Clutter-Free Home: 10 Tips That Make A Huge Difference
Think a clutter-free home is impossible? Think again! Today I am sharing 10 decluttering tips to maintain a tidy home.
Let me guess….keeping your home organized is a constant struggle?
That’s because organizing is never-ending.
What you really need to do to maintain a tidy house on auto-pilot is to get rid of the clutter.
How do you start decluttering?
Thanks to Marie Kondo, everyone is ready to “tidy up” their home and clear the clutter.
As a busy mom whose life was changed by simplifying and decluttering, I couldn’t be more excited. I can’t wait for you to experience the impact of a clutter-free home that you can enjoy and relax in, but where do you start?
If you’ve been hesitating or easily overwhelmed by clutter in the past, the best method is to start with small tasks.
By tackling small areas one at a time, you will make quick progress – which is SUPER motivating.
Before you know it, these small steps will add up, and your entire home will feel more clean and organized.
While it may be tempting to tackle a large project first, doing so can have the opposite effect leaving you with more of a mess than when you started.
I am sharing easy steps you can take to declutter your home today.
Please note: This article is not meant to be a step-by-step guide to declutter your entire home. Instead this post covers easy decluttering tips to get you going in the right direction.
However, I promise that if you follow all ten steps listed below, your home will begin to feel clutter-free in no time.
If you are interested in diving in deeper and tackling larger projects be sure to grab my free quick-declutter checklist. This will add you to my email list and you will receive access to all my future posts and my “Declutter your Life” series.
Top 10 Tips for a Clutter-Free Home
1. Stop Procrastinating
While this may seem obvious, it’s honestly the number one reason why the majority of people continue to live in cluttered homes. It’s easy to procrastinate or find something else to do, but that is just going to delay any benefits that are waiting for you on the other side of the clutter.
The sooner you start working on decluttering your home, the faster you will see progress.
You don’t have to wait for a milestone event in order to start simplifying. You can start today.
“The first step in crafting the life you want is to get rid of everything you don’t.” —Joshua Becker, “The Minimalist Home: A Room-by-Room Guide to a Decluttered, Refocused Life“
2. Clear Just One Surface
I often suggest starting with your kitchen counter, dinner table or nightstand.
Make it a surface you see daily, and commit to keeping it clear consistently.
Focusing on this one simple step will allow you to create the habits it takes to maintain a clutter-free home over time.
Repeat 1x each month until all flat surfaces in your home are cleared.
3. Empty a Shelf
Now that you have a surface cleared that you will see every day to provide you motivation, you can move on to another small task.
Empty just one shelf.
It could be a bookshelf, or a shelf inside a cabinet. Often, a shelf in the kitchen or bathroom is easy to keep clear by discarding expired or unused products.
Repeat 1x each week until all shelves have been cleared of clutter.
4. Tackle Junk Mail Immediately
Nothing accumulates and gets out of control like junk mail.
Make it a habit to open, process and shred all mail as soon as it enters your home.
Personally, this was an area that was always a challenge for me. I eventually found success through the combination of using a financial organizer and a paper shredder
Repeat Daily
5. Find a Permanent Home for 5 Items
We all have a few items that never seem to get put away. Carefully choose your five most commonly left-out items, and find special places to store them.
Repeat Monthly
6. Donate Three Pieces of Clothing
Clothes are often the worst to declutter. We tend to get really attached to our clothes and stay that way even when they no longer fit or when we haven’t worn them in years.
To make the process as easy and pain-free as possible, choose just three pieces to give away each week. Soon you’ll have a bag full ready to donate
Repeat Weekly
Related Post: Declutter your Closet with a Capsule Wardrobe
7. Dump One Drawer
Pick just one drawer in your home to declutter.
Then dump it out.
This lets you see everything at a glance and makes the sorting process easier. Group similar items and then decide how many you actually need to keep.
While your at it, pop in a drawer organizer. You’ll be amazed at how much tidier everything looks when it’s nice and organized.
Promise yourself that you won’t put everything back in the drawer.
Repeat weekly until all drawers are clutter-free.
8. Organize Your Medicine Cabinet
Medicine, bandages and other health supplies should be kept together. Tackle just your medicine cabinet, creating a neat and tidy place to keep the up-to-date items you use most regularly.
Only needs to be done once.
9. Prioritize Your Living Room
Most likely, you spend the majority of your time (awake) at home in your living room.
