, January is an optimum time to declutter as we tend to get lots of new things over the Christmas period that need a home. The act of taking down and packing away the Christmas decorations gets us in the mood for paring back and sorting out.

Tips to Declutter and Organise Your Home

1. Start SmallDecluttering the house can seem overwhelming when you have many rooms to get through. That’s why we recommend breaking it down into smaller, more manageable tasks. An easy way to do this is to declutter by room. Work your way around the house one room at a time. If this still feels like too much, break it down further and attack one area of a room at a time. This way you have lots of little wins to celebrate that will keep you motivated and on track.
2. Set Time LimitsIt may be helpful to set yourself time limits per room so that you don’t get distracted and can stay on schedule. Just do whatever you can in the time limit and then move on once the time is up. Remember, doing something is better than doing nothing, even if you don’t finish.
3. Be RuthlessYou will need to be ruthless when you declutter and organise your home. It will be tempting to get caught up in the emotions of your belongings, but this is why we need to take a more detached and practical approach. It might help to get five bags or boxes ready: keep, sell, bin, recycle, donate. Get rid of anything you don’t use, wear or love.
4. Organise Your BelongingsOnce you have decluttered as much as you can, you need to find a home for all the belongings that you want to keep. You want to avoid having piles of unnecessary items on your surfaces. This makes it harder to clean and clutter is not good for our mental health.

Now that we have a strategy for decluttering in place, we’d like to share some of our decluttering tips and tricks with you for the rooms in your home.

Decluttering the Living Room

The living room is where we spend a lot of time gathered with family and friends. It is a communal area when we tend to share downtime and entertainment. So, it stands to reason that any room we wish to relax in should be neat, tidy, and clutter free.

Make considered decisions about what you wish to display in the living room and hide everything else away. Make use of furniture with lots of storage so that you can keep your belongings out of sight. Choose coffee tables, TV units, sideboards, bookcases and entertainment units with doors and drawers. If possible, choose sofas and footstools with hidden storage too. Most of our sofa beds come with built-in storage perfect for keeping bedding and other textiles nicely tucked away.

For anything else that needs to be kept in the living room, make use of boxes, baskets, trunks and small storage boxes, tins or bowls.

Decluttering the Bedroom

Given the fact that we spend a large proportion of our lives asleep, it stands to reason that we should make sure our bedrooms are the relaxing, calming sancturaries that we need to promote good sleep. So it’s extra important that we declutter the bedroom.

Decluttering clothes and getting rid of anything that we no longer love or wear is a great place to start. This frees up space in the wardrobe and chest of drawers. Bedside cabinets with drawers and doors help us keep smaller belongings that we need to keep to hand out of sight. Choosing an ottoman bed is also a good choice as we can store spare bedding or towels under the bed or other items that we may not need frequent access to like luggage for example.

Smaller items can be kept neat and tidy by using smaller boxes, bowls and trays.

Decluttering the Hallway

Hallways are extremely important and often overlooked areas of the home. They are the first thing we see when we enter the home so they create an immediate impression on us and our guests.

Try placing a bench with a basket by your front door to make it easy for people to remove their shoes and store them tidily away. Built-in storage or coat cupboards are ideal but if you don’t have this luxury, make sure you provide adequate hooks, coat stands, clothes rails or luggage racks for hanging coats, hats and other items of outdoor wear.

Console tables also come in handy for creating a drop off station for keys, wallets, post and other small items. Again, bowls and trays will help to keep everything nicely organised and close to hand.

So those are our decluttering tips for organising your home in the New Year. You may find it helpful to make yourself a decluttering checklist to work through or to create a decluttering challenge that you can work towards in January. If all this still seems too much for you, you can always seek out the services of a local decluttering professional to help you.

Here are some of our favourite storage products to help you declutter your home.

1. Malvi Sofabed
2. Verona Footstool
3. Aluminium Storage Trunks from Tradefair International
4. Cambourne Coffee Table
5. Hoxton Bookcase Display Cabinetfrom LPD
6. Faux Litchi Grain Set of 3 Pink Traysfrom CIMC
7. Valentina Storage Boxfrom LPD
8. Lisbon Mini Shoe Rack/Storage Seatfrom Seconique
9. Lola Storage Ottomanfrom LPD
10. Monet Bed

If you’ve used any of storage furniture to help declutter your home, we’d love to see a photo. Please share on Instagram and tag us with @honeypotfurniture and use our hashtag #JoinTheHive so we can see.