Decluttering an entire home can feel impossible when every room seems to need attention. Start by lowering the stakes. You do not need to finish the house today; you need one clear decision and a place to begin. Cleveland Clinic’s guidance on clutter and mental health also recommends setting realistic expectations instead of trying to solve a whole-home problem in a day.
In fact, decluttering is often a vital step to creating a more relaxed, peaceful, and efficient living space. Not only can excess clutter make you feel more stressed, harder to locate items, and have you tripping over things, clutter can also have a negative impact on your mental health and wellbeing. This can leave you stressed and overwhelmed, in general. A good decluttering has the power to help with mental well-being and improve other areas of your life.
The more organized your home is, the better equipped you are to function in the world. While we know it's something we'll benefit from, it's tricky to know how to tackle such a big job. This job is bigger than it needs to be for some people who have held on to items for years.
What is the goal of decluttering?
Whether your home is full to the ceiling with clutter or just a bit too messy for your liking, The Uncluttered Life®, our professional organizing company, suggests analyzing why a declutter is important or necessary for you. As the KonMari Method suggests, imagine your ideal lifestyle before you start. Think about why you want to declutter and what a clutter-free home means to you. Maybe your cluttered space is holding you back in ways you haven't even realized. Understanding your objective is key to decluttering.
Where to start decluttering your home
The typical challenge is getting started. Decluttering is both an emotional and physically demanding process. The best way to get started is to start small. Then, you can work your way up to more challenging portions of your home. Typically, the best place to start is with practical, non-sentimental items.
The choice, of course, is ultimately yours. But decluttering the items in your home by category can make the task more manageable. This is the philosophy behind Marie Kondo's method which moves you from clothing, to books, paper, komono (miscellaneous items), and then finally to sentimental ones. Decluttering by category also helps you understand how many of each item you have. It lets you know if you need to restock or replace anything.
And if one category is particularly large, take it slowly. Sometimes space or time means you can't work through an entire category at once. It may just need a few rounds of decluttering to make sure you have decluttered everything.
Pay attention to problem areas
Though the goal of decluttering is obviously to address all areas within the home, writing down the most overwhelming areas can help focus your mind and remind you why decluttering is important. This will be different for everyone. For example, some struggle with overflowing closets, while others need to address their garage. Make a list that ensures you don't forget any of these problem spots.
In addition, a big motivator can be when you run out of rooms or space in your home. For example, begin with a space you need to liberate for another purpose. Maybe you want to create a yoga studio in your home. Or maybe you have a guest coming from out of town and you're maxed out on bedrooms. This motivation can sometimes be the push needed to start trimming down and decluttering your home. It allows you to clearly see the positives and need for the decluttered space and how it will change your life in the future.
Set a time limit for the decluttering process
Decluttering an entire home's worth of possessions is a process. Work in chunks of time instead of tackling everything at once. It's often easier to work in two or three-hour slots of time, and to just move forward daily until the process is complete. It may even be helpful to schedule decluttering on your calendar so that you know you'll make time on a regular basis.
One good piece of advice to declutter your home is to completely declutter one room before starting the next. This will help you avoid getting off track. It can be tempting to move from one room to another. This, however, creates more chaos and may distract you. This will only discourage you and increase your feelings of overwhelm and fatigue.
How to handle sentimental items
Decluttering items that are personal in meaning, or sentimental, is one of the reasons why this process is so emotionally challenging and difficult for many. For this reason, it's important to deal with practical, easy to declutter items before starting on sentimental ones. Often, getting rid of sentimental items can make you feel bad or guilty. But, if they're not serving a purpose of bringing you joy, there's no need to hold on to them. Give yourself permission not to feel guilty about getting rid of something that you don't really want.
Once you've selected your sentimental items, take steps to remind yourself of their happy memories. You can create a memory box or try framing or displaying items you want to look at and admire.
And for those items you know it's time to let go, part with them in a way that helps you to process the emotions you might be feeling. You may want to create a personalized ceremony as a way of honoring what the items meant to you. This might include lighting a candle or writing a letter, or just holding the item close to your heart.
Make sure to discard everything
Selling items you have decluttered sounds great, however, selling our possessions isn't always something on which we follow through in a timely manner. Because of this our possessions often end up in bags in the corner of a room for months until they are ultimately donated. It's better to forgo selling and donate the item or items instead. And remember, donating can often be a more feel-good option. Others will benefit from the things you no longer want, and you will benefit from no longer having to think about them.
Hire a professional
Decluttering an entire home can be intense, so having a professional organizer will help keep you accountable and able to reach the other side of decluttering. It will also help you learn to unsubscribe to magazines, say no to "free" items from friends and family, and teach you more about what you truly need before you buy. It may keep you stricter about what enters your home, as well.
Everything in its place
A surefire way to keep your newly decluttered home organized is to allocate every item you own to its "home" within your home. Home can be a cupboard, closet or shelf. Without a home, every item has the potential to add to your clutter. Or you may be more likely to leave items on a counter instead of putting them away. This will help avoid the cycle of cluttering and decluttering.
Once you've finished, reflect on a job well done. Take a moment to relish in how far you've come. You may celebrate your accomplishment with a cup of tea in calmer surroundings or relax for an entire afternoon. You'll see how decluttering has positively impacted your life when you feel more centered and connected.
If clutter keeps rebuilding in the same spots, read about why clutter keeps coming back and look for the routine behind the pile. A small change to where mail, shoes, or bags land can prevent another large cleanup later.
Choose One Manageable Starting Point
Declutter Deck® includes 52 room-by-room prompts that help you choose a task and finish it without planning an entire home project first. Pick one card, work for a reasonable amount of time, and stop when the task is complete.
Once you finish, take a moment to notice what changed. A calmer drawer or a usable chair may seem small, but it is proof that progress does not require an all-day overhaul.
