How to Declutter Your Home: 6 Best Room-by-Room Methods

In This Article

Benefits of Decluttering
Tips
Creating a Timeline
Decluttering Room by Room
Disposing of Clutter
FAQ

The best way to prevent decluttering from becoming overwhelming is to do it in stages and zones. Prioritize the areas that need it most with a decluttering checklist. Focus on one room or even one section within a room (e.g., kitchen cabinets), and complete that area thoroughly before moving on to the next space.

Keep reading to learn helpful methods to declutter your home room by room.

A Quick Look: What you'll need to declutter your home
Garbage bins	Kitchen and bathroom
Storage bins	Bedroom, closet, living room, and entryway
Under-sink storage	Kitchen and bathroom
Drawer dividers	Kitchen, bathroom, and entryway

Benefits of Decluttering Your Space

There are numerous benefits to making your space as free of clutter as possible.

You will have less "stuff" to clean and organize and it won't feel overwhelming.
It will reduce the stress and anxiety a messy and crowded space may cause.
Finding items when you need them will be easier and take less time.
A de-cluttered space enables one to focus more and stay on task.

Tips for Decluttering Your Home

Use Containers to Sort Items

Before you start to declutter your home, have containers defined for the following purposes to sort items:

Put away: Items that have crept out of their designated storage spaces.
Fix/mend: Items that need something before they're put away, such as a shirt with a missing button.
Recycle: Items that consist of recyclable materials.
Trash: Items to throw away in the household trash.
Donate Unwanted items that are still in good condition can be donated to a charitable organization or another person.

putting items into different piles — The Spruce / Letícia Almeida

Keep These Decluttering Rules in Mind

12/12/12 Rule: Locate 12 items to throw away, 12 to donate, and 12 to be returned to their proper home.
20/20 Rule: Get rid of items you can replace for $20 and under 20 minutes.
80/20 Rule: According to this rule, we use 20 percent of our belongings 80 percent of the time. Either get rid of or store away the 80 percent you don't use regularly.
Five-Second Rule: Sort through items and give yourself five seconds to remember the last time the item you're holding was used. If you can't remember within five seconds, it's time to get rid of it.
Rule of Five: This rule is the five-year rule. When decluttering and deciding on an item, assess items not used in five years and consider removing them.

Creating a Decluttering Timeline

If you don't have a lot of stuff, you may be able to declutter your house in a day, a weekend, or use a longer 30-day timeline. Keep your goals realistic and attainable to avoid feeling overwhelmed. Break down the spaces you need to declutter and estimate how long each will take, giving yourself buffer time in case something doesn't go as planned.

Start by cleaning before you declutter, so your everyday items are tidy and out of the way. Consider starting in a space with only a small amount of clutter, so you can get it done quickly and feel like you've made progress on your overall decluttering timeline to stay motivated.

Tip

Avoid pulling out all your stuff without a plan to sort it. If you do that, you'll likely waste time wading through your disorganized items.

How to Declutter Your Space, Room by Room

01 of 06
The Bathroom

The Spruce / Erica Lang
- Medicine cabinet: Take everything out, and discard outdated medications, makeup, and skincare products. Put everything you're keeping immediately back into the cabinet, storing the items you use most often at eye level.
- Cabinet drawers: Remove everything, and quickly evaluate what you're keeping and tossing. Put the items you're keeping back into their drawers, with the items you use most often in the top drawers.
- Shower, tub, and bathroom sink: Pull everything out from these areas and declutter the items there.
Lastly, everything that did not have a home can be quickly sorted into the bins you have staged for the purpose.
02 of 06
The Bedroom

The Spruce / Letícia Almeida

First, make your bed. It's hard to feel any progress decluttering a bedroom while an unmade bed stares you in the face.
- Nightstands: Remove anything on them that doesn’t belong there, and add it to your put-away bin. This may include books you’ve already finished reading, pens, paper, and mail. Throw out or recycle anything you no longer use, such as empty tissue boxes, pens that have gone dry, or chargers that no longer work.
- Tops of your dressers, chests, and bureaus: Pay careful attention to any strewn clothing. Anything that needs folding or hanging goes into the put-away bin. If you're afraid it may wrinkle further, you can lay clothes on your bed.
- Drawers: Take everything out. Pull out anything no longer worn, and put it in your donation bin. Fold and store the clothing you're keeping.
- Desk or vanity table: Resist the urge to shove things back into drawers; instead, put them in your put-away bin. Toss garbage or recycle anything you haven’t used in six months.
Return items to their proper places. Fold, hang, and store any clothing. If you're now eyeing your closet, we'll tackle that next.
03 of 06
Closet and Clothing

The Spruce / Letícia Almeida

OK, deep breath. It's time to declutter your closet. The easiest way to tackle a closet is to declutter your clothing by type. It’s much easier to decide whether to toss or keep a pair of jeans if you’re looking at your entire jeans collection at once. So start pulling out different types of clothing, and choose what you'll toss and keep.

