“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:
jill britz says
Parades! For the love, whoever thought that they were a good idea? We have a one in, one out policy, but the parade/fair/cheap junk from gram seeps under the radar like a slow rising tide. I can’t let them trade out c.r.a.p. (sorry. That’s truly the word.) for their well-though out, well-culled possessions. So, that ebb & flow baffles me.
Also? As I take the time to read this, my toddler has rifled through my cosmetics & one kitchen cupboard. Toddlers? Best declutter mechanism on the planet. I highly recommend keeping one around. :)
Linda says
In the last month I have started my decluttering program thanks to you Joshua.
I have donated more than 12 large garbage bags full of stuff that I ‘needed’.
10 minutes ago I finished my linen closet and thrilled that I am donating 8 large garbage bags of towels, sheets, floor mats, and table cloths to a women’s shelter.
I cleared a spare room that have floor to ceiling shelves that were crammed with books I was ‘going’ to read, craft projects that I was ‘going’ to do, and nic nacs that I ‘needed’.
All of which are going to different charities.
My life has been transformed, I can breathe and I am 56 years old and no longer get a ‘high’ from shopping.
Thank you from the bottom of my heart. My journey is not over, the biggest project is to declutter the attic and garage.
A part of me gets nauseated at the thought of doing it but there is also a sense of excitement. Sweep through many times works for me!
Connie says
Wonderful you are giving to “other” charities. One (can’t name) charges so much for used clothing, etc. the needy can’t afford them. Let’s share our donations around.
Linda@Creekside says
Yes, yes, Joshua! Let’s hear it for working in waves instead of getting completely overwhelmed by trying to make 999 decisions right in a row.
De-cluttering one layer at a time has been working well on this end. And I’m not missing one . single . thing!
Andie says
Great advice. When i started this a few years ago (i feel like we have hit a good place, but maintenance is ongoing), i donated a huge amount, but i had grand ideas about selling a few key things. But i never quite did it. They sat in the house, while i waited to find the ‘time to deal with them.’ One day i finally committed to listing just a few things that were in fact really sellable, and i priced them VERY cheap (or free – a couple large items were free with the stipulation that they pick them up, because that was actually the difficult part for us – moving them). I got rid of almost all the items in one weekend. The one thing that was left on Sunday night, i donated. Good riddance! Get it out.
Jody says
I have isolated all of my “to be stored or to be given away” items in my garage. I am contemplating renting a small truck for a weekend. As sorting through everything in the garage, placing all donations directly into the truck. Set a goal to be finished by the end of the weekend and delivering the truck full of donations on Monday morning. I felt a weight off my shoulders just thinking about it. Truck rental is now scheduled for a week from Friday! Yay for minimalism#freedom#less stress#smelling the roses.
LL in Prescott says
Moving a lot helps. My stuff has to be “bubble wrap worthy”. I, too, have a spouse who is not into getting rid of anything. Sees no point in it. In fact, I had furniture listed on craigslist yesterday and he wouldn’t get rid of it. I deleted the posting. I think he hates change. He moved 13 times in 12 years growing up and has 2 things left from his childhood. He gets hives when I “dig out” our office on a regular basis. Leaves the house for the day. Can’t be part of the process. I’ve actually donated and thrown out when he is gone and he’s never noticed. Lucky couples who are on the same page with this!
Lisa says
My husband isn’t totally on board with this. He was looking for a coffee cup this morning. I told him that if we had less stuff it would be easier to keep track of all our stuff. He said I was being mean. We were both raised by packrats and I’ve been dealing with having to get rid of all my folks’ stuff after they both died, all I see when I look at all our stuff is stuff that my son will have to deal with. Not to mention that I feel like I spend all my at home time manipulating stuff and I’m tired of it. This weekend a pile of stuff will be put on the curb with a free sign and I’ll be taking a load of clothes to a local charity shop. Next week, we’ll be taking leftovers from my parents’ house to the local church for their rummage sale. Last weekend I got rid of a car load of stuff through metal and electronic recycling and then taking a bunch of old water damaged records to the dump. And this will only be scratching the surface. Even my collections my husband doesn’t want me to get rid of because I brought them into his life and now he’s fond of them. Seriously.
