Declutter - PNW Tech Life

Overcoming Declutter Paralysis in 3 Easy Steps!

You look at a space and can’t even bring yourself to start decluttering it. Declutter Paralysis has kicked in and you don’t know what to do.

You know you need to declutter this space. It’s stressing you out. But you just can’t. You don’t know where or even how to start. Even if you did know, it’s just so overwhelming that you can’t bring yourself to start on it.

I’ve been there before. It’s tough to bring yourself to get past decluttering paralysis, but once you do, things start to get easier. But first you’ve got to get over that hurdle and that’s where I come in.

What is Declutter Paralysis?

Before we get started in trying to overcome Declutter Paralysis, we have to understand what it is. Declutter Paralysis is when you get so overwhelmed by decluttering that you can’t bring yourself to start decluttering.

This can often happen if you’re already stressed out and you’ve got a space that is very cluttered and disorganized. It can also happen if the space is very large or the task is monumental.

My goal is to provide you some easy steps to overcoming declutter paralysis and help you achieve your goals of a decluttered space.

Step 1: Redefine Your Decluttered Vision

Declutter Paralysis is largely a mental state. Half of getting past declutter paralysis is removing that mental block that is preventing you from starting.

I’ve had to clean up some gnarly spaces. The mental thought going through my head that was a little voice saying “I don’t want to do this. I know I have to do this, but this is going to suck. So nope, I’m not going to do this.” This can be an extremely difficult voice to ignore.

One thing I chose to do is redefine what my vision of the decluttered space looked like. So many people get caught on “picture perfection”. Don’t guilt yourself into thinking that you have to have this picture perfect home.

Houses are to be lived in and you are just setting yourself up for failure to try and make it picture perfect all the time. So eliminate that thought right away. You can make it better, but striving for perfect will just set you back where you started.

Step 2: Make it More Manageable

I hear you groaning right now. “Yeah, if it was more manageable, I’d do it already.” Part of declutter paralysis is that most people don’t know how to make the task more manageable. It’s more difficult than it sounds.

Take a look at the space that needs to be decluttered. Start by remembering, you don’t have to do this all at once. Even if you’ve only got a weekend or a day to do it, you don’t have to do it all at once.

Break it Down into Sections

If it’s a big area you are trying to declutter, like an entire room, break it down into sections. It doesn’t matter how many sections you break it down into, just break it down into something that is manageable to you.

I remember decluttering what is now the kid’s playroom. I needed to have it decluttered and organized by the end of the day because we had guests coming over that night and I’d been working a lot. I’d taken the day off to declutter it.

Declutter paralysis had set in hard. I did not want to tackle that room and it had just gotten worse month after month.

It was a mess. Boxes everywhere from moving. It was the catch-all storage area for everything for years. I ended up breaking it down into 12 different areas to make it more manageable because it was so overwhelming.

Those areas ranged from a single shelf on the book case which was just loaded with stuff to a 10 square foot corner piled high with boxes.

By breaking it down it changed the mindset from “I have to do all this work! It’s never going to get done, I don’t even want to start.” To “I can get this shelf done in the next 30 minutes, it’s small and manageable.” or “I can get this box done in the next 15 minutes and then take a 5-10 minute break.” Once you’ve gotten into this new mindset, you’ve made huge progress in overcoming your declutter paralysis.

When I was decluttering my old home, There were seriously days when all I could bring myself to accomplish was one 2 foot long shelf on a bookcase.

But if that was all I could bring myself to accomplish that day without getting overwhelmed, so be it. I made progress! As a bonus, once it was decluttered, it remained decluttered.

Step 3: The Multi-Pass Method

Once it’s broken down into sections, I go through each section on different passes. These different passes are just different levels of effort required to declutter.

First Pass: Low Effort

The first pass is doing the lowest effort work first. The things you don’t have to think about. Start by just eliminating anything that is just garbage. Garbage has no use, no sentimental value, it’s easy to get rid of.

So just bring your trash and recycle bin over and anything that fits into that category, just eliminate right off the top. There! It’s gone! You’ve already made progress! It always amazes me how many items when I am decluttering are just garbage. You may not initially think there is any garbage in the spot you are decluttering, but there probably is.

Second Pass: Items that Make you Feel Bad

For the second pass, I get rid of anything that makes me feel bad or upset. If this reminds you of the KonMari method where she asks ‘Does this Spark Joy?’ It’s because it’s a similar concept.

These items I might get rid of are dead plants because I have zero ability to keep plants alive as I always forget to water them, unfinished projects that you are realistically never going to finish, clothes that you dislike, or even expensive items that make you feel guilty for never using them.

Third Pass: Items You Don’t Care About

On the third pass, these are things that you don’t really care about. They may still be useful, but you really don’t need them anymore. For example, this might be books and movies that you are never going to read or watch again, items that you’ve replaced with something nicer like old phones, worn out food storage containers, or small appliances. All of these are prime candidates for disposal.

Fourth Pass: Send Things Home

On the fourth pass, I start placing things in their proper home. For example, I decluttered a window sill the other day and I realized I had a tape measure there that hadn’t gotten back into its home after I hung up a coat rack because kids cause chaos and I forgot I had left it there.

