Last updated:
“People rarely succeed unless they have fun in what they are doing.” —Dale Carnegie
The idea of living a simple life with less stuff sounds attractive to many.
But often, they begin to feel overwhelmed,
Learning how to declutter your home and (and as a result, decluttering your life) doesn’t need to be as painful as some make it out to be. And the benefits are numerous.
The Benefits of Decluttering Your Life
There are many benefits to owning fewer possessions. Even then, it’s tough to move into action. That is… until the many benefits of getting rid of clutter reveal themselves:
Less to clean. Cleaning is already enough of a chore, but having to clean around things you have zero emotional attachment to (or worse, actively dislike) makes cleaning the house much more stressful.
Less to organize. Finding things suddenly become easier. Things don’t just “disappear” anymore. You can actually move around your home and enjoy the space, instead of moving around things that are in the way.
Less stress. Looking around at the clutter is a nausea-inducing sight once your home becomes cluttered enough. Wouldn’t it be nice to be able to look around and see a home you love?
Less debt. Spending less time shopping for material possessions and adding to the clutter means your wallet and bank accounts remain fuller, your credit cards’ statements are lower, and your home doesn’t get filled with costly things you don’t need.
More financial freedom. Most American households live paycheck to paycheck (59% according to a recent survey done by Charles Schwab) Nearly half of those surveyed carry credit card debt. Decluttering, paired with minimalism, will help you build up savings to keep you protected in case of unexpected emergencies.
More energy for your greatest passions. With less debt, more financial freedom, and
Ok, so now you know the benefits of decluttering your life, but you may be getting tripped up by the very next question… where in the world do you begin?
10 Creative Decluttering Tips
If you’re struggling and need guidance on how to declutter, you’ll need to get creative with your plans. Here are several interesting decluttering tips to get you started on decluttering your home:
- Start with 5 minutes at a time. If you’re new to decluttering, you can slowly build momentum with just five minutes a day.
- Give one item away each day. This would remove 365 items every single year from your home. If you increased this to 2 per day, you would have given away 730 items you no longer needed. Increase this number once it gets too easy.
- Fill an entire trash bag. Get a trash bag and fill it as fast as you can with things you can donate at Goodwill.
- Donate clothes you never wear. To identify them, simply hang all your clothes with hangers in the reverse direction. After wearing an item, face the hanger in the correct direction. Discard the clothes you never touched after a few months.
- Create a decluttering checklist. It’s a lot easier to declutter when you have a visual representation of where you need to get started. You can use our decluttering checklist.
- Take the 12-12-12 challenge. Locate 12 items to throw away, 12 to donate, and 12 to be returned to their proper home.
- View your home as a first-time visitor. It’s easy to “forget” what your home looks like to a new visitor. Enter your home as if you’re visiting the home of a friend. Write down your first impression on how clean and organized the home is and make changes.
- Take before and after photos of a small area. Choose one part of your home, like your kitchen counter, and take a photo of a small area. Quickly clean off the items in the photo and take an after photo. Once you see how your home could look, it becomes easier to start decluttering more of your home.
- Get help from a friend. Have a friend or family member go through your home and suggest a handful of big items to throw away or give to someone else. If you defend the item and want to keep it, your friend has to agree with your reason. If they don’t agree, it’s time to get rid of it.
- Use the Four-Box Method. Get four boxes and label them: trash, give away, keep, or re-locate. Enter any room in your home and place each item into one of the following boxes. Don’t skip a single item, no matter how insignificant you may think it is. This may take days, weeks, or months, but it will help you see how many items you really own and you’ll know exactly what to do with each item.
No matter which decluttering tip you choose to get started – whether it be one of these ten or one of countless others – the goal is to take your first step in decluttering your life with excitement behind it.
There is a beautiful world of freedom and fresh breath hiding behind that clutter. Deciding how to declutter your home is up to you.
For more decluttering tips, watch this short video we put together. In it, I provide 10 quick decluttering projects, each completable in just 5 minutes or less:
***
General FAQ About Decluttering Your Home:
How do I create a decluttering checklist?
