Why is it so hard to declutter your home? It’s so easy to get overwhelmed before you even start. Here are 3 simple ways to declutter your home and mind once and for all without stress and mess.

I don’t know about you but we have collected A LOT of stuff over the year: paper, artwork, photos,

toys, clothes, books and just stuff. I read books and articles on how to declutter and get organized and still I’m just….stuck. I have a feeling I’m not alone in the battle against clutter. That’s why when my blogging friend Angela from Setting My Intention said she’d write a post about 3 EASY Steps to Declutter Your Home, I was all ears and I could not wait share it with you.

Angela has a great series on what she learned from her last year of decluttering and I’ve been listening to every word she says for inspiration. Her ideas are simple and practical. One day, I’ll have that decluttered and decorated dream house I long for. In fact, I even tackled our biggest clutter spot last week and it felt FANTASTIC to actually be able to walk in the laundry room again. My littlest even went in there and did a little spin move just cause he finally could. 

 

Please welcome Angela to Mom’s Small Victories and see what she has to say about 3 Easy Steps to Declutter Your Home and the Surprising Benefits from Decluttering!

 

 

How to Declutter Your Home in 3 Easy Steps 

by Angela from Setting My Intention

Decluttering your home can have so many benefits. But if we’re honest, we’ll admit that it’s hard to do on a regular basis and it can be overwhelming! This post is for those of you who (like me) don’t find decluttering or organizing a natural skill.

 

Why I Started Decluttering My Home

Two years ago I started decluttering my home in a very intentional way. I was in a time of transition with my youngest son starting full days of school. I work three days a week outside the home, but the two days that I had at home during the week were not spent doing volunteer work or writing as I envisioned.

I found myself spending those new found hours picking up, doing laundry, and trying to create order out of the chaotic spaces in our home. Not exactly how I wanted to spend those days.

I resolved back then to make some changes. I was going to clear out the clutter that had been accumulating for the ten years that we lived in our current home.

It was not an easy task.

It was an enlightening task. (Really…stick with me)

It’s still not over.

I’ve learned many things over the past two years, but one of them is that decluttering is never over. It will get easier, however, as you have less stuff and figure out a regular schedule for decluttering.

If you have a ton of stuff to go through and feel overwhelmed, or if you have no extra energy to give to decluttering, I want to encourage you with these small steps to declutter your home.

 

Defining Clutter

This seems like a silly thing to define, but it’s important to clarify. Clutter is defined differently for each person because every person values and uses different items. Clutter CAN be defined, however, as:

• things that are not being used in the present
• things that are not loved and used or displayed in the present
• things that are being saved for “someday”

 

How to Declutter Your Home in 3 Easy Steps

1. Start small.

   Really small. What that will look will depend on the challenges or life stage you’re in right now. Really small might mean get rid of one thing a day. Training our eyes to see clutter is the first step. You probably have stuff that has been lying around for months or even years. I know I did. Our clutter blindness has trained our eyes not to see that pile of papers or overstuffed closet. Seeing that pen that ran out of ink and throwing it away is actually a great step to decluttering your home. Not passing over that kitchen gadget that never gets used and putting it in the donate pile is another great step.

2. Develop the habit of decluttering.

   Our days are full of habits. Connect decluttering with an already established habit in your day. I go into great detail about this in my eBook How to Start When You Feel Stuck. The first thing I do when I wake up is go downstairs and make coffee. I don’t even have to think about it. I connected decluttering and straightening the kitchen countertops with that time while my coffee is brewing. What is a habit that you already do daily? Connect decluttering at least one item a day with that already established habit. Pretty soon, decluttering will be a habit that your brain and body automatically do.

3. Maintain one clutter free surface.

   When I started decluttering our house, I started maintaining one clutter free space. I decided to keep a portion of our kitchen counter clear and clean every day. The rest of our counter spaces could be piled with dishes, but that two feet of countertop would be completely empty and wiped down. It was encouraging to me to see that empty space and gave me hope and energy to keep decluttering. Clutter free spaces beget more clutter free spaces.

[bctt tweet=”Decluttering can be simple w/these 3 EASY Steps To Declutter Your Home @setmyintention” username=”momsvictories”]

 

The 7 Surprising Benefits of Decluttering Your Home

When we declutter our homes the benefits are huge:

• less time spent picking up
• it’s easier to clean when there isn’t clutter in the way
• more time for things and people that are important to us
• freedom from a scarcity mindset
• freedom from holding on to the past and “someday”
• living more in the present
• decluttering our homes often leads to decluttering other areas of our life: our minds and our schedules.

