“What I know for sure is that when you declutter – whether it’s on your home, your head, or your heart – it is astounding what will flow into that space that will enrich you, your life, and your family.”
— Peter Walsh
Our Four Steps to Decluttering
After researching and enrolling in countless decluttering courses and books, we have settled on our favorite decluttering technique for minimalists. We’ve seen everything from 45-step plans to one-liners (“Get rid of everything”) and we have settled on a minimalist yet wholistic approach to decluttering that you can take room-by-room in your home.
Here we are excited to introduce you to the four simple steps we like to use when decluttering:
- Take All Items Out of the Space
- Sell, Donate, Toss
- Organize Remaining Items into Like-Items
- Refill the Space
1. Take All Items Out of the Space
The first step we like to do is to take all items out of the space. Open every drawer, check under the furniture, take all the items off any tables, and put it all in a big open space (if available). This open space could be your living room floor, your kitchen counters, or even your bed. The main goal here is just to see all of the items together so we can start to organize them.
2. Sell, Donate, Toss
Here is where many of us have the most trouble, getting rid of items. As we mentioned in an earlier lesson, it is best if you already have a few things in place before you get to this point. For example, make sure you have accounts set up where you will sell items (Facebook, OfferUp, Craigslist, etc.). Also, make sure you know where you are going to donate items. If you belong to a religious institution or are involved with a non-profit, we recommend you start there to see what sort of items they collect to give to members of your community that are in need. From there, make a good list of other organizations you can donate to that will find a good home for those things in your community. Finally, you will want to have a strategy for tossing items. If you are decluttering your entire home in a short period of time, it might be good to borrow a truck (if you don’t have one) so you can fill it with items to take to the dump. Otherwise, it’s good to think about when your trash gets picked up so you aren’t stuck with a bunch of trash for a week before it is collected.
3. Organize Remaining Items into Like-Items
Here is where you can whip out your labeling gun (if you’re into labeling)! Once you can see all of the items that you want to keep in your home, start organizing them by similarities. Put books with books, toys with toys, decor with decor, and so on. You will also want to start a pile of items you want to keep but you don’t want them to be in the space you are decluttering at that time. If you have multiple different types of items, it can be really helpful to create “zones” in your space. For example, if you naturally have a large number of books in your space, consider creating a “reading zone” where you can store and read your books. Once you have all your things organized you can move on to the next step.
4. Refill the Space
Now comes the fun part, refilling your space! If you discovered new ways you like to use your space (i.e., the “reading zone” from above), you may want to do some shifting of furniture to account for that before bringing everything back in. This is also the best time to look at the furniture in your space and decide if they are adding value to the space or simply adding clutter. It is best to do this after you see all the items you naturally store there so you can decide what ways you use that space. Once the furniture is finalized, it’s time to put your items in their new homes. If you have children or “forgetful” roommates, you may want to even make a map of where each type of item lives in each space which will make cleaning up much quicker. Once you have that done, decide what will work best for you for putting items away. Commit to either putting them away after each use or before you go to bed that day. Personally, my family sticks to putting everything away at the end of the day, it is simply part of our kids’ bedtime routine right before brushing their teeth. Although, when I was single and living alone I stuck to putting everything away after each use, it just depends on what works best for your current lifestyle.
Now, you are ready to start tackling different rooms in your home!
Declutter Room by Room
Decluttering Your Living Spaces
The first area of the home that we are going to start with is often considered the low-hanging fruit when decluttering your home — the living room! We like to start here because most living rooms do not have a ton of storage and they are perhaps the most-used room in your home by you and definitely by guests. So, by decluttering your living room first you will start checking boxes off of your list quickly and you will start to see the wonderful benefits of decluttering. Can you imagine what it would be like to not have to go on a cleaning spree right before guests arrive? Well, with a clutter-free living room we can get you a step closer.
As you go through the four steps outlined in the last lesson, keep in mind the many different uses you may have for your living room. Your living room most likely serves a purpose as an entertainment space, a place for naps, an area to play with toys, and countless other uses. When you organize your things, think of these as different “zones” so you can put the right items in the spot that makes the most sense for their activities. This will make using the space much easier and it will make cleaning up much more efficient.
Decluttering Your Bedroom
Moving to a space that is extremely important to keep clutter-free and stress-free, your bedroom. It’s no surprise that stress often causes restless sleep and clutter causes stress, so it’s essential for your physical well-being to declutter your bedroom.
For your bedroom, while you go through the four steps of decluttering, keep in mind the four following items and decide if they are truly essential for your bedroom. Each of these items are often found in bedrooms but rarely provide much value and are/collect loads of clutter.
- Nightstands
Nightstands can be amazing to have a stable place to put your tea or your current book close to your bed, but they can also be very dangerous. We recommend staying away from nightstands that have too many storage spots as they can quickly become home to useless clutter.
Look for a minimal nightstand so you are limited to what can live there. The essentials may simply be a lamp, book, and space for a mug or glass from time to time. Don’t overdo it with drawers and compartments, keep it simple.
