I don’t know about all of you, but I often find that when my environment is not organized, then I am not organized. I’m not sure if I am just really Type A or what, but there is something about having piles of stuff everywhere that drives me crazy until it’s cleaned up or put away. Enter decluttering.
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So, I recently read about something called the Minimalist Challenge. Basically, the challenge goes like this: You pick a month when you would like to declutter your house, or basically become more of a “minimalist.” On the first day of the month you get rid of one thing. On the second day you get rid of two things, and the third day you get rid of three things, etc. All the way to the end of the month. You can donate, sell, recycle, or throw items away, as long as by the end of the day each day the items are out of your home.
Minimalist Advantage
There are a lot of advantages to being more of a minimalist. Put simply, if you have less stuff it takes less to maintain it. Fewer things break. People who are more minimalist tend to have less spending because they are more conscientious of not bringing too much “stuff” into their lives.
As someone who recently became a parent, our home has been overwhelmed with “stuff” over the course of the last few months. Add that to the fact that until recently I had a very stressful job that often required me to work long hours, and that means that basically we had not done much decluttering in the past few years. In short: Our house was jam-packed full of stuff. I immediately decided to complete the Minimalist Challenge last month.
To make a long story short, we got rid of hundreds of things over the course of the month. We made two trips to a pawn shop to sell old electronics, three trips to Goodwill, sold close to a dozen items on Amazon and eBay, and we even made a donation to our local domestic violence shelter. We got rid of an old stereo system, and old TV and VCR, an entire bag of travel sized hotel toiletries (that’s what went to the DV shelter), three big bags of clothes, a file cabinet, and so much more. Our trash can was overflowing every week. So was our recycle bin (at the end of the month when I was getting desperate I took to cleaning out our paperwork files, and everything that did not get shredded got recycled).
We also got rid of cable last month, so we got to take the DVR, cable box, remotes, etc. back to the cable company. I even got all crazy and decluttered the toolbar on the browser on my computer (that’s how you know I was in serious declutter mode)! The only links I left on my favorites toolbar are for Personal Capital, Harris Poll Online, and Swagbucks. I left those three things only because I visit those sites frequently- Personal Capital for our money management (review here) and Harris Poll Online and Swagbucks for earning money/rewards (review here).
I don’t think any of that makes me an expert, but I CAN tell you that I have definitely decluttered and gotten rid of a lot of stuff over the past month. Here are some of my top tips!
10 Smart Tips for Decluttering Your Home
1. Don’t try to do everything at once
Especially if you’ve let things accumulate for a while, as we had, it’s a big job. Don’t let the size of the task overwhelm you. Start small here.
2. Expect that it will take some time
I really do think that a month is a nice time frame to do this in (if you need to declutter your whole house), as it is long enough to give you time to space out the work, but short enough that you should be able to keep focus.
3. Try to organize your decluttering to one room/closet/section at a time
For example, a bathroom or a closet could possibly be done in one day. A bigger room like a bedroom, living room, or kitchen might take a few days.
4. Start by clearing out a certain space in your home, such as a table, and designate that spot a clutter free zone
Nothing should ever get left in the clutter free zone because by definition it is clutter free!! Eventually you could work to expand the clutter free zone to include an entire room, floor, etc.
5. Pick up the things around your house that never quite seem to have a “home,” and find them a home!
For us this was my dumbbells for a long time. Yes, I have a set of small dumbbells that I use to do some upper body strengthening, but they never quite seemed to have a home- until I finally got around to designating a home for them.
6. Keep a running list/box of items to donate
When the box is full, it’s time to make a trip to your chosen donation location. I also keep a box of items to be sold on eBay/Craigslist/Amazon, and once a week I list at least one thing for sale.
7. Empty your drawers
This includes bedroom dresser drawers, bathroom drawers, kitchen drawers, etc. Take some time to carefully look at items before putting them back in. Are there things you can get rid of? I found myself getting rid of sooooo many things in the bathroom drawers, including expired medications, travel-sized toiletries from hotels, eye cream that did not seem to do much, etc.
8. Set up a paper filing system
Papers can most definitely account for a great deal of clutter! It will be helpful for you to set up a filing system so that when papers come in that you need to keep, you actually have a place to put them where you can find them again. Depending on how much paperwork you have, it might not be a bad idea to invest in a good filing cabinet
9. Get other family members on board
For some, this may be as simple as enlisting the help of your spouse (and sometimes it may not be so simple!) If you have children, it will also be necessary to work on helping your children remember to put things away. This will likely not be something they are naturally inclined to do, so have patience while you work on teaching them where things go, and be willing to provide reminders.
