Some people love to declutter and some don’t but almost everyone can spend 15 minutes a day to declutter our home! And every single day your home will be more free of mess and clutter and that feels so so good! Let’s set our timers and declutter!
Does everything in your house have a home? A place it belongs preferably near its site of intended use? Or do you have “piles” of things? Maybe in baskets or dish pans (guilty) or tote bags or trash bags or boxes… all conveniently hidden away? Or maybe you have piles of paper and mail and magazines and shoes and books.
Or odds and ends or do-dads and clothes, and things you need to put away and they are piled up in plain site! Let’s talk about the best and easiest way to declutter your home!
But who has time to dig through all the mess and clean it up? YOU DO! Yes, you do, my friend! If you have 15 minutes in your day you can start to declutter. This is not an overnight, bring in the forklift and dig out decluttering. It’s gentler and kinder and actually works much better in the long run!
After decades of reading every kind of home organizing and cleaning book you can imagine I know the strategies that have worked best for me. I’d like to share one of the best with you…
This is a 15 minute declutter that you religiously do every day! You can have a clutter free home and keep it that way!
There are a few guidelines you need to follow for this declutter plan to work.
Ready?
JUST START!
Right now, today. Not tomorrow! And commit! Create time on your calendar to declutter!
The more committed you are to keeping a 15 minute date with your home to declutter it the better this plan will work.
You can certainly declutter your home longer than 15 minutes IF YOU HAVE TIME. But your goal is 15 minutes!
When 15 minutes is up feel fabulous! You have achieved something wonderful for you and your home!
EVERYTHING IN YOUR HOME NEEDS A HOME
When we don’t have a “home” or purposeful place for everything in our home we start that downward spiral to clutterland. And clutter begets stress and stress most of the time stress beget twins called inertia and apathy! Dealing with our clutter is just too stressful! And so more clutter accumulates. This is a vicious cycle, for sure!
The best way to destress our homes is to dig in and start clutter busting! Cleaning out and decluttering and finding places for EVERYTHING in our homes.
I often hear, I just don’t have a place for (fill in the blank)! Then, seriously you have too much stuff! Our homes can get bloated and busting at the seams! It’s time to let “stuff” go so we have room for everything! And maybe even have a bit of breathing room for our homes too!
THROW AWAY, GIVE AWAY, PUT AWAY
NOW here’s how to take action on your clutter! Your goal is to declutter your home 15 minutes at a time!
Grab a big trash bag and two laundry baskets (or boxes). Throw all the things that are not in good shape that you don’t use often in the trash bag. Put anything that does not belong in the room you are working on in one of the laundry baskets. This is your “put-away” basket. And everything that is in good shape that you no longer want or need goes in the “give-away” basket. Right now you are working as fast as you can to declutter.
Everything that stays in the room must have a home. Put things away neatly. From now on, you will know where everything in that room is and you will always put it away after you use it! If something new comes into that room, something else must be taken out. It does not take long for clutter to start accumulating. We all must be on our guard!
You might like to read DO THIS ONE THING FOR A MORE ORGANIZED HOME. In it, I explain the “put it away” plan!
When the trash bag gets full, throw it out immediately!
I empty the “give away” box into a box in my car and when I’m out and about I take it to Goodwill or other charitable organizations.
Hmmmm, what to do with the put-away box? Well, put it all away! Don’t let your put-away box become another pile of clutter. I try to keep my put away box down to a minimum. This motivates me to give almost everything in it away!
BE RUTHLESS
This is my mantra! BE RUTHLESS!!! We don’t need three lemon zesters. Two need to go! We should not have 10 extra bed pillows. Only enough for each bed and maybe one or two extra for a guest. Those extra and duplicate items we have in our homes cause clutter. And clutter is literally stressing us to death.
You don’t need to show your clutter love or send it off gratefully! NO! It is causing you and me lots of time, money and angst! Just get rid of it and don’t give it another thought!!!!!
WHERE IN YOUR HOME TO START YOUR DECLUTTER PLAN
Pick a room, any room and set a timer for 15 minutes. Now start straightening up and organizing. When the timer dings, you are done for the day… until tomorrow. Work a little every day. Some days you may have more time to give than others and that’s okay. The key is consistency. Make organizing a part of your life!
