“Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful.” – William Morris
I have lived most of my life in a cluttered home. Closets were full, drawers wouldn’t shut, things weren’t put away, and unfinished projects could be found in most rooms. That was, unless somebody was coming over. Then, the entire family would pitch in to make sure the house was presentable. Looking back, the problem with clutter wasn’t that we didn’t notice or care. Instead, the problem was we could never get ahead of the mess or ever seem to develop a system that would keep our home clutter-free.
But that is no longer the case. Today, almost every room in our home rests in a state of order – free from the life-robbing presence of physical clutter. Over the past several years, we have found a system that works very well for our family of four. And I am perfectly confident you can do the same… no matter how far away from clutter-free your home may seem.
Consider implementing the four steps found in this Simple Guide to Keeping Your Home Clutter-Free:
1) Believe it is possible. Most of us know it is entirely possible to live in a clutter-free environment. I imagine that is what attracts you to this guide. You are just looking for some extra help to get there.
But some of you are not so sure. Your house has been cluttered for so long, you have given up all hope of ever living any other way. For you, the first step to decluttering your home is to take heart and believe it is entirely possible. Realize that you will never get there if do not resolve in your mind that you can accomplish it. So find some hope and take one small step. Then, take another… and another… and another…
2) Remove the excess. Our homes are full of things. Clutter begins to appear most prominently when we own too much stuff. Conversely, the fewer items we own, the easier it is to keep clutter at a minimum. The first (and most important) step in keeping your home clutter-free is to remove the excessive possessions that are stealing our lives, time, and energy.
In your process of removing the excess, it can be helpful to find a working definition of clutter to aid you in this step. Early in our journey, we began to define clutter as a) too much stuff in too small a space; b) anything that we no longer used or loved; or c) anything that led to a feeling of disorganization. With that as our guiding filter, we slowly moved from room to room, removing everything that fit the definition above.
In some cases, this step is easy:
- Junk drawers full of unneeded items (rubber bands, old batteries, or old keys).
- Closets full of clothes you no longer wear.
- Decorations that are no longer meaningful and/or outdated.
In other cases, this step will take more time and intentionality:
- Large projects such as the garage, basement, or attic.
- Sentimental items that have collected over the years.
- Books.
- Other family members’ clutter that have begun invading common spaces.
The most important key in completing this step is to start with the small and easy projects first. Begin there. As you do, you’ll build up small victories. Then, after the small victories have been won, you’ll find extra motivation to begin tackling the harder cases of clutter in your minimalist home.
If you still do not feel fully capable on removing the excess possessions from your home, find encouragement in an intermediate step. For example, put the items you can’t quite part with in a cardboard box out of sight with a date on it. Getting rid of unnecessary possessions is essential, but it doesn’t have to be a race.
3) Implement habits to manage your clutter. For most of my life, I thought the key to maintaining clutter was found here. Just organize, clean, and organize again. But I was wrong. Because I had not taken the time to remove the excess in full (or in part), I could never get ahead of the clutter in my home. There were just too many things in too small a space – no matter what system we tried to implement. As a result, healthy clutter-clearing habits never had opportunity to emerge. So do not skip the removal step, it is absolutely important. And the more energy you put in removing the excess, the easier it will be to find and develop habits to better manage the things you keep.
Once you have cleared the excess, you will be able to better discover which habits keep your living space free of clutter. And once you experience the freedom and stress-free life of living clutter-free, you will find these habits easier to embrace.
Some of these habits will recur daily:
- Cleaning the kitchen after each meal.
- Placing daily-use items (clothes, books, toys) back in their designated homes.
- Fully-completing projects around the house.
- Developing an evening routine.
Some of these habits will center on specific locations that serve as clutter collection sites in your home. For us, our kitchen counter typically collects items (mail, schoolwork) during the day, our living room sees a highly-volume of traffic each day, and one of the bedrooms in our home finds itself a bit messier than the others. Each of these specific locations requires extra effort and energy than the others.
Some of these habits will center of seasonal needs:
- The changing of the seasons.
- The need to remove excessive possessions after holidays and/or birthdays.
- Significant life changes (birth of a child, new employment) will also require refocusing and adjustment.
Over the years, we have found clutter attracts clutter. Once it begins to collect, it requires intentional action to clear it away. Develop for your family healthy habits today to manage the daily use of the things in your home. Once identified, you’ll find them much easier to implement.
4) Slow the accumulation of possessions. To live is to consume. It cannot be avoided – especially in our society and culture. But if the influx of possessions into our homes can be slowed, clutter can be managed efficiently.
