The Simple Strategy For Decluttering Your Home

You need to prioritize decluttering your home.

If you want to set up a successful house and homemaking schedule, living in the chaos that comes with endless clutter makes no sense. The challenge is that decluttering is one of the most overwhelming homemaking tasks and one that can be fraught with emotional baggage from our sentimental attachment to items.

I’m not going to tell you that you have to get rid of every useless but special thing in your home, but I will teach you how to manage those things. These could be items like old clothes that no longer fit but hold sentimental value or gifts that you don’t use but feel guilty about getting rid of.

I won’t tell you that decluttering is easy or sell you on useless hacks.

My strategy for decluttering your home is designed to make starting and following through easier. It’s a simple, step-by-step process that will guide you through each room, making the task less overwhelming.

My advice is not just old-fashioned; it’s practical and reliable. In my experience, decluttering and reorganizing go hand in hand, and this practical approach will confidently guide you through the process.

Related: Create A Practical & Simple Homemaking Schedule That You Will Actually Keep

Zone by Zone Decluttering

The easiest way to get started is to make a plan to see you tackle one room at a time and one section or ‘zone’ in each room at a time.

As you declutter, you deep-clean the area being worked on and then reorganize it into a manageable and more efficient space that serves your needs.

The kitchen tends to be the room that takes the longest to declutter and reorganize, so I recommend leaving that one until you’ve done a few others.

I recommend you start with the bathroom, laundry room, or entryway/mudroom. Those places are frequently in desperate need of an overhaul and will provide you with tremendous satisfaction, but they are much more manageable.

The Aims Of Decluttering

Decluttering aims to reduce the amount of stuff in a home—useless stuff that brings neither practical, sentimental, nor beautiful touches to a space.

The less stuff you have, the less stuff you need to clean and maintain.

Decluttering forces organization and reorganizing.

How much of the clutter in your home is there because you have yet to find a place for the things? I bet it’s significant.

The process of decluttering forces you to find a place, and I’m a big fan of junk drawers for odds and ends that don’t fit anywhere but serve a purpose nonetheless. It would be best to keep a junk drawer tidy and organized, though; it’s not a repository for garbage.

Finally, decluttering makes the process of homemaking and cleaning much simpler and more enjoyable. It helps you take pride in your things and your space. More importantly, it can reduce stress, improve mental clarity, and create a more peaceful living environment.

Clutter is chaos and stress, especially when you don’t know where to start. But once you tackle this issue, you will experience a profound sense of relief and find that your mind and home will be more peaceful. The satisfaction of a decluttered space is a reward in itself.

A Decluttering Strategy That Works

Let’s start with the strategy, which is the same regardless of the room you’re decluttering.

You can pick any room. In my example, let’s start with one of my favorite places to declutter, clean, and decorate—the bedroom.

The bedroom should be your sanctuary, a place of beautiful, deep sleep and rest. It should never cause overwhelm and stress.

Start by observing and taking mental notes of what is not working in your bedroom and what is making it cluttered; some common examples:

• Piles of clothing taken off at the end of the day and discarded on some random chair on top of the dresser.
• Unfolded piles of clean laundry.
• Random books stacked on bedside tables that have never been read.
• Overflowing garbage bins.
• Random water bottles, cups, and mugs.
• Makeup and other beauty tools are scattered on the vanity.
• Unorganized drawers and armoires.
• Drawers and bedside tables are used as storage for random things like important documents and photo albums.

The “Keep” pile is self-explanatory in that the items in question belong where they were found.

The “keep but elsewhere” pile means the items are useful but don’t belong where they were found. For example, a book you finished reading can be returned to the bookshelf.

Donate or sell items you no longer use, need, or want that are still useful and might benefit someone else.

The “storage” pile is for everything you still need, but the items are perhaps out of season or only used occasionally and take up space where they don’t need to.

This might be a Christmas snow globe still sitting on your bedside table in July or winter bedding like heavy cotton flannels taking up space in your closet when they could be moved into the basement and stored in a labeled bin until needed again.

Or perhaps it might even be something special and sentimental that you won’t ever give away, sell, donate, or throw away but still don’t have use for. I have some vintage dresses, furs, and jewelry in this category.

Garbage is literal: a random crusty napkin from last year’s flu season that got trapped between the table and wall, random receipts, clothing so worn or stained it won’t even make do as a rag.

Some universally helpful and necessary things I recommend for every household:

A rack to store your pot and pan lids.

A system to turn your kitchen pantry and cabinets into pullout drawers so that you can both access, organize, and maintain these spaces much easier.

Drawer dividers for the kitchen and bedroom to keep things separate and neat in larger spaces.

There’s more, but I cannot imagine a home that would not benefit from those things.

Once the zone has been cleaned, organized, and put back into place, move on to the next zone and repeat the exact same process.

That’s literally it.

Don’t be tempted to declutter an entire room like this; in most cases, it’s too overwhelming. Using the zones system makes everything easier.

The Keep and Put Elsewhere Pile

This pile can be the trickiest to deal with.

