The no pile – these items got a no to all questions 3. The maybe pile – these items got some yes and some no. From here, move on to step 2. Step 2: Reflect + Remove Now, let’s declutter! At this point, you’ll reflect on what each pile means to you. The goal of decluttering is not just to get rid of stuff.
PART 2: Room-by-Room Decluttering & Organizing Tips. Now that you have the tools you need to tackle any decluttering project in your home, you are ready for our ridiculously thorough, room-by-room decluttering tips. Decluttering room-by-room is the most efficient way to declutter. Mentally prepare to declutter your life. If you are serious about decluttering, you need to start. Clutter (March 29, 1930 - December 9 2019) was an American biologist, assistant director at the National Science Foundation In 1991, she was awarded the Presidential Distinguished Executive Award. She was awarded the 2006 ASPB Leadership in Science Public Service Award. She was a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). Clutter 3 - Who is the Void The Void takes the Clutter game to whole new heights, but who exactly is the Void? Clutter II The Clutter is back and it needs to be cleaned in Clutter II: He Said, She Said! Clutter Infinity: Joe's Ultimate Quest The next Clutter game is finally here!
The thought of living with less clutter is appealing to many and the benefits are well-known—but most of us aren’t aware of the many decluttering methods.
Owning less stuff means having more time for the most important aspects of our lives. It creates more space and ease in our homes. As desirable as those results may be, the thought of decluttering a home can be overwhelming with a lifetime of stuff collected in basements and closets.
While minimizing will likely require significant time and effort, having some good decluttering methods up your sleeve can make all the difference.
It wasn’t until Amy and I found a decluttering method called The Minimalist Game that we started making consistent progress towards getting rid of the clutter in our lives.
It can be intimidating to know where to start, but choosing one of these six popular decluttering methods can help.
Whether you’re new to minimalism or looking for ways to further your minimalist lifestyle, these methods below are frameworks to help guide you.
If you prefer video, click play on the video below or click here to watch on YouTube. Otherwise, read on!
1 / KonMari Method
This method was made popular by Marie Kondo, the author of The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up, and is arguably one of the most well-known decluttering methods out there. With over four million book copies sold, it’s no surprise that her method has gotten so much attention.
Basics: The core principle of the KonMari method is that instead of deciding what to get rid of, you choose what to keep and declutter the rest. To get started, collect every single item you own in a particular category and put them in a big pile. For example, get every t-shirt that you own and put them on the bed. Hold, feel, or wear each one so that you can get a good sense of how it makes you feel. While doing this, ask:
Does this (shirt) spark joy in my heart?
Pros: This decluttering method is incredibly thorough, and allows you to compare all items of a similar type. By doing this, you are able to get rid of any duplicates and compare less-liked items to better ones you may have. It’s an effective way to make a lot of progress decluttering in specific categories across multiple areas of the house at once.
Cons: The KonMari method is time-consuming and requires sorting through an entire household of stuff. Instead of focusing on a room or two, you’re pulling things from the entire house so it has the potential to completely uproot your home.
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2 / Minimalist Game
Introduced by Ryan Nicodemus and Joshua Fields Millburn of The Minimalists, this is a method that gamifies the decluttering experience. It’s a popular decluttering method with hundreds of people using the #minsgame hashtag on social media every month.
Basics: Beginning on the first day of a month, the number of things you declutter corresponds to the day of the month. One item on the first day, two items on the second day, three on the third, and so on. By the end of a 31-day month, you will have removed 496 items from your home if you play all the way through. This game works best when you challenge a friend or family member and see who can keep going the longest.
Pros: After a month, you will have decluttered of a ton of stuff! Removing almost 500 items from your home is no small feat, and you can play as many months in a row as you’d like. Another important aspect of this decluttering method is that it starts small and increases over time. This allows you to build confidence in your decision-making abilities and get increasingly better letting go of stuff.
Cons: A major downside of minsgame is that you have to stay consistent each day otherwise it’s easy to fall behind. Much like Tetris, the difficulty increases each level, and it can also be difficult to keep up if you’re inconsistent. Towards the end of the month, you’ll need to find a good number of items each day. After a long day of work, the last thing you may want to do is find 25 items to declutter that day.