This was clearly something that I needed and used, but it was causing clutter by not going to its proper place. Just putting things in their proper home can generally clean up a lot of space.

By the time you’ve gone through all four passes, you should have decluttered the whole space. If you are still cluttered in that space, then go through it again.

Tip and Tricks to Deal with Declutter Paralysis

If you’re still dealing with declutter paralysis, there are lots of ways to deal with it. Here are a few of my go-to tricks that help me get through the process easier:

The Container as Limits Method

One of the big mental blocks I dealt with that caused declutter paralysis was that I have a lot more of something than I actually need but the items are still useful. In this case, it’s helpful to use the container method. Make the container the enemy and not your mind.

A quick example is pens. I have a lot of pens. Do I need 100 pens? Probably not. So I put them in a pen holder and it only held 30 pens. So I took out the 70 pens I didn’t like, that never wrote correctly, were out of ink, etc and left only the 30 I liked.

It was still a lot of pens but I didn’t feel bad about getting rid of those 70 pens anymore because the space only allows for 30.

Take Pictures

If you are still having problems overcoming declutter paralysis, take a picture of the space. Then take 5 minutes and declutter whatever you can in that time. Once the 5 minutes is up, leave the space for the day. Clear it from your mind. Then go back to it the next day and declutter for another 5 minutes. Repeat this until your space is decluttered.

There might be days you only declutter 1-2 items, but at the end you will have a decluttered space. If you are feeling overwhelmed on any day, go back and look at that before photo. Compare it to the progress you’ve made.

Choose Visible Spots to Declutter

If your whole house is cluttered, then choose the spot that is most visible to you. Sure, your closet in the hall might be a mess, but if you spend 4 hours cleaning it out and then you never look at it, you aren’t ever going to feel like you’ve accomplished anything.

But if you declutter that space that you see every day as you walk in the door, you’ll see your accomplishments and this will help to overcome the declutter paralysis.

Items You Feel Guilty Getting Rid Of

Are you feeling guilty about potentially getting rid of stuff that was gifted to you? Maybe an item was somewhat valuable or it has sentimental value to someone who gave it to you. So you feel bad getting rid of it.

This is your permission to get rid of it. Acknowledge the guilt associated with getting rid of items and understand that you have the right to let go of things that no longer serve you, even if they were gifted or have sentimental value.

Give yourself permission to release the burden of these items. Remember, once they are in your possession, you have the power to decide what stays and what goes. Embrace the freedom that comes with decluttering.

In conclusion, overcoming declutter paralysis is not only achievable but also empowering. By simply taking the first step, whether it’s tackling one small area or setting a timer for just a few minutes, you can break the cycle of feeling overwhelmed. This initial action serves as a catalyst for further progress, helping you regain control over your environment. Remember, the journey to a more organized and peaceful space begins with that first decisive move. Embrace the process, and you will find that clarity and calm are within your reach.

How to Declutter Your Home Part 2

In part of our series on how to declutter, I want to discuss steps 5-8. I touched on them in the the Article How to Declutter Your Home Part 1, but now I want to go more in depth.

As a quick recap of of the first for steps in process of learning how to declutter, you did the following:

You identified where you want to start.
You broke your area down into manageable tasks.
You started decluttering.
You made a list of projects that came from your decluttering.

If you haven’t done those steps yet, go back and read How to Declutter Your Home Part 1. Then go through that process. Once you’ve done that, come back and let’s start on the next steps.

How to Declutter Your Home Steps 5-8

The next 4 steps in decluttering your home are as follows:

Organize.
Execute your projects you identified.
Reorganize based on the completion of projects
Declutter as maintenance.

Now that we know all the steps, it’s time to work through each one so you can have a truly decluttered home.

Step 5: Organize

The 5th step in the process of learning how to declutter your home is to organize your space. Depending on the size of the area and how much you have leftover after decluttering, this can either be a very quick process or a very long process.

Organization is broken down into a few basic steps:

Sort and categorize your items that you are organizing. While you were decluttering, you probably already started this process. This means that if you’ve got pens, they all go together. If you have cleaning products, those all go together too. Categorize in a way that makes sense.
Identify storage solutions for your space if needed. For example, organizing my bookshelf I didn’t need storage solutions, I just needed to put my books in place in a manner that made sense. For the top shelf of my desk, I just needed to ungroup things so they looked nice. When it came to organizing my closet, I needed storage solutions for the various seasonal decorations, air mattresses, and other things stored there.
Label as needed. Labels are extremely important in organization. Especially if you have storage solutions. These ensure that you always know what is in any given storage container and only the items that belong there, end up in that container.

It’s extremely important when you are learning how to declutter that you figure out an organizational system that works for you. You will want to ensure it is well thought out. Otherwise you will end up with a cluttered mess again.

Step 6: Execute the Projects You Identified

So you identified some more projects to take care of. Now that you’ve decluttered that space you were working on, it’s time to start executing the other projects you wrote down to take care of.

During this phase, you are going to start back at step 3, the decluttering phase. For each of the projects that you identified during your previous decluttering steps, you are going to prioritize and execute them in whichever order makes the most sense.

