How to Declutter Your Home for Summer

It can be easy to feel overwhelmed when planning to declutter your home. After all, mess can feel oppressive and stressful - and it’s hard to find time in our busy lives to go through an entire home organising spaces and throwing items away.

However, heading into summer with a clutter free house is great for our wellbeing. Mess-free spaces make entertaining far less fraught - and will allow families with children to be more organised when pursuing fun activities over the holiday months.

It also makes decorating easier, and, if you’re going away for a while, there’s nothing better than coming home to a neat and tidy house.

Below, the B&M team has compiled a “declutter your home checklist”, helping you to work through your house room by room with an easy system.

Living room

The living room is often the largest room in your home, where the family congregates. This means that clutter from a number of different people can quickly build up. However, it’s easy to get this space organised.

Step 1: Clear All Surfaces

When you decide to declutter your living room, the first step should be to collect all items sitting on shelves, side tables, coffee tables, window sills, mantle pieces and any other surface and decide which you no longer want or need.

Where possible, you should donate unwanted items to charity.

B&M Top Tip: If you come across something that doesn’t belong in a particular room, moving it to the correct space can be distracting - as you may be tempted to start the decluttering process in there rather than finishing the previous room.

Instead, place these items in a crate or box to take with you as work through spaces, distributing them in their correct places as you go. If there’s anything left at the end, you’ll need to think of a specific place for them - or simply donate them.

Step 2: Explore Drawers

Many of us are guilty of hiding clutter in dresser drawers, media units and sideboards. Once these spaces become full, no room remains for further items!

Go through all furnishings drawer by drawer - as you’ll have already done with your surfaces - and categorise them for different uses. Again, think hard about the items you want to keep and those that no longer have a use.

B&M Top Tip: Investing in drawer organisers will help you to keep your items neatly arranged.

Step 3: Consider Attractive, Space Saving Storage Solutions

Next, take stock of the storage spaces that serve that particular area of the house. If there isn’t sufficient storage, start looking for affordable and stylish units that complement the room.

Free-standing shelving, clever combination coat hooks and shoe stands and pretty baskets can add to the design of your space while providing you with more storage.

B&M Top Tip: Opt for pieces with lids for a neater look. You can even find hollow ottomans that double as items of furniture and storage solutions.

Kitchen

Now it’s time to declutter your kitchen. This may feel like the most intimidating room in your home to tackle, but if you sort items methodically following our system, you’ll get it done in no time.

Step 1: Free Up Your Worktops

Using the kitchen can be very stressful if you have containers, pots and pans, and cooking utensils crowing your food preparation areas.

The best way to free up your worktops is to go through drawers and cabinets one by one, assigning each a particular use and disposing of contents that are never used.

For example, cleaning equipment and “laundry room” products could be kept under the sink or near the washing machine.

You should be able to reclaim some storage space in this way, allowing you to stow away items from your surfaces in their respective new homes.

B&M Top Tip: Try to prioritise the storage of certain items depending on how regularly they are used. For example, Christmas cookie cutters could either be kept in a “seasonal” drawer or even stowed in a neat crate on top of a cabinet out of the way.

Step 2: Arrange Food and Items in Containers

If everything in your kitchen has its own container, it's easy to keep track of what you have and what needs to be used up before you purchase more.

Many containers are stackable, allowing you to use your space more sensibly. This is a great way to organise your fridge as well as the rest of the room.

B&M Top Tip: Label containers to keep control of their use. You could also use labels on containers of homemade food, to ensure they are used in time, to reduce food waste and to stop them from hanging around and taking up space.

Consider setting a reminder once a week to check through your perishable items and throw away anything that has spoiled.

Step 3: Use Hooks and Hanging Storage

There are so many ingenious places in which you can store kitchen utensils and cooking equipment, including under-shelf and cooker-hood hooks, small-scale hanging shelves and over-door options.

B&M Top Tip: Items like mug-trees, spice racks and dish-stacking solutions can even serve as functional decor!

Bedroom

Your bedroom should be a space for relaxation - and mess can really get in the way of this! Fortunately, there are a number of easy ways to organise your room with minimal stress.

Step 1: Organise Loose Items in Attractive Containers

As with your other spaces, it’s definitely worth starting by clearing all spaces, including shelves, bedside tables, windowsills, drawers and cupboards, then deciding which items you will use and which you no longer need.

Once you’ve done this, use carefully selected containers to neatly stow away the items you are keeping.

B&M Top Tip: Children's rooms can be a nightmare to organise, as little ones get through activities very quickly - and rarely tidy up after themselves! To tackle this, why not invest in easily accessible toy storage? The simpler it is to quickly deposit items, the more likely your little ones are to agree to clear up their mess!

Step 2: Take on Your Wardrobe

Sorting through clothes often feels like an intimidating task - but once it’s done, it’s far easier to locate your favourite pieces. Plus, it will free up space and prevent clothing from “migrating” to other areas of the room.

B&M Top Tip: Invest in clever multi-garment hooks to condense your clothing and create more space.

Step 3: Don’t Forget Under the Bed

Who hasn’t hidden clutter under their bed? A great alternative is to pick up a set of storage boxes or organisers to ensure that all items stowed in this way remain in some kind of order.

B&M Top Tip: Store bulky out of season clothes - such as jumpers - under your bed to free up more wardrobe space.

Bathroom

The smaller, fiddly trinkets and toiletries that live in our bathrooms can be a real nightmare to organise. However, with a little effort, even these rooms can be decluttered.

Step 1: Keep on Top Of Your Empties

Clutter can quickly build up around the sink, beside the bath or in the shower tray. Your first step should be to clear these areas and get rid of empties or items you no longer use.

If you have half-used toiletries, try to prioritise using these up before buying anything new.

B&M Top Tip: Always check which of your containers are recyclable, and dispose of them accordingly.

Step 2: Reserve Your Counters for Priority Items

Think carefully about the items that should be kept on your surfaces, and which are used less and so should be stowed away.

We highly recommend selecting attractive containers to keep on counters, in which you can store things to which you need quick and easy access, such as dental care products, hairbrushes and more.

B&M Top Tip: You can find all kinds of handy stacking containers in different styles to match your bathroom design.

Step 3: Consider Shower Caddies and Miniature Stand-Alone Shelving

As they are usually fairly compact spaces, it can feel like a bit of a puzzle to declutter your bathrooms.

However, through clever techniques - such as hanging a storage caddy in the shower or placing a small set of free-standing shelves next to the sink - you’ll be able to free up your surfaces and keep items neatly stored away without encroaching too much on your space.

If you follow the above decluttering tips, you’ll be able to take control of your space and feel like a professional organizer in no time!

B&M Top Tip: Check out B&M’s Storage and Shelving range for further inspiration!

Are you a decluttering wizard? Share your favourite tips and organisation hacks with the B&M Community via Twitter, Facebook or Instagram.