Once you’ve gone through each type of clothing, you will have four piles to deal with:
- Organize: Put away anything that was in the wrong spot for example, if you had a pair of socks in your closet, put them in your dresser.
- Launder: Put dirty laundry into the hamper, or bring it to the laundry room.
- Repair: Anything that needs to be repaired from holes, tears, or missing buttons should go to the tailor or dry cleaner.
- Donate: To eliminate clothes, take them to a donation center or consignment store.
04 of 06
The Entryway, Mudroom, and Foyer

The Spruce / Christopher Lee Foto

You may not have a traditional mudroom or foyer, but you likely have an entryway. No matter its size, the best way to make an entryway most functional is to declutter it regularly.
- Desk, console, or side tables: Go through each drawer, remove the contents, and decide to toss or keep each item. Go over the tops of each desk or console as well. Do you have a space for your keys and other important items? Make sure everything is accessible and not too crowded. This makes it easier to leave the house each morning with what you need.
- Hall closet: Declutter it like any other closet: Start with shoes, boots, and jackets, followed by accessories.
The entry is another area that picks up a lot of clutter from other rooms. Spend time putting away things from other rooms that have made their way to the entry.
Continue to 5 of 6 below
05 of 06
The Kitchen

The Spruce / Letícia Almeida

Keeping your kitchen clutter-free can be challenging because different activities occur there—cooking, eating, and socializing, especially if your kitchen is on the smaller side. As a result, the kitchen has numerous types of items stored in it.

Tip

You can choose to declutter your kitchen by focusing on one category of item at a time (cutting boards, glassware, utensils, or bakeware, for example) or going through each part of the kitchen zone by zone.
- Pantry, cabinets, and drawers: The first step is to empty each space, assess each item, and put everything back where it belongs. Start with your powerhouse storage spaces, such as the pantry and upper cabinets. Then move onto the lower cabinets, drawers, and the space under the kitchen sink.
06 of 06
The Living Room

The Spruce / Letícia Almeida

The living room is one of the hardest rooms in your home to keep neat daily. That's because it gets a lot of use, and living rooms don't usually offer many storage features. You may have some bookcases and a TV console, but they don’t hide much. The key is to:
- Decide on permanent storage spaces for commonly used items, such as remote controls, magazines, and books.
- Declutter this space regularly.
Large furniture: Start with bookcases, consoles, and side tables. Then move on to your coffee table and entertainment center. Empty them, assess the items they store, and then return them to their proper storage spaces. Put books away, reduce paper clutter, or return remote controls to their proper place.

Electronics: Remove everything not connected to your television or home theater system. Are you using it? Does it work? Store items such as chargers and gaming equipment where you use them.

Toys: Assess every toy for wear and tear. Does it still function? Do your kids still play with it? Recycle or store each toy.

Grab your put-away bin, and return everything that belongs in another room to its proper storage space.

Where to Dispose of Clutter

For the items you aren’t keeping when you declutter your home, you have some options for disposing of them.

Donate: Giving clothes and gently used items to charities and local goodwill organizations is a great way to help others in need while removing your own clutter. If you plan to give away certain items to friends and family, start bins for each person.
Sell: Besides a donation bin, you also might want to start a collection of items to sell in a garage sale or online in respected marketplaces.
Recycle: Know your local recycling guidelines, because items such as electronics often can’t go in regular recycling. Keep a separate bin for those items to bring them to an appropriate recycling center.
Trash: If you know you're undertaking a major decluttering project, you might want to rent a dumpster in advance for unusable or extra large items that must be thrown away.

FAQ

What should I remove first while decluttering?

Although it depends on the room, you should first aim to clean off the counter. Kitchen (and bathroom) counters tend to be catch-alls for small items, appliances, and food or product residue, so organizing this spot in the home is a good place to start.
How can I declutter my house quickly?

The easiest and fastest way to declutter your home is to devise a plan and make a categorized list. Take it room by room and write down what needs to be decluttered, if the space needs an overall clean, and give yourself a deadline of when it needs to be completed.
What is the one-touch premise for decluttering?

The one-touch method is a rule to live by daily. If you're holding something, deal with it. Put it where it belongs, throw it out, or do what you must with it. For example, if you walk into a house with a pile of mail, sort, dispose of it, or put it where it needs to go. Do not put it into a pile to deal with later.
Do I need a professional organizer to help me declutter?

If you are pressed for time, have too busy of a schedule, or don't know how or where to start organizing, it may be best to hire a professional organizing expert to help you declutter. They can teach you tips and advise on how to make the most of your space, and you can consider it a learning experience for the next time you need to clean your house.
What's the difference between declutter and unclutter?

Declutter means that you are aiming to remove clutter while unclutter is a term used to clean or tidy up a space.

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