10. Set a date to start
One of the most important steps! I think this is why the Minimalist Challenge helped me so much- it gave me a definite time frame to work on decluttering in. I’m planning to do it again in six months or so to see if I can get rid of even more stuff!
The most important take-home here is to not let yourself get overwhelmed by the process. Start small if you have to. Even doing a little bit of decluttering for ten minutes a day is a step!
Suggested Reading: One of my fav books on decluttering and organization is Declutter Your Life: Quick and Easy Tips for Busy People
Do you consider yourself to be a minimalist? What sort of things have you done to help keep your environment clutter-free?
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Upper Photo: stanslavov1/Depositphotos.com
This is a good time of year for me to read this — before my husband’s (huge) family invades for Thanksgiving. I need to get my house back in order. Thanks for the nudge!
Any time! Good luck on your house!
I like these tips! I don’t like clutter so I don’t have a problem in this area. Most people would say that our house doesn’t look lived in. I’m a clean freak and there is literally nothing on the walls. I hate hanging stuff on the walls. Ha!
Nothing on the walls! Wow, you’re taking it to a whole new level! We have plenty of stuff on our walls. I didn’t even think of touching that when I was decluttering. I guess maybe I’ll look more at that in a few months when I do it again!
I started approaching decluttering seasonally which I find helps a lot. There’s a lot that I’ll say “well maybe I’ll need this”, but when it’s the fourth or fifth time I’ve decluttered and I still haven’t had the need for it, it’s much easier to toss it.
I agree. That’s especially true for me in my closet. I keep thinking I’ll need things and then it doesn’t get worn and doesn’t get worn. By the time I’m going over it for the third or fourth time I may finally get rid of it!
Good advice Dee and I especially like point #3. We have really streamlined and simplified our possessions over the past couple of years but clutter will still manage to build we don’t keep on top of it. I tend to purge things from the house a couple of times per year and I feel a lot better when I do.
Same here! It’s so refreshing to look around the house at where things like the electronics used to sit and see empty space. Now if only I could get around to dusting… 🙂
For me, taking one room at a time approach is the best option. I would get too overwhelmed by tackling a few rooms at once. I start and finish a room, then move onto the next.
I also have a set pile for items to donate. Once that pile gets sizable, I pack it up and take it to the goodwill store.
I think that’s a great approach!
We’ve got rid of truckloads of stuff over the past couple years and there’s still too much clutter in our house. I tend to tackle it in spurts when I get the motivation, obviously it hasn’t worked yet, but it is getting better!
I think our problem is when we get things together for a donation run, the stuff doesn’t leave the house, then we put it all back and repeat!
Our big problem is that the last time we moved we were too lazy to really go through things- we just packed it all up and brought it along! Ugh. Trying to remedy that now!
“…Pick up the things around your house that never quite seem to have a “home”… Haha…with four kids there is always something! I don’t know about you but I love the feeling that comes from cleaning up and clearing out stuff. We just had a garage sale to get rid of a bunch of stuff that was cluttering up closets, the basement, the garage, etc. It’s amazing how quickly things can pile up and you don’t even realize it.
I agree that the feeling of clearing stuff out is great- I always feel like that’s one less thing to collect dust (which is something that we seem to have way too much of)!
I still need to finish decluttering from moving in a year ago! Now that the wifey and I have our own place my parents basically wanted me to take everything that they have kept from my childhood to here… and what do you really do with the stuff other than toss it? It isn’t really anything useful. That and my wife still has alot of knick knack frog items at her parents. Shrug, just need to starting combating this one spot at a time as you suggest!
We’ve had the same problem with my hubby’s parents wanting us to take all kinds of stuff that they’ve been storing at their house. My feeling is that if my hubby hasn’t needed those things in the last 20 years then he probably doesn’t need them at all! Unfortunately his mother seems to think that it is all incredibly sentimental and he needs to keep it. Sigh.
Take a picture of all the stuff and knick knacks included. Save on a CD or flash 🙂
Great tip!
These are great tips. My wife and I have recently started setting “decluttering dates” to do a closet or room section at a time. We began by getting a bunch of new boxes so that we can separate out items to be sold, donated, or recycled, as well as repack items in deteriorating boxes. I think the most difficult part is the items that don’t have a home, or have an inconvenient home in the wrong place. But slowly we’re getting there.
LOVE the idea of decluttering dates! That’s a great way to get through things on a regular basis!