3 / Four Box Method
This method is a flexible way to deal with all the items cluttering up your home for however long and whatever frequency you prefer. By sorting the clutter into four categories, you’ll make a decision on every out-of-place item.
Basics: Set up four boxes in a room and label them: Put away, Give away, Throw away, and Undecided. Pick up clutter in the room and place it into one of the four boxes. Then process each box according to the name. This version allows for some flexibility by using the Undecided box if you’re not sure what to do with a particular item yet. Another variation of this method without the Undecided box can be found from Joshua Becker on Becoming Minimalist.
Pros: This decluttering method is straightforward, and there’s a category for everything. Instead of getting stuck on an item, items in the Undecided box can be reconsidered at some future date. It allows you to be flexible and declutter at your own pace.
Cons: The Undecided box can become a problem if too many things start to pile up in it. It’s best to avoid using this box as much as possible and only put in things you’re really unsure about.
4 / One Method
Basics: This method combines other similar philosophies into a simple concept: get rid of one thing every single day for a period of time. That thing can be literally one item, one filled box, or one filled bag per day.
Pros: The One Method really helps to build a habit of decluttering. By getting rid of an amount every single day, you’re able to build decluttering into your daily routine. Another major benefit is the flexibility to create your own system. You can choose your level for each day depending on how much you need to declutter.
Cons: It may be difficult to maintain consistency with a busy schedule or when you’re traveling. This also wouldn’t work well for people who prefer to declutter in big bursts versus small steps each day.
5 / Packing Party
Another decluttering method from The Minimalists, this is a fairly extreme method for decluttering your home, and more likely to be used if you’re already planning on moving to a new home. While it takes a ton of preparation and work, it can be quite effective if you go through with it.
Basics: Have some friends over and pack everything you own into boxes as if you were moving. Throughout the next few months, only take out the items you use. Any items left inside the boxes after three months can be sold or donated.
Pros: This is one of the more extreme and labor-intensive decluttering methods. The Packing Party will help you get rid of whatever you don’t use. Things out of sight are generally out of mind, so you likely won’t even miss what’s in the boxes. This method is fantastic if you already happen to be moving. At your new home, only take out the things you need to use instead of unpacking everything right away.
Cons: This method probably doesn’t make a lot of sense to do unless you are already packing up for a move. Not only will it take a significant amount of time and energy, there’s also the cost of purchasing boxes if you don’t already have them. This method also doesn’t work well for seasonal items or items only used a couple times a year.
6 / Closet Hanger Method
Oprah brought a lot of attention to this method as another effective way to figure out what clothing and other items you actually use. With this method, you can track exactly what’s been used, a few pieces at a time.
Basics: Per the name, this works best for clothing stored on hangers in your closet (duh). The most important thing is to ensure all hangers are facing the same direction when you begin. Each day, you place whatever you wore back in the closet with the hanger facing in the opposing direction to signify what pieces you used.
Pros: This decluttering method is easy to implement and takes almost no time to get started. It’s also a clear-cut way to see exactly what you’re using and what you’re not. The same method can be applied to things outside of clothing, but you’ll need to come up with a way to mark what items are used.
![Declutter Declutter](https://i.pinimg.com/474x/c9/ce/2d/c9ce2de8eebd2ab64462615047ce41dc.jpg)
Cons: The Closet Hanger method doesn’t work well for clothing folded in a drawer or on a shelf. It also doesn’t work well for non-clothing items. It can also be easy to forget to put the clothing item back on the hanger facing the appropriate way. And similarly to the Packing Party method, this method doesn’t work well for seasonal or infrequently used items.
Whichever decluttering method you choose, getting started is the most important thing. Life does get better beyond the constant stress of clutter, it just takes some time and effort to get there. If you found this post helpful, check out this intentional decluttering guide for what to do with your decluttered things.
This year, I am embarking on another Declutter 1k Challenge, wherein I get rid of 1,000 items from my home in one year. Last year, I did the same challenge and cleaned out my kitchen, closet, office, medicine cabinet, as well as donated things and sold things on the Next Door app. I got rid of 1,089 items total and learned a lot in the process.
Since joining the FIRE movement, Dragon Guy and I have steadily decreased our monthly expenses. We began living with less: no cable, no gym membership, no XM radio.
