What to purge, relocate or rearrange to quickly reduce visual clutter

It’s the pile of mail on your counter, the rats’ nest of cords on the floor, that gallery wall in the living room that never quite came together. If you’re feeling off-kilter in your home, visual clutter may be to blame. Even when neatly arranged or displayed, too many objects, too many colors, too many shapes in your line of sight can overwhelm the brain, diminishing the aesthetics and functionality of your space.

Once you know the most common sources of visual clutter, dealing with it is surprisingly easy. If your home is in need of a low-cost or cost-free refresh, try purging, relocating or rearranging these things in pursuit of a more visually calming living space.

Cords are everywhere, and all those electronic tentacles are a major source of visual clutter. Ways to control cords range from simple, low-cost options like zip ties or Velcro strips to cable clips, mounted racks and cable boxes designed with cord management in mind. Charging stations and specialty items like stick-on cord holders for small kitchen appliances and caddies for heated hair styling tools can also help to keep cords tidy and out of the way.

We live in a world in which even the air conditioner has a remote control, and now those little suckers are everywhere. The solution is a basket, or box, or caddie — someplace where you can toss them all instead of leaving them strewn about. Those who feel especially industrious can print labels to help keep the TV remote straight from the light-up scent diffuser remote.

Has the mail piled up? Sort through it, and consider scheduling a block of time to unsubscribe from paper bills in favor of going digital. Then, find a way to stash incoming mail that works for you — a mounted wall organizer, a trash can near the mail slot for instantly junking junk mail, or a decorative basket are all good options. Plus, when it starts overflowing, you’ll have a visual indicator that it’s time, once again, to climb Mt. Mail.

Physical media collections, including DVDs, records, magazines and books, can be sources of pride that feel worthy of displaying, but all those cases and spines and colorful cover art can add up to a lot of visual clutter. Investing in closed storage furniture is a great choice for housing these collections (and will help keep them dust-free and in good condition). If displaying some or all of your collection is important to your aesthetic or vibe, a glass-front display case can trick the eye into seeing a collection of items as a unit rather than as individual items.

For many people, storing their air fryer, juicer and Ninja CREAMi is not just a matter of convenience, but a reminder to actually use these things. To the eye, though, all those small appliances look like a big jumble. Experts recommend storing only the small appliances you use every day, such as a coffee maker or toaster, on countertops and moving the rest into a closed storage space.

This is a tricky one, because magnets are popular collectors items and wonderful mementos. There’s an easy way to decide if you prefer a naked or a dressed refrigerator: Take all the magnets, and whatever they’re holding, off of the refrigerator. Then, clean the refrigerator door because it definitely needs it, and wipe the magnets clean, too, because they also definitely need it. Set the magnet collection aside for at least 24 hours — a day or two of living without them may make you realize you like the look of your fridge better without the souvenir motif.

The problem with knickknacks is that once you put them somewhere, they can feel like they’re fixed in place. Plus, we often have emotional attachments to decorative items — after all, we’ve chosen to display them in our homes for a reason — and letting go can feel hard. But there’s no law that says everything has to be out all at once. Can you rotate your display? For example, a collection of copper diving helmets can make way for a display of tragedy and comedy masks when the seasons change, turning your home into a mini gallery or museum. Or: Can some of those mementos be turned into Christmas ornaments, or be displayed elsewhere?

Branding and marketing experts know that we’re suckers for packaging, which is why so many personal care products come in such beautiful, display-worthy jars, bottles and tubes. The acrylic organizer trend, as well as those irresistible ASMR restocking videos, encourage us to display everything, but consider whether that trend actually works for you. Is there a happy medium, such as displaying two or three perfume bottles and keeping the rest of your collection in closed storage?

The gallery wall art trend isn’t going away any time soon, and we’re not telling you to strip the walls bare, but too many framed items and hangings can make a room feel cluttered and claustrophobic. The solution may be to invest in matching or coordinating frames to give your collection a more streamlined look, or simply to remove or rearrange art. Consider relocating pieces that you can’t part with, but that you don’t especially love, to places with blank wall space like walk-in closets, garages or attic.

You don’t have to chase fads, but every five years or so it’s not a bad idea to scan your home for outdated decor that is past its prime. ​​We become so accustomed to our decor that it’s easy to forget it’s even there, but as Corey Pence, a senior manager of in-home organizing services at the Container Store, pointed out in our article about visual clutter, “Wall signs and decorative rugs or runners can also contribute to unnecessary visual clutter if not carefully curated.”