A growing number of homeowners are rethinking how they declutter, shifting the focus from tidying as a chore to tidying as a wellness practice. The concept, known as “visual breathing room,” prioritises clear sightlines and thoughtfully edited surfaces, not simply for appearance but for their effect on daily life.
Research from the Princeton Neuroscience Institute has found that visual clutter competes for our attention, reducing our ability to focus and process information. Mind has similarly highlighted the link between environment and emotional well-being, noting that feeling more in control of your surroundings can positively affect stress and anxiety levels.
Jonathan Clark, Creative Director at Shelved, has shared his approach to creating visual breathing room across different areas of the home, combining practicality with personality.
Kitchen
As a space used multiple times a day and often the hub of socialising, small inefficiencies in the kitchen quickly compound. Clark recommends auditing worktops first: remove everything, then only return items used daily, storing anything used weekly or less elsewhere. Research on habit formation shows that the easier a task feels, the more likely it is to be repeated, meaning clear prep areas can support healthier cooking habits, alongside the long-standing advice to tidy as you go.
Grouping items by function rather than category, such as keeping breakfast items, baking supplies, and cleaning products in their own zones, can reduce the mental load of searching and decision-making. Open shelving can work well too, but only if curated, with each shelf given a defined purpose such as everyday crockery or glassware. The aim is for storage to remove friction rather than create new visual noise, something well-installed, properly weighted shelving can help achieve.
Bedroom
Sleep specialists consistently point to environment as a factor in sleep quality. A bedroom filled with visible laundry, paperwork, or miscellaneous items can subtly signal unfinished tasks, making it harder to switch off mentally.
Clark suggests starting with surfaces: bedside tables should hold only what directly supports rest, such as lighting, a book, and a charging point, with everything else relocated. Wardrobes should be reviewed seasonally, and anything unworn in the past year questioned, since overfilled wardrobes increase decision fatigue, particularly during rushed mornings. Where a full wardrobe clear-out isn’t feasible, a rotational system such as vacuum-packing out-of-season clothing is a practical alternative. For extra storage, wall-mounted or enclosed options that keep items off the floor and away from eye level help maintain floor space, with ottoman beds offering a further extension of bedroom storage.
Bathroom
As a high-use, small-footprint space, even minor clutter in the bathroom can feel amplified. Clark advises removing all products from drawers and cabinets, checking expiry dates, and disposing of anything out of date, noting that most households overestimate how many toiletries they actively use and often buy more unnecessarily during weekly shopping.
Decanting frequently used products into matching containers creates visual cohesion and speeds up cleaning, while keeping daily essentials on a single tray or shelf, rather than spread across surfaces, helps maintain the sense of the bathroom as a place to relax and reset.
Living room
Living rooms tend to accumulate items gradually, from post and chargers to remote controls and decorative pieces, and without boundaries, surfaces can become default storage zones. Clark recommends clearing shelving and coffee tables entirely before reintroducing items selectively, limiting decorative groupings to odd numbers, and allowing visible gaps between objects, since negative space is not empty space.
Cable management is worth addressing directly, as visible wires are one of the most common sources of perceived clutter, and can be minimised with organisers or concealed hubs. Where open shelving or a mantelpiece is a focal point, assigning each shelf a single-purpose role, such as books only or display pieces only, prevents the mixed-purpose overcrowding that often occurs. Shelf styling can still be fun and fashion-forward, and Clark points to the curated clutter trend on Pinterest as a way to achieve a stylish shelf without compromising on well-being. Ultimately, storage should support how a room is used, whether for hosting, reading, or relaxing, rather than simply holding excess items.
Home office
Studies on workplace productivity show that visual distractions reduce concentration and increase task switching, and the same principles apply at home. Clark suggests limiting the desk surface to daily-use items only, with everything else given a defined storage location, and digitising paperwork where possible or storing it vertically in labelled files.
Introducing a weekly reset habit, spending 10 minutes at the end of the week clearing the desk, can prevent gradual clutter build-up and maintain a sense of control. Storage in a home office should prioritise accessibility and weight distribution, with frequently referenced materials kept within arm’s reach and archived documents stored higher or lower, reducing micro-interruptions during the working day. The goal, Clark notes, is not minimalism for its own sake but reducing cognitive load to aid productivity and help avoid burnout.
“We are seeing a real shift in how people think about decluttering,” says Clark. “It is no longer about stripping your home back to the bare minimum or hiding everything behind closed doors. Instead, homeowners are looking for ways to make their spaces work harder for them both practically and emotionally.”
“In the UK particularly, where many homes are not blessed with endless square footage, thoughtful storage is essential. But what has changed is that people do not want purely functional solutions anymore. They want storage solutions that feel intentional and design-led, something that enhances the room rather than interrupting it.”
“We often talk about the idea of visual breathing room. When shelves are curated rather than crammed, and when everyday items have a considered place, the whole atmosphere of a room shifts. You can feel it immediately. There is less friction in your day, whether that is making breakfast in a streamlined kitchen or sitting down at a clear desk to work.”
“We are seeing more people treat decluttering as a form of self-care. It is all about creating an environment that supports focus, rest, and connection. And often, the biggest transformation does not come from redecorating; it comes from rethinking how you use the space you already have.”