New Decluttering Products

Start Small:

If you're short on time with many piles or areas to cover in your home, begin with one room and only focus on that room. If that still seems like too much, pick a box or a drawer to sort through, creating piles of what to keep, donate, and recycle/throw away. Or, grab a bin and pick a room. Then, simply put things to donate in that bin. When it's full, you've achieved your goal. Next, schedule the other decluttering tasks on your list so that you can chip away at decluttering and organizing little by little. This will help you set small yet achievable goals. We often dive in head-first and then get so exhausted by a full day of decluttering, cleaning, and organizing, that we burn out. The rest is left for "some day" and someday never comes.

Create a New Routine:

Our homes often get cluttered when we don't have a system in place to deal with it on a regular basis. Create a new routine to build decluttering into your daily or weekly life. For example, pick a weekday or weeknight and a time that you can stick to where you spend 15 minutes dealing with stacks of mail, your kids' toys, projects, etc. Maybe Wednesday nights at 8:00 PM seem doable. If so, simply setting a timer and work on that one task for 15 minutes every week. If it's something you dread but know you should do, reward yourself after you accomplish that task by watching a show, calling a friend, or doing something you love to do. Pretty soon you'll be so used to doing that every week. It will seem as natural as brushing your teeth before bed. If you have a child or a partner, bonus points for getting them involved in decluttering and organizing.

Be Honest About Actual Usage:

Sometimes the clutter piles up because we don't want to face having to throw away, recycle, or donate anything. It's easier if it's all "somewhere around the house" – that is, of course, until the day you get overwhelmed by all the clutter. When you're finally ready to dig in and get organized, it's important to be honest with yourself. How long has it been since you used that item? Are you really going to use it again in the next six months? Have you used in the last six months or year? Is it really worth keeping if it's going to collect dust? These are important questions to ask when it comes to clothes. Some reports suggest we only wear about 20-25% of the clothing we own. If that's true for you, consider what you could donate to declutter your closet, providing clothes that someone else could actually use. Many of us have mementos that we treasure. We're not saying you should throw everything out, but most likely you have some items that are at the point where they're just taking up space.

Treat Storage Space Like Functional Displays:

Whether you have tons of shelves, cabinets, and drawers in your home or very few, we suggest treating every storage space like a display – a high functioning display. We're not saying it needs to look pretty, but it should be well organized. The big goal may seem like it is to properly organize your pantry, garage shelves, or kitchen cabinets. But the ultimate goal is to keep that storage space organized. If you think of it like a functional display that you want to look good, you'll care more about whether you shove things in at random or take that extra minute to put things in the right place. Labels, dividers, and color coding can also help keep things tidy. If that's over the top for you or not realistic given the way your family members function, simply pick one storage space that you want to keep as organized as possible for the next few weeks. The weeks will hopefully turn into months, thus creating a new habit or routine.

Products to Help You Declutter

Here are some ideas for products that will help you declutter your home and get more organized:

• Storage cubes or cubbies to organize toys, craft projects, and tools
• Garage shelving to maximize vertical space
• Multi-functional furniture pieces with built-in storage. We call this Decorganizing®
• Closet organizers
• Wall hooks and racks so items stay off of counters, desks, and tables
• Tiered organizers for better visibility
• Tech cord and cable organizers to tidy up your electronics
• Clear storage solutions to make things easy to find. You can use these in your bathrooms, under sinks, and for make-up drawers.

Declutter Deck® and Hack Decks™

We are professional organizers who specialize in decluttering and organizing homes. We have organized hundreds of homes, closets, pantries and laundry rooms, just to name a few spaces. For this reason, we are considered declutter experts. In fact, we are Certified Master Organizers in the KonMari Method® (Marie Kondo).

We are also the developer of Declutter Deck®, which is a quick and easy card game that helps you declutter and organize your home in small, bite-sized chunks of time. Our 52 organizing prompts break down the home organizing process into small and manageable parts. When pulling a card, Declutter Deck® guides you through the main areas of your home that need organization. This includes many areas of the home where organization is often forgotten. Declutter Deck® shows you ways to declutter your home, including closets, pantries, laundry rooms, mud rooms, kitchens, and living spaces. It even gets you outside to declutter your car.