Tag Archives: storage

decluttering

Decluttering Guide: 5 Dos & Don’ts

We’ve all been there; over time our homes build up with clutter, and before we know it, there’s not a spare cupboard or shelf in sight!

Decluttering and re-organising the home can often feel like a daunting or insurmountable task, but it doesn’t have to be. With our helpful decluttering tips, you can feel empowered to transform your space into a clean, clear, and organised haven – now, and into the future. From using Pinterest for inspiration to investing in functional furniture and finding long-term storage solutions, we’ve got you covered. Read our decluttering guide below to get started on your journey to a clutter-free, stylish abode.

DO: Create a Pinterest Board for Inspiration

The First DO in our decluttering guide? Find some inspo! Pinterest is an amazing tool that provides endless inspiration for every aspect of your life, from health and wellbeing to style and fashion to interior design and home organisation. We recommend creating a dedicated board for decluttering and organising your home. Fill it with images that resonate with your style and inspire you to declutter without sacrificing aesthetics. You could even break this down further by creating separate boards for decluttering separate rooms. What is it about the spaces that inspire you? It could be the rattan boxes they use for odds and ends, the blanket box they use for toys, or the way they store their makeup brushes and toiletries. Once you have your ideas, make a list of the storage pieces, breaking the list down into what you need for each room for ease of tackling your decluttering project (we suggest taking on just a single room at a time). Head to Howard’s Storage World to pick up all the items you need. Soon you’ll feel more motivated to organise all the other rooms in your home as well and decluttering will be a breeze – and enjoyable!

DO: Invest in Functional Furniture

One of the most effective ways of decluttering and organising your home when you’re short on storage space (or space in general), is to invest in furniture that’s dual purpose. Storing your linen inside a bed frame with drawers, blankets inside an ottoman, and your favourite magazines and books within your coffee table are all great ways to declutter home areas and overcome a lack of storage space, while ensuring you aren’t giving up on style. Freedom has a fantastic selection of functional furniture that will not only suit any aesthetic, but also get you excited about decluttering and organising your home. This is also a clever way of getting rid of unwanted items too – if you forget you have the toys, linen, knick knacks once stored away, or don’t use them over the next 12 to 18 months, it may be a sign it’s time to sell, donate or bin!

 

DON’T: Overcrowd Your Countertops

The first DON’T in our decluttering guide: clear those countertops! Your kitchen counter can sometimes become one of the most cluttered areas in the house. This could be for a variety of reasons, but to help declutter your countertops, one of the best things you can do is minimise that which lives on your countertop by giving it a home – and styling everything that needs to stay!

Remove any mail, catalogues, paperwork or other household items out of your kitchen and find areas to house whatever’s left. Create a coffee corner for your coffee machine and mugs or place your utensils in a small utensil holder if your drawers are already full of kitchen necessities. Try to source storage items that match your countertop or kitchen style, while also providing ample space or functionality. If bench space is at a premium, think of ways you might be able to move things elsewhere – opt for paper towel holders that can be attached under cupboards, and coffee pod rails or spice racks on the inside of doors.

House also has an incredible selection of drinkware, glassware and dinnerware to help make your kitchen look super chic.

DO: Implement Long-Term Storage Solutions & Practices

After decluttering your space, focus on sourcing long-term storage solutions and decluttering methods you can implement to maintain or managed your organised home ongoing. This step must always be done last, so you know the exact number of solutions you need and what your home is lacking, and the exact size and space of where you will be storing them. If you love glass jars or containers for your pantry or fridge, we recommend being consistent by sticking to one style of clear jar in varying sizes (rather than accumulating containers of all styles, shapes and sizes – unless that’s your aesthetic).

Baskets in cupboards are a great way to keep like-minded items together to avoid any unnecessary clutter – decide if you prefer baskets with lids, or without, and what style will best suit your space and it’s desired function. You may even want to implement a practice of going through these every 3 to 4 months to see if there’s anything in them you need to throw out.

Howard’s Storage World, Freedom and Provincial Home Living have a great range of storage solutions perfect for decluttering. For more permanent solution, Kitchen Connection can help with kitchen redesign, and storage solution inserts such as corner storage solutions, wireware, rubbish, recycling and clutter solutions and sink accessories. We suggest you scroll through the Aspley Homemaker City website for more decluttering and home organisation tips and tricks before you head to the centre.

DON’T: Chuck Everything Into a Box & Forget About it

Last but not least in our decluttering guide: Don’t feel tempted to just chuck stuff into a box or drawer if that’s not a good home for it. If you don’t have good decluttering practices in place, it can be all too easy to open a door or drawer, shove your clutter in, and hope to never see it again.

Find common-sense homes that will help you remember where things are, and don’t be afraid of the label maker! There’s nothing worse than coming back to something you’re forgotten about in your fridge or pantry and wondering what it is (or used to be), or rifling through unmarked boxes for that international power adaptor the night before an international flight.

