A Designer Shared One Simple Tip on How to Make Your Sideboard Look Less Cluttered

If you’ve accumulated lots of ornaments over the years, it can be difficult to find the perfect spot to display them all without feeling like you’re all cluttered up. While the first step is to whittle things down and only keep out the pieces that you really, really love, it doesn’t mean that you have to say goodbye to almost everything.

One designer has shared a quick and simple hack to keep your countertops and sideboards looking less like a cluttered disaster zone and more like a streamlined space that you can be proud of.

Julia Sousa of Avant Garde often shares design tips and styling solutions with her 1.6 million TikTok followers. In a recent video, she teaches viewers how they can instantly clean up their sideboards without having to remove anything.

Showing that it’s all about distribution, Sousa explains that the way in which you display your decor makes all of the difference.

“One of the biggest mistakes people make when decorating is spreading out decor which ends up looking cluttered,” she says. “Instead, you want to organize your objects into groups of twos or threes where all objects within each group vary in height,”

In the before shot, the items look a little chaotic, but simply moving them around and adding a variance in height frees up space and keeps things looking a lot tidier.

The clip, which has received over 70 thousand likes, received hundreds of comments from impressed viewers who have been trying out Sousa’s tip for themselves.

“I’ve used your tip about grouping in twos and threes and triangulation, and it’s made a big difference in how my decor looks in the space!” one person wrote.

“I’ve used your tip about grouping in twos and threes and triangulation, and it’s made a big difference in how my decor looks in the space!” said another.

A third commented: “I love these videos because 9 times out of 10 my decor looks off and I don’t know how to fix it. So I’m learning a lot here.”

Sousa’s other videos include tips on how to make your home look “more expensive” and eye-catching DIYs. With so many helpful clips, we don’t blame you if you find yourself scrolling for a while!