I like to start in my foyer because it is where people enter my home. Then I work around the room in a clockwise direction picking everything up. I don’t go into another room until the room I am working on is totally straightened up and everything in it has a well ordered “home”. We are not talking about cleaning it… we are talking about organizing it.
So now you pick a room. Go through every drawer, cabinet, and surface. Use the trash bag and 2 laundry baskets to get rid of everything that does not belong in that room! BE RUTHLESS about what you keep. Most of us tend to keep so much more than we can ever really use. Get rid of it… this is so freeing!
When one room is organized and decluttered, move to the next and dig in!
I like to work on organizing five days a week.
NEXT STEP ON THE DECLUTTER PLAN- MAINTENANCE
Once a room or drawer or closet or ANYTHING is decluttered you must be vigilant and RUTHLESS and keep it that way!
No more stashing and squeezing and dumping ANYTHING in any place!
As you bring something new into a space it MUST…
- be useful
- have a home
- fit in its home – be contained
- replace something else of its kind
Doing this EVERY SINGLE TIME is the key to staying organized! And this mindset is freeing and will save you tons of time trying to find things! And the big added bonus is that it will also save you lots of $$$!
WHAT TO DO WHEN YOU HAVE DECLUTTERED YOUR HOME
This is an ongoing process. You are never really done. Use those 15 minutes declutter minutes to start all over again and refine, edit and organize what you have.
The 15 minute declutter plan is the easiest way to organize a home. It might take longer than spending a week or two doing nothing but nose-to-the-grindstone organizing, but every little step is a step in the right direction!
Get a free printable of the 15 MINUTE DECLUTTER PLAN and a helpful list of things to give away and throw away below…
Yvonne, I am SO glad you posted this. I have never seen so many “new” fads in decluttering. And much like diet fads, they eventually peter-out. I have truly used this similar method for years. It not only makes your home look ‘together’ but it gives me some peace of mind when I know exactly where I can find something I need. AND when I am out “window-shopping” it lessens the temptation to buy on the spur-of-the-moment because I ask myself; Do I need this? Do I have a home for this? Is it something I already own? And what has to “go” to make room for it?
Love your BLOG and especially your Sunday sharing. Thank you for being a LIGHT.
Thank you for a simple, concise way to get on top of all the stuff. I’ve used a timer for years to keep me focused on tasks. It keeps me from going down the rabbit hole (looking at a magazine that I picked up, checking my phone, reading emails) and actually tidying and cleaning. Your idea with the garbage bag and put away, giveaway boxes is brilliant.
Thanks, Susan. I learned that system YEARS ago!!!! And still use it!
Ho! my goodness, has I was reading my mind was going through the dining room drawers,
Thinking of all the extra placemat,table cloths ,flatware and candles I have…
LOOKS LIKE TODAY IS THE DAY ….I have the time and the gummsion right now to just do it. ..thanks for the pip talk, I’m off and running. ..later…
Thank you for the organizing tips. You helped me get motivated. I especially liked the idea of setting a timer and doing one room at a time. I tend to put things in a place in the house(things I don’t use but save) and I clean them, set them back in the same spot and there they stay for month or more. Setting a timer plus doing it daily is a great idea and you won’t be overwhelmed with the task.
I read The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo. The best thing I ever did to get motivated.
I’ll have to look that book up! Thanks for sharing that book with us!
One thing I am good about is keeping junk out of my car and I go through all the mail each day. My bills go to to the desk where my laptop is, junk is recycled, magazines go in a stack to be read. I clear everything out of my car. I do have junk drawers and closets to clean, and that is my goal early this year. The main thing I need to work on is my craft room. I have way too much, more supplies than I will ever use. I plan to donate some of it. It just feels good to get organized!
We are preparing to downsize in a couple of years so this is to important when working toward that end. One important thing is to sort, shred, and file all incoming mail every day. I put bills to be paid in one spot, the recycle bin is in the attached garage, and our cross-cut shredder is just off the kitchen where we open the mail. Yvonne, I’m with you – I like to see one room completed before moving to another. That old saying works well too – my grandfather used to say there’s a place for everything and everything in its place – and it gets put there after use -that way I’m ahead of the game when I do my decluttering thing. Luv ya.
