“Get rid of the trash to make room for the treasures. Let the things that are important take center stage.” —Peter Walsh
Decluttering can be tough work.
We spend years and years collecting and accumulating more and more things. We should not be surprised then, if it takes considerable time to make decisions about what to keep and what to remove.
But it’s always worth the effort. Possessions weigh us down and add extra burden to our lives. Owning less results in more freedom.
If you are feeling overwhelmed about where to start or experiencing frustration with your progress, consider some of the ideas on this list to jumpstart your decluttering process.
7 Helpful Tips to Speed Up the Decluttering Process
1. Start easy with a clean sweep. Rather than attempting to declutter your home room-by-room, try going in “waves” instead. You will find this method to be far more impactful—especially at the beginning. Grab a box and walk around your home room-by-room. Fill your box with anything you find that you no longer need. No hard decisions, just noticeable impact. Once completed, try a second wave. But be advised, it gets a little more difficult each time through.
2. Find motivation with built-in deadlines. When we first began the process of minimizing our possessions, I did a lot of the work in the early morning. My kids usually got out of bed at 7am, so I would begin at 6am. Because I wanted to be there when they got up, I knew I had 1 short hour to get as much done as I could. This helped me find extra motivation to accomplish as much as I could during that hour. I also found some extra motivation the night before garbage pick-up.
3. Donate more. If you don’t need the money, you can declutter your home much quicker by deciding just to donate everything. The extra income from reselling your possessions can be nice, especially if you need the money. But selling items can really slow down the process and add extra burden to the journey. If quick impact is more important to you, dropping a few boxes off at Goodwill is far more efficient.
4. Include some help. Contrary to what you may think, you don’t need to do all the work yourself. In fact, if you have a family, you’ve got extra help built right in. You might not be able to convince them to declutter an entire room with you all-day on Saturday, but you can surely find some creative opportunities for them to help. For example, ask everyone in your family to find four things from their room that can be donated. Try again in a few days. The work adds up quickly with 3+ people involved.
5. Find freedom in temporary storage. I know a lot of people get hung up on hard-to-remove items. These vary from person-to-person, but common examples include sentimental items, books, kitchen gadgets, or toys. To keep from getting slowed down by these things, try an intermediate step of packing a box, labeling it with a date, and storing it out of sight. It will be easier emotionally. Six months later, revisit the box. You may be surprised how much easier it is to part with these items after not seeing them for six months.
6. Tell a friend and invite them over. Telling others about your decision to declutter/minimize is an important step. In our book, Simplify, we even included it as one of the most helpful principles in the simplifying process. Sharing your desire brings accountability and forces you to articulate why you made the decision. To add extra urgency to your decluttering progress, invite your friend over for dinner or coffee. Give yourself a few days to prepare the house before their arrival. Trust me… you’ll find motivation real quick.
7. Don’t confuse intent with action. With all things in life, it is important to not confuse a desire to change with actual change. Thinking about decluttering or talking about decluttering won’t result in any positive benefits. These benefits can only be experienced when the excess clutter has been removed. Remind yourself today that talking about change is not the same as implementing change. And take one small step in the right direction because of it.
Decluttering can be tough work. But it’s always worth the effort. If you have been struggling to find momentum, I hope these ideas will encourage you to find some today.
Additional Resources:
Nina says
Great tips! I’m stalled too in my de-owning process after getting rid of the most obvious stuff a while ago. I agree that donation is better than trying to sell the extra stuff but with some name brand cloths, I still have the hope of consign them:-) going to ask my kids to give me 5 items to donate from their room tonight and I will do a sweep with a box too!
Nicole says
I have a hang up with paper though I have gotten better at it. I still struggle with what is important other than the obvious, how long should I save it and a better way of electronic storage. Can you give us some tips on that. I have several stacks that keep staring at me.
bob says
When I started with downsizing I also had a big issue with financial papers and records dating back to when I opened my very first bank account… 52 years ago!!! I actually had maybe 18 bankers boxes full of financial records I was afraid to throw out simply because I didn’t know what I really needed to keep.
Then I came across this document:
http://www.bankrate.com/finance/personal-finance/how-long-to-keep-financial-records.aspx
I have used the BankRate website for a lot of research on what is what for loans and bank accounts and other financial information. A very good resource. This is a short version of what the IRS documents take dozens of pages to state. I do recommend at least looking at what the IRS web site has to say about how long to keep records. I printed this page and keep it handy to refer to while purging my records. And some records lend themselves to electronic storage on my laptop (easy to store, easy to purge). Now I take time every year (usually after taxes are done) to store last years’ documents and purge previous records per this information. I now only keep 3 boxes, just over half full with records. 2 are for things I need to keep around temporarily, and the 3rd is for documents that I need long term. Some of these latter documents are in a fire safe. I consider this a good start.
Seth says
This is great. I’m especially partial to #7 “Don’t confuse intent with action.” The ratio of those things I intend to do compared with those things I actually do is probably 100 to 1. I’ll be sure to reference your list time and again when I’m looking to translate desire into action. Many thanks!
Molly says
The goal setting definitely helps. Our family set a goal of “40 bags in 40 days” during Lent this year. To give ourselves a little breathing room when we needed it, we did not define the size of the bag. Some days it was a full sized garbage bag of old coats that was donated. Other days it was a lunch bag of useless items from the junk drawer that went right to the trash. Committing to the process for 40 days made a difference for us.
Ashley says
Great idea! We are always looking for different challenges for Lent! We are definitely going to use this next season!
Sarah says
I love this idea of taking action in Lent. Especially as there is the renewal of the baptismal promises at Easter: rejecting empty show
NanaBanana says
I am a trying to donate 1 apple box a week and believe me I have enough to do that for at least 6 months.
Fiona Cee says
Yep, I’ve given up the notion of making any money on my junk.
Yanic A. says
I’m happy to say most of your list is in action right now in our home… We had grande ideas of Craig-listing everything until we realized that we didn’t have time for the haggle, bargaining, emails and calls. Not for 5$! We sold a few huge items that could get us several hundreds, but we priced them to sell. Go on Craig list, look at people the same item as you and price it 30% cheaper. We sold a 48 gallon aquarium kit in 6 hours when others had them listed for weeks because we priced ours 100$ cheaper and said we would deliver inside the city for the price of gas. You have to ask yourself : Am I making money or getting rid of? That is key!
Bettina Woodson says
Thank you Yanic! I plan to do this today. Bettina
Ari says
I’ve stalled bit because my husband is being posted interstate next year, so we’ll have two households for a few years. Stuff that was unnecessary suddenly looks useful.
On the other hand, we can go through the shed – I can’t identify the use of half the tools in there, but there’s barely squeezing past room where there was walking space 6 months ago, and he won;t be around to use them much, so that needs doing before he goes. It’s a nice solid deadline.
Keos in Wonderland says
These are some great tips! I especially like the first one, since I often get discouraged by the amount of work that needs to be done in each room in our house. Most of the time I feel inspired, I don’t know where to start, so I don’t start at all because all spaces seem equally important. But this way, I can make a difference in each room without totally neglecting the others. Thank you!
Fiona Cee says
Yep, I don’t know where to start. Have 3 rooms that need desperate action.
Catherine says
I needed this! I have stalled in our purging. I am half way through our home office and I can’t wait to get up tomorrow and get going again! Thanks.
Laura says
I’ve piled everything that doesn’t have a home on our dining room table. Tomorrow I will take the next step of sorting and purging. Yay!