What is Your Best Decluttering Advice?
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Let's discuss, readers: What is your best decluttering advice? What advice have you heard that changed your approach to clutter in general?
I've heard two things recently that have reset my mind about clutter — I'm still working on actually putting them into force and decluttering Casa Griffin, but hopefully will once I finish some projects and get a nice chunk of time to do that. We've previously talked about how to build good habits, the best systems for deep cleaning your own home, and even the book Atomic Habits (it's so good!), but I don't think we've talked about decluttering in far too long.
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Some of the Best Decluttering Advice I've Heard
In any event, here are two of the best things I've heard recently:
Your Clutter is a Silent To-Do List
This idea apparently comes from Fumio Sasaki's 2017 book, Goodbye, Things: The New Japanese Minimalism, which I may now have to read because the Amazon reviews are really great. The general idea is that when you leave something out where you can see it, you want to be reminded of something, and thus it becomes a silent to-do list.
I never really understood the Kondo approach of only keeping what “sparks joy” — but looking at my clutter from the invisible to-do list perspective makes a WHOLE lot more sense for why I should cut it down. Currently on my cluttered desk I see receipts I haven't filed, gift cards I haven't spent, various notes from various projects in no particular place… They're telling me to 1) file them, 2) go spend them on something (and spend time researching, say, a new lamp or sconce for our bedroom), and 3) take photos of my notes and scribblings or otherwise synthesize them into a project folder. Or something.
So looking at clutter this way forces you to ask yourself — do you like this task? Is it serving you to have this constant reminder? What is a better way (or system) to deal with it?
The “There Are Only Five Things In This Room” Approach
Yes, yes, I saw this one on TikTok (from @domesticblisters), and it was kind of a game changer in a different way. She showed her very messy kitchen and how she spends 15 minutes every day cleaning it up — but in a very specific order. She explained that she tells herself, “There are only five things in this room,” and then deals with one thing at a time. The five things?
- trash
- dirty dishes
- laundry
- things that have a place
- things that do not have a place
WHOA. I tried this approach to a cluttered room that had previously overwhelmed me, and sure enough, viewing the mess in this light was way less overwhelming.
So let's hear it, readers — what's your best decluttering advice? If you've had to “dig out” from clutter, what systems or general advice helped you? If you happily maintain a clutter-free home, what are your best tips for maintaining a lack of clutter?
Stock photo (very cluttered desk and chair) via Stencil.
I am kind of a neat freak but thinking about it, it’s really that it’s far easier to take 1-2 minutes to put something away immediately when you’re done with it than it is to face a 2-hour long tidying spree because you set stuff down *wherever* all week.
Yep, this. Put stuff away as soon as you can, and clutter becomes way less of an issue. Not saying I (or my dear family members) perfectly follow this advice, but I think we do better than most! I also have my kids lightly tidy their bedrooms most evenings; that also makes a difference.
I do my best to deal with the mail the minute I bring it in. Most of it goes right into the trash and I try very hard to deal with the things that have to be dealt with in the moment.
Similarly, I do the dishes and clean and tidy up the kitchen immediately after dinner, and “close the kitchen” before proceeding to any evening leisure activities. I’ve done that for years and it’s always great to wake up to a clean, tidy kitchen.
More generally, I heard once that “clutter consists of things that don’t have homes” and I definitely believe that to be true. So I do my best to make sure everything in my house has a home.
Tip that helped me the most:
– Put something away, don’t put it down.
This is great. So obvious, and yet somehow not always put into practice!
I agree with most of the other posters: the best way to avoid clutter is to never create it in the first place. Most mail gets thrown in the recycling bin before it even comes into the house. I’ve signed up for e-billing and all the anti-junk mail lists to reduce the amount of mail I get as much as possible. The very very pieces of mail that remain get read and dealt with immediately.
Like Senior Attorney, I do most of the dishes and cleaning while I’m cooking, and the rest get washed immediately. I also do a lot of batch cooking, so I don’t have to really clean up after every meal, just stick the dishes in the dishwasher.
