Your complete guide to creating a minimalist home // Your Local Real Estate Agents

Sold on the benefits of a minimalist home but unsure how to minimise your space – and, importantly, keep it that way? Follow this guide to creating a minimalist home for all you need to know.

There’s more to minimalist homes than clean lines, neutral tones and clutter-free surfaces. Photo: Simon Whitbread / Build and Interiors: Stritt Design and Construction

Living in a minimalist home gives you space, time and money. It frees your mind from fear, worry, overwhelm and guilt.

Here, professional organiser Carol Posener from Get Organised shares her practical tips.

Start with furniture

Furniture takes up the most floor space in your home and houses most of your stuff, so start by figuring out what you really need to live comfortably and what’s collecting dust.

Classic pieces in neutral shades will help to create a minimalist aesthetic. And it might sound counter-intuitive, but Carol says hanging onto larger items satisfies the minimalist brief and adds a lot of visual appeal. “Large items in small spaces have a lot of impact and make the room look really luxurious,” she says.

Store your stuff out of sight

Declutter your stuff – try the KonMari method or this three step process – and devise clever out-of-sight storage solutions for the things you decide to keep. Think under-bed drawers, built-in cabinets and storage boxes. Minimalists may have less on show, but that doesn’t mean they go without.

It’s also important to keep surfaces free from clutter, says Carol. “Refrain from filling every surface, shelf or bench with things; instead, place items strategically in some areas and leave other areas empty,” she says.

Digitise paperwork

What of the treasured collection of kids’ artwork, important documents and other memorabilia you want to keep but don’t know where to store? Use an app and go digital, says Carol.

“There’s all sorts of apps that can help to minimise the amount of paper and clutter that we collect,” she says. “Photograph your photographs and scan documents and children’s drawings so you have everything you love and can’t let go of easily stored on your computer.”

Saving space is just one of the many reasons why you should be digitising all your photos, important documents and memorabilia. Picture: Juliana Malta/Unsplash

Have a place for everything

This is the key to maintaining a minimalist interior: everything has a home and once you’ve used it, you must put it back. Think of all the time you’ll save searching for your keys, matching shoes and the remote control now that they live in one consistent spot.

“The idea is that you’ll learn where things live and if your home becomes messy, which it naturally does every day, you can put it back in order really quickly because everything has a home,” says Carol.

Everything has a place in a minimalist home. Picture: Rogerseller

Shop smart

“Minimalism doesn’t mean going without; rather, it’s the very opposite,” says Carol. “It means only inviting things into your life that add happiness and wellbeing.”

Her advice for shopping for a minimalist home? Choose good quality, durable items and only buy things you love. And, perhaps most importantly, think about where you’ll put it before you buy it: “If you haven’t got space for an item, don’t buy it until you create the space to store it,” says Carol.

Article sourced from realestate.com.au