Top Décor Mistakes That Create Clutter In Your Home (and how to fix them)

Sharing is caring!

Are you making any of these top décor mistakes that cause your home to feel cluttered? If you’ve ever walked into your home and felt like this is “too much” it’s probably because you’re making a decorating “no no”. A few weeks ago, I received an email from a loyal reader that I remember very vividly.  She said that she walked into her home on just a regular day and realized that several things didn’t fit. And even though they were meant to be decorative, they actually looked like clutter.  I know I’ve been there before! My clutter wasn’t just the mail laying around, or clothes piled up. But in my past, some of the clutter in my home was actually caused by my well-meaning décor. Ouch! Well, after I learned some of the basics of decorating, I was able to figure out what I did wrong and fix it. Now I’m going to share with you how you can say goodbye to the clutter causing décor in your home.  But before we get started, go ahead and join my FREE 7-day decluttering challenge called Take Back My Space. You’ll receive pro tips and daily prompts to quickly knock out the clutter around your home. Now let’s get started.

To Décor Mistakes That Create Clutter In Your Home (and how to fix them)

1. Over scaled or too much furniture – yes, if you have furniture that’s too big for a room it can make it feel cramped. A king size bed in a space that should fit a full-size bed is one example. A super stuffed sofa sectional that’s meant to fit an apartment sized sofa. All of these too-large furniture items can instantly make your room feel cluttered because they’re overwhelming. The quick way to fix this is to scale down your furniture. Allow walking room and extra space around any furniture you choose for your home.
2. Too much wall décor – something very similar to having furniture that’s too large, and this is having too much wall décor.  Although furniture scale is different from having too many items on your wall.  There should be some blank space left on your walls if you don’t want your home to feel cluttered. One great way to fix this is to leave walls with a few feet of space between décor. And using larger prints or works of art will help too.
3. Incorrectly matched throw pillows – okay, so I’ve heard that too many throw pillows is what causes clutter and I have to respectfully disagree. It’s not necessarily the number of throw pillows that’s causing the clutter, it’s how coordinated they are. If you have a bunch of throw pillows in a room and they’re tied together with a common element, be it color, texture, or style, you can get away with a lot of more pillows. On the other hand, if you have only two throw pillows and they don’t match in any way shape or form, then your room will still look cluttered. So, a quick way to cut down on clutter is to tie things together so everything looks cohesive.
4. Too many small accessories – when you have too many accessories, your room won’t look tied together. It will actually look cluttered. One way this can happen is if you keep mementos of your travels around the house. Having small trinkets of any kind in several different places is what leads to a cluttered look. One way to get around this is to group smaller items together.  And then tie them together with what I like to call a footprint. Place the smaller items together on top of a tray, stack of books or place them in a shallow bowl. The other way to prevent the cluttered look of having a bunch of small accessories is to purchase larger accessories to decorate with.
5. Unstyled or overfilled bookcases – as a lover of books and everything learning, this is a tough pill for me to swallow.  But yes, the way you display the books on your bookcase can make it feel cluttered. But there’s an easy fix!  If you decide to add items other than books on your shelves, stop the clutter by having a plan to display them. Depending on the width of your bookshelf, start by placing one large item on the shelf by itself.  Or group smaller items together in threes.  The other way to clear up a cluttered bookcase is to organize the books by color or by size.  This way books that have the same jacket cover are together and books with the same height are grouped together.
6. Kitchen with disorganized open shelving – I know I’m not the only one that oohs and aaahs over HGTV designers that style kitchens with open shelving.  This look can be a breath of fresh air and actually make the room feel less cluttered when done correctly. But when done wrong, the space just looks totally clutter filled. The way to fix this is to treat those shelves as spaces that should be decorated, not as storage shelves. Use the same bookshelf decorating tips on these floating shelves and you’ll be good to go.
7. Things that are overflowing from their designed space – yes, you can have the most beautifully decorated home but if its overflowing with things, you’re never going to have a space that looks clutter free. A great example of this is having socks coming out of your dresser drawers because the drawer is stuffed to the brim. Or coats that fill your coat closet so much that you can’t shut the door. You get my drift. Pair down the number of items you have if they don’t fit in their designed space is the quick fix for this decorating-clutter dilemma.
8. Not leaving enough white or blank space – earlier we talked about leaving space around furniture and on your walls. Now were going to carry that same concept through to the rest of your home. When you’re decorating, leave some space on your tabletops, your rugs and on your desks and counters. The best way to tackle this is to pick a surface area that has too much stuff and remove anything form it. Then slowly add back items making sure not to overcrowd the space.
9. Leaving a lot of “non décor” items out – one of the main things I believe about decorating is that you should have décor that’s based on you, your family and how you want to live. In other words, your decor needs to be both beautiful and functional. But what’s a girl to do with things that you use but aren’t really “accessories”?  Well, there’s a way to incorporate items like remote controls or magazines on a coffee table and make sure that you have access to them without them causing clutter. For example, I place the remote controls we use most on a tray on the ottoman we use as our coffee table. This gives us direct access to them, while also keeping the clutter out of sight.
10. Décor is too busy – to be honest, having a room that looks too busy is pretty similar to a room that doesn’t have enough blank space. But you can actually have the right amount of blank spaces on your walls, floors and counter tops and still have a room that looks too busy. How? By having a room without a cohesive design plan. You know, décor, furniture and accessories that are just haphazardly put together with no rhyme or reason. Multiple colors, textures and patterns that don’t match can make a room look cluttered too. The quick fix is to have a plan when it comes to decorating your home and choosing your accessories.

Top Décor Mistakes That Create Clutter In Your Home (and how to fix them)

We just went over ten different ways that your décor might actually be creating the clutter in your home. And for each one, I broke down how to fix it. I really believe that your home environment impacts your life and your surroundings can either positively or negatively impact your day. Which is why I want you to feel peace when you walk into your home. If you’re ready to take the next step in kicking clutter out of your home, then it’s time to join my FREE 7-day decluttering challenge called Take Back My Space. You’ll receive pro tips and daily prompts to quickly knock out the clutter around your home.

And please, take a few minutes and leave a comment below and let me know how these tips have helped you.

Related Posts:

• How To Declutter Your Home In A Week
• How To Declutter Your Entire Home Room By Room
• How To Start Decluttering When You Feel Overwhelmed
• 15 Top Tips To Declutter Your Home For Back To School Success
• 5 Surprising Things That Make Your House Look Cluttered (and how to fix them)
• What To Do With Everything Once You Declutter

Want to remember this?  Click the image to pin this to your favorite Pinterest board!