For example, let’s say when I decluttered my desk, I still had that jar of pens that I needed to go through, a now neatly decluttered stack of papers, and a disorganized storage tub that has a bunch of old computer parts in it.

I would then prioritize each of these items in a way that made the most sense for me. The paper was going to be the most time consuming and least visually impactful. The pens wouldn’t be visually impactful and it would be quick. The storage container was going to be the most visually impactful, but emotionally consuming.

In the end, I chose the storage tub of computer parts and started going through that process to start on. This goes back to my previous statement, when you are trying to figure out how to declutter, there is no right or wrong way.

While I opted for the most visually impactful, you might choose the path of the most time consuming just to get it out of the way. Both are perfectly fine.

Step 7: Reorganize Based on Project Completion

Now that you’ve executed your other projects, you will need to reorganize. This is important because a lot of times when you organize other things, you may find that areas you already decluttered either now look more cluttered because you found things that actually belong there. Or maybe you got rid of things and now it doesn’t look as organized anymore.

In this step of the how to declutter process, you will make sure that you aren’t taking step backwards. By reorganizing, you are ensuring that things stay neat and orderly.

In the process of learning how to declutter, this step tends to be more aesthetic but still important. What good is a decluttered home if it still looks bad?

For example, I decluttered one of my counters and I had project that came out of it to go through a bunch of bottles for when I home brew. At the end of sorting through all of them, all of which did belong on that counter I ended up with everything shoved in a corner. A significantly smaller amount of bottles, but they were still shoved in a corner. So during this reorganization step I made it look nice and fit in with the rest of the aesthetic of the counter.

Step 8: Declutter as Maintenance

Step 8 in the process of learning how to declutter is to declutter as maintenance. Decluttering as maintenance means that you are consistently going back to a space that you decluttered to ensure that it remains decluttered.

Depending on the location, you may want to go back to it monthly, weekly, or even daily to ensure that it remains decluttered.

For example, our kitchen counter where mail from the day frequently lands, I will clean off and declutter daily. We have a table that always seems to collect kids stuff throughout the week. I tend to declutter that weekly. Other places like my closet I declutter every 6 months or so depending on what fits and what is worn out.

As you complete these 4 steps, you will start seeing a change in how cluttered your house is. Keeping your house clutter free will result in less stress and anxiety and ultimately it will help improve your life.

How to Declutter Your Kitchen right now

Trying to declutter your kitchen can be a massive undertaking. Depending on the size of your kitchen and what kind of things you have in your kitchen, trying to keep everything in a clean and organized state can seem like an exercise in futility.

I’ve lived in places with tiny kitchens and large kitchens. They each present their own unique challenges. Fortunately, there are ways to declutter your kitchen and maintain it, even when everything seems hopeless.

Declutter Your Kitchen Counters

This is the thing you are going to see the most when you look at your kitchen. If your countertops are a cluttered mess, this is going to set the tone for the whole kitchen. So when you declutter your kitchen, start with the counters. This is also where you are likely to be preparing food, so maximizing the space and cleanliness here is an absolute necessity.

Dishes

Start simple. Do you have dirty dishes out on the countertop? Put them in the dishwasher or wash them and put them away. If you’ve got clean dishes out on the counter, put them away. Just that little bit of maintenance can make a big dent in your quest to declutter your kitchen.

Garbage/Trash

Next it’s time to deal with garbage and trash. Perhaps you are lucky and don’t have actual garbage on the counter. However, if your house is like our house, decluttering your kitchen meant getting rid of garbage.

I know it’s not uncommon for us to have trash on the counter. We have young kids and our trash cans are locked behind child-safe locks on cabinets. So when you’ve got kids screaming and you don’t have time, suddenly the garbage ends up on the counter. Do a cursory clean of all those items and throw them away.

Paperwork

For whatever reason people love to keep paperwork in the kitchen. It’s a huge pet peeve of mine. Generally I think it’s because the kitchen tends to be a spot where people land after they get the mail. When you declutter your kitchen, get all the paperwork out of there. It doesn’t belong in the kitchen.

Take a look at the paperwork in your kitchen, if it’s a bill or an actionable item then put it in a spot where you can take action on it outside of the kitchen. If you’ve already got an organizational system in place for paperwork, then use that system for this paperwork.

If not, then take a look at my system for organizing paperwork. For anything that is junk, put it directly in the recycle bin. Get it cleared off the counter. For the purposes of cleaning up paperwork to declutter your kitchen it doesn’t have to be perfect.

Don’t get hung up on setting up an organizational system elsewhere in the house for your paperwork. One job at a time. Just get it out of the kitchen to a spot that is closer to where it belongs.

Small Appliances

Now you’ve gotten the basic maintenance items out of the way. If your kitchen is still cluttered, you may have to look at additional solutions. It can be helpful to declutter your kitchen appliances.

Look at the appliances on your countertop. Most people have several ranging from microwaves to coffee makers. Are there any appliances up there that you absolutely never use? If so, consider finding new spots for them or getting rid of them.

I know in my old apartment I used the toaster approximately twice over the course of 3 years, but it was occupying precious counter space in my tiny kitchen. So I opted to get rid of it and free up that space.