That’s the space that your guests see when they visit and where the majority of your attention goes as soon as you walk in the front door.
Sit down with your family and set some boundaries and rules to help keep the living room clean and clutter-free.
We love to use baskets for each family member in the living room. At the end of the day, all items are placed in the baskets and returned to the bedroom of the owner for them to put away.
Repeat daily or nightly
10. Donate Items Immediately
A common reason that clutter often sticks around is because it isn’t dealt with immediately.
Once you decide that an item no longer belongs in your home and could be helpful to someone else, then the items needs to leave your home as soon as possible.
You may want to keep a large plastic bin in your laundry room, closet or even the trunk of your car. As soon as the bin is full take it to the donation center so that your not left with unwanted clutter sitting in your home for months on end.
Repeat whenever the bin is full.
Ready to kickstart you journey to living with less?
How to Keep a Clutter-Free Home: Frequently Asked Decluttering Questions
What are some great tips to keep one’s home tidy and free of clutter?
One of the best tips to prevent clutter is to clarify what you want vs. what you actually need. This is a challenging concept, even for most adults.
Our culture is so focused on material items and convenience that it takes a mindset shift to break these clutter-causing habits.
Minimalism is about more than just having a neat and tidy home. It’s about being mindful of our impulses and spending habits.
Here are a few strategies to get you started if this is challenging for you:
- Stop making purchases just because it’s a good deal or on sale
- Make a shopping list and only purchase items on the list
- Avoid malls or “trigger” stores (ie Target, Costco etc).
What are some easy ways to reduce the clutter at home?
Whether you schedule on the calendar or randomly decide when it’s time – get the entire family involved.
No one said that decluttering and organizing has to be boring! If you have kids and want to keep things tidy, make a game out of it.
- Turn on some good music when it’s time to do an evening pick up
- Set a timer and see who can find the most items to donate
- Offer a small reward (ideally an experience and not an object, in the spirit of minimalism) for the kiddo who keeps his area cleanest.
You might be surprised at how much fun it can be to declutter with kids if you turn it into a game.
How can I declutter my home in 30 days?
The answer to this question depends on many factors:
- How large is your home?
- How much clutter do you have?
- Will multiple family members be involved?
That being said, a great way to motivate yourself is with a 30-Day Decluttering Challenge.
Final Thoughts on Creating a Clutter-Free Home
Creating a clutter-free home isn’t something that happens overnight
Just take a deep breath and remember that these things take time, the most important step you can take is to just get started!
Eventually, the new habits will stick and the tidy home you have always dreamt of will become a reality.
How To Have a Clutter-Free Home
I wish to declutter but my problem is my husband, what i do sometimes is to give away when he is not around. Any other tips so i can declutter quickly.
Trying getting your husband on board with the project! One thing that motivates my husband is the money that we make from selling the items that we don’t need.
These are great tips! I practice some of them but need to be consistent. Thanks for the post!
Yes, being consistent with applying strategies to declutter and get organized is key to success. Once they become habits then you really reap the benefits of just a little bit on maintenance decluttering here and there.
This is so important! Not too long ago I got rid of a ton of stuff and immediately felt better. But when I looked around I realized…we still have too much stuff! Your point about wants vs. needs is so essential because my daughter and I do just fine without buying new things (well, except books ? ) but my son is the pack rat.
Yes! When you start to declutter it’s amazing how it makes you realize how much stuff you have. Such an eye opening experience right! I am glad to hear that it’s an easy process for you and your daughter. Your son will get there he just needs a little practice and guidance 😉
Love these, especially teaching your kids material things aren’t important. I think that is so true. Thanks for these tips!
There are many great tips in this post, thank you for sharing! Being organized and clutter free are important factors that need to be addressed on a regular basis. We have an extra room that has become our storage area. We are constantly cleaning it out and organizing it. Each time we do this we feel much better and it makes a huge impact on the appearance of the room. Design and organization go hand in hand.
Pick an area of the house to clear out. Pull everything away. Wipe clean put only the items you want there. Put all the others in room box bring box to the place you want to put the items. Also start a try on fest if it doesn’t fit toss to a donation bag.
“By tackling small areas one at a time, you will make quick progress – which is SUPER motivating.”
This is so true. I finally started making real progress this spring doing just this and then life got in the way….I lost the daily habit and thus the motivation. I’m trying to start small again. Love the tips here!