The golden rule of decluttering is to keep only what serves your life today, not your "someday" self. This involves letting go of items you do not love, use, or need, focusing on keeping surfaces clear and only holding onto items that add value to your current life, rather than holding onto things out of guilt or fear.
The 5-5-5 Rule for decluttering, popularized by Steph of The Secret Slob and Apartment Therapy, is a quick, low-pressure method that involves setting a 25-minute timer, picking five different zones in your home, and spending just five minutes tidying or decluttering each zone before moving to the next, making it ideal for tackling daily messes without feeling overwhelmed.
Be clear about the sentimental items that should have a place in your home. You only have so much space to store them all. "Family photos, heirlooms, and keepsakes are often decluttered because they feel like clutter, when the real challenge is deciding how to honor the memory," says Hines.
Most people probably think the hardest thing to declutter is sentimental clutter. While it's true that presents its own challenges, I actually think the hardest thing to declutter is aspirational clutter. This type of clutter is tied to your actual identity!
The 5 Most Common Clutter Personalities
Her concept is deceivingly simple, right down to its self-explanatory name. The rule is: put away your things immediately and avoid handling them more than once after you're done with them. That's it.
The Most Effective First Room: The Kitchen
Among all the choices, the kitchen is one of the best rooms to declutter first.
The rule, coined by David Allen, productivity guru and author of Getting Things Done, basically says that anything that can be done in 2 minutes or less should be done right then and there. This has countless applications to housework — especially to decluttering.
As mentioned, 10 items a day quickly adds up and it gives you a real, quantifiable way to track your decluttering progress. Being able to put a number to the amount of things you've decluttered in just a few days can be motivating, encouraging you to keep up the progress.
101 Items That You Can Declutter Today!
27 fling boogie: This is another clever tool to help you declutter. Walk through your home with a garbage bag and collect 27 items. Do not stop until you have 27. Then close the garbage bag and throw it away.
The 50% rule for clutter is a straightforward decluttering method that challenges you to reduce the number of items in any space (drawer, closet, room) by half, aiming to keep spaces only 50% full for easier management, better organization, and a less overwhelming environment, often by removing duplicates, unused items, or things you no longer love, creating breathing room and simplifying decision-making.
Compulsive decluttering is a type of disorder that is classified within a broad name, obsessive compulsive disorder, or OCD. Compulsive decluttering is the act of throwing items, or clutter, away, or getting rid of them in an attempt to "clean up" what one with the disorder may think is cluttered.
4 types of clutter
Don't be too quick to toss items with deep personal significance, such as family heirlooms or cherished photographs. Even in a digital age, certain physical documents remain crucial. Minimalists advise keeping important records like birth certificates and tax documents.
In this section, we uncover ten time-consuming household tasks you could easily outsource right away.
Developed by Joshua Fields Millburn and Ryan Nicodemus of The Minimalists, the 90/90 rule is simple: If you haven't used or loved an item in the past 90 days, and don't see yourself needing it in the next 90 days, it's time to let it go.
9 Simple Ideas to Thin Out Your Closet
The KonMari Method™ encourages tidying by category – not by location – beginning with clothes, then moving on to books, papers, komono (miscellaneous items), and, finally, sentimental items. Keep only those things that speak to the heart, and discard items that no longer spark joy.