Soon that “living with less” mindset began trickling into the rest of my life. Whereas FIRE is about evaluating our relationship to money, decluttering is about how we relate to physical objects.
How much stuff is enough?
I’m on a journey to find out.
Decluttered Items
Top row l-r: 1 modem cable; 2 passport holders & 1 contact case; 5 phones
Middle row: 8 license plates; 1 calendar, 1 folder, 3 plastic sheets, 1 spiral binder; 12 drafts of posts
Last row: 3 disks, 1 plastic thingy, 1 mini pop up book, 1 measuring tape; 1 modem & 4 phone cables; 1 nightstand
TOTAL: 47 ITEMS
Top row: 1 large bag of old papers; 1 patch, 2 pill bottles, 1 key card, 2 pool tags; 2 magazines, 1 old calendar, 3 booklets, 2 phone information packets,1 book cover
Middle row: 1 FinCon19 bag; 1 lanyard, 1 old phone charger plug, 1 set of plastic Chinese coins, 1 calculator, 1 charm, 1 cable thingy, 1 tape dispenser, 2 strings, 3 thingamabobs
Last row: 4 magazines, 2 football programs, 3 notebooks; 1 pen, 1 jump drive, 1 box; 3 tickets
TOTAL: 44 ITEMS
Left picture: 1 musical instrument
Top row: 2 light bulbs, 1 vase
Middle row: 1 bookcase, 1 cheeseboard, 3 cheese knives
Bottom row: 3 cables, 1 phone, 1 keychain, 1 pair of slippers, 2 magazines
TOTAL: 17 ITEMS
Clockwise from top left:
34 toilet paper rolls and 27 egg cartons (given to a neighbor for children’s art projects) Edgeview 2 1 992 download free.
2 magazines, 1 pile of papers, 1 empty box of glue sticks
2 pieces of wood
1 old lunch bag
TOTAL: 68 ITEMS
Top Row: 7 solar lights from lawn, 3 plastic bottles, 1 chip clip, a bunch of broken rubber bands; 2 tennis balls
Middle Row: 3 glass jars, 2 plastic lids, 2 light bulbs; 3 vases, 2 pillows, 1 tube of lotion, 1 set of ear buds, 1 coaster; 1 bag of paper
Bottom Row: 4 pairs of shoes and 4 shoe boxes; 4 booklets, 1 gift box, 1 bracelet, 1 sleep eye mask; 1 box
TOTAL: 46 ITEMS
Top row: 4 lightbulbs; one 3-D pentagon model, 1 perler bead art, 2 art posters; 1 stack of purple paper, 1 stack of airplane ticket stubs
Declutter 2019 Minimalist
Middle row: 2 solar lights from lawn, 51 amaryllis bulbs (given to book club members)
Bottom row: 8 egg cartons; 4 art posters, one 3-D model, 3 cards from students
TOTAL: 79 items
FINAL THOUGHTS
I had so many egg cartons and toilet paper rolls (not from pandemic hoarding)! I kept them with the misguided notion that I would start seeds in them, or use them for craft projects with kids at the summer camp I hoped to work at.
It was slightly sad getting rid of the old pieces of art I’d created–some of which were over 30 years old! But honestly, they were just sitting in various closets, collecting dust. I never thought about them while they were actually in the house. Now that they’re gone, I don’t even notice they’re gone. So I’m glad that I got rid of them, even though it was a bit painful.
Declutter 2020 Things In 2020
I was excited to get rid of two pieces of furniture–one large bookcase and one small nightstand. Too bad those only count as two items!
Declutter 2 3 +
I got rid of 301 items so far. I took a break from decluttering in February because I had the opportunity to work some more projects as a writing teacher. When the pandemic started in mid-March, we’ve been spending a lot of time at home, but somehow, this has not motivated me too much to declutter. As a result, I’m extremely behind on my decluttering goal.
Declutter 2 3 Trailer
To reach my goal, I have to get rid of 699 items in less than 5 months! In the past, I only decluttered when I had the urge–I’d go into these intense modes during a short period of time and was always able to get rid of a lot. Perhaps I should put myself on a weekly schedule to declutter, even if I’m not motivated. Regardless of which decluttering strategy I use, I’m hoping I can get close to 1k at years end!