You may also want to declutter your kitchen appliances that only serve a single purpose. For example, our rice cooker would live on our countertop. So would our InstantPot. Since the InstantPot doubles as a rice cooker, we got rid of the rice cooker and just kept the InstantPot, thus freeing up valuable counter space.

Expensive Items

Now you might be asking, what if an item cost a lot? When you declutter your kitchen, don’t get caught up in the cost of items. If you aren’t using them, then you aren’t getting any value out of them.

Space on your countertop has value and you need to decide if the value of losing the counter space is worth more than the value of the item. Maybe things like a KitchenAid Mixer are worth it, but that toaster isn’t.

At the end of the day, it’s up to you to decide the value of that item in reference to the space it takes up. Remember, you don’t necessarily have to completely get rid of the items off your countertop.

Going back to the KitchenAid Mixer, we don’t use it that often, but it does get used every other month or so. We realized that didn’t warrant the amount of space it took up on our counter. So we found a spot in the cupboard to store it when it wasn’t in use.

Misc Items

If you’re like me, we still had a variety of other items on the countertop that were taking up space. For example, we had coffee pods, chopsticks, fruits, and bread. When you declutter your kitchen and see these things you might think “Wait, these things all belong here!” However, it looked messy and cluttered. So, we introduced the container as limits system.

If you’ve read any of my other articles, you’ll know I’m a big fan of the container as limits system. Which is to say, that you put things in a contained spot and if they don’t fit then you get rid of things until they do. In this way, you are letting the container be the enemy.

For example, we put all of the chopsticks in a coffee cup. After all was said and done, we still had 6 pairs of chopsticks. Because we didn’t have room for those last 6 pairs of chopsticks, we got rid of them. They didn’t fit in the container allotted for them, which meant we had more than we needed.

For the coffee pods we got a little jar that was perfect for holding a box of coffee pods that we got from the store. The pods always end up in that jar as soon as we open the box and they are never spreading across the countertop anymore.

For the fruit and veggies and bread, we put a box on the counter that contains them all. We never buy more than will fit in the box and it keeps them contained and from creeping across the counter.

Keep looking around your counters as you declutter your kitchen. Ask yourself, what else is taking up space and cluttering your counters and what can be contained or gotten rid of?

With young kids, their items take up a lot of room. Especially when they were in the bottle phase. We ended up getting a small set of plastic drawers that fit on the counter easily for all of their bottle items.

With that we were able to contain the mess of all the bottle items that were constantly all over the counter and get them in an organized. When we realized we had too many of something, we got rid off it.

Once you have containerized and prioritized the items on your countertop, you should have a pretty decluttered and hopefully decently organized countertop. Now it’s time to tackle the cupboards.

Declutter Your Kitchen Cupboards

Cupboards are a beast of their own. So often we have items in there that we rarely use but still hold onto for various reasons. Again, let the cupboards be containers and act as the limiter to how much space things can take up.

It makes the cupboards the enemy and not your emotions about whether or not you should keep things. For us the big things that seem to always multiple like rabbits are coffee cups, pint glasses, and storage containers.

Glassware

The way I approached this was to think about how many of each of the coffee cups and pint glasses that was the maximum we’d ever really need.

Figuring in that we are a family of 4 and we’d frequently have 2 guests over, we figured that 6 of each was a good amount. Then we saved our favorite 6 of each one and got rid of the rest. This worked out well because this was approximately how much space we had on the shelf for the glassware.

Storage Containers

For the storage containers, these I went through and checked to find out which ones didn’t have lids, which ones were cracked, which ones were oddly shaped and never got used, and which ones I knew I hated because they leaked. Anything that met that criteria, I got rid of.

Then I changed my storage method. My goal was no longer to store the maximum amount of things in there, but to store only useful items in there. So rather than stacking them together, I put lids on each container and then stacked them with the lids on.

This also mitigates the unfortunate side effect of if there is just a little bit of moisture anywhere on the glass containers, they will stick together like concrete.

While this method ultimately took up more room in my cupboard, it’s important to remember that the idea isn’t to fit as many things into the cupboard as possible.

The idea is to declutter it and remove anything that isn’t useful. So by doing this, I forced myself to remove any of the items without lids, the ones I never used, the ones that were chipped, the ones that weren’t microwave safe, etc.

Pots and Pans

When it came to the other cupboards like pots and pans, I did the same thing. I made sure sets were together, then I stacked them so that I had to analyze whether or not I actually wanted them.

That Wok with the broken handle. Gone! Why do I have these glass pots? I never use them and they are ugly. Gone! I kept using the space of the cupboard as my enemy that decided what stays and what goes and I repeated this through every single cupboard until I had much much less stuff.

Declutter Your Kitchen Drawers

Now in the drawers, I had a lot of single purpose items. Some of them were useful (Like the lemon squeezer) other items like the banana slicer I scratched my head and wondered why we even had that.

For anything that we never used that was a single purpose type of item, I got rid of it to free space for other things. Now one thing to remember, when I say single purpose, I am talking about things that have a purpose that could easily be accomplished by other tools in the kitchen.

Going back to the banana slicer, I could easily accomplish the same task with a butter knife, but a set of measuring spoons is also single purpose but it would be difficult and annoying to use other tools in the kitchen to accomplish what those do. So I kept them.

