Try “cleaning up at the Speed of Life” When Cleaning Gets Tiring
Some decluttering methods are truly labor-intensive and time-consuming, requiring the use of multiple storage containers or even clearing out entire rooms and gradually rearranging them. All of this can be quite tedious, and if you’re overwhelmed enough, you might not want to do it at all. If this sounds familiar, a simpler, more relaxed technique may be better.
What is “Decluttering at the Speed of Life?”
This decluttering method is the brainchild of Dana K. White, who has been chronicling her deslobification journey on a blog since she started in 2009. She wrote down all her victories and failures, tracking what worked and what didn’t—and eventually published the book Tidying at the Speed of Life: Winning the Never-ending Battle with Stuff .
While she has a lot of great content over her 15 years of working on different ways to decorate your home, her tips can be broken down into five simple steps that don’t require additional purchases, any deep visualizations, or fancy techniques. Her technique is simple and straightforward and relies on small amounts of cleaning that anyone can do, even if the overall task is overwhelming.
Five Steps to Decluttering at the Speed of Life
To follow White’s method, first identify one small area that you want to take care of. Don’t try to treat the entire room or entire house. Keep it manageable and choose a shelf, cabinet, countertop, floor, or other very specific location. Then do these five things:
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Start with trash such as receipts, wrappers, bags, anything broken, expired food or anything you simply don’t need or don’t use at all. Throw it all away.
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Do simple things. This means that everything that you see and has a place somewhere else must be removed and returned to its place. Don’t put everything in a pile and return it all at once; it just clutters up your workspace. Instead, if you find something that needs somewhere else, like a hair tie that could be returned to the bathroom, quickly scan everything that’s there and bring it all back.
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Categorize as “well, a mess” or anything that can be donated. Keep a box handy and throw anything worth donating into it.
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Ask yourself one or two questions to help you get organized. First: “If I needed this item, where would I look for it?” If you can think of an answer instantly, take the item back to its place. If you can’t think of an answer, ask the following question: “If I needed this item, would I think I already had it?” A good example: you’re not much of an alcoholic, but you find a corkscrew in your drawer. If friends were over for dinner and you bought them some pinot, would you realize that you already have a bottle opener at home, or would you buy a cheap one at the liquor store checkout? If you don’t use it often or are looking for it, donate it. Spending a few dollars to repurchase one of these just in case you actually need it in the future will pay off in the space you save by not keeping that thing on hand.
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Finally, tidy it up. This means you can only store things you have space for in the space you’re cleaning. Don’t buy new storage containers or force anything into place. Only the most necessary things remain, otherwise they will have to be stored in a more suitable place or thrown away.
By doing these steps in small spaces, you’ll make gradual progress without becoming overwhelmed. In fact, all the steps are designed to make it simple, even the small details about immediately taking out the trash to create a more visually clutter-free (and motivated) space to work in and putting things back in their place one at a time rather than all at once to avoid creating additional clutter while cleaning.
This method is also great for people who have difficulty making decisions. When you start, you know you won’t be able to keep everything. You are trying to reduce the number of items so that everything fits in the space. Asking two decluttering questions is a helpful way to figure out if something really needs to be kept and to get rid of sentimentality or excuses for throwing something away. If you have trouble staying motivated and making quick decisions when decluttering, this method may be right for you.