New interior design can be great for revamping your home and breathing new life and vigor into rooms that have become dated and stale. However, interior design can be more than just aesthetically appealing; it can create space, storage and help you organize your home.
Make the most of an alcove
When decorating a room, look at the layout in detail and try to identify areas that could be used well for storage. Alcoves, for example, might seem like a useless, awkward space but actually can be used to make a room look great and help organize your stuff.
Many furniture companies now supply or will design furniture specifically for alcoves, such as desks, bookshelves and cupboards. This extra storage space could be perfect for tidying away books, CDs, paperwork or anything else lying about.
Put up some shelves
Another design tip to help organize a room and maximizse space is to add shelves. It seems obvious but many people forget or don’t bother to put up shelves in their living room and bedroom. They are inexpensive, easy to put up and can add a new dimension of space for your belongings.
Most hardware and home design stores have hundreds of styles and sizes of shelves available and so you are sure to find some that suit your interior design. If you have the free wall space, shelves can be the perfect addition to help organize your home.
Get furniture with storage
If you are re-designing a room you are probably going to be buying some new furniture. Obviously cupboards, a chest of drawers and cabinets are great for storage, but you will probably already have stuff you want to fill those up with.
So, why not get extra storage in other pieces of furniture? There are many sofas on the market now that have storage underneath the seats, which is ideal for stuff such as linens or board games. Similarly, many beds, foot stools and coffee tables offer extra, hidden storage which is ideal for clutter.
So there you have it, a few ways you can use interior design to help organize your home. However, before re-decorating or buying new furniture you should consider the costs and the impact on your contents and home insurance coverage.
I hope you enjoyed this guest posting from fresh! Insurance Group. I’d love to hear how you’ve combined interior design elements and organizing techniques in your home or workplace.
Wishing you simplicity, harmony and freedom,
I hear it all the time: “If I only had more energy I’d be more organized.” It may be a case of the chicken and the egg – your disorganization depletes you so you don’t have the energy to get organized and visa versa. While there are certainly physical conditions that can zap energy, our own habits sometimes deplete us as well. There are two common areas clutter in most people’s lives: visual and electronic. I’ll talk about visual clutter this week and electronic clutter next week. 
The first time I heard a particular radio commercial of a major home improvement store, I though I had misheard it. But when I heard the same commercial a second time, I became alarmed as I realized that thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of people might think its message was accurate. The message? Buy storage containers for “important” stuff, “not so important” stuff, and “not sure why I’m keeping” stuff and “you’ll be organized for the new year.” Well if tossing stuff into storage bins is all it takes to get organized, there’s no reason anyone would ever be disorganized. Unfortunately, it’s not quite that simple. As I’ve mentioned before, and as I put into practice with my clients, using containers is just one step in the process of getting organized, and it’s not the first step. And while putting things into bins as the commercial suggests might look better than having them scattered all over, it most likely won’t help you easily find things when you need them. And that’s the whole reason for getting organized – to make life easier and save you from hunting all over to find things. So go ahead and use store’s suggested method if it works for you. But for those of you who would merely end up with a containerized mess rather than a visible mess, remember that tried and true methods of setting up organizational systems have a much greater chance of being successful for you in the long run.
