How to create some order and curate your home stylishly

The new season often heralds the start of the annual spring clean.

Sorting and organising your clutter can be quite a task, but the secret to managing this and creating a functional interior is good storage. Without it, a home fails to work on a practical level.

There are many successful storage solutions that don’t skimp on style while brilliantly taking care of our “stuff”.

Listen to episode four of Somewhere Else: 

The key is to think of a home as your personal museum and yourself as the curator.

That way your possessions and collections have the potential to remain a constant source of delight rather than simply degenerating into a load of suffocating clutter.

The things we gather and keep are a reflection of who we are, and the displays we arrange in our homes a very personal reflection of ourselves.

Achieving a perfect balance of practical and aesthetic considerations requires a two-step process.

The first step, and one that really needs to be periodically repeated (painful though that can be), requires culling and streamlining – jettisoning anything that no longer suits us or our needs.

The second step involves devising storage and display solutions that suit the way we live and the space we have available.

Any collection of personal treasures, large or small, from shells to vintage hat boxes, can become a design feature in your home if displayed with flair.

Think how special seemingly mundane objects appear when placed in a stage-like setting, such as under glass or elevated on a pedestal.

Compartmentalising objects in shadow boxes or on shelves is another useful display tool. Some small treasures can be directly mounted on a wall, giving them an art installation quality. Don’t forget to give some thought to lighting – from above, behind or underneath – to highlight the colours and forms of your collections.

Tips for creative storage

• Include a visual surprise: paint, paper or line the back of shelves or inside trunks, cupboards and drawers.
• Steal wall space from traffic areas, such as hallways or above furniture, for shallow bookshelves.
• In children’s rooms, encourage young bookworms by using wire racks or picture ledges to store books so their covers can face invitingly outwards.
• You can’t beat a bit of repurposing for some creative storage, for example old drawers (turned on their side) or wooden crates piled up and fixed together to make a sturdy and unusual shelf unit; vintage suitcases, which look great in a stack; a cracked but too-nice-to-toss pitcher for make-up brushes or a tiered cakestand for nail polishes; antlers for draping jewellery and scarves.
• Wire baskets are perfect for corralling sports equipment. Some hobby items, such as surfboards and guitars, look great wall-mounted, which also helps to free up floor space.

This article originally appeared on stuff.co.nz