To slow the accumulation of things in our homes, we need to change our mindset and begin evaluating our purchases differently. Realize that your purchases cost far more than the price on the sticker. Each one will also require time, energy, and effort once they enter your home. Before making a purchase, begin asking yourself these questions:
- Is this item really needed?
- Do I have a place to store this when I get it home?
- How much extra work will this possession add to my life?
- Am I buying it for the right reasons?
This thought-process isn’t designed to keep you from making purchases ever again – at least, it’s not supposed to. Again, to live is to consume. But these questions are designed to bring intentionality into your life. They raise in your mind the awareness that some purchases take more from our life than they offer. They help you know the difference. And slow the accumulation of clutter-causing items into your home and life.
Again, it is completely and entirely possible to live in a clutter-free home. With this simple guide, you’ll be well on your way. From somebody who has lived both, I can quickly attest that once you begin to enjoy the physical and mental freedom that accompanies clutter-free living, you’ll make extra effort to ensure your home does not slip back into the home it used to be.
If you’d like to know more about the most important principles we learned during our journey into living with less, you’ll find great value in our book, Simplify: 7 Guiding Principles to Help Anyone Declutter Their Home and Life.
I’ve got ADHD and even trying to read the tips gives me anxiety. I’ve literally tried everything and read everything and I’ve never got anywhere. If you’re neurotypical you can use the tips but none of them work if you’re neurodiverse.
Flylady dot net works great for ADHD and creative minds. Must be patient and follow the steps. Once I did that Becoming Minimalist turbo charged me.
Start with the intention, then follow through with a plan.
I’m neurodiverse, and it’s been a long haul for me (think 15+ years) of working on my preconceptions before any decluttering/minimalist changes have started to stick. We are all coming to this from different places and we each have to take that into account.
Personally, all-or-nothing thinking and perfectionism hold me back. Just changing how I talk about decluttering can help me – I’m not getting rid of things, I’m helping them find a home where they are more useful or appreciated, and giving myself the cleaner and tidier home I deserve. (Even there, I revised it – I typed “clean and tidy home” and then changed my mind to something that’s more accurate!) And don’t forget that tiny steps still take you where you want to be – getting rid of one broken or worn out thing is still decluttering!
For my anxiety, it helps me if I break down the big, scary thing into teeny tiny bits and look at each of them. I was terrified of going to the doctor. But the first step was going to an office building – I’ve been in there before to get bubble tea, so that part is ok. Then I have to walk into the office, but that’s just opening a door – I can do that. Etc … For decluttering, I can’t possibly “clean up my whole house”, but I can put all my socks on the bed, match them up, and toss any with holes or that are uncomfortable to wear. Huzzah, I decluttered something! :)
Working on myself before working on my stuff has been really helpful. Keep inspiring yourself with articles like this in the meantime, and take tiny steps when you can. All the best – you CAN do this! :)
Clutterbug has awesome tips and the creator, Cass, has ADHD herself. She shares a ton of free resources and has lots of short, helpful videos on Facebook.
Cass @ clutterbug will give you a really good belly laugh as well, she is a hoot!
After dealing with my parents possessions and my wife’s (all deceased) I came to realize what a struggle it was to get rid of their things. There’s a certain amount of guilt associated with this… You don’t want to give away, throw away, etc… things that they valued but I came to realize that they were just that… Their things… not mine. After dealing with my wife’s things it spurred me onto simplify my own life… I didn’t want my children to have to deal with the same thing I had had to. It’s a better life now with less.
I agree Tim. I’m dealing with my mom’s stuff but because she had so much, nothing is special. I continually go thru my own items to avoid issues down the road for my daughter. And keeping this in mind for my mom’s things is helping to minimize what I keep. I don’t want my daughter to have to go thru my possessions and her grandmother’s 30 years from now.
I was watching a sci-fi show on TV. In it was an alien who was observing humans and stated, “Humans are so peculiar. They spend their lives acquiring more and more possessions. When they die, the next-of-kin have to dispose of it all. Then the kin start the whole process over again for themselves and it continues on and on.”
So True ! When my mom passed away, was the first time it hit me, you CAN’T take it with you!
Thanks Joshua! Liberating tips! Helpful pointers! Worth doing!
God bless you more and more!
I resonate with the advice of finishing projects! I paint landscapes, and my workspace is the dining table. In fact, everyone in my home, all 10 of us, works and eats at the dining room table!!! The kids do their schoolwork there. Everything piles in boxes around the perimeter of the room! I leave it out as a reminder to finish. Then, when someone comes over, I realize this is not acceptable. ??
Been reading articles all over the internet in regards to minimizing the clutter in my office & home. Thank you for taking the time to creating such a detailed approach to what ails me! I learned a lot here on this stop. Keep writing…PLEASE!