Irony! We are doing our own organization challenge this month, and #2 really hit home for me. We tried to take a week to do the whole house in October, and as you can imagine, that was not nearly enough time. We’ve extended it to the whole month of November, and things are progressing nicely now.
Excellent! We had sooo much stuff to go through and declutter, I never could have done it in just a week. A month is a really nice time frame I think- enough time so that you won’t feel so rushed and can really take the time that the task deserves. Good luck on your challenge this month!
This is my goal! I need to read this every day until I get it done! So much to do…so much junk to get rid of!
It’s amazing how quickly things can accumulate- especially when you have a little one!!!
Thanks for mentioning me in your article! I think part of the reason that I decided to play that game in the first place was because one of my roommates was a hoarder. Like full on, his room was filled with junk and you couldn’t see the carpets (he just moved out last week so it was nice to purge all his stuff). I think having a lot less stuff in my house makes things feel much calmer.
I think one of the best parts about the game I played was that there was always a set number of things I had to purge each day. If it was just “get rid of things until I feel like I’m done” then I probably wouldn’t have gotten rid of as much stuff as I actually did.
Anyways, I like the minimalist lifestyle but I’m not entirely sure if I could truly ever be a minimalist. Perhaps if I just fill up a backpack sell everything else and just travel I could. Who knows, maybe one day that will happen.
Thanks for being my inspiration Zee!! The minimalist challenge really helped me get it done!! I agree, it was helpful to have a ready-made goal every day for the number of things that needed to go. Your old roommate sounds terrible- good thing he moved out!
Great tips!!! I will say when we moved from AZ to NC we downsized MAJORLY. We had to, as I didn’t want to drive across the country by myself with our toddler and baby, haha. We packed our entire 3 bedroom + loft house into a 6 x 12 Uhaul trailer! It felt SO GOOD to get rid of so much stuff, and once we got to NC it was so easy to unpack and organize. I never want to have a ton of stuff ever again!!
Thanks for the post!!
There is something really psychologically soothing about having your environment less clutter-filled, isn’t there? I bet it felt awesome to get rid of that much stuff- I kind of think that we’ve only scratched the surface on getting rid of things, which is why I want to do it again in a few months!
A couple months ago, I switched to an electronic filing system. I just scan everything and then toss / shred the paper. Before I would just toss everything in a huge pile – for months on end. Inevitably, I would need to find something under pressure. I would then have to drop whatever else was demanding my attention to search through my mountain. Followed by breaking down to actually organize it all. Plus I had to take the time to throw out the old stuff to make room for the new. SOOO much easier this way!!
Nice! That’s a GREAT way to help keep yourself organized- AND collect fewer papers! Win-win!!
THIS is something I’m working on. I have so many piles of paper all around the house, and I can’t find a thing. I have a printer/scanner, but am thinking about upgrading so I can go totally paperless. Everything gets uploaded into Evernote. I am hoping to make a good sized dent before moving in a month or two.
Decluttering before moving is always an excellent time to do it! Added bonus: Less stuff to move!!
I am actively downsizing and it feels GREAT. I love how airy and spacious my place feels after getting rid of so many unnecessary things.
Excellent! I feel the same way- it was especially great to get rid of so many electronic things which were collecting a ton of dust and probably leeching electricity (since we had most of them plugged in even though we weren’t using them!!) Ugh.
I’ve found that de cluttering a space gives me a sense of calm each time I walk in, or sit down to write at my workspace. It’s like a breath of fresh air! I love the idea of getting into a minimalist mindset, maybe I’ll de clutter my desktop…
I agree with the sense of calm. If my environment is cluttered, then it feels like my brain is cluttered!
Thank you for this helpful post.
Thank you for sharing these wonderful tips. I have been looking around and thinking “where do I start?” my daughter and I recently went through their toys and got rid of two huge boxes worth, but I swear those little buggers breed when I’m not looking and we are suddenly overrun again. I will have to start there and work my way through the house now.
Thank you for inspiring me to just start on it and not be overwhelmed by the enormity of the job.
I’m glad you found it useful! Thanks for stopping by!
I glad that I am not the only one that feels like this. And I think your ideas will help me alot better. I live with my mom and sister with her kids. So the Stuff that we have belong to all of us. And it is alot. So thanks again.
Thanks for stopping by!
The clutter-free zone idea appeals to me most. We have a kitchen desk that is the inevitable dumping place for everything. Keys, sunglasses, our vitiamins, papers, and other stuff. It looks so crowded and messy. This would be a good place to institute the clutter-free zone for us.
Yes!!