How to Make Your Home Look Minimalist | 10 Ways to Streamline Clutter

[Music] hey everyone today i want to share 10 easy ways to streamline clutter in your home and to make it look more minimalist now i know that there's a deeper point to minimalism and that having a nice looking home isn't the overall goal here this is just a peripheral issue you know the goal of minimalism there's a lot more to it it's about finding purpose in your life and focusing your energy and emphasis in life on things that you actually care about but i do think that when there's less clutter in your space it might actually reduce stress for you i think our environment really affects us psychologically and so why not put a little extra effort into creating a nice space at home not to mention i think there's a fun bit of creativity involved in creating a nice clean open space that's pleasant to be in and so i don't think we should feel guilty putting a little bit of energy into that because it can also be fun so i have to admit you know i'm not an interior design specialist but it's something that i have really enjoyed doing and i found that the more that i do it the happier it makes me just because i feel like my space is more open and streamlined and i can then focus my energy on the things that really matter to me in my day so here are 10 simple things you can do to streamline your space [Music] hi if we haven't met before i'm elin and this is my channel slice of light if you want to watch more videos on simple living minimalism and building an empowering mindset then hit the subscribe button below and you can also hit the thumbs up button if you end up liking this video doing those things ends up supporting me so if you're willing to do it i'd really appreciate it my first piece of advice is to use big rather than small pieces to make fashion or home decor statements and what i mean by that is often we rely on little trinkets or little items to add kind of clever touches or texture to the room but if we can just focus on making sure that our big piece items like our beds our dressers our couches are really in line with the style and look we're going for that's going to go a long way rather than spending a lot of money on many different little trinkets around the space save that money up and just put it towards a beautiful piece that really makes a statement in the space my second piece of advice is pretty related and that is to remove furniture or at least move it to a different space the less furniture you have the more likely you are to feel open and airy and not confined or constrained i never really thought about this but often we just put furniture in spaces because we feel like we should or were supposed to or it's the norm but for example i think of like side tables so often i've had side tables in apartments in the past just because i felt like i'm supposed to have side tables right and i've realized i never used them they really were purposeless instead just using maybe a main coffee table that you're actually gonna sit and put things on that makes a lot more sense to me so just think about it are there furniture pieces in your space that you don't actually use that much that are more just there because you thought you should have them just get rid of them or put them in another space if they have some other purpose now it is true that sometimes adding furniture to a room makes the room look bigger that is definitely a phenomenon that happens but too much furniture can make the space start to look small so keep that in mind as you're designing your layouts my third piece of advice is to reduce extra trinkets or decorative pieces around your space you really just don't need them now if they're extremely meaningful to you or truly aesthetically what you want i'm not saying don't have any but just be very thoughtful about which pieces you're putting on display often less is more a rule i often try to abide by is any surface make sure over half of it is clear so that if you do have a few decorative pieces make sure that they're not like covering the entire or most of the surface by having more surfaces clear your whole space is going to look more streamlined and if you can even have some surfaces that have absolutely nothing on them it's going to enhance the overall ambience and peace of the space i really think that if you look in magazines or on pinterest and you look at pictures of homes often the ones that really catch my eye at least are the ones with very clear surfaces so keep that in mind as you plan out your surface space my fourth piece of advice is to minimize conflicting colors and also to be wary of really bold colors only use bold colors with extreme intention and certainly don't use colors that are extremely conflicting unless it's done in a very thoughtful way often a rule i go by is to try to minimize the number of colors i use in a room to only about three base colors that i'm pulling from so that everything looks cohesive that being said every rule is built to be broken so if you have other colors you want to add in just make sure that perhaps there's a motif meaning maybe it shows up in multiple places in the room or that it just really adds something to the space maybe a theme in this whole video is just going to be doing things with intention rather than just sort of letting them happen but i think with colors it's especially important to really think about what is the color and the energy of this room and definitely consider the light coming in and what the room is used for when you're picking those colors do you want this to be a calm space do you want this to be a welcoming space what is the purpose of the space and what colors would enhance that experience of course you also want to keep in mind the architecture of the space in picking which colors you have as well as you want to make sure that the room doesn't feel totally out of place for what it really architecturally is related to that my fifth piece of advice is to minimize conflicting styles and what i mean is really have a vision for your room as far as what sort of a look you want to have you don't want to have totally different styles hodgepodged in the same space getting too eclectic can be a problem that being said if you're doing it very intentionally like if there's some sort of crossover in styles that you want to do that's okay but just be very very intentional about it for example in my main living room area i have some little gustavian details that add this kind of like romantic historic look while still keeping a lot of the space very kind of california modern or scandinavian there is a little bit of old and new but i'm only doing it with extreme intention and making sure that all those pieces do still work together this also means it's probably smart to really have a plan for what the style and the vibe is before you start designing the space is it mid-century modern is it bohemian is it victorian