Tackle the clutter in an entire room today.
How to unclutter a shelf?
Declutter one or more shelves or flat spaces in your house or work space.
A decluttered space feels peaceful, while lots of physical clutter is a form of visual distraction. Decluttering your entire home or office at once is too overwhelming for most people, so we will start with one or more flat surfaces, such as shelves, countertops or tables. Once you get started, you might want to keep going!
1. Pick one shelf or another flat surface (counter, table, etc.). Set aside 10 minutes or so to work on this space.
2. Clear the entire shelf or space. Take everything off, put it in a pile or a small area on the floor. Get two boxes for sorting.
3. Go through the pile of stuff one item at a time. The rule is, you cannot skip an item or put it back. You have to decide what to do with it immediately, quickly! See next step.
4. Make a quick decision on the item — you have three choices and must separate things into three groups: the keep pile only if you love it or use it often; ‘the donate box’ (or trash bag) — dispose of those ASAP; and ‘the maybe box’, where you absolutely cannot bear to part with something you do not need or use. Try not to use the maybe box unless you are truly stuck on an item.
5. The ‘maybe box’, if you need it, should be marked with a date six months from now, and a reminder should be put on that date on your calendar. When that date comes, if you have not used the items in the maybe box by then, donate them. You did not need them.
6. Put the ‘keep’ items back on the shelf, or in another more appropriate place perhaps. Wherever you put them is important — this is the item’s new home, and you should always put the item back in that home when you are done using it.
If you do not finish the shelf in 10 minutes, feel free to go a little longer, if you have the time or energy, or continue to work on it for another 10 minutes the next day and so on until you are done.
Once you have finished with that shelf, feel free to pick another shelf, table, countertop, closet floor or other flat space. Declutter one flat space at a time.
How to have clear counters?
Clear the counters in your home, and learn to keep them clear.
We started clearing shelves and other flat spaces earlier, and found the peace that comes from a decluttered space. We are going to continue that with counters.
Counters are a large parts of our kitchens and other rooms in our homes — having clear counters will be a nice way to make a house feel clear and enjoyable.
Even if you cleared a counter or two in our earlier task, it might be getting cluttered again by now. That is OK. We just need to learn a couple habits that will help keep them clear and beautiful from now on.
1. Start with the same method as the ‘clear a shelf’ task — pick one counter to start with. Clear it off and put everything on the ground in one big pile, and get two boxes for sorting
2. Go through the pile of stuff one item at a time. The rule is, you cannot skip an item or put it back. Make a quick decision on the item — you have three choices and must separate things into three groups: ‘the keep pile’ — only if you love it or use it often, ‘the donate box’ (or trash bag) — dispose of those as soon as possible, and ‘the maybe box’, where you absolutely cannot bear to part with something you do not need or use. Try not to use the maybe box unless you are truly stuck on an item.
3. Put the ‘keep’ items back on the counter, or in another more appropriate place perhaps. Wherever you put them is important — this is the item’s new home, and you should always put the item back in that home when you are done using it.
4. Now here is the long-term habit part: be very conscious for the rest of the week about putting items only in their homes. Instead of tossing something on the counter, find a spot for it — it should have a home, or if it does not, create one.
By getting into the habit of putting things back, rather than tossing them randomly on the counter, you will keep the counter clear. Find a home for something, and always put it there — those are the two little habits to create.
If you have time, do another counter, and so on until all your counters are clear!
How to unclutter a closet?
We have cleared shelves and counters and other flat spaces — perhaps even begun to invade a closet or two. But this time, we are going to be bold, and tackle an entire closet. It will feel amazing.
Closets are kingdoms of hidden clutter, lurking in the dark with everything we want out of sight. They can be stressful, not at all peaceful (…) or we can transform them into a little space of peace.
1. Pick a closet to tackle this week. You can start with a small closet, or be daring and take on your bedroom closet. Your choice!
2. Take a few minutes to scope out the territory. What do you see in the closet? Does it give you anxiety thinking about going through all that stuff ? If so, practice letting go of that anxiety. This can be a calming, meditative experience, if we let go of the anxiety.
3. Split the territory into zones that you are going to tackle one at a time: the floor, things hanging from a rod, various shelves, for example. On Day 1, pick an easy zone.
4. For each zone, the process will be exactly the same as the process you used to declutter shelves and counters in previous weeks: clear out everything in that zone, put it in a pile, sort it into keep, donate or recycle or trash, and maybe box (if needed). Clean out the area of the closet nicely before putting the ‘keep’ items into their new homes, neatly. Get rid of the donate or recycle or trash stuff, and put the maybe box into storage.
5. Each day, tackle a new zone the same way, until you are done with the closet. Simple!
If you have time left over, feel free to tackle a second or even third closet this week. It is fun.
How to unclutter any space?
Let’s get good at decluttering, so in addition to uncluttering a room or an office space, you can also do shelves, counters and closets. Once you know the method, you will be ready to tackle different spaces.
Taking on a whole room can be a bit intimidating for beginners, but becoming a more advanced declutterer comes with experience. It will be a challenge that you will enjoy, and at the end of it, you will love the clear space you have.
1. Pick a room to focus on this week. You might choose a room you like to spend time in, like the living room or your bedroom. Clearing out this room will make it more enjoyable to be in.
2. Clear up a good chunk of time each day — maybe more the first day than other days. How much time you will need depends on how much clutter there is, but an hour or two is a good chunk of time. If you cannot find that time, do not sweat it — do whatever you can, whether that is 10 minutes or 30.
3. Clear a working space, probably in the middle. This is to put your ‘pile’ of stuff from other areas, to sort through. In a bedroom, the top of your bed would do the trick.
4. Start on one side of the room and work to the other. Do one drawer or shelf or spot on the floor at a time.
5. Pull everything out of the drawer or shelf (or section of floor or what have you), and pile it in the working space. Clean out the drawer or shelf or floor.
6. Pick up items from the pile, one at a time, and make quick decisions. You know the drill — there are three options: love and use, or the keep pile; trash or donate or recycle; and ‘maybe box’, but only if necessary.
7. When you have sorted through the pile, put back the stuff you love and use, neatly. Note their new homes. Put the other pile into a box to be donated or recycled or given to friends and family. Put the maybe box in storage, as per usual.
8. Move on to the next drawer or shelf or section of floor. Repeat the process until you have worked your way across the entire room. Do the same thing with closets: one section at a time.
Working like this, you can do a room in a couple hours. If it is really cluttered, it could take 3–5 hours. And it feels amazing when you are done. Now sit back and enjoy the simplicity.
If you have extra time and energy, tackle another room! Or do it in future weeks.
