How to Declutter Your Home Fast: 11 Simple Tips

A cluttered house makes every part of daily living more complicated and uncomfortable. You can’t find your keys when you’re already running late. You don’t have enough space on the table for dinner after a day of using it for a home office or crafts. Every shelf, countertop, and closet is full of so many things you don’t even know what you own anymore. To pile on top of the physical issue of clutter, having a disorganized and untidy home can lead to mental exhaustion, reduced productivity, and increased stress.

If you need to declutter your home, these 11 simple tips will help.

Use the Three Box Method

For every part of your house, you want to declutter, use four boxes or piles: keep, donate, and throw out. Whenever you sift through a drawer or clean off a shelf, focus on what you can add to the donation and throw out boxes first. Remind yourself of your decluttering goal, look for alternatives to keeping everything that ‘might’ be important or usable someday, and recognize that other people with less may appreciate the items more.

Start Small – Spaces

Attempting to declutter the whole house or even a single room can feel overwhelming, especially for someone already suffering from a cluttered mind. Pick one drawer or one shelf and focus on the process. Celebrate finishing it, focus on the positives whenever you get anything, and remove it from your life.

Minimize Book Piles and Free Up Shelves

Even if you aren’t an avid reader, you undoubtedly have some books lying around taking up space. Planning ahead, like taking advantage of college book rentals instead of buying, is a great way to preemptively reduce clutter. However, if you already have them, there’s an option to sell textbooks back with BookScouter for the best possible prices.

What about novels, art books, and general non-fiction? Schools, libraries, shelters, and prisons take book donations regularly. Some are recyclable if they’re not in good enough shape to keep. Ebooks make decluttering a breeze. You can find a digital version of your favorites and let go of the paper copies.

Cull Your Closets

Whether you’re into fashion or not, most adults end up with too many clothes they don’t really wear or need. Throw out anything unsuitable or too worn. Donate things that don’t fit your body or your lifestyle anymore. If you did not wear a particular item in the past year, you probably won’t need to wear it next year, either. This is especially true for things like fancy clothes or very trendy styles. For the items you do keep, consider a modular closet storage system to make everything easier to see and access.

Declutter in Small Chunks of Time

Just like cleaning out a single drawer or shelf, it’s also a lot easier to focus on the uncomfortable chore for just 10 or 15 minutes at a time. Set a timer on your phone or create an upbeat ‘Declutter Playlist’ of a few favorite songs that last a long time. Your mind will stay on task better, and you won’t feel overwhelmed by the huge stretch of complex and sometimes stressful work ahead of you.

Sentimental Stuff Limitations

Do you need every floral arrangement from your wedding 20 years ago to remember the love you share with your husband? Does your high school yearbook still bring you joy even though you haven’t kept in touch with any of your classmates? Do you get any benefit from the little plastic snow globe from a trip you took with your family as a child?

Chances are that a lot of sentimental things don’t provide any real benefit to your life anymore. Digitize photos you can look back through and consider getting rid of the physical stuff sitting around in boxes.

Go Digital on Media and Memories

Streaming services, the internet, and digital files have made physical copies of most things obsolete. Do you still have a stack of CDs you listened to in high school lying around? Do you hang onto your DVDs or video tapes because you still like the movies? Photo albums may take up just as much space in your home, contributing to clutter. Go through your collection and find out where you can access the same media online or on your smart TV. You may even find some new favorites to enjoy.

Set Up a Storage System that Works

Never buy new storage containers for unnecessary things. Avoid ‘fancy’ or decorative storage containers unless they contain stuff you use in that room, like a covered basket for extra blankets in a guest room. Too many baskets or bins create clutter, too. Use modular shelving and tubs in closets and other storage spaces. Use transparent containers and labels to see what’s inside so you don’t accidentally buy repeats later.

Keep Kitchen Clutter Clean

The kitchen is a surprising spot for high amounts of clutter and the place you want it the least. You can’t cook meals efficiently with too many unused items, gadgets, tools, and ingredients. Take it one drawer, cabinet, and countertop at a time and declutter everything. Ask yourself the last time you used each small appliance or tool. Do you need a rice cooker, pressure cooker, steamer, crockpot, and electric wok? Why do you have three can openers and five whisks?

The same decluttering efforts should deal with your food, too. Old spices lose flavor, and you may never cook something with caraway seeds or fenugreek. The half-full bag of cornmeal from your southern cooking experiments is just taking up space. Meal planning can help keep things neat and organized in the future.

Special Decluttering Tips for Kids’ Stuff

If you have children, you face even more trouble with clutter. Toys, arts and crafts projects, and unique “treasures” can build up quickly. Get them on board with the decluttering plan. Pick one or two places to display art, which they need to change when making something new. Limit the number of toys they own, and introduce them to the idea of donating ones they don’t play with as much so other kids can get a chance for fun.

Make a Promise to Banish Clutter Forever

Ultimately, the only way to declutter effectively is to adopt a more straightforward and cleaner lifestyle for the long term. It’s easy to slip back into old habits and let stuff accumulate again. Schedule regular sweeps of your home with your weekly chores to keep things under control. You can enjoy a clutter-free home and more peace of mind in your space.