you know whatever the look is that you're going for make sure you have a clear image in mind of what you want that will also help inform some of the other pieces of advice i just gave you as to which furniture pieces to maybe remove from the space or what colors you want to include my sixth piece of advice is to find easy hidden storage spaces for your everyday items like your computers or other things that you use on a daily basis it's easy to get tempted to leave those pieces out but if you find an easy way to just put them away it's going to reduce the clutter of your space and i think it's important to put them away even when you're just living there and not having guests over because that way your space is going to be more likely to be ready for any guests and it also will just feel more streamlined for you my seventh piece of advice is to limit what you put on the walls be very intentional again about what you're placing on your walls as they are making a statement they're telling a story about your identity and they're gonna be almost like talking to you when you're in that space you know they're creating a vibe and a presence and an energy and you want to make sure that it's an energy that draws you in that you enjoy but also isn't distracting as part of this i would also recommend that you leave some walls entirely clear which i know some people would disagree with and i know that also it's hard to do that sometimes but i truly believe that a little bit of restraint when it comes to walls can go a long way and just making the pieces you do use have more of an impact and to make the space feel less cluttered and more open my eighth piece of advice is to keep things physically clean and maybe this is an obvious one but it's easy to forget to do things like regularly dusting and scrubbing to make sure that things just look pristine this is something that doesn't require any additional costs or payments but just making sure your space is clean and putting in that work can go a long way in making your space feel far more streamlined as part of this make sure that you're regularly washing your linens and keeping those clean i just want to mention i just recently started using true earth's ecostrips laundry detergent they sent me a few packs and i have to say i'm so glad i have them it's a far more environmentally friendly way of doing laundry and if you want to keep things clean in a way that actually is a little bit more aware of the earth and the planet this is a really good product to use and i also want to mention this product because detergent is something we all usually have to use at some point or another so if you're going to be buying laundry detergent anyway why not be using one that smells really great that works really well and that's also good for the environment so i just encourage you to check it out if you have any interest there's really nothing like clean linens and clean towels and just making sure things are crisp and clear it makes the whole space feel lighter my ninth piece of advice is to hide your cords and any kind of like tech gadgets in your space at least as much as possible i think actually taking the time to make a plan for your cords can have rippling effects on how your space feels sometimes you forget to notice them as they're in your space for a while but they do have this kind of subconscious effect on us i think also if you're struggling to actually find a way to hide chords at least think about where in the room the chords exist like put them off in a back corner or somewhere that's not like the center visual point of the room it can make a big difference my tenth piece of advice is to tidy as you go simply make sure that you're tidying throughout the day that you're decluttering when you need to that you're just taking things out of a space as you're going through the motions of your day if you let it build up over time it just feels like more difficult to handle i've been there i know how that feels you're not alone if you're experiencing this but just finding ways you know every time you leave a room take a scan are there a couple of things that you could remove or put away and as you start to do this it'll get easier and easier because it's such a good feeling when you finally have a decluttered space that feels more open and streamlined if you just start to do it it's going to pay itself forward and you're going to naturally start to want to do it more because it's so much better than just letting the piles heap up and i know often we're busy there are about a million things to do in the day and getting this done is hard but if you can find ways to integrate it into your day then it doesn't have to build up so much so that you have to deal with it later so those were my overall 10 tips for streamlining a space and making it appear more minimalist i definitely think the overall two takeaways though are first to do everything with intention really think about it before you place any item into your space and second to use restraint that's my biggest theme in any kind of home decor or design using restraint is the most important thing sometimes you'll come across a piece that you think is really cute but it technically doesn't match the style or the colors or the look of the room or it might just add more clutter in the long run so be very thoughtful and restrained about what you're willing to bring into your space sometimes something that initially seems like a good idea doesn't end up being a good idea side note i think historically home decor and home decorating has been a little bit stigmatized at times just because i think it's thought of more as woman's work obviously that's a gross over generalization but i just think that it actually is in some way sort of an art form it's similar to the fashion world where often it's thought of as really superficial to spend time on that because you know you shouldn't be focused on that for whatever reason but it actually is a form of self-expression and if you think about it it's where you're spending most of your time and so if you can do things to just decrease stress improve the quality of the space that you're living in it might improve the overall quality of your life and if you just do a little work up front in planning the space then as you go you don't have to worry about it as much so hopefully some of these tips helped you out if you have any ideas about how to streamline space and reduce clutter please share them in the comments below i'd really appreciate it don't forget to subscribe below hit the like button if you ended up liking this video but that's really all i have for you today thank you so much for taking the time to watch this video and i hope you have a wonderful rest of your day bye [Music] you

Channel: Elin Lesser

Views: 181,947

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Id: DV-cPEOmiwo

Length: 13min 38sec (818 seconds)

Published: Sun Apr 18 2021