11 Best Ways to Declutter Your Home
There are so many techniques and methods to help you declutter your home, but they all have the same goal: reduce clutter and organize everything else. Where they differ is in their methodologies. Some are better suited to larger homes or larger volumes of trash, for example, while others leave wiggle room for things you’re sentimental about and hesitant to part with, and some force you to be a little more objective and decisive. , throwing things away. . Here are some of my favorite decluttering methods.
Ski descent method
The Anita Yokota Ski Method was born out of her experience as a licensed therapist and interior designer and is designed to help you declutter without it being mentally taxing. She describes this method in her book Home Therapy: Interior Design to Boost Happiness, Confidence, and Create Calm , asking you to imagine your cluttered room as a ski slope, zigzagging from area to area instead of working in a straight line. you would do this if you were skiing down a hill.
Instead of looking at the whole thing (a huge mess you’ll never be able to clean up!), start in one corner or section and work from there: declutter, declutter, and organize. Move to the next side or section and do it again. Continue moving around the room, working from side to side. Once you finish each section, you can pause for a break if necessary, and then continue where you left off.
Project 333
Join TikTok-famous Project 333 , taken from Courtney Carver’s Project 333: A Minimalist Fashion Challenge That Proves Less Is Actually Much More , if you’re looking to pare back your wardrobe and create a “capsule wardrobe” of basics , combinable parts over time. Start by choosing only 33 pieces of clothing, jewelry, and accessories (excluding lingerie and sentimental jewelry for everyday wear), then pack everything else for three months. After this time, you’ll have combined your 33 items to create outfits and have a better idea of what you actually need for everyday wear, as well as what you have that could be donated.
For a similar approach, you can adapt the Pareto principle or the 80/20 rule by recognizing that you use about 20% of your things 80% of the time, be it the clothes you wear every day, the kitchen utensils you use to cook. the most common dishes or anything else you do most of the time. Once you start identifying the 80% of things you rarely use, it will be pretty easy to download them.
Method 12-12-12
This is one of the long-term methods on the list, and it encourages you to reconsider your lifestyle a little. Using the 12-12-12 method , each day you discover 12 things to throw away, 12 things to donate, and 12 things to put away. With 12 in each category each day, you’re dealing with a number small enough to work with, but large enough to make an impact on your clutter. Of course, you can increase or decrease this number a little to suit your needs, but the real idea here is that you get into the habit of identifying what you can get rid of and what needs to be organized and put away every day.
Organizational triangle
Another long-term lifestyle change approach is using the organizational triangle , a concept from professional organizer Andrew Mellen , author of The Best Organized Man in America. A Guide to Moving and Organizing Your Life: Break the Clutter Habit and Get Your Life Completely Organized.” Your life is for the good . This three-step approach provides a simple process for keeping your home clean:
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Every thing needs a home
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Keep liking and liking
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Use a “some in, some out” approach.
By getting into the habit of putting everything in its place (and getting rid of things that don’t belong anywhere), storing everything with its corresponding items, and getting rid of one thing every time you bring something new, you can not only stay organized, but also stay organized. organized.
Five Second Rule
The Five Second Rule is a trick you can use when decluttering to quickly make decisions about what stays and what goes. It’s a widely adaptable technique from organizational coach Mel Robbins, who promotes it in her books . Essentially, you have to make important decisions in less than five seconds, counting down five, four, three, two, one so that your brain feels some urgency. At the end of the countdown you will have to make a choice and as you tidy up you will decide whether to keep something and find a place for it, throw it away or donate it. Deep down, you already know which items are useful and you need to keep them. Instead of overthinking the decision, make it quickly and move on so you don’t lose momentum.
If you’re really stuck after five seconds, you can ask yourself two questions to clarify the right choice: According to the Minimalist organizational gurus, you should ask yourself, “Can I replace this item for less than $20?” and “Can I replace it in less than 20 minutes?” If the answer to both questions is yes, this thing can go. The space you save by throwing it away will be worth the $20 you can spend in the unlikely event you ever need it again.
KonMari
Probably the most famous method on the list, Marie Kondo’s KonMari leaves a little room for things that interest you, even if they have fewer practical uses than others. The Kondo Method of Organizing consists of a few simple steps designed to ensure that “you never go back to clutter again.” This is what she calls for :
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Take it upon yourself to get organized.
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Imagine your ideal lifestyle.
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Finish throwing away first.
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Tidy by category, not by location.
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Follow the correct order.
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Ask yourself if it sparks joy and get rid of it if it doesn’t.
Peter Walsh Method
The Walsh method is similar to the Kondo method , but a little stricter. Compare her steps with his and find the differences:
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Empty your space.
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Create a vision for the space and set an intention for it.
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Sort everything you removed into a “vision” pile and an “out the door” pile.
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Get rid of the “pile at the door” by donating everything or throwing everything out.
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Move everything from the “vision” pile back into the space.
Emptying a space completely is a more time-consuming process than simply organizing it as is, so choose this method if you really need a major overhaul.
Getting organized at the speed of life
The Decluttering at the Speed of Life method comes from Dana K. White, who has been chronicling her decluttering journey on her blog since she started doing it in 2009. She wrote down all her victories and failures, trying to find a way to restore order. without getting overwhelmed, 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 . To use her technique, select a small area and follow these five steps:
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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. Put everything you see out of place back in its place.
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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?” Get rid of this thing if the answers are no.
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Finally, tidy it up. Only keep what you have space for and organize it.
Throw a packing party
Another intense option for clearing out a room is the “ packing party ,” also coined by minimalists . To throw a packing party, invite your friends and ask them to help you pack everything in the room into boxes as if you were moving and label those boxes. For three weeks after this, go about your normal life, taking things out of boxes only when and where you need them. After three weeks, get rid of everything you don’t need and commit to throwing away or donating most of it. This method will help you “return” to a cleaner space full of only the things you really need.
365 Less stuff
Colleen Madsen’s unique 365 Less Stuff technique is a slow process. It will take a year, but at the end of the year you will live in a cleaner, more organized space and have developed habits that will help keep it that way. All you do is commit to getting rid of one thing every day for a year. The goal here is not instant progress, but gradual progress from which you can learn. Set a reminder in your phone for a specific time every day and when the alarm goes off, find something to get rid of. You can give it away, sell it, or throw it away, but it needs to be thrown away. The beauty of this method is that although it takes time, it 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, so it’s ideal if you’re feeling overwhelmed by the daunting task.
“Before and After” technique
Finally, if you’re a more visual person, the Before and After approach from Becoming a Minimalist may be for you. Pick a small part of your home, like a countertop or a junk drawer, and take a photo of it. Then clean it. Just focus on the small area you photographed. When you’re done, take a new photo and compare it. Do this any time you have a few minutes to dedicate to a minor cleaning task to keep your photos next to each other in your camera roll. When you see the difference by simply swiping between two photos, you’ll feel motivated to keep going. Without photos, it can be hard to remember what the mess even looked like, leaving you less motivated to clean up or keep it clean.
If you need some extra motivation, here are my favorite decluttering tools .