We’re still slowly undergoing whole-house renovations of our 1860s farmhouse, and let me tell you, decluttering and organizing have been as big of a challenge as the dust I’m constantly battling.

My reality is that while the basement is being renovated, those bins labeled with winter clothing and bedding will have to sit in the living room for a while.

Your challenge might be something else, like a total lack of space. As someone who moved from the city to the countryside, I know how challenging that can be.

Our condo always seemed to need more space for stuff we wanted and used. My husband has a million hobbies and loves high-quality stuff and thrifting, so when we tackled the condo prior to moving out here, I realized it was that attachment to stuff that was causing problems.

We maximized the storage and efficiency of the entire place with closet systems, extra shelving, and all sorts of clever design, but ultimately, there was just too much stuff, and we were still living in clutter.

Related: 10 Quick Home Organization Projects That Will Make You Feel Better In Minutes

At some point, if you’re drowning in stuff, you’ll have to face the reality: put it away in storage bins or get rid of it.

There’s a third option, too: continue drowning in clutter because you can’t bear to part with the fine China set you haven’t used in 20 years, which is sitting in the kitchen collecting dust.

If that’s your choice, then you will have to accept that you live in a cluttered home where the clutter has overtaken you and your life. It’s your master now, and you will live in dust, dirt, and mental overwhelm as you struggle to clean it and maintain it all.

Look, I get it. I’m very sentimental. As mentioned, my husband and I have many hobbies, and we have all the tools and toys that go along with them.

But we don’t keep everything out, shove it into a cardboard box, or pretend it doesn’t exist in the basement.

Every Home Needs a Junk Drawer & Filing Cabinet

Every home needs a junk drawer ,or even several junk drawers.

A junk drawer is a drawer, often found in the kitchen or another frequently used room in the house, where miscellaneous items are stored. These are typically things that don’t have a designated place or are used infrequently, such as batteries, scissors, tape, pens, old keys, rubber bands, small tools, and random household items.

The junk drawer tends to collect odds and ends that might be needed someday but don’t necessarily belong with other organized categories of items. It’s a catch-all space that can become cluttered and disorganized over time.

Use adjustable drawer storage organization solutions and stay on top of the drawer to avoid it becoming a mess.

A filing cabinet in the home is used to organize and store important documents and paperwork. It’s a convenient place to keep records such as bills, tax documents, medical records, passports, insurance policies, warranties, instruction manuals, insurance policies, personal documents, and other paperwork that needs to be easily accessible.

Filing cabinets help keep these documents organized, often with labeled folders, making it easier to find specific papers when needed and reducing the clutter in other areas of the home.

Consider adding a second filing cabinets for your children’s school documents, paperwork, artwork, and other records.

Keeping a Home Decluttered

Keeping your home decluttered after the initial effort requires intentional habits and regular upkeep. One of the most effective strategies is adopting a “one-in, one-out” rule. Whenever you bring a new item into your home, commit to removing an old one. This not only prevents clutter from accumulating again but also encourages mindful consumption, ensuring that you only keep what truly adds value to your life.

Scheduling regular decluttering sessions is also crucial. Even after a thorough declutter, things can gradually pile up if left unchecked. Set aside time every few months to go through your belongings and reassess what you actually use and need. This practice helps you stay on top of clutter and ensures your home remains organized and free of unnecessary items.

Creating designated spaces for everything is another key to maintaining a decluttered home. When every item has a specific place, it’s easier to put things away and keep surfaces clear. This reduces the chances of clutter building up and makes it more straightforward to maintain an orderly environment. Combine this with daily routines, such as tidying up at the end of each day or immediately returning items to their designated spots after use, to help sustain the sense of order you’ve worked hard to create.

Finally, be mindful of impulse purchases and sentimental items. Before buying something new, ask yourself if it’s necessary and if you have space for it. Similarly, while it’s important to keep meaningful items, try to be selective about what you hold onto. By finding a balance between maintaining a tidy home and keeping things that bring you joy, you can create a living space that is both functional and personal.

Decluttering is more than just a homemaking task—it’s a transformative process that can significantly improve your quality of life. By systematically working through each room and focusing on manageable zones, you can break down the overwhelming nature of decluttering into achievable steps. This approach not only helps you reduce the amount of unnecessary items in your home but also encourages you to rethink how you use your space, ultimately leading to a more organized and efficient household.

Remember, the goal isn’t to get rid of everything but to create a living environment that supports your daily life and well-being. Embrace the sentimental items that truly matter to you, but also recognize when it’s time to let go of things that no longer serve a purpose. Decluttering is about finding that balance between keeping what you love and need and letting go of the rest.

By following a structured decluttering strategy, such as tackling one zone at a time, you can create a more peaceful and functional home. Whether you’re starting with a single drawer or an entire room, the key is to start somewhere and keep moving forward. And don’t forget the importance of maintaining those spaces once they’ve been organized—regular upkeep is essential to prevent clutter from accumulating again.