Great post, I started my decluttering last week. I have one room completed!!! It feels so good.
Great post! Can you share where you purchased the concrete vase that displays the tulips …. I love it!
Hi Valerie, This pretty urn came from HomeGoods. Hope this helps.
Yup…been decluttering and organizing. I started with my craft room….moved on to family room and so on. I don’t set a timer….but have a rule. Once an item is in the “box” to give away or throw away it can’t come out.
In the family room, which is large, I divided it up into segments…so far the desk got done…I will attack the books….
It feels good to get rid of things….
I was wondering…where do you store things used a few times a year….like cake pedestals and such??
Nancy
wildoakdesigns.blogspot.com
Hi Yvonne…I am new to your blog….your home is just beautiful! So much inspiration to be found! Thank you for this timely organization blog. I was feeling so overwhelmed with clutter, especially following Christmas and the Holidays and feeling that I cannot enjoy my home because of it….and so overwhelmed that I didn’t know where to start. You are so right about the spiral of clutter….it really carries into every aspect of your life. I am beginning today with your clutter plan…..setting the timer (excellent idea!) and getting to work on this. Love your idea about just two baskets and a trash bag! Many thanks and Happy Weekend!
Welcome to the StoneGable family Laura!!!
Thanks for sharing your strategies and tips for decluttering. Gentle reminders and rereading how-to’s helps to motivate me. I am guilty of storing items here, there, and anywhere I had a spare space. The problem is, I forget where I’ve put things. It has been so much better when I can group like items together and store them in one place. Example: having all napkins and placemats in one place. Mine don’t all fit in my dining room hutch, and I had them stored in several places. This summer I gathered them altogether, and decided to use a hanging multi-cubby organizer to stash all of the placemats and napkins and hang it in the front closet nearest the dining room. Napkins and placemats are rolled and stored in the cubbies. It’s working out very nicely for me. Now, no more searching in several places to find placemats when I want them. Thanks for sharing!
I’m a big fan of Marie Kondo. Her most helpful tip for me was to tackle clutter not by room but by category. If we’ve really let things get out of hand, there’s no telling where things are lurking. I went through the Konmari process two years ago, starting with clothing, then paper, and so on. The very last category was cleaning supplies. How I managed to acquire seven cans of Lemon Pledge is still a mystery.
Hi Mandy, So glad you found a process to declutter that works for you. I need to see progress ie one clean room at a time.
ps. Meant to say…this year also…I have finally decided to let go of most paper in my home…I’ve always kept way too much paper records, statements of everything “just in case”…so much time to manage, so weighed down by it all, and so unnecessary as most is accessabole online these days (and I never looked at most of it.). Only keeping what’s truly essential now and also went paperless on most bills now too. Again, the inundation of decluttering my parents’ stored papers (in their defense it was from a time nothing was on computers, and also they never owned a computer) has sharpened my “letting go” skills…I just refuse to have to spend time managing it all “just in case” anymore, but instead will take the approach…if the need comes up, (which it rarely does!!) there IS a way to access that info.
Hello! No matter how much I read and reread organizing tips…It always helps to keep me on track..so thank you. January is my big decluttering month, (though I purge clothing and stuff seasonally too) because it always involves paper shredding from the year (or years) previous. This year I had extra “stuff” and papers too because we just sold my mom’s home in late November and I “inherited” stuff (still sorting, keeping what’s precious, donating a lot else, swapping out my old stuff for stuff mom had bought with me in mind etc.) Also inherited a LOT of her “paperwork” so that’s been a project, but I’m getting to the bare bones now and am feeling quite accomplished. I’m in a small condo with limited closet space, so I can only accumulate so much. All my rooms & closets are pretty organized except my upstairs loft/office/workout room (ie. catch all for everything else)…so this room is the ongoing challenge. Really being more “ruthless”, (sharpened those skills while having to get rid of a LOT from mom’s.). But one of my best maintaining tips for keeping things in place while daily living/straightening is “handle something ONCE!”. I use to transfer things from room to room, place to place, to “put away later.” Now I consciously say “handle it once” in my mind and make a decision on it right then. And of course once “everything has a place to live” this is even easier. 🙂