Hi guys. Welcome back to my channel. Today I'm going to share with you 10 clutter-free
storage hacks, and I'm also going to show you some really clever storage solutions as well.
If you follow me already, then you probably know I am personally not a minimalist. We're a family
of five and we have a ton of stuff, but we do hate clutter. Over the years we've put some systems in
place to help minimize it, and I'm also going to show you some great ways that we store things as
well so that it just keeps our house clean and tidy. If someone just popped in unannounced,
it wouldn't take us very long to quickly tidy it up. I hope you really enjoy these tips and
hacks. I feel like there's a few in here you may not have thought of. Let me know what you
think in the comments below, give it a big like and subscribe if you're new. With all that said,
let's get into the clutter-free storage hacks. First off, let's start out in your wardrobe.
This can be the perfect place for clutter to hide because often you can close the doors
on it and once it's out of sight, it's out of mind. I've got a few hacks when
it comes to your closet. The first being the hanger hack. You may have seen this before,
but it is so simple. All you have to do is store your clothes on hangers and put them all the wrong
way around. Then when you wear an item, wash it and put it back, you put the hangar back in the
normal way that you would. And after six months or 12 months, it's a really good indicator on
the items of clothes that you actually wear and the ones that you don't wear at all. Definitely
set an alarm in your phone for six to 12 months time to check the hangers and anything that you
haven't worn for the last 12 months, just get rid of. Because let's face it, if you haven't worn it
for a year, you're probably not going to. If your closet is absolutely full to the
brim like mine is, you may benefit from doing the one in one out system. It's exactly as it
sounds. You basically can't put anything new into your closet until you get rid of
something that you already have. I've also seen people do the reverse one in one out system,
and that is when you don't buy something new until you actually have to, until that item that you
already have at home has worn out and it's not working anymore. Say you don't buy new trainers
until the ones you have have just had it, or you don't buy a new hairbrush or a new coffee cup
until the ones that you already have don't work. My next tip is to have a place for everything
and have everything in its place. This is actually something I've really struggled
with over the past two years because we moved into this house and then we were renovating,
so everything we owned felt like it was everywhere and it was really disorganized and stressful. Now
that all the building work is done, we're trying to allocate places for everything.
If there's any items in your house that feel a bit lost, that are constantly lying around,
or that when you ask your child to put it away, they don't actually know where it goes,
try and designate a home for that item. You can do this with clever Storage, and I've got
some new storage that I wanted to show you guys. As I've been looking at furniture and decor for
our new rooms, a brand called Home Essentials reached out to me and said that they do all of
that on their website. Then I also discovered that they do the most incredible storage and
organizational products as well. I'm going to show you a few that I got for some very
cluttered spaces in our house, and I'll be sure to link the items in the description
down below if you want to check them out. I'll link the website too because it has everything.
I've only recently discovered Home Essentials, and I'm not exaggerating when I say they have
everything on their website that you could ever need for your home. There's inspiring interiors,
toys, gardening, electricals, there's furniture, bedding on trend decor as well. There's literally
everything. There's brands. We're actually going to get our new couches for our front room from
there as well because it all is so lovely. I'll link the websites and Home Essentials have also
said that you guys can have a 10% off discount code on their home and decor products. My code
is going to be MX10, so I'll put it on screen and in the description as well, along with the link.
If there's anything that you are needing for your home, I would highly recommend you guys check it
out and I'll show you the products that I got. First thing that I wanted to show you is how I
reorganized the under the bed storage in Frazier's room. His bed is great, it's got a huge amount of
space underneath it, but we hadn't actually organized it for about two years. We got some
under the bed storage from Home Essentials. It came in a pack of five. We took everything out,
had a really good sort out and then laid them all under the bed. Then we grouped things together.
We had all the troll dolls, they're actually Jackson's, all of the bags. We've got pillows,
extra blankets, his keyboard, all of that under the bed, and now it feels so much more organized.
Next up, I wanted to show you some baskets that I picked up. You guys know that I love to have
baskets, especially in the kids' rooms. I feel like it just groups everything together. In this
one, I've chucked in all of his Rubik's cubes. He loves these kind of puzzles. Then I have another
one for all of his PlayStation controllers. Then in our room I got another set of two
baskets from Home Essentials. I thought these were really stylish, so I've put them next to
the olive tree in our room and they are perfect for extra blankets and a place for my slippers as
well. I just love the way that this looks. Then for Caleb's desk storage, we picked up
this little desk organizer, which is great for his little tablet, his calculator, his post-it notes,
glue sticks, anything that he might need for homework. It can sit in this space and it looks
super organized. I also picked up this really cute sorted pen pot as well on Home Essentials.
Then in my room I wanted to show you a little piece of decor. This isn't organizational,
but I loved this vase and I put faux eucalyptus in it and I think it looks like hair on the vase.
Then I got this set of two trays which are mirrored. I love a tray, it's such a
simple way to organize a space, just group things together. Just simply by putting them onto a tray,
suddenly it feels super organized. I used one for perfume and one on this shelving unit as well,
and I think it works so nicely. Then we also got these two wicker
circular trays and we thought that the colors would go so well in our living area
and it's just perfect for things like the remote, some books as well, some magazines.
Also picked up this beautiful gold bowl, which I thought would be perfect as you walk in the door
to chuck your wallet and your keys into. I also got this teddy bear
ottoman. It's so nice when storage can be a real style statement. This looks lovely,
but it's also super functional because there's so much storage in it. We're actually keeping
a lot of sports equipment in this. Then we also got some drawer dividers
because they have so many on their website. These ones fit perfectly in Jackson's drawers.