Final Thoughts

Once you’ve gone through all of this, your kitchen should be a lot less cluttered. You will still need to perform regular maintenance on your kitchen to ensure it doesn’t get cluttered again, but now that you’ve gotten rid of all the extraneous items, you shouldn’t need to declutter your kitchen again.

If you struggle to keep your kitchen clean still, I have some handy steps on how to maintain your kitchen. Remember, it’s always easier to keep your kitchen clean if it contains less clutter.

7 Steps to Declutter your Bedroom Fast!

In just 7 steps, you can declutter your bedroom fast and live a less cluttered and more organized life!

Is your bedroom a cluttered mess? Growing up, mine was, but it didn’t have to be. I eventually figured out how to tame the clutter and I want to help you declutter your bedroom too!

With my bedroom being the only space I could contain all of my stuff and keep it away from my siblings and have me time, my room was usually a mess. Especially since my room was the smallest one in the house. Not quite Harry Potter closet under the stairs small, but it wasn’t big.

Declutter Your Bedroom? Why is it so hard!?

If you have a messy bedroom, trying to declutter your bedroom can seem like a daunting task. Especially if you have a lot of stuff in a small space. Quite often when I see people with cluttered bedrooms, they have too much stuff, a lack of organization, and even clothing on the floor.

This makes for a frustrating place to live. It’s not good for your mental health and quite frankly it causes a lot of people stress just thinking about the idea of having to clean it up.

The more stuff you have in your room, the messier it looks, the more difficult it will seem mentally to clean it up. I assure you, this is purely a mental blocker. Actually decluttering your bedroom is easy!

Step 1: Assess The Situation.

The first thing you will want to do is assess the situation. Why do you want to declutter your bedroom? What is it that is making your bedroom seem cluttered?

Is it that you have large furniture in there? Do you have laundry that needs to be put away? Are your shelves overflowing with stuff? Do you have stuff on the floor?

Make a list of the problem areas in your room and divide it up into sections so that we can tackle them.

Step 2: Get rid of the garbage.

Now if you are lucky, you don’t have any garbage in your room. Consistently having garbage in my room that wasn’t confined to a trash bin would probably be grounds for divorce in our house.

But let me tell you, it’s not uncommon. I was a slob growing up. I grew up with hoarders and it took a lot for me to break from their habits and form my own.

As it turns out, the ability to walk through my room without stubbing my toe on things is something I really value. If you’ve got garbage in your bedroom, start by getting rid of it.

Now when I say garbage, there are a couple different kinds. First is the kind like candy wrappers on the ground. Hopefully you aren’t that big of a slob. Maybe you are and no judgement, I’ve been there.

There were a few times when I had to throw out old bags from fast food restaurants growing up because it was growing something unidentifiable because I’d gotten so lazy I just didn’t bother to throw it in the garbage. So if you have that type of stuff, start there.

The second type of garbage is things that you really don’t need but aren’t purely trash. Things that can be recycled, trashed, or donated.

For example, I used to do a lot of my computer hobby work in my bedroom before I got a home office. Due to that, I had busted computer parts, notebooks full of things I’d written down for my computers and things I was trying to figure out, old electronics. It was a lot.

So as I started decluttering garbage, I started getting rid of those types of things with reckless abandon. I had to be honest with myself. No, that hard drive with the bad sectors is never going to be useful again. I don’t need a Network switch from 15 years ago that will bottleneck my entire network.

Now granted, I’m using computers as my hobby here, but whatever hobby you have can fit in that same space just as well be it photography, playing RPGs, or knitting.

Just make sure you get rid of that garbage and you will go a long ways in the process of decluttering your bedroom.

Step 3: Identify Things That Don’t Belong There

This is common whenever you are decluttering. Things tend to show up in various spots that don’t belong there and then they just kind of live there…forever.

Case in point, there was a screwdriver that was living in my home office for the better part of a month. It didn’t belong there. I’d been using it to replace one of the drives on my home server and then the kids woke up and I forgot to take it back downstairs where it belonged. Every day I looked and it was still there. Things like that happen…a lot.

So it’s up to you when you declutter your bedroom, to look through your clutter and put things back in their proper home. Immediately. Don’t pass go. Don’t collect $200, just put anything that is out of place in its proper home.

Step 4: Identify Reoccurring Problems

Now I call this reoccurring problems because it could encompass a lot of things. But lets face it, most of the time this reoccurring problem is laundry. People hate doing laundry. I hate doing laundry.

There was a period in my life where I would do my laundry, dump it on my bed so that my laundry basket was empty, then I’d move it from the bed to my chair so I could sleep in the bed, then from the chair back to the bed so I could use the chair.

Repeat until the laundry was all back in the basket and needed to be washed again. I’m not proud of that and it was not efficient. So I made a rule. When I did laundry, it got put away as soon as I pulled it out of the dryer no matter what. Every single time.

Reoccurring problems are most often the cause of not budgeting your time to do something. Whether that is because you don’t want to do it or you find other stuff to do, like rush off to work.

It all has to do with time management. The solution to reoccurring problems is scheduling. I can hear you groaning now, but this really does work.