My journey started because we are approaching retirement and many future changes. We were never blessed with our own children and the realization that “someone” will eventually have to help us through this journey or do it for us has made me determined to get to a better place now. Our friends have always teased about how empty our garage is or how neat we keep our home but the truth is that there are so many things I just don’t know how to get rid of. They are no longer useful except for memories and our life history together. We have always enjoyed our lifestyle until I had severe health issues 2 years ago and stuff started to accumulate…. papers, magazines, medical supplies you just weren’t certain what you should keep. Thankfully, I am feeling better and ready to get our life in even better order and simplicity! I am blessed to have a husband who agrees on this subject but it is still a challenge that is going to take several attacks to get to better levels of “just right”. I had to laugh the other day when we sorted our fishing tackle to our favorite minimum choice of stuff we use every trip. A young man in our neighborhood loved going through the extras! Still smiling, tired on sorting days but happier than ever to be preparing for our new future! We are reaping benefits already, enjoying evening sunsets even more, eating better and enjoying cooking in a pared down kitchen and sleeping better in a basic clutter free bedroom. Basement and garage are still a work in progress but looking good! There is always one more thing that can be tossed or donated! I love this site…. it gives me encouragement every single day!
My husband and I moved across the country and into a large (2,800 sq ft) home that needed renovating. I’d wanted a smaller home than that, but we purchased this one for reasons other than its size. While most of the home was being done, we spent the first 1.5 years living in a tiny loft bedroom on the third floor! To be fair, the renovation shouldn’t have taken that long, so it’s not like we knew that would happen. We had a tiny bathroom, a hot plate, a mattress on the floor, and a clothes horse. That was when I realized that was all the space we really needed. If we’d intended to live up there permanently, I would have set it up properly and it would have been 100% comfortable. Now we have a giant house and it’s making me crazy all the extra space we have!
I am a child of a hoarder. My mom was a collector of everything!
When it came time for company to come for a visit all the “stuff” that was on the first floor went to the second floor or the basement. I was scared as a kid to go down in the basement. There was so much stuff (hip high) that I it was going to eat me, lol.
I’m an adult now and I always said I wouldn’t live like that. I unfortunately have a sliver of my mother’s hoarding in my veins.
My husband and I need serious help/advice.
Hi Christ, I am a child of a hoarder too. I well remember the relocation of massive amounts of junk when company (rarely) came and the feelings of shame over this issue. It is so very difficult to change the habits and deal with the emotional fallout of being raised that way, isn’t it? As much as you hate it, it’s still there. One very useful resource is Flylady (flylady.net). She ‘gets’ the difficulty and her very practical methods really work. Her methods are grounded in breaking the depression that put her in hospital. She also has a book that I highly recommend, called Sink Reflections by Marla Cilley. Flylady is the only resource I’ve found that has truly made a difference in this area for me. As nice and useful as these motivational words can be, those with our background can need something a little more :) All the best!
It sounds like you’re promoting another blog here 😎 I tried that one a few years ago and while the sink tip stuck, it’s not the same philosophy as this blog.
Hello! I too am the child of a hoarder and i recently moved back home to find that it has gotten noticeably worse and that I have started hoarding clutter and junk as well. It’s a terrible feeling to think we may go down the path of our parents but let that fear motivate you. Do you have a social group? Host weekly get togethers which will hold you accountable for keeping a clean house. Allow your basement to be used for book clubs or maybe a scrap booking club or something with your friends. Also for small things designate a junk box that you can discard at the end of each week. I put junk mail and other random receipts and papers i accumulate in that box and trash it every Monday.
Lastly try yardsales. As you find things you may feel are of value sell them!
Hello Tiffany,
I love the advice you shared. There are blessings when we share. I am taking it all in. Starting my journey. I believe clearing space and maintaining organization and order leads to peace and tranquility.
Your response is appreciated but if I may, stay away from yard sales and “junking” (there is a good reason for calling it that.) Unless you are highly motivated anf have a designated place to sell something, other than your home. It will most likely remain wherever you put it when you bring it home. And your clutter will be the beginning of the perfect storm.
Great post! I have been trying to declutter since my kids are now adults and one has moved out. I decided it was overwhelming to look at the entire house. So I take one room at a time. I started with my bedroom. I do a few things each night, and after a couple weeks, I have a clean, serene bedroom. Purged the closet and drawers, shoes, vanity. I even got a smaller bed (small room – don’t need a king). Next will be the hall closet. Then the 2nd bedroom. Then the living room, etc.
I really do feel accomplished and good looking at my bedroom now. I know that feeling will continue to grow as I get thru each room.