From Chaos to Calm: Decluttering Secrets for a Serene Living Room
Whether you like it or not, a cluttered home creates even more clutter in your mind. Imagine going home after work to unwind and reset, but only to find yourself in a cluttered space. A table stacked with last evening’s coffee cup, overstuffed decorations, and unnecessary papers, reminding you yet again about unfinished tasks. Just imagining this will add stress to your already overloaded mind, making it hard to enjoy going back home after a long day. Based on studies, clutter has a huge impact on your mental well-being.
Every item not finding its designated place will only make your ‘silent to-do list’ longer. This will keep your mind in an ‘alert’ mood all the time. To enjoy peace of mind and to lead a healthy, comfortable life, you need to create a serene living room. And decluttering is one of the most effective ways to achieve that.
Here are a few secrets to make it happen.
The ‘Real’ Meaning Behind Decluttered Living Room
People who clean often understand the value of a decluttered space; it creates a sense of calm in one’s mind and leaves one’s heart content. But what about those who don’t actually like cleaning? For those who don’t like cleaning, we suggest looking at the ‘real’ meaning behind having a clean space.
If you don’t want to clean often, we suggest doing it as you move. For example, if you are having your tea or coffee in the living room, don’t leave it behind once done. Instead, walk straight to the kitchen wash it and place it nicely. This will not only save time but also avoid piling up tasks to do later.
As you know, a living room sets the tone for the rest of your home, so you should never take it lightly. Most people love keeping their decorations and designs minimal and having a space that they can manage. We’ve done a few projects with minimal home interiors, which have given the exact look that our clients envisioned.
If you want to know the real meaning behind a clean space, the simplest idea is when you feel at ease sitting in your living room. Or when you just try to rest and relax, you don’t catch a coffee cup or a bundle of papers lying on the table. You can instead just close your eyes and breathe comfortably.
Mess and Mental Health – Is There a Strong Connection?
Of course, there’s a solid connection between mental health and mess, which is why we are seeing a trend in people adapting to minimalistic interiors. According to research, a person will find it hard to focus on any task if their space is cluttered.
This is mainly because the visual cortex of their brain gets flooded with unnecessary items lying around that are irrelevant to the tasks they are working on. When this happens, their project slows down as the focus is often blurred.
In most ways, clutter and untidy spaces can trigger negative emotions, including irritability, tension, confusion, and even anger. You may even lose interest in doing any task at all.
Instead, you’d prefer sleeping in because it helps you escape from the clutter. On the other hand, a clean, organised living room creates positive emotions, such as calmness, happiness, and comfort.
4 Secrets to Keeping Your Living Room Serene and Decluttered
Be it a chaotic lifestyle, a new baby, depression, or simply an untidy space, the solution to a stressed mind is decluttering the space. But deep cleaning and decluttering may seem like a task that you can’t do at the moment. In fact, most people sit on the idea of cleaning without actually getting to it. If they do it, they’ll be able to see the impact of a clean space in their lives.
While it’s true that it’s overwhelming to clean an untidy space, it’s not something you can’t do. Here are a few secrets to do it effortlessly.
SLEEK NORDIC @ EDGEDALE PLAINS
One Clutter at a Time
The living room and the kitchen area are usually more cluttered than the rest of the space. If your living space is cluttered, and you’re overwhelmed by it, you have to start small. Doing one thing at a time will make you feel less overwhelmed and help you stay motivated and focused to clean. Say you have a book rack, a few drawers, and a stacked table in your living room. If you clean all of them at once, it’ll tire you up, and you might even give up cleaning entirely.
This is why it’s best to start small, meaning, begin by cleaning your book rack. Take 15 minutes of your schedule to do it. And then the next day or the day after, focus on the drawers. Likewise, move from one area to another. But remember, cleaning doesn’t halt there.
You should set aside at least 15-20 minutes every day to see if the space is cleaning or even to sweep and mop the floor. When you do this for some time, it’ll eventually become a habit you can’t skip.
Follow the 4-Box Method
You may assume that there won’t be anything much to donate, keep, or discard in your living room, but this 4-box method will surprise you. This method deals with four things:
- Items that you need that are boxed as “keep”.
- Items that can be discarded are boxed as “discard”.
- Items that can be donated are boxed as “donate”.
- Items that are not sure as to what to do can be named as “undecided”.
When you categorise things according to this method, you will be able to make your living space less cluttered. This will buy more space, allowing you to keep it aligned with your minimalistic goals. You will also feel calm at heart as you clean.
Involve Everyone in the Process or Ask for Help
When cleaning your living room, involve everyone in the process. Even after cleaning, make everyone in the family understand the need to get involved and clean as you go. Another secret everyone has to follow when cleaning is picking up things and placing them in designated places as they pass by.
For example, say you are passing the living room and you see a coffee cup sitting on the table, make sure to take it to the kitchen and wash it. This will not only help you cultivate the habit of cleaning but also save time.
But what if you are really busy and you can’t allocate time for cleaning? That’s when you shouldn’t think twice about hiring a professional cleaning service provider.
Have a Home for Every Product in Your Living Room
One of the top secrets to keeping your living room clean and serene is to have a place for every product. As per research, the top five items that people often misplace are TV remotes, keys, shoes, glasses, and phones. The reason behind this is not having a definite home for the products.
The living room is also a space where you keep different types of items, so if you don’t have designated places for the items, it’s apparent that the place will be cluttered. For example, let’s say you leave your keys on the table in your living room, another family member will leave a cup, and someone else will leave another item. Likewise, before you know it, the place will get cluttered.
Hence, you should have a separate place to leave the keys, keep the books, and so on.
A Few Guidelines to Clean Your Living Room
Your living room is undoubtedly the place where you relax, host your guests, and spend time with everyone. While these are enough reasons to clean the space, it is also important because a clean living room impacts your mental well-being.
Dust Weekly
Make sure to dust your living room weekly, and if it’s a minimally designed living room like our client’s Modern Oasis at Pending Rd, you will be able to clean it easily. As minimal living rooms have fewer items, it’s easy to dust them without much effort.
Vacuum Often
Make sure to vacuum often, especially the rugs and carpets. This is crucial if you have pets at home. However, if you don’t invest in overly decorative rugs and carpets you will be able to clean it easily than the complicated ones. This will save you time, effort, and money.
Also, if you spot spills, clean them immediately, as they’ll leave stains if you put them off for later. You might even have to scrub and double-clean if you don’t attend to them right away!
Deep Clean Monthly
Even if you clean weekly, it’s best to do deep cleaning every month because it’ll help you clean the floors and other complicated areas that are hard to reach. Studies have shown that most people admit to stressing over receiving visitors unannounced mainly because of their cluttered homes.
If you have a monthly deep cleaning session, you don’t have to worry about having visitors because you have a cleaning routine to keep your place decluttered. This takes your stress away.
Conclusion
If you follow the secrets and tips we shared, you will be able to take your living room from chaos to calm seamlessly. Cleanliness can help reduce stress and anxiety, and make you feel better instantly, so you shouldn’t be thinking twice to get started with cleaning.
A cluttered space can be distracting, which is why you should cultivate cleaning habits that become a part of your lifestyle. Even though you shouldn’t solely rely on cleaning to get your life in order, it’s best to invest time in doing so, as it affects your overall well-being.