Much in the same way that I schedule myself to do dishes and reset the kitchen and living room every night, I schedule myself to clean up problem areas in my bedroom. Once a week, the laundry gets done and I always throw it on the bed. Old habits die hard right?

The difference is now as soon as it lands on the bed, I start folding and hanging it. I realized that I can generally get my laundry and my wife’s laundry folded and hung in about 10 minutes. 15 if I make the folding really nice.

The kids laundry is another 20-30 minutes because toddlers go through a ton of clothes. In any event, I have this time built into my weekly schedule to fold the laundry and suddenly that problem area is gone! I no longer have to worry about piles of laundry when I declutter my bedroom!

But that doesn’t mean there couldn’t be other problem areas. I used to pay bills in my bedroom so there was always a pile of mail. Again, scheduling time to get rid of the mail fixed the issue. Schedule! Schedule! Schedule! Scheduling is a key part of the maintenance process to declutter your bedroom and keep it that way!

Step 5: Remove Large Useless Items

I’ve caught some flak from people on this before, but it’s time for real talk. That treadmill that is in your bedroom and hasn’t been turned on for 3 years. It’s time for it to go.

If you’ve got large items that really don’t serve a purpose in your bedroom anymore, don’t be afraid to get rid of them. Just because they might be nice things, don’t get pulled into sunk costs. It’s time to live in the now.

I called out the treadmill because I was having a conversation with someone just last week where they were complaining that the treadmill in their bedroom took up so much room but they hadn’t used it in years. Realistically if you haven’t used it in a year, you aren’t likely to start now. Get rid of it.

That chair, do you ever use it or does it just collect laundry and jackets? If it never gets used for its intended purpose, it’s time for it to go. You’d be amazed at how much you can declutter your bedroom and free up space just by getting rid of large things.

Step 6: Take Advantage of Existing Storage

If things are out and about and you don’t want to look at them, take advantage of the existing storage in your room. I started keeping my headphones and a few other items in a drawer on my nightstand because I don’t like the clutter of looking at them.

This visually cleaned up my nightstand so that it only had things in that I wanted there and nothing extra. For my watches and watch bands, I didn’t need those out. So I hid them away in a drawer.

Anything that didn’t need to be out and I knew I wanted to keep, I found homes for. Even if that meant displacing something I cared about less so that item could find a home. Focus on visual things when you declutter your bedroom, then find homes for them in your existing storage.

Step 7: Let Things Go

This is the hardest step. You’ve cleared out a bunch of stuff already, you’ve made more room, but you’ve still got a bunch of stuff and it still looks like you need to declutter your bedroom.

If you are still above your clutter threshold, it’s time to start letting things go. I like to use the container method for this. I had too many books for my bookshelf so I went through them and used the shelf as a container for them. I only allowed myself to keep the books that would fit on the shelf and everything else had to go.

The solution was not to go out and get more shelves. That would only serve to make the room look more cluttered. Remember, the goal is to declutter your bedroom, not make it more cluttered. Use the space you have to your advantage to help yourself cull down the items in your bedroom.

Make the container is your enemy. So if things don’t fit in there, it’s not your fault, it’s the container’s. Now I love hats. I have a few dozen ranging from beanies to top hats. I was running out of room.

So when I was decluttering, I only had room for 20 of my hats. I put the hats in their home based on what ones I wanted to keep and I had 5 leftover. 5 hats that I really liked.

I liked them better than some of the other hats up on the shelf, so I swapped them out. The 5 that were left, I got rid of. Not because I didn’t like the hats, but because there were others I liked better and I didn’t have room for them all.

The container was the enemy and I put the blame of me getting rid of extra hats on that container, which made me feel better about my decision.

Some things you just need to take a hard look at and ask yourself if they provide any value to your life that they are worth the space. Are you holding on to it because it was an expensive gift?

Maybe you liked it at the time and you don’t care about it now. Prices others paid and just because you’ve had it a long time aren’t good reasons to keep it. Take a picture of it if you really want to remember it, then get rid of it if you don’t like it.

Think about your present you and not who you were in the past or the future you. That will keep you grounded to only keep things that you care about. Elsa was right. Let it go.

Once you’ve completed these 7 steps, your room should be looking better. You can’t organize your way into a less cluttered room. So when you declutter your bedroom, only you can decide if the room is still cluttered or not.

Ask the Declutter Nut: Should I keep my teenage son’s old books and toys for his brother?

TheRealMarge Writes

Dear Declutter Nut,

My oldest son is off in his first year of college and since we are a little short on space in the house, I’d like to reclaim his room. He’s got a lot of old toys and books in there from when he was a kid. Specifically he has NERF Guns and LEGO all over the room in various spots taking up most of the room. His brother is going to soon be old enough to play with these things, but I’m not sure if I want to keep these for his brother or if I should just get rid of it all. What should I do?

Continue reading “Ask the Declutter Nut: Should I keep my teenage son’s old books and toys for his brother?”

The Containers as Limits Method

The Containers as Limits Method of decluttering has been gaining traction in the last few years. Popularized by Dana K. White, the Container Method also known as the Containers as Limits Decluttering Method is one of my favorite methods for decluttering an area. It’s one I’ve been using since long before I’d ever heard of Dana K. White. In this post we are going to dig into this method and help you understand how it works.

