Use the 365 Less Stuff Method to Declutter Your Home
You know the saying: “Time will pass anyway?” A little over two years ago, I was applying to graduate school and telling my friends that I wasn’t sure if I wanted to be in a classroom at age 30. Someone told me, “Time will pass anyway,” meaning that I could either be 32 years old with a master’s degree or 32 years old without a master’s degree, but either way I would be 32 years old. I graduate in three weeks, but this lesson will stay with me forever. This applies to many things: thinking about what you want in the future can be a little demoralizing because there is so much space and potential work between now and then, but time will still pass .
As you look around your home, you can imagine what you want it to look like in a year. And whether you start working toward that goal or not, time will pass, so you can spend the next 365 days making a small effort to get the house you want in order. Here’s how you can work on decluttering your home every day for a year, creating the space you want and habits that last.
Use the 365 Less Stuff Method to Declutter Your Home
The technology is called “365 less things.” This comes from Colleen Madsen , who in 2010 decided that she wanted to make an effective New Year’s resolution and decided to get rid of one item in her house every day. As a result, she turned her many-year experiment into a system of restoring order, which, in the 14 years since it began, has turned into something very important. And of course, you don’t have to start on January 1st. The real trick is to simply get rid of one thing every single day. You can, of course, get rid of a lot more , but the main goal is to simply make gradual progress every day.
How the 365 Less Stuff Method Works
To start decluttering your home every day, it may be helpful to set a recurring reminder in your phone as you begin to develop the habit. The beauty of this method is that although it takes time, time is actually rewarding: eventually, finding and getting rid of one item in your house every day will become second nature. Plus, decluttering one step at a time is much less tedious than other methods of cleaning and organizing your home. Cleaning out an entire room in a day, as some methods require , can be such a daunting task that some people can never bring themselves to get started, but doing one thing a day is a simple habit that can be easily developed and maintained.
However, as a general rule, you should focus on one area or room at a time. While you can totally take a looser approach and just pick up one item each day when you see one that can be thrown away, it’s best to move through the house in waves. You can devote a few days to the closet in the hallway, a few to the kitchen, and so on. Over the course of the year, you’ll likely double down on your efforts in some areas, and that’s okay—something you might not have been able to give up early in the process will be a little easier to give up once you get into the habit. Going space by space will also help you see results faster, which will also help you stay motivated.
Decide what to do with unnecessary things
As with most decluttering methods, you’ll have to make some decisions beyond “keep” or “get rid of.” For the items you are getting rid of, you will need to decide whether they will be thrown away, donated, or sold. It might be more helpful to adapt this method a little by committing to throwing out one item a day and, ideally, finding something to donate or sell a few times a week.
Since this method focuses almost entirely on getting rid of clutter, while other methods also make room for reorganizing and storing things you’re going to keep, you might even consider adding another adaptation that will allow you to find one thing to throw away. another. sell or give away, and one to clean every day. Even though you’ll end up with 365 items lost by the end of the year, at least your house won’t be truly cluttered if there’s still a ton of your stuff lying around where it doesn’t belong.
It’s probably unreasonable to think that you’ll make one trip to the donation center or post office every day, and you might want to accumulate a bunch of items to put away until you have a significant amount accumulated. It can help to have three bins—one for what you store, one for what you donate, and one for what you sell—so even if you don’t throw something away, it’s still out of your reach. places. Empty them every week or so according to what they are holding.
There may be days when you feel more inspired to declutter en masse than others, but to the best of your ability, try to throw out one item every day, even if you don’t feel like it. It may be small, but be sure to do it. Within a year, your home will be transformed and you will have developed a strong habit of getting rid of what no longer serves you.