I am both lazy and a neat freak, so I try to just put everything in its place the first time I touch it. I also try to take advantage of the downtime when I’m waiting for the water to boil, food to heat, etc. to wipe down counters, put away clean dishes, and do other little tidying up chores. If I take care of these little things when I’m waiting on other stuff, I actually spend very little time cleaning.
Haha “clean up as you cook” is so automatic to me I didn’t even think to mention it!
Clutter begets clutter. When stuff doesn’t have a place, I often think we used it up (sunscreen, frozen veggies, socks, golf balls, whatever), then buy more. The more stuff makes it hard to find other things and…. De clutter and more decluttering naturally follows.
I am also someone who hates seeing a bunch of “useless” things – clothes that no longer fit, mostly empty bottles of travel shampoo – and simply find it best to toss or donate the items. Then everything that is left is useful, and I am not digging to find useful things. My brain will interpret “all this useless junk” as meaning that I do not actually have what I need.
I’m still pretty bad about it, but I’ve been making a habit of picking up or righting just one thing that’s out of place every time I enter a room. For example, my shoes are usually a mess in my closet, but now every time I go in, I try to move one pair and place it neatly – now, they’re orderly. It’s made a big difference in the things that tend to just sit forever because there’s not a chance to do a real clean up.
Honestly, having less stuff and including “where will this live” in the list of questions I ask before buying something. If there isn’t a good answer to where it will live, I don’t buy it.
Same.
YES. I started doing this not long ago and it’s amazing how it helps quell the wantsies!
I have an in-out policy in my home. If I buy something new that is not a consumable, something old has to go (typically donated, sometimes trashed). It doesn’t have to be a like for like exchange either. I recently bought some new art for my home office and two pairs of jeans were donated as a result.
Love this!
I do one drawer or shelf a week: pull out what is there, dust, review the stuff and put back what I still need. I just got to my belts and realized I had some that didn’t fit, tossed them in the donate basket, and called it a day. It’s painless but keeps the overall clutter down.
The best advice I received is the corollary to “live within your means” — live within your space. If you have smaller space, don’t stuff it. If you can’t fit everything, reduce your belongings.
Now if someone could just tell my husband that just because he spent good money on those pants in 2009 doesn’t mean he has to hold on to them forever when his closet is bursting at the seams…..
“Live within your space.” I like that a lot, thank you!
My number one decluttering tip: be single.
I would have an immaculate home if I didn’t have to fight with a man who thinks literally everything other than rotting food should be saved because “I can find a use for it”.
+1 DH is ex military so I was often alone for long stretches at a time, it was so much easier to keep a clean and tidy house without him.
OMG same. We moved last year and I found shirts with dry cleaning tags on them from 2014. Please tell me dear husband why you need to have this shirt you haven’t worn in 7 years….
I am single and my house is a mess. Belive me it is not the solution (or at least for me)
Haha, yep, same here. Except that my guy will find a legitimate use for one out of every forty things he keeps, thereby justifying keeping the other thirty-nine.
Totally agree with it! & if you can not, don’t have kids :P. I gave up being a neat freak to have sanity and peace in my life. You obviously can’t have everything in life :D
“Everything has a home and there’s no visitors allowed!” is my organizing mantra. Everything has a forever home, and there’s (generally) no visitors or temporary residents. The temporary resting places are called collection points, and are common in physical (and digital/virtual!) places. Minimize the collection points down to just one or two, so you have to check fewer places. That reduces sheer time “processing” the clutter ;)
My approach is never leave till tomorrow what can be done today…it just builds up and tomorrow never comes. Sadly I’m the only one in my family of procrastinators who thinks this. So I end up tidying up for all of them. I figure I’m the neat freak, not them, so if I want it done NOW, I better do it myself.
The best systems for me are those that make it easy to put something away, i.e. drawers rather than stacked boxes. Also,I’m motivated to look for something far more than I am to put it away, so I stopped doing things like filing that seem like obstacles. One letter-sized box from IKEA holds all my “keep” paperwork. I’ve looked for something in it ONCE. And I found it!