What is the Containers as Limits Method?

The Containers as Limits Method of decluttering centers around the use of physical container to set boundaries within specific spaces or categories. In its simplest form, this method defines the limits of a designated area using containers, and once the container is full, it serves as a visual signal to stop accumulating more items in that space.

Now with the container as limits method, this doesn’t mean that you are necessarily putting things in a physical container, but I’ll get more into that later.

The container method is made up of 5 core principles. Once you understand these, you can apply the container method to any aspect of your home. The five core principles of the container method are:

1. Setting Clear Boundaries

In essence, this is setting a boundary for your clutter within the containers themselves. As I mentioned earlier, a container doesn’t have to be a physical container like a storage tub, though there are a lot of instances where that might be the case. A container could be a shelf, or a drawer, or a section of a room. By setting clear boundaries, the container method states that once you have filled that container, you cannot put anything else in that space.

2. Assigning Containers to Categories

Each category or type of item should have its designated container. This could be a basket for accessories, a bin for toys, or a shelf for books. The idea is to have a specific place for every type of item, making it easier to maintain order and find things when you need them. Assigning containers to categories ensures that each item has its rightful place within the overall organization scheme.

3. Limiting the Space

The magic happens when you establish the size of the container. The container itself becomes a natural limit on the number of items you can keep within that space. If the container is full, it serves as a clear signal that it’s time to declutter or make decisions about what to keep and what to let go. This limitation encourages mindful choices and prevents unnecessary accumulation.

4. Prioritizing and Evaluating

The Containers as Limits method forces you to prioritize the items that truly matter to you. When faced with a limited space, you’re prompted to evaluate the significance and usefulness of each item. This process of prioritization is essential for cultivating a living environment that aligns with your values and brings you joy.

5. Avoiding Overflow

One of the key principles of this method is to resist the temptation to exceed the container’s capacity. Overflowing containers are visual cues that indicate a need to reassess and declutter. Instead of allowing clutter to build up over time, the Containers as Limits method encourages regular evaluation and maintenance.

Where Can I use the Containers as Limits method?

The great thing about this method is it can be used just about anywhere in your home. I’ve applied this in pretty much every room of my house. Let’s go over a few places that might be the most useful to you!

Kitchen Organization

The kitchen is one of those places that always seems to accumulate clutter. Whether it’s food, paper bags, mail, or kids toys. Everything always seems to land in the kitchen. The nice thing about the kitchen is it tends to have containers built into it in the form of drawers and cupboards.

Let’s take coffee cups for example. Everyone seems to love to give people coffee cups. If you’ve got a shelf in your cupboard and your coffee cups are stacked, you can use the container method to clear it out. Keep only the ones you like or need and then get rid of the rest.

That shelf is the limit of how many coffee cups you can actually keep. Let the size of the shelf be the container that limits your amount of coffee cups. Let the shelf be the enemy. If you have one that you like better than the rest but you don’t have a spot for it, choose which coffee mug you like the least and get rid of it. I’ve done this with glassware, plates, small appliances, food storage, even drawers of random utensils or knives.

The Pantry

Apply the Containers as Limits method to your pantry by using containers for different food categories. Assign containers for grains, snacks, spices, and canned goods. When a container is full, it’s time to reassess your pantry items and make intentional choices about what to keep and what to use or donate.

Bedroom Closets

The Containers as Limits method works great for closets. I use this method to contain and sort through things like socks and t-shirts. This keeps the amount of each of these items down to a reasonable amount, it keeps things more organized, and makes it easier to see what you have. It also reduces the dreaded “I have nothing to wear” dilemma.

Home Office and Paper Management

The Home Office is the perfect place to implement the Containers as Limits method. Paper clutter is a common challenge in many households. Using the Containers as Limits method, you can create a system for managing paperwork. Assign containers for bills, important documents, and miscellaneous papers. Personally I use a letter tray organizer with 5 slots.

When a container is full, it’s time to sift through the papers, discard what you no longer need, and organize the rest. This approach not only streamlines your home office but also ensures that important documents are easily accessible.

Children’s Toys and Play Areas

Nothings gets out of hand faster than children’s toys. For us, the children’s play room is a constant mess. The Containers as Limits method has helped a lot with wrangling that mess and reducing the clutter.

We have a bunch of containers to keep things separated out. Some examples of our containers are Stuffed Animals, Crafts, Trucks, and Blocks. We found that separating them out into containers has a few benefits.

First, the kids know exactly what goes where so cleanup becomes easier.

Second, there are less things overall to cleanup because the kids tend to not be dumping out all of the stuff as was the issue when everything was in one giant box. It’s so nice not having to pick up the jumbled mess of Potato Head parts, LEGO, Trucks, and blocks because they were all put together in one spot.

Third, with the container as limits method, we can limit what the kids have access to and they can focus on certain toys rather than being overstimulated and having more toys than they could possibly play with during the day. This allows them to be more creative and imaginative.