- Decorative Pillows
I know what you might be thinking, but they ‘complete’ the room! No, they clutter the room. Think about the decorative pillows you have, sure they are pretty but they get tossed on the floor when you sleep then just sit on your bed when/if you make it in the morning. Decorative pillows truly are clutter. There are many alternatives like simply putting a nice pillowcase on the pillow you sleep on every night or using one of your blankets to cover up the drool-stained pillows.
- TV
This goes a little hand-in-hand with our
Digital Decluttering course, but you should probably get rid of the television in your bedroom if you have one. First of all, if you don’t have the TV mounted to the wall, you are automatically adding more clutter with a stand or placing it on your dresser. Plus, having a big bright glowing thing in your bedroom isn’t great for getting rest.
If you must watch tv in bed—because honestly, it can be a nice time—then simply stick to watching on your computer. Or, I’ve even seen some people with one-tv households put their entire entertainment system on a rolling cart so they can take it into the living room, kitchen, bedroom, or wherever they’d like to have a movie night.
- Dresser
Last, but certainly not least, your dresser. The dresser is something almost everyone has yet no one truly needs. Whether you have a minimalist wardrobe or not, there are many ways to get away from having a huge dresser in your bedroom with endless clutter on top of it and within its drawers.
One way to get away from using a dresser is simply by hanging your shirts instead of folding them. This will clear out most of your drawers then you can put what’s left on shelves in your closet. Or, if you simply cannot part ways with your dresser, just put it in your closet so you aren’t tempted to pile items on top of it.
Decluttering Your Closet
The closet can be a beast to go through and declutter. Sticking to our four-step plan will allow you to organize what’s in your closet but you may need some extra help slimming down your wardrobe. A couple of things to keep in mind when doing this:
- If you haven’t worn it in the last year, get rid of it
- If you live in a climate that stays generally the same year-round, think about the last 6 months or the last 3 months even
- If you have duplicates for no reason, get rid of it
- If it’s extremely worn out, get rid of it
We can’t go too deep into decluttering your wardrobe but there are countless ways you can create a minimalist wardrobe. You can go over them all in our
Simplify Your Style course.
Decluttering Your Bathrooms
The bathroom is another area that is notorious for gathering clutter. Similar to your closet, you will want to get rid of the items that you haven’t used in the past 6 months. Think about the half-empty perfume bottles or the deodorant that made your skin break out but you keep “just in case.” Those types of things you will want to get rid of. One really good way to keep a clutter-free bathroom is by sticking with the same products at all times. So, find the best hygiene products for you (toothpaste, deodorant, hair products, etc.) and purchase that brand every single time. This gets rid of all of the ‘experimental’ products that end up cluttering your bathroom cabinets. If you’re looking for a way to create a minimalist beauty regimen,
check out our blog post.
Decluttering Your Home Office
Papers and papers and papers. So many papers. This is the image of home offices all over the place. If you find that all of the paperwork you have in your office is essential (car titles, insurance information, tax returns, mortgage paperwork, etc.), then get yourself a fireproof safe that will allow you to organize your files neatly with labels so there is no clutter on your desk or in your office. If there is other clutter in your office, decide what is essential for your office and what isn’t then go through the four steps of decluttering to really finish the office.
Decluttering Your Kitchen
You can benefit greatly from a clutter-free kitchen. Making dinner, cleaning dishes, or even just hanging out becomes much more enjoyable when your space is clean and tidy without any effort on your part. A good goal to have in your kitchen is to find homes for everything so that you only have one or two things that live on your counters. For example, my family and I eat a lot of fruit and drink a lot of coffee/tea so we only keep a bowl of fruit and our electric tea kettle on the kitchen counter. Everything else like the toaster, blender, coffee maker, etc. has its own home in cabinets.
To clear up space in your cabinets, try to consolidate pots and pans so you don’t have any duplicates. Depending on how often you cook or bake, you can generally get by with just one big and one small pot/pan/mixing bowl/etc. Doing things like this can help you clear up some room so you can get items off of your counters. You can also invest in high-quality items like cooking spoons so you only need one or two of them instead of ten. If you need a little extra push while you are going through the four steps, our blog post on
decluttering your kitchen can help immensely.
Decluttering Your Kids Rooms/Toys
This one is a great one to get your kids involved in as if you start throwing out toys that they particularly loved, you might have a rough couple of weeks on your hands. We recommend that you come up with a rule with your kids on how many toys they can have. From our own experience and other parents that we’ve talked to, the twenty-toy rule seems to be the sweet spot. You may face some backlash at the start, but once your kids realize how many toys they never even play with they will be able to slim down to twenty in no time. Take them through the four steps in their room, just like you did with the other rooms in the house so they can get some great experience and take a little responsibility for their possessions and their space.
Then, don’t stop there. Each holiday or birthday when the kids get new toys, remind them that this means they will need to pass off old toys in order to keep the new toys. In our next lesson, we will talk about different techniques for bringing new items into your home, specifically with gifts.