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There are so many techniques you can use to help you declutter your home, but they all have the same end goal: reducing the volume of junk lying around your house and organizing what remains.
Where these techniques differ is in their methodologies. Some are better suited to larger homes or larger volumes of stuff, for instance. Some are ruthless, while others leave some wiggle room for items you are hesitant to part with. Here are some of my favorite decluttering techniques, so you can find one that will help you downsize with minimal stress.
Micro-decluttering, for going bit by bit
This technique is ideal for anyone feeling overwhelmed by the scope of the task facing them. It has been trending on cleaning blogs for some time, and while the phrase is novel, the idea is well-established: Instead of cleaning a whole room at once, choose small sections to tackle instead. So, instead of organizing the bathroom in a day, start with the medicine cabinet. The whole bedroom? No. The nightstands? Yes. The entire kitchen? Why not, instead, start with the silverware drawers?
Obviously, you’ll get around to all the other “micro” spaces within those rooms eventually, but focusing one a small section allows you to witness immediate results, revel in the feeling of accomplishment that brings, and consider whether you have the capacity to tackle another section right away. It’s similar to the ski-slope method below, but even less regimented, since there are no rules about the order you need to clean in. You can dedicate a week to sprucing up small sections of one room, or you can switch from room to room every time you clean.
The ski-slope method, for when you’re overwhelmed
Anita Yokota’s ski-slope method was born from her experience as a licensed therapist and interior designer and is meant to help you declutter in a way that won’t be overwhelming for you mentally. She outlines the method in her book Home Therapy: Interior Design for Increasing Happiness, Boosting Confidence, and Creating Calm, suggesting you imagine your messy room like a ski slope, zig-zagging from section to section instead of working in a straight line.
Rather than looking at the space as a whole (a huge mess you’ll never be able to clean!), start in one corner or section and work from there: Clean, declutter, and organize. Move to the next side or section and do it again. Continue moving through the room, working from side to side. As you finish each section, you can pause for a break if you need to, then pick back up where you left off.
Project 333: For when the closet is out of hand
Adhere to the TikTok-famous Project 333, which comes from comes from Courtney Carver’s Project 333: The Minimalist Fashion Challenge That Proves Less Really Is So Much More, if you want to pare down your wardrobe and create a “capsule wardrobe” of basic, mix-and-matchable pieces over time. Start by selecting 33 pieces of clothing, jewelry, and accessories (excluding underwear or sentimental, everyday-wear jewelry), then boxing everything else up for three months. At the end of that time, you’ll have combined your 33 pieces to make outfits and will have a better sense of what you really need for daily wear and what you own that might be good for donating.
For a similar approach, you can adapt the Pareto principle or 80/20 rule, recognizing that you use about 20% of your stuff 80% of the time, whether that’s the clothes you wear every day, the kitchen tools you use to make your most common meals, or anything else that you reach for the majority of the time. Once you start identifying the 80% of things you rarely use, it becomes pretty easy to give them the boot.
The 12-12-12 method, for when you have a lot of stuff
This is one of the longer-term methods on the list and it calls on you to overhaul your lifestyle a bit. When you use the 12-12-12 method, you find 12 things to throw away, 12 things to donate, and 12 things to put away—every day. With 12 in each category every day, you’re dealing with a number small enough to work with in an achievable way but big enough to make an impact on your clutter. Of course, you can move that number up or down slightly to accommodate your own needs, but the real idea here is that you get in the habit of identifying what you can get rid of and what needs to be organized and put away every day.
The organizational triangle, for getting and staying decluttered
Another longer-term, lifestyle-altering approach is the use of the Organizational Triangle, a concept from by pro organizer Andrew Mellen, the man behind The Most Organized Man in America’s Guide to Moving and Unstuff Your Life: Kick the Clutter Habit and Completely Organize Your Life for Good. This three-tiered approach provides a simple process for maintaining a clutter-free home:
Every item needs a home.