Digital Clutter

While this is a bit more abstract to think about, you can absolutely use containers as limits to manage your digital clutter on your computer or smartphone. Create folders for different categories of files and set limits on the amount of data you store. When a digital container is nearing its limit, take the time to declutter and organize your digital files.

Benefits of the Containers as Limits Method

Now that we’ve explored the principles and practical applications of the Containers as Limits method, let’s discuss the benefits of incorporating this approach into your lifestyle.

Visual Clarity

Visual Clarity is a huge benefit of the Containers as Limits method. As I mentioned earlier with the kids playroom, we used containers to separate various toys into their own spots. So LEGO had their own container, Mr. Potato Head had its own container, Play-Doh had its own container.

The result is that we can just look at the shelf and pull down the contained set of toys we are looking for. This also means when putting things away, the kids can easily identify what goes where.

This also works well for other things in the house. For clothing maybe you put all your socks in one container and plain colored t-shirts in another. In your cupboards you might organize things so all coffee mugs go on one shelf or all of your snacks go in a single container. In all cases, you can easily look and get visual clarity of where things should go.

Mindful Decision Making

Being more mindful about your decision making is a huge part of the Containers as Limits method. By limiting the available space for the various categories of things you own, you are forcing yourself to be more mindful. If you don’t have enough room in the container, you are forced to assess the value and importance of each item.

For example, lets say you got a brand new coffee mug. As you are putting it in the cupboard, which is the container for it, you realize you don’t have room for it. Using the container method, you have to decide, what coffee mug do you get rid of?

This forces you to be mindful, perhaps this new mug that was just gifted to you isn’t something you want to keep after all and you get rid of it. Or perhaps you might want to get rid of that one mug that never seems to get clean or that you never use. With the containers as limits method, you only keep the stuff you want and never the stuff you don’t care about.

Prevention of Clutter

The Prevention of Clutter is perhaps the biggest reason why I embraced the Containers as Limits method. If everything is contained, it’s a lot harder to have clutter. It also means that instead of waiting and getting overwhelmed by the clutter, as you are adding things you are forced to make a decision about whether or not you want to keep items.

You can do things in the moment. The Containers as Limits method prompts you to consistently maintain and organize the space and helps maintain a more organized environment.

Efficient Use of Space

This is a big one for me, especially in the pantry and with kids toys. With limited space to put things away, trying to keep everything organized when it all comes in a wide manner of shapes and sizes leads to a disorganized mess.

With the Containers as Limits method, you set the size and shape of the containers instead of the objects you are trying to contain setting the size and shape. I’ll take noodles for example. We all know noodles come in a wide variety of shapes and sizes.

Because we cook from a variety of different cultures, we end up with noodles in boxes, noodles in flimsy bags, noodles in jars, individually packaged noodles. It can be a mess. So, we put each of the noodle types in a new container. A container that fits neatly and efficiently into our pantry.

This means we always know how much of each type of noodle we have because we can easily look at it, the noodles aren’t strewn throughout the pantry in various spots that ‘Just fit’, and everything is efficiently organized in a way that uses less space.

Keep in mind, you can do this with just about anything, I do this to more efficiently organize things like Play-doh and LEGO or even socks!

Empowerment and Control

Decluttering can be a daunting task, but the Containers as Limits method empowers you to take control of your living spaces. The clear boundaries and visual cues provide a sense of control over your belongings, contributing to a more positive and empowered mindset.

Adaptability to Different Spaces

One of the strengths of this method is its adaptability to various spaces and categories. Whether you’re tackling a small drawer or an entire room, the Containers as Limits approach can be customized to suit your specific decluttering goals.

Overcoming Potential Challenges

I’d be lying if I said there aren’t potential challenges that come with this system. Being aware of them allows you to address them head-on.

Sentimental Items

Sentimental items can be especially hard to let go off. I know because I’ve got stuff I’ve held onto for years for sentimental reasons. Keep in mind, it is perfectly fine to keep sentimental items, but the key is to focus on the joy and purpose that the items bring into your life. If an item no longer serves any purpose in your life or doesn’t bring any joy to your life, consider letting it go.

Consistent Maintenance

Like all systems, maintaining it takes effort. The Containers as Limits method is no different. You should set aside time to regularly evaluate and declutter the designated containers to ensure that it doesn’t get overwhelming. If you are allowing the method to work as intended though and maintaining as you are hitting the limits of your containers, maintenance should be an easy task.

Initial Time Investment

This is the biggest hurdle most people have to overcome with the Containers as Limits method. Getting started on this method takes time. You have to go through and declutter items and choose what to keep and what to get rid of. This is generally not quick to do. Set aside time to do this. Even if it’s just 15 minutes per day to tackle a section. This will add up quickly and you will make progress. Every little bit of progress helps. The long term benefits will make this time investment worthwhile.

Final Thoughts

I’ve been using this method for years and it changed the way I organize and maintain my home. I don’t have it implemented everywhere, but where I do there is a huge difference in the ease or organization and a reduction of clutter in those areas.

As long as you are willing to put in the effort to start using this method and get over the initial hurdles of time and decluttering, the long term benefits of this will pay off and your home will be more simplified while still maintaining the feel of a home. This will help reduce time spent on cleaning and reduce your stress and anxiety, giving you time to focus on the more important things in your life.