7 minimalist hacks for your home

Decluttering, however useful, is just the start of the journey. It’s really satisfying to cut down on useless stuff and organize our homes, but order is also something that needs constant attention to maintain.

There are two reasons why minimalist homes look tidy:

1. They don’t have an immense amount of stuff to begin with
2. The stuff they have is smartly stored away

It might seem overwhelming at first, but it’s really just a question of habits. I really believe that it’s easier and less time-consuming to keep a place tidy and organized than having to do a major clean every week. Who has time for that?

I definitely don’t, but I’m also obsessed with a clean, clutterfree home, so I try to follow these simple minimalist hacks.

Yes, it will take some effort in the beginning. But once you’ve been doing these tips for a while, they become automated in your brain. That’s how habit forming works.

+ Smart storage solutions

When you (re)design your home, try to think strategically. Design should just be one criteria, functionality and practicality are just as important. Try to look at seemingly useless spaces and do some research on how to turn them into creative and clever storage options. Pinterest is full of them, just search “smart storage ideas” or “home organization tips”.

+ Regular decluttering

After the initial master decluttering, I would suggest repeating it twice a year, and doing quick decluttering sessions every month. You don’t even have to do it in the whole house, just choose one room/area per month and go through it quickly to see if there’s anything out of place.

+ Keep your counters, big furniture, and floor clean

If the focus points of a room (such as the sofa, the counter, the floor, the bed) are clean and not cluttered, they will give a tidy, organized atmosphere to the whole space. Get used to not leaving stuff around at least on these critical points.

+ Everything must have a home

Everyone should have a home, including objects. When they don’t, chances are they will just lie around and be in the way all the time. I suggest that you have a “home-finding session” after decluttering. Try to find a final place for everything that survived the purge. If you get a new thing, find a storage place for it the minute you get home. It will make cleaning up and tidying so much more effective.

+ Instantly put stuff right back to their place

Once everything has a home, the second step is to ALWAYS put stuff back to where they live after you used them. It’s really usually just a tiny effort, but it makes a whole lot of difference. It’s enough for even a couple of objects lying around aimlessly to cause the impression of a cluttered home. Also, the more we lose control over the order, the more chaotic it gets. I’m sure I’m not the only one, but I’m a lot more disciplined and behave much better when my home is actually in order.

+ Use storage as decoration

Functionality and design are both equally important to minimalist interiors. Instead of decorating your home with a hundred tiny things, try to find storage options that can function as decoration as well. I prefer keeping my morning supplements, seeds, or toppings in cute jars at a kitchen corner. It’s effective, because I have everything I might need in one, easily reachable place, but they also look really good in the kitchen. I also have a lot of cute boxes on my shelves, and I store stuff that I don’t use everyday (passport, travel gadgets etc) there. Open shelves are also a great fusion of storage and decor.

+ Devise systems

That sounds awfully engineer-y. What I mean is set up routines/practices for different tasks, like having a separate, visible tray for mails or paperwork that needs to be done. Dossiers for different topics. A blackboard for writing household/family to do lists. Systems that once in use make your home and life more organized and thus, more efficient.

That’s all. Simple, isn’t it?

Let me know how they work for you (or your own home secrets).

xx,

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