Keep like with like.
Use a “something in, something out” approach.
By making sure you get into the habit of putting everything where it belongs (and getting rid of things that don’t belong anywhere), storing everything with related items, and getting rid of one thing every time you bring something new in, you can not only get organized, but stay organized.
The five-second rule, for making quick decisions
The five-second rule is a trick you can use when you’re decluttering to make fast decisions about what stays and what goes. It’s a widely adaptable technique from organizational coach Mel Robbins, who advocates for it in her books. Basically, you should make major decisions in under five seconds, counting down five, four, three, two, one so your brain senses some urgency. At the end of the countdown, you have to make a choice—when you’re decluttering, you’ll decide whether to keep something and find a place for it or toss it or donate it. In your heart, you already know which items are useful and need to stick around. Instead of deliberating over the decision, make it fast and keep going so you don’t lose momentum.
If you’re really stuck after five seconds, there are two questions you can ask yourself to illuminate the right choice: According to organizational gurus the Minimalists, you should ask yourself, “Could I replace this item for less than $20?” and “Could I replace it in less than 20 minutes?” If the answer to both is yes, that thing can go. The space you’ll save by tossing it will be worth the $20 you may spend in the unlikely event you ever need it again.
KonMari, for creating a happier home
Arguably the most famous method on the list, Marie Kondo’s KonMari method leaves a little room for the items you care about, even if they have fewer practical uses than others. Kondo’s method of organizing follows a few simple steps designed to ensure “you will never again relapse to clutter.” Here’s what she calls for:
Commit yourself to tidying up.
Imagine your ideal lifestyle.
Finish discarding first.
Tidy by category and not by location.
Follow the right order.
Ask yourself if it sparks joy, and get rid of it if it doesn’t.
The Peter Walsh method, for building the home of your dreams
Walsh method is similar to Kondo’s, but a little stricter. Compare her steps with his and spot the differences:
Empty your space.
Create a vision for the space and set an intention for it.
Sort everything you removed into a “vision” pile and an “out-the-door” pile.
Get rid of the “out-the-door pile” by donating or throwing everything away.
Move everything from the “vision” pile back into the space.
Fully emptying your space is more intense than just organizing it as-is, so choose this technique if you really need an overhaul.
“Decluttering at the Speed of Life,” for everyday maintenance
The Decluttering at the Speed of Life method comes from Dana K. White, who has chronicled her “deslobification” journey on a blog since she began in 2009. She took notes of all her wins and failures as she sought to find a way to declutter without getting overwhelmed, keeping track of what worked and what didn’t—and ultimately published a book, Decluttering at the Speed of Life: Winning Your Never-Ending Battle with Stuff. To utilize her technique, select a small area, and do these five things:
Start with trash, like receipts, wrappers, bags, anything that is broken, expired food or products, or anything you simply don’t need or use at all. Throw all that away.
Do the easy stuff. Put everything out of place back where it belongs.
Categorize “duh clutter,” or anything that could be donated. Keep a box on hand and toss anything worthy of donation into it.
Ask yourself one or two decluttering questions. First, “If I needed this item, where would I look for it?” If you can instantly think of an answer, take the item where it belongs. If you can’t think of an answer, ask a follow-up: “If I needed this item, would it occur to me that I already had one?” Get rid of the thing if the answers are no.
Finally, make it fit. Only keep what you have space for and organize those.
Throw a packing party, for an objective approach
Another intense, room-clearing option is the “packing party,” which also comes from the Minimalists. To throw a packing party, invite your friends over and have them help you pack everything in the room into boxes, as if you were moving, and label those boxes. For three weeks after that, live your life as normal, only pulling things out of the boxes if and as you need them. At the end of the three weeks, go through whatever you haven’t needed and commit to throwing or donating most of it. This method helps you “move back in” to a cleaner space full of only the things you really need.
