Oftentimes, luxury homebuyers fall in love with a staged space in a model home or a photo in a decorating magazine. While your luxury home may be designed with aesthetics in mind, that doesn’t automatically make it picture-perfect. Any living area can become cluttered, no matter how large and beautiful the space.
Luckily, your dream living room is within reach. By removing non-essentials and paring down accessories, your great room can feel like a brand-new space. Here are a few tips to declutter your living area without changing your furniture layout.
Imagine the Perfect Space
Before you declutter, it’s helpful to have an end goal in mind. A home designed with a modern minimalist aesthetic, for example, will have different rules than a comfortable country look. Start by downloading photos of living areas you love, either from user-curated sites like Pinterest or your favorite design magazines. What is it about the space you enjoy? How many decorative accessories are used? Pay keen attention to the level of detail, and clutter, in each space. Also look at the ways in which decorative accessories are arranged. Are pots and picture frames grouped in small clusters, or are they solo? Use the photos for inspiration, as well as a guideline for placing art objects around the room.
The 3-Bin Method
One of the most popular decluttering techniques, the 3-Bin method, is an easy way of sorting extra items in your living area. It’s typically used when people are moving, though we’ve adapted the technique to be used at any time:
- Start by purchasing 3 large plastic bins of equal size and shape. We like these clear rolling totes from The Container Store because you can wheel them around and reuse them for storage later, but you can use anything large enough to hold miscellaneous living room bric-a-brac.
- Label one for items you want to KEEP and place back into your living room. Another bin should be for items you wish to keep, but STORE away for use at another time. The third container should be for TRASH (or donation, if the items are in good enough condition to be re-used by another family).
- Start by placing the non-furniture items from your living room – accessories, decorations, framed photos, books etc.— into a single pile on a floor or table near the plastic bins.
- Once you have everything in a single pile, look at each item one at a time. Consider which of the three bins it belongs in. Worn out items, dated decorations, broken knickknacks and items that aren’t your taste or style should go in the TRASH or DONATE pile. Seasonal items go in the STORE bin. Also, things that are too big, don’t match the room, or are just for memory’s sake. KEEP only the items that you love most.
Ask the Hard Questions
It can be difficult to let go of accessories, especially when items are associated with a good memory. This is the time when you’ll need to make some difficult decisions. Will you really read that book on your shelf a third time? Does that “lucky cat” statue blend into your decor? Are 10 framed family photos necessary, or can you just set out two? (Even better, could you purchase a digital photo frame to display a rotating selection of favorite images in one spot?)
Whether you’ve just moved into a Camelot home or you’ve been living in one of our communities for years, decluttering your great room will help your space feel fresh and open. Of course, if your family has expanded or your needs have changed it may be time to upgrade to a new Camelot home. Call 480-367-4300 or browse our home communities online to see our selection of luxury residences in the Phoenix metro area.
