How to Declutter Your Home

Looking for tips on how to declutter your home? You’ve come to the right place.

Anyone who has known me for any length of time knows that I’m a little bit obsessed with decluttering my home. I don’t like mess, I don’t like chaos, and I’m not particularly sentimental. My husband often jokes that if he leave something unattended for too long, I’m likely to get rid of it.

It’s who I am as a person. I’m not even sorry about it.

In my obsession with keeping things from getting too cluttered, I’ve become the master at decluttering. I’ve read The Life Changing Magic of Tidying up multiple times. I’ve read the follow up book. Heck, I’ve written blog posts, issued challenges, and even written an eBook on the whole thing.

But I’m getting ahead of myself.

Why Should I Declutter?

Did you know that studies have shown that clutter in our homes actually can increase our stress levels? I don’t know about you, but when my home feels cluttered, my stress and anxiety levels are way higher. I feel overwhelmed by small things, and I’m a much crankier mom and wife. Keeping my home clutter-free (or, you know, closer to it), makes a huge difference for my mental health!

When you have extra clutter in your home, it’s hard to find the things you need, it’s harder to get your home clean, and it’s just generally a giant energy suck!

What Sorts of Things Should I Declutter?

I believe you should get rid of anything in your home that doesn’t serve you. That means…

• If you don’t use it…
• And you don’t love looking at it…
• And it doesn’t add any value to your life or home…

You should let it go!

When I’m decluttering in my home, I like to break it into both categories and rooms. For example, I declutter all of the clothes in our home at once, or all of the books at once. But, once I’ve done some of the more general categories, I start working by room.

Let’s run down some examples of things you might declutter throughout your house.

In the Kitchen

• Old serving dishes you don’t use anymore
• Mismatched silverware or utensils
• Baby/kid cups you don’t need
• Table linens you never pull out
• Expired food in the pantry and refrigerator (!!)
• Cleaning supplies you don’t use
• Tupperware lids without a container
• Just about everything in the junk drawer
• Old pots and pans that never get used anymore

The Bathroom

• Old or worn towels
• Expired medications
• Other random things in the medicine cabinet
• Makeup and toiletries you aren’t using
• All those random things that gather in the cupboards

In the Bedrooms

• All of those clothes you’ve been saving for a special occasion (but you’ll never actually wear)
• Kid toys
• Extra blankets and sheets that never get used
• Socks that don’t have a partner

You can also declutter in the attic, the laundry room, the living room, the basement, closets, and other storage spaces. You can tackle things like trash, old mail, clearing your counters, paper clutter, cleaning off the coffee table, the kitchen counter, the small appliances that clutter up your kitchen counters… you get the idea.

We’ve all got a lot of clutter in our homes, and we don’t need a professional organizer to help. We can do this!

Where Do I Even Get Started?

If you’ve never begun the decluttering process, you might be wondering how you’ll ever achieve the kind of clutter-free home that Marie Kondo would be proud of.

First of all, let’s let go of that expectation. We aren’t seeking perfection here. We’re simply looking to reduce the clutter in our homes in an effort to have a little less stress.

Even a little bit of decluttering is better than no decluttering!

Decluttering Tips and Tricks

Here are a few simple tips to get you started.

• Create a checklist. A decluttering checklist is a really simple and easy way to approach this. And spoiler alert – I’ve got an entire step-by-step eBook with a checklist and a schedule. Read on to the bottom of the post to learn more and get it for yourself!
• Let go of obligation and expectations. One of the hardest things about decluttering is getting over the fact that you probably spent money on these items in the first place. It feels awful to toss or donate something that you spent your hard-earned money on. But, if it’s not serving you anymore, it’s not doing you any good!
• Focus on one thing at a time. Remember that decluttering, deep cleaning, and organizing are three separate things. I recommend only tackling one at a time…and decluttering is definitely the best first step!
• When in doubt, start simple. If you’re really struggling to get started, try to begin by making piles of the obvious things to get rid of. Things like unusable items, actual trash, or things your family just absolutely doesn’t need anymore. Create a pile for donation, one for the trash (or recycling bin), and one for a potential garage sale, if that’s in your plans. Get some wins with the easy stuff, and work your way up to the harder stuff!
• Set a schedule. I also talk about this a bit in my eBook, but I’m a big believer in giving yourself a timeline and setting expectations. For example, commit to 15 minutes a day. Set a timer and stick to it – no more and no less!
• Take before photos. There’s something incredibly motivating about a before and after photo, even if you’re the only one who’ll see it!
• Start with the worst spot. And finally, start with the category or room that is the absolute worst in your home. It’ll feel the best to get it clean, and you’ll be more likely to be thorough with the space that drives you the most nutty.

How Quickly Can I Declutter My Home?

That’s a great question. We love getting things done fast and you might be thinking you can knock this out in a day, or over the weekend.

I don’t recommend it.

If you want results that last, I recommend taking your time. I find that at least 30 days is the minimum amount of time you need to thoroughly declutter your home. This allows you to work slowly, but gives continuous results to keep you motivated!

Okay, I’m In. What’s Next?

Here’s where things get fun. At least, if you ask me. My idea of fun might be a little skewed. I am an Enneagram type 1, after all.

If you’re ready to really get your home decluttered and under control, I suggest you give my book, 30 Days to a Tidy{er} Home a shot. What is it? It is part workbook part checklist part guide. It walks you step-by-step through the process of decluttering every inch of your home over the course of 30 days.

This book works. I’ve had hundreds upon hundreds of people go through this process, and I’ve heard over and over again about how helpful it is. It takes what can be an incredibly overwhelming process and breaks it down into manageable chunks. It makes it – dare I say? – fun!

As a bonus, if you purchase the eBook you’ll get access to the private Instagram account I created the first time I went through this process in our current home. There’s a highlight saved for every single day of the month showing you how I decluttered in my own home that day, so it’s basically like I’m doing it with you.

See? Fun!

I’ve Decluttered My Home… What’s Next?

After you finish decluttering, you might feel a little lost as to where to go next. And, how in the world do you keep it that way?

I personally found that once I got my home decluttered the first time around, it was pretty easy to keep it that way. I enjoyed the reduced clutter so much, I never wanted to bring it back in!

Of course, that doesn’t mean things stayed perfect. I find that once a year or so, I still need to do a light decluttering in my home. It usually happens around this time of year, and I just go around and refresh every room in our house by removing things we aren’t using anymore.

Organizing

After decluttering, doing a good organizing of your home is hugely helpful. Baskets with labels, new storage solutions, and storage containers that are meant for specific spaces can make a huge difference. Here are a few posts that might help you once you reach that part of the process.

And that’s that. The full guide to decluttering your home, one step at a time. I hope it provides some help for you, and I can’t wait to hear all about your decluttering journey!

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