“365 Less Things,” for long-haul decluttering
Colleen Madsen’s unique 365 Less Things technique is a slow burn. It will take a year to complete, but at the end of that year, you’ll be living in a cleaner, more organized space—and will have built up the habits that can keep it that way. All you do is commit to getting rid of one thing every day for a year. The goal here isn’t instant progress, but incremental progress that you can learn from. Set a reminder in your phone for every day at a certain time and, when the alarm goes off, find one thing to get rid of. You can donate it, sell it, or throw it away, but it has to go. The beauty of this method is that while it takes time, the time is actually beneficial: Eventually, it’ll become second nature to find and get rid of one thing in your home every day. Plus, decluttering so incrementally is a lot less overwhelming than other methods of home cleaning and organization, so it’s perfect for if you’re feeling too put-upon by the daunting task.
The calendar method, for when you need structure
Another technique that is similar to 365 Less Things is the calendar method. This is a little faster and more structured, so it’s ideal if you have a lot of things to throw out and want to get rid of them all relatively quickly, but haven’t built up the habit of being able to do that yet. Start on the first of the month and get rid of one thing. On the second day, get rid of two. On the third, out go three. You see where I’m going with this. On the 30th, you’ll get rid of 30 things. In a month with 31 days, you’ll end up doing away with nearly 500 items. This works well because it slowly builds that decluttering muscle. On the first day, you might really struggle to part with one thing, but the more you do it, the easier it will get. Plus, as the days go on, you’ll start noticing results, which will motivate you down the stretch.
The before-and-after technique, for when you need motivation
If you’re a more visual person, the Before and After approach from Becoming Minimalist is for you. Pick a small section of your home, like a countertop or junk drawer, and snap a picture of it. Then, clean it up. Just focus on the small area you photographed. Once you’re done, take a new picture and compare the two. Do this any time you have a few minutes to dedicate to a minor cleaning task, so the pics are right next to each other in your camera roll. When you can see the difference just by swiping between the two photos, you’ll feel motivated to keep going. Without the pictures, it can be hard to remember what the mess even looked like, so you won’t stay as motivated to clean or keep it clean.
(If you need more motivation, here are my favorite tools to help you declutter and the best apps to help you keep your cleaning on track.)
The 10/10 theory, for when you need clarity on an item’s value
When you’re decluttering, you’ll inevitably pick up an item that you’re really not sure if you should keep or toss. It may be a little sentimental or you may start playing the classic mind game of, “But what if I need this later?” That’s where the 10/10 theory comes in. This is an exercise you complete before decluttering. Make a list of your 10 most expensive items. Then, make one of the 10 things you own that bring you the most joy. Keep going. Try a list of the 10 things you use the most, the 10 you use least, the 10 things you could never replace, or 10 things you could very easily replace, either in terms of speed or money. Once you start reframing how you think of the “value” of your possessions, you begin to see patterns about what is worth keeping and what really isn’t. Doing this ahead of time and noticing what you place value on will help you when you get down to the nitty-gritty of actually decluttering.
The chaos method, for when you need to declutter things you’ve already organized
The so-called “chaos” method is perfect for helping you assess how much stuff you really have and if you even have the space to hold it all. It’s perfect for anyone whose clutter and junk is at least semi-organized, put away somewhere out of sight. Pull it all out and dump it into a pile, which will be your “chaos.” Then, sort, categorize, and declutter everything, moving through the pile one item at a time, until you have a bunch of smaller piles. Once you have your smaller piles and categories, you can see just how much volume is in each, then decide where they should go within the closet again. You can put them in the most logical, economical space (ideally a container!) and make that decision based on how much space they really need. It’s easy to let junk pile up if it’s out of sight and out of mind, but just because you have everything jammed into a closet or drawer doesn’t mean it’s really, truly organized. You have to haul it all out and see its real volume. Just make sure you do this in small increments. Don’t do your entire bedroom at once, for instance, but go drawer by drawer, closet by closet, etc.