Decluttering Your Home Made Easy at Aspley Homemaker City

Decluttering and organising your home can be a stress-free and enjoyable process – provided you put some practices in place and make a plan. Use Pinterest for inspiration, invest in functional furniture, find long-term storage solutions, and style your countertops for a clutter-free and aesthetically pleasing home. With the help of Aspley Homemaker City’s fantastic retailers and the dos and don’ts in our decluttering guide, you’ll become a decluttering pro in no time, achieving a clean and highly-functional living space. Get started today and you’ll enjoy a clutter-free home in no time!

Living Room Styling

5 Living Room Styling Mistakes and How to Avoid Them

When it comes to styling your living room, there are some tips and tricks to implement and mistakes you want to avoid to ensure it looks the way you’d like it to look, while ticking the boxes in terms of functionality and liveability. After all, your living room shouldn’t just be nice to look at; it’s also a space you’ll want to entertain guests, where you can relax and put your feet up, spend precious time with your family and binge-watch your favourite shows.

Creating a comfortable, stylish, and multifunctional living space doesn’t have to be a daunting or expensive task. There are so many simple style tweaks you can make to enhance your living room to not only maximise space, but also make it feel incredibly inviting to absolutely everyone who visits. If you’re looking for some new living room ideas to make it feel more spacious, more functional or more stylish (or a combination of all three), then read on. We share our living room styling mistakes to avoid, styling tips to embrace, and the retailers at Aspley Homemaker City, where you can stock up on everything to bring your living room styling dreams to life.

Living Room Styling Mistake #1: Your living room is cluttered

When it comes to living room styling, storage is key! It can hide a multitude of sins, and makes it tidying up much easier – the more you can put behind closed doors, inside ottomans, underneath a table or on floating shelves, the better. Eureka Furniture has a great selection of coffee tables with ample storage space, so you can store anything from linens to your favourite magazines away, without compromising on style. They also have wall shelves in different shapes and sizes you can add to the wall of your living room to create your own vertical shelving.

Living Room Styling Mistake #2: Your TV is in the Wrong Place

The best way to free up space in your living room is to mount your TV on a wall. When you mount it, you want to make sure that it’s not blocking any precious window light or reflecting any window light. No one wants glare disrupting their TV viewing experience now do they? If you’re not able to mount your TV, you can also place it on top of a sleek entertainment unit that not only has storage options, but also enhances the look and feel of your other living room furniture. Freedom has a massive range of entertainment units available in shades of natural timber that’ll easily elevate your living room without taking up too much space.

Living Room Mistake #3: Your Room is Too Dark

Lightening up the colour palette can make all the difference when it comes to creating a sense of space in your living room. If you’ve got a smaller living room, a styling tip for making it feel bigger is to paint your walls an off-white and keep furniture light-coloured or tonal. If the space feels too clinical for your tastes, you can inject colour and warmth into your space through furniture and decor items. Nick Scali has so many lounge and sofa options available in a variety of colours, so whether you love a dark brown leather look or a pastel palette, you’ll be able to find the perfect centrepiece to enhance your living room styling vision. You can add light or creative cushion colour combinations for added interest, changing up as the seasons and trends change.

Living Room Styling

Living Room Styling

Living Room Mistake #4: Your Sofa is Too Big or Too Small

Many people fill their living rooms with furniture that is too large or chunky for the space, especially when it comes to sofas. This, of course, will make your living room look a lot smaller. So when it comes to choosing living room furniture, try to choose sofas that leave 18 inches (or 46 centimetres) of space on either side and don’t occupy the entire length of the wall. If you only have space for a two-seater, trick your brain into thinking you have more space by investing in an ottoman, so you can extend the couch when you need to, and place it elsewhere when you don’t. Provincial Home Living have ottomans to suit every style of sofa, whether you love a colourful velvet fabric or prefer a tonal linen piece.

Living Room Mistake #5: You’re Missing Mirrors

There aren’t many living room styling pieces that can make your space look bigger than it is, whilst also enhancing its overall aesthetic. One home décor piece that can is a sleek mirror. There are so many different mirror styles to choose from that it’s now easier than ever to find one that truly shows off your creative flair, whilst also making your living space feel comfortable and inviting. Of course, you also need to find a minor that balances your space, otherwise it may overpower it. If you’re wanting an oversized mirror for your living room, opt for a small frame as a larger frame can make your living room feel even smaller than it is. If you’re wanting a smaller mirror to place on a wall, find one that can be placed at the average person’s eye level (roughly 154 centimetres from the floor to the centre of the mirror) and leave enough space around the frame for the piece to breathe. We recommend popping into Bed Bath N’ Table and checking out their range of mirrors to see which size would suit your living room best.

Avoid these Living Room Styling Mistakes at Aspley Homemaker City

It can sometimes be tough styling living room furniture when you have so many competing interests on your wishlist; your living room is one of the busiest rooms in your home, so how do you make it feel comfortable, stylish and functional in a way that works with you rather than against you? Well, that’s where we come in! From large furniture items to home decor and storage solutions, Aspley Homemaker City has all you need to bring your living room styling ideas to life.