Remodeling ideas for a clean, uncluttered look

There’s something about a tidy, uncluttered space, that puts us at ease and makes us feel more relaxed. For most Americans, however, that’s not our typical day. Millions of Americans lament that they simply have too much stuff and not enough places to put it. While one good solution is to declutter and regularly get rid of things you’re no longer using, you may still find yourself with more things than places to put them. The following remodeling tips will provide you with creative storage solutions so you have a place for all your things.

In the kitchen

The kitchen is a particularly challenging room when it comes to reducing clutter because the modern kitchen requires so many different tools and it seems there’s never enough cabinet/drawer space. Everyone has that cupboard/drawer in their kitchen where everything that doesn’t have a designated place gets crammed in. The following space-saving tips in the kitchen can finally give you enough room for everything:

• Drawer inserts. One way to reduce clutter is to get things off the countertops and a good way to do that is through drawer inserts that can be made to house knives, spices, or cooking utensils. They can be custom made to fit in any drawer in the kitchen and they free up counter space.
• Appliance garages. Appliance garages are custom-sized cabinets that are just the right size to hold a single small appliance such as a blender or toaster that you don’t use every day and don’t want to keep out on the counter when not in use.
• Odd-shaped drawers and cupboards. You’d be surprised how much wasted space there is in a kitchen with uniformed, symmetrical cabinetry. By being willing to include some odd-shaped cabinets, such as tall, skinny drawers that pull out to reveal a spice rack, or a tip-out tray to store brushes and sponges just below the sink where you’d usually just have a false panel you can make use of space you didn’t know you had.

In the bathroom
The bathroom may be the trickiest room in the home because it tends to be quite small but like the kitchen, it needs to hold a lot of things from hair products to cleaning products to grooming items. The following ideas can help you find a place for everything:

• Recessed medicine cabinet. Medicine cabinets used to be big, blocky things that stuck out from the wall taking up valuable space but medicine cabinets can also be recessed, fitting between beams in the space between the walls. Instead of a mirror that swings on hinges, the mirror can open on a sliding track.
• Hidden electrical plugs. Electric razors, toothbrushes, and hair dryers tend to clutter up the bathroom counter-space because they’re used daily and need to be plugged into an outlet. You can keep them stored away without the hassle of plugging and unplugging them by having electrical outlets installed inside the drawers that house them.
• Niches. Like medicine cabinets, niches can be built into the spaces between the walls to store items that you don’t mind being in sight. It frees up valuable counter and drawer space and keeps things off the counters as well.

In the utility room
Home builders have caught onto the fact that homeowners like larger utility rooms but older homes have small utility/laundry rooms and there simply isn’t room for all the odds and ends that end up being stored there. If stuff is piling up on top of the washer and dryer, the following tips may help:

• Valet rods. A valet rod is an extendable metal rod that can be installed on a wall or inside of a cabinet. When you need to hang dry clothing, simply extend the rod and place your hangers on it. When not in use it hides away neatly.
• Ironing board insert. Ironing boards are big and take up a lot of space which is why an insert that pulls out to reveal a ironing board built into the cabinets is such a useful space-saving idea.
• Toe-kick storage. There’s often unused space at the very bottom of the utility room. Toe-kick storage can be used to hide away food and water dishes for pets or a step ladder to reach things stored up high in the utility room

Everywhere else
There are all sorts of ways to incorporate creative storage throughout your home such as furniture with built-in storage. You can also create a less cluttered look by simply using minimalist design principles like straight lines and lots and lots of white. Sleek, modern baseboard heater covers, for instance, don’t physically create more space, but they somehow make a room look less cluttered.

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