Just when you’ve cleared one spot, clutter seems to pop up in another. If this tends to happen more often than not, don’t blame yourself—there could be design mistakes and flaws at work making it harder to stay on top of a tidy home.
So what are these clutter-causing design flaws? And what’s the best method for fixing them? We asked from interior design experts, and they shared plenty of solutions for your most organized home yet.
Meet the Expert
- Lana Wear is the founder and CEO of HomeWear Designs, a home staging and design company in NYC and the Hamptons.
- Jodi Peterman is the CEO and owner of Elizabeth Erin Designs based in New Jersey.
No Entryway Storage
If the first place you see when entering your home has nowhere to place your things, it’s probably suffering from poor design and severe clutter.
“When there’s no closet or designated space, I tend to see a full-on avalanche of shoes, bags, and mail,” says interior expert and stager Lana Wear. “It’s the first thing you see when you walk in, and it’s not a great first impression.”
Something as simple as a bench with storage or a small set of cubbies can easily take this area of your home from drab to fab. If you’re going more elaborate, place a console table or cabinet with a catch tray for keys and miscellaneous items, and some hooks or a bin for umbrellas.
Pull-Out Corner Cabinets
( Home Design Flaws )
If you’ve ever had a corner cabinet, you know how hard it can be to keep these neat, especially in the kitchen.
“Corner cabinets without pull-outs are clutter magnets,” says interior designer Jodi Peterman. “You can’t reach anything, so things get shoved in and forgotten.”
The best option is to replace or reconfigure the cabinet to accommodate pull-outs or lazy Susans. Otherwise, things get thrown in and never see the light of day.
“If you can’t install a lazy Susan, utilize the space to hold light, once-in-a-while items, and keep day-to-day items front and center elsewhere,” she recommends.
Overstuffed Deep Kitchen Drawers
Sure, these drawers may exist in your kitchen, but that doesn’t stop them from accumulating wares and clutter from every other corner of your home.
“We all know what happens to deep, unstructured drawers—they become junk drawers, where things go to die,” says Wear. “The deeper the drawer, the harder it is to keep it from turning into an archaeological dig site.”
Structure is everything when it comes to deep drawers: Use drawer organizers, like dividers, bins, or tiered organizers, which give you more visibility into what’s hiding in there.
Old-School Kitchen Desks
If your kitchen has multiple furniture pieces and fixtures that aren’t contributing to the overall organization of your home, it becomes prone to clutter. Peterman says some of the worst culprits are old kitchen desks with a hutch cabinet.
“They were meant to be a cute workstation, but in reality, they turn into a bread basket, junk mail zone, and random key drop,” she says.
If you’d like to start fresh, see if you can replace this with a standalone cabinet or hutch with ample shelves and drawers. Glass-front doors and shallower shelves will incentivize you to keep it clean and prevent it from collecting an unmanageable level of clutter.
“If you’re stuck with one, clear out the cabinet, style it with simple decor, and turn the desk into a serving or coffee station,” Peterman says. “Give it purpose or that clutter will keep showing up.”
Cluttered Open Shelving( Home Design Flaws)
Open shelving is beautiful, but it’s often not the most functional option; open areas like this are prone to clutter because it’s easy to set things down and forget about moving them.
“I tell clients: Contain it to pretty pieces, change it up seasonally, and keep the rest behind closed doors,” Peterman says.
Outside of your cooking area, there are other ways to manage open shelving gone awry.
“In kids’ rooms, use baskets or decorative bins to corral toys, because a perfectly styled shelf isn’t happening in there,” says Wear.
A Missing ‘Drop Zone’
Whether you come in through a front door, back door, or mud room, a drop zone is essential. This is an area where it’s okay to leave your shoes, coats, bags, and keys without causing clutter chaos.
“If there’s nowhere to place keys, bags, and shoes, they’re everywhere,” explains Peterman. “Even a simple console table, baskets underneath, and some well-placed hooks can make all the difference in the daily mayhem.”
Ease is key; organizing tools like shoe trays, hampers, and catch trays—places that are perfectly acceptable to leave your stuff without leaving a mess in your wake—should be available near every entryway in your home.