It's great for all of his socks, his vests, his pants as well. It just makes you feel
super organized and you can really get in the habit of just storing things in here.
Alongside all of the organization, they also do gorgeous furniture. Again,
I'll put all the links in the description down below if you want to go ahead and check it out.
Another tip to having less clutter is to declutter often. We do a seasonal declutter for clothes. I
keep my summer clothes in the loft when it's winter and then I swap them around. It gives
me a really good opportunity when I'm packing things up to actually get rid of anything that
I haven't been wearing. We do the same for the kids and we also do a toy declutter in December,
getting ready for Christmas and all of the toys that might be coming.
There's also some great declutter challenges that you can do. There's some on Pinterest where you
declutter a different space for 10 minutes every day, and then at the end of the month
you've decluttered a lot. We also did the 100 declutter challenge once, when we were moving
home and we really had to get rid of some things. I challenged myself to get rid of 100 things and
we managed to find them, whether it be things that we actually sold or gifted to friends or
took to the charity shop or actually just got rid of. It's a really good way to set yourself
a challenge if you just have way too much stuff. A great way to make decluttering often even easier
is to have a donation bag or a donation bin that you have either in your closet, in your car, or in
your garage maybe that you're constantly putting things into. As soon as you think, "Do you know
what? I don't actually wear this anymore," you have a place to actually put it. Then once it's
full, you take it to the charity shop or you put it on Vinted, or however you're going to get rid
of it. It's just nice that you have a place where you can actually put items that you want to get
rid of. You can even sometimes pick up that bin, do a quick sweep of the house and put anything
into it that you actually no longer need. A really good tip when you are decluttering
is to try and emotionally detach yourself from the items. This is something that I find really
difficult because I am a very sentimental person. My boys are growing up so quickly,
I want to hang onto everything. Or I always think about the money that we spent on an
item and it just feels so wasteful to get rid of it. The way that I do it is a bit like what Marie
Kondo says when you're holding an item and you're thinking, "Should I keep it or not?" Just think,
does it bring you joy? Does it bring you value? Or is it useful? If it isn't one of
those three things, then you have to try and get rid of it and just think in your mind, the less
that you have, the less you have to clean. If you are a parent and you are overwhelmed
by toys, I personally buy too many toys for the kids, I hoard them. I always think, "Oh, it's
going to entertain them or teach them something," and we probably have too many, but especially when
they were very little and the toys were huge, something that we loved to do was toy rotation.
With this, I would box up about a third of their toys and put it into the garage, and then I would
set an alarm on my phone for maybe two months, three months time. Then when that alarm went off,
I would get those toys out and then I would box up a different third of the toys. It's so exciting
for the kids because when you get them out of the garage, it's like they have this big box of brand
new toys. You'll probably find that they've missed them and they'll play with them so much. It's
a great way to minimize the amount of toys that you have on show. It's fun for the kids as well.
I was thinking you could probably apply toy rotation to other things as well. If you had
a huge collection of books, say, maybe you put some of them away if you don't have the space
for them. Then you set an alarm and then you rotate them maybe every few months.
My next tip is to put it away right away. That sounds self-explanatory, but where I
really want to apply this is in the doorway of your home. Don't know if anyone else finds this,
but as you walk in, as your kids walk in, the coat goes off, the scarf, the handbag, the shoes,
and everything can just get everywhere and it can become really cluttered very quickly. There's a
few techniques to help with this. The first one is the One Touch method. I know you guys love
this one because often people recommended it to me as well. But the One Touch method is exactly
as it sounds. As you walk in and you take off your coat all in one touch rather than just like
chuck it on a chair or on the floor, just with one touch, hang it up where it actually needs
to be. Same with shoes. With one touch, take them off, put them in the basket where they go,
and your handbag as well. If you can think of that in your mind, that really helps.
There's also another technique called the Five Second rule, and that is literally as it sounds,
if it takes five seconds, just do it now. If it takes five seconds to put your coat in the right
place or hang your handbag on the right hook for it, just do it now. That should help to keep it
clutter free. Obviously this is something that I'm trying to drum into my kids' minds as well.
We have good days and bad days. There are days they still come in and everything goes everywhere,
and then I have to actually get them back to put it all away. There have been moments
when they've actually put it where it belongs. There's two little tasks that we do every day that
even if the rest of our routine goes wrong, these two things happen and it makes our home feel that
bit more decluttered. The first one is to make your bed every morning, and the second is to
clean the kitchen sink every night. Once the bed is made, I feel like a room just looks nice and
clean. Same with the kitchen sink. Once it's clean at night, it's almost a cue to us that we can now
relax for the evening. It's like, "That's done. The kitchen looks clean, now it's time to chill
out." I know some people like to do the dishes when they wake up in the morning, but for me,
I really like coming down to a nice clean house. Another tip that I wanted to share with you guys
that just make places feel less cluttered is having nice clear counter space or surfaces.
The only problem with having nice, clear counters or surfaces is that they can then attract clutter
or can become a place where people just want to dump things onto. Another tip to go with that one
is to have clutter blockers on those surfaces. Maybe you put a nice big vase of flowers on a
nice clear surface to make it more difficult for people to put stuff on that area. Or maybe you
put a nice little tray with candles, maybe some frames on another blank surface to just make it,
again, that bit more difficult for people to just dump their stuff on.
Okay, so those are all the tips that I wanted to share with you guys. I really hope you enjoyed
them. Let me know what you think in the comments below. Don't forget to check out my link to Home
Essentials, and the discount for 10% off their home and decor will also be linked in
the description. Thank you so much for watching and I'll see you in my next one. Bye guys.