10 EASY Tips to Declutter Your House Fast + FREE Declutter Your House Checklist!
When I help clients organize a room in their home, they expect me to swoop in and immediately begin organizing. After assessing the situation and asking a few key questions, they are quite surprised to find out that our first task is to declutter. Read on to learn the 10 easy tips to declutter your house, and I’ll explain why you should always declutter before organizing.
Why You Should Declutter Your House First
Once we remove the clutter that is taking up valuable space, we can see what needs organization. It’s usually a slow go for my clients initially as they are unwilling to part with their items at first, but once they get going, watch out! I love it when we reach this point because the organizing process goes much faster.
If you are looking for easy ways to declutter your house, my advice is to take it slow. Tackle one room at a time and complete that room in one day. If you stop and say you’ll come back to it tomorrow, you probably won’t, and the whole process will stop. If you stick with it and finish the job in one day, you will feel enough satisfaction to continue to other rooms.
I also suggest that you declutter the room before purchasing organizing products. This way, as you’re going through the process, you can mentally note (or jot down) what organizing solutions you will need.
Easy Steps to Declutter Your House Fast
- Pick a room.
- Grab a box for donations and a trash bag and pick up every item in the room one by one. Ask yourself if this is something you absolutely LOVE. If not, place it in the trash bag or box to donate.
- Only have things in your home that make you happy. Fill your home with things that make you smile.
- I don’t recommend boxing up items to see if you’ll need them later. That is still considered clutter because it’s taking up valuable space in your home, and you’ll need to deal with its contents later. My rule is to touch an item only once.
- If you are decluttering a closet, remove everything and only replace what you intend to keep.
DOWNLOAD A FREE DECLUTTER YOUR HOUSE CHECKLIST PDF HERE!
- If you are working in your kitchen, create four zones: drawers, upper cabinets, lower cabinets, and pantry. If you work with only one zone at a time, it will keep you from getting overwhelmed. Take everything out of that zone and ask yourself if you really need, use, or love that item before putting it back.
- When working in a child’s room, declutter the oldest child’s room first. Examine every toy and article of clothing to determine if your child has outgrown it. If you have younger children who could use it, feel free to pass it down. This is the only time I allow you to put items in a box for later. You’ll go through it more in-depth when you reach the younger child’s room. Repeat the process for each child. When you get to the youngest and have toys and clothing they have outgrown, place them in the box to donate.
What to Keep When Decluttering Your House
- If you pick up items that belong elsewhere in your home, put them there now. If there are children at home with you going through this process, ask them to help return items to specific rooms.
- Giving away gifts and sentimental items is okay if they no longer give you joy or make you smile. The point is that it made you happy for a while, but you are ready to welcome new items into your life that will bring you happiness now. You will feel a sense of relief after letting go of things that are creating clutter in your home.
- A thick layer of dust on an item is a sign that it hasn’t been touched or admired recently and may need to go.
Once you feel like you have finished with the room and cannot declutter your house anymore, kick back and find a way to celebrate!
In the future, anything that comes into your house must be something you LOVE and makes you smile. Remembering this will help keep your home clutter-free!
I’ve written another post called 7 Simple Organizing Tips You Can Implement Today to walk you step-by-step through the entire organizing process. Click here to check it out! 🙂
Now that you are armed with this new information, which room will you declutter first? Leave a comment. I’d love to know! 🙂
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Great tips! I’m all about decluttering.
These are great ideas and I will definitely be using them
I’m glad you found it useful!
Love these tips, too! I need to get some decluttering done, new year= out with the old (well, the old unused stuff 🙂 )
XO
Thank you and good luck! I’m always here if you need help! 😉
so many great tips! I always start with a trash bag. Sometimes I organize into groups – usually with toys, to see what I have before I declutter. I picked this post as one of My Friday Favorites. You can check it out here: https://mycolorcodedlife.wordpress.com/2015/04/10/my-friday-favorites-04-10-15/
Thank you so much for selecting this post as a Friday Favorite on your site! It feels great to be recognized! I really need to start doing my Favorite Blogs of the Week again, thanks for the reminder and have a wonderful day. 🙂
Love this post!! I didn’t realize that you are a personal organizer, as a job! Wow. Where do you live again? These are all great tips. I love the “focus on one room” in a day suggestion. MY bedroom is always the worst one in the house. Why is that?
Hi April,
I’m glad you enjoyed the post. I totally understand about the bedroom, it is probably overlooked because it is the room least seen by guests and we can let it go without too much guilt. I know in my house, my bedroom is not decorated the way I really want it to be. I keep saying, “I’ll get to it”, but it’s been 7 years! 🙂
Great Post! I like the idea of “if you don’t love it, pitch it–fill your home with things that bring you joy.” That thought never occurred to me before. I may try that next time I’m organizing.
Thank you! I read a long time ago that if you don’t love something, it shouldn’t be in your home and it stuck with me. I now use the saying to motivate clients to reevaluate their stuff. It works like a charm! 🙂
Thanks for liking me! Good Stuff!
You’re welcome and Thank You!
Great list! I actually just posted something similar today on Simply Save! I’ve been going through a similar process and found that photos actually cause me stress in a way. They get out of date and printing and updating photos in frames is just not how I want to use my time. I’m now focusing on decorating with experiences and memories, not photos of people.
I totally understand about the photos. I’ll have to try that!