Creating a checklist is one of the easiest ways to keep track of what can and still needs to be reduced from your home. We’ve put together a Declutter Your Home Checklist you can use to instantly make a noticeable difference.
Just pick any 5-10 items from the list to start and you will be amazed with how quickly momentum builds up.
Do I need a professional organizer to help me get rid of clutter?
Absolutely not. Getting rid of the clutter in your home can be done by yourself. It can even be a fun family activity when using the decluttering tips found in this article.
How can I declutter quickly? Can it be done in a day?
Removing clutter from our homes and our lives doesn’t need to be rushed or done in a single day. It’s something that can be done over time and may even need to be done on a semi-regular basis. As long as you start the process today, you’re further along than you were yesterday.
Will owning less make my home look empty or boring?
Simple doesn’t mean sparse or boring. The opposite is true. With fewer mess and distractions, your home can become more peaceful. You can view your home as a space for rest and comfort, instead of a source of stress.
What’s the difference between declutter and unclutter?
They’re both interchangeable, though I prefer using “declutter.” The “de-” hints at being complete and permanent. I like to think of decluttering as something that solves the problem forever.
When should I declutter?
This is a personal question. When you find yourself overwhelmed by your possessions and tied down, it usually means you’re ready to start making a change. Note that this feeling is just a broad litmus test. The feeling of overwhelm can be different for everyone.
a gene says
I have started
Jonathan Blundell says
I don’t recall if it was you or Leo or someone else, but along the way someone made the recommendation to figure out the cost per square foot in your house.
Figure out how much you pay per month in mortgage, insurance, taxes (even utilities) and then divide that by the square footage in your home.
From there it may be easier to make a value proposition on whether to keep something.
If I figure out each square foot in my home costs $1.50 per month, I can start thinking, is it really worth $1.50 per month for me to store all these DVDs?
t-shirt shop laguna beach says
Amazing things here. I’m very happy to see your post.
Thanks so much and I’m taking a look forward to contact you.
Will you kindly drop me a mail?
ijaz man says
love your post.. keep it up
Cyndi says
This is one of the best pages I’ve come across on this subject … I’ve been doing my research, and this is the one that I’ll be referring to again and again to simplify and declutter my home and life. Thank you!!
Daisy says
Thank you so much for the de-cluttering tips. I am a fairly organized person but am also a person who likes to hold onto more than I really need.
priyanka says
its really been very helpful post
priyanka says
its been really helpful post.
Catherine says
Thank you so much for your wonderful ideas. My husband and I lost our Daughter, Lakisha at 31 to cancer in November 2012. Since that time, I have been consistently “dejunking” as I called it. Lakisha was our only child and since losing her, I learned more than anything that the “most important things in life aren’t things”. I spend time looking at each room in my house and ask myself these questions. As a mother, so much of what I had, I expected to give to my daughter one day. Now all of those things are just “stuff” that weighs me down constantly. I cannot even count how many car loads I taken to Goodwill.
I am torn about one thing in particular, and that is photos. right now, I have one wall in my family room that is a collage of photos of our small family. I also have numerous pictures of our daughter at various ages throughout the house, on tables, shelves and walls. I don’t know if creating more wall photo collages in certain areas by using the photos we have on tables and shelves is the way to go. I also have about 10 photo boxes that I am slowly working on getting into photo albums, but as you can imagine, this can be a heart wrenching task. So I accept that that this particular task may take longer that I imagined.
I also used to scrapbook, but since her death, I cannot bring myself to sit and do this and now I am stuck with hundreds of dollars in scrapbooking supplies, etc…
Any thoughts, suggestions would be appreciated.
Mandy says
Maybe a digital photo album. I keep a room of only happy current memories and another with loved ones that have passed on. I am sorry for your loss. I have one 8yo daughter xx
Ivy Robinson says
Your tips are great ! Really simple and well organized! I’ll use it ! Thank you for sharing!