If you need more encouragement and guidance while decluttering your home, sign up for my FREE 7 day decluttering email course, Slow and Steady Decluttering. When you sign up, there’s also a private Facebook group available to you for encouragement and accountability.

Do you feel overwhelmed by the thought of decluttering? Share in the comments if you think these three steps seem do-able to you?

[bctt tweet=”These 3 simple steps to declutter your home by @setmyintention make decluttering easier than you think ” username=”momsvictories”]

About Angela

 

Angela blogs at Setting My Intention where she focuses on encouraging intentional change and developing healthy habits for herself and her readers.

You can find Angela on her blog | Facebook | Twitter | Pinterest | Instagram | Google + 

Thanks Angela for helping us get started in decluttering. Once we start, we need to keep the motivation to keep going and I have more to help you with that….

How to Declutter Your Home Room by Room

Here are my favorite resources for how to declutter your home room by room (updated 2022): 

1. Passionate Penny Pincher Home Planner

We redid our downstairs floors in 2021 and the biggest hurdle (besides the cost) was the clutter. Everything had to be taken off the floor so I had to touch, pack up, move upstairs and get rid of as much as possible. The biggest thing that helped me tackle decluttering was the Passionate Penny Pincher Home planner.

This is a checklist lovers dream of a planner! It has tons of checklists for managing your home including decluttering your home room by room and it assigns each room a week to be completed. The weekly planner also has that room’s decluttering project already written in so you don’t forget to do it! That’s magical and so motivating! No excuses for forgetting.

I know sometimes the biggest hurdle is just knowing when to declutter but this planner schedules it for you…and you just gotta do it. It really helped me stick to decluttering and once I got started I was motivated to finish. The 2022 physical Home Planner is sold out but the digital and PDF version is totally worth it for a fraction of the cost too. Highly, highly recommend it! Not only did it help me declutter but it helped me pinpoint the cleaning/home maintenance routine that I needed to do to feel the best in our home with my limited energy. I still use those routines today.

2. One Year to An Organized Life

One Year to an Organized Life by Regina Leeds – I listened to this on audio years ago and then bought the physical book. Even though when I listened to it, i thought journaling about how I envisioned the space and affirmations to motivate yourself were kinda cheesy, I find them totally worth the time now (funny how i’ve changed). If you want a room per month approach and like to take decluttering slowly and intentionally then this is a great book for you.

3. A Bowl Full of Lemons Home Organization Challenge

I started A Bowl Full of Lemons Home Organization Challenge challenge in 2022. This challenge is more intense because you are to declutter (and organize) one room per week for 14 weeks. I love the free guide Tori gives and the Facebook group is helpful with other challenge takers sharing tips, success stories and motivation. Tori runs the challenge runs from January through April but the downloadable workbook and Facebook group is open so you (and I) can continue and complete at your pace.

So I’ll be working through this Free Declutter Your Scariest Space Challenge* hosted by Dana K. White and Ultimate Bundles this week. I’m so excited about this challenge because I was just listening to Decluttering at the Speed of Life by Dana K. White on audiobook a few weeks ago and it had so many simple, actionable tips about how to take the emotion and stress out of decluttering and to make do with what space you have (instead of buying more and more containers for stuff you don’t really need).

The Free Decluttering Challenge* comes with a quick 15 minute video and free workbook which recaps the book perfectly so you can hit the ground running and tackle your scariest space. Register for the free challenge now, there’s nothing to lose except for clutter and overwhelm and we could all do with less of that! 

Subscribe to my Newsletter for More Decluttering, Organizing and Planning Tips and Resources

When you subscribe to my newsletter, you’ll get more tips and my favorite resources to help you on your decluttering, organizing and planning journey plus exclusive access for my free printables library with more planners and workbooks to help you manage your busy life and crush your goals! 

 

More Decluttering and Planning Resources:

Planning Tips to Achieve Your Dream Life

5 Simple Steps to Mastering Work Life Balance NOW

Powersheets goal planner that helps me incorporate my decluttering goal into my life

62 Things to Declutter That You Won’t Miss at All

So are you ready to get started to declutter your home once and for all? Join me on my decluttering journey and let’s see how amazing you feel in your fresh, open decluttered home. 

This post is linked up with these fabulous linkup parties.