Connie Grodensky says
Decluttering is not easy, but it does get easier when you see how clean and welcoming your space becomes. I, too, had to deal with cleaning out a parent’s house with decades of accumulation, and I decided I would not do that to my boys. We are downsizing, and I have been relentless. Knowing that we are moving a three bedroom, three-level house into a three bedroom, two level condo, with no storage, helps me make my decisions wisely. What our kids don’t want, will go to charity. It’s done. Good luck, and remember Peter Walsh’s comments about memories: memories aren’t the item, memories are the memory and they will always be with you. Take a picture of the item and move on!!! Thanks, Peter Walsh!
BRITT says
Proud daughter of a pack rat myself. I am also trying not to let my sons live like I did growing up. Made amazing strides but I’ve sort of leveled off but not out of stuff to donate.
Esther says
I was also raised by packrats, and thus, became one myself. My mother has been paying for storage of boxes that haven’t been opened since my dad retired IN 1974!!!!
I am currently in the middle of an unplanned move, between homes, and have a month to get rid of everything I don’t want/need. So this is my timeline, and my chance to downsize my whole house to a manageable size.
JuliaEM says
I’m not married and live alone so I don’t know if this will be helpful, but maybe, since your husband isn’t on board yet, you can let him keep some things he wants to, (I think he should have some say in the matter too) even some of your collections, but insist that all the extra clutter goes into one room – like an extra bedroom for now. It might give him time to get used to and start enjoying the less cluttered feeling of the rest of the house. At the same time, seeing so much stuff packed into one room – as visible as possible, might make him realize just how much extra stuff there is and how it’s not really needed and keeps you from enjoying life to the fullest. Just a thought. I like the picture-taking idea from the other person who responded as well – especially for collections. I often take a quick picture of something before I put it in a bag for Good Will. So far, not once have I wished I hadn’t given the item away. I feel more like “Yep, that was then. Nice, but I don’t miss it.”
bob says
I started with gusto just less than 2 years ago with downsizing. Really was moving along well for the first 5 months because most of what needed to go was a lot of boxes of old school papers, LOTS of boxes of old financial records and receipts, and lots of collections of just stuff related to my career in electronics and computers. All of it at first was easy since it was out of date and really worthless now so why keep it around to take care of. Then it started getting a bit harder. My wife is not into downsizing, just yet, so that complicates the process. She lets me handle finances so that was easy to downsize for both of us, but other things needed to be separated between hers and mine and only mine was downsized. Many things that are “ours” need special consideration and permission before they can be put away in temp storage and eventually purged as it is realized they weren’t needed after all (#5). Lately I’ve really slowed in my downsizing. Like you state here, it takes a long time to downsize from what has collected over many years. Point #7 really resonates with me now since I’ve put off continuing for a bit, but have had good intentions. I’ll have some time tomorrow to go through the house and root out stuff of mine I know is hiding that really has no reason to be still here. Also, garbage day is coming in a few days and it’s also recycle day so there will be fuller garbage and recycle bins going to the curb then. Time to get back to action. As someone else has said here “…the clutter seems to automagically accumulated again…”
aly d. chase says
Number 6 reminds me of The Minimalists’ “packing party.” Invite a friend over and pack up everything like you are moving. Then unpack things only as you need them. Whatever stays in the boxes after a certain period of time, you obviously don’t use! It’s extreme, and not for everyone, but it gets the min in me all excited. I hope someone invites me to their party. You have a well-rounded list here, Joshua. I look forward to connecting at SimpleREV!
carol evans says
Such a great idea!!
Reney says
I have one hard and fast rule as a minimalist. When something new comes in, something old goes out. It keeps a life balanced.
Jody says
That is my policy with my daughter. She gets it and has learned to want and need less in order to have less in her room to keep neat. Her cleaning Te has been cut in more than half, and her stress level has reduced tremendously.
We are also trying to minimize scheduled activities to create optional activities in lieu of tired activities.
BrownVagabonder says
I have found decluttering to be a life-long process. I decluttered a few months ago, but the clutter seems to automagically accumulated again (of course, I had a hand in it, but despite the fact that I buy very little, stuff just seems to pile into my room). I decluttered my room again this past week, but I can already see that the clutter is slowly but surely invading my room again like a pesky weed. I’m sure in a few months or weeks, I will declutter again and the process will go on until I am on this planet.
It is annoying at times, but if you are consistent and you keep on going at it, the clutter won’t get so bad, that you want to give up on it.