Living in a small space is challenging especially if you have a ton of stuff that you can’t bear to part with. Living that minimalist life is appealing when you see those beautiful scandi style white spaces on Instagram but how to achieve it when your home is more shambolic than serene?

We took on a de-cluttering challenge to try and find out the best way to give ourselves a beautiful blank canvas to work on and here is what we learned.

1. Tackle categories not rooms

Marie Kondo sparked a worldwide de-cluttering craze when she released her book ‘the life changing magic of de-cluttering your life’. She argues that living a pared back lifestyle can make every day living much easier by eliminating choices and streamlining your home. Imagine opening your wardrobe and immediately finding something you want to wear! So our first tip comes from the queen of de-cluttering. Tackle categories not rooms. Instead of clearing out, say, your spare bedroom, go through all of your books in the whole house. Organise all the clothes in your closet. This makes for a more focussed approach to the de-clutter.

Check out our Pinterest board for more de-cluttering inspo

2. The Oprah Winfrey hanger trick

Speaking of clearing out your wardrobe, if you have an emotional attachment to your clothes and find it difficult to put them in the donate pile, turn all your hangers to face the opposite way. Once you wear each piece, you can turn the hanger around the normal way. After 6 months you will easily be able to see which pieces haven’t been worn and be able to take them to the charity shop without that nagging ‘but what if I need this for a garden party with the Queen’ (or something!).

3. Remove dust magnets

We’re looking at your piles of books! We get it, books are amazing and also make for a great décor piece. But they are also huge dust magnets and make keeping the house clean and fresh more difficult. How much better would it be if your shelves were just full of books (beautifully styled of course!) which had touched you in some way or you would recommend to a friend. Donate the others to a second hand store where someone else might love them.

4. Get on eBay

We’ve all seen cash in the attic (really? Not even on a sick day?), it is just fact that most of us could convert a huge amount of our old unwanted goods to cash. This will add a further incentive to get rid of as much as possible from your house. People will pay for almost anything (old £1 coins or second hand make up even!).

5. Categorise and contain

Once you have cleared everything out that can go to either the charity shop or the bin you can start to organise what is left (hopefully just the essentials). Once you are clear on what is left you can buy containers to hold what is left. It is so essential in a small space that everything has a home so that you aren’t constantly moving clutter from one place to another. But storage doesn’t have to be boring, think vintage suitcases that can double up as décor to wicker baskets. 

6. Make it spring in your home

Now comes the fun part, start to take out the heavier throws and cushions from your home that you have been hibernating in all winter. This will give you the room to start thinking about some lighter cushions or accesrroies you could use once everything is clear.

We’re so excited to start bringing in the spring to our homes over here at Urbansize. In fact, we are having our own spring clear out sale to make room for some exciting new pieces over on our website. Check it out to see if you can find yourself a bargain to freshen up your place for the new season.