Get rid of those high heels and pumps in disarray in the closet!
Want to declutter your home or closet?
You’re not alone. The declutter movement is rapidly gaining momentum as hordes of shoppers turn their noses up at traditional consumerism and embrace a simpler way of living. To join the declutter movement, repeat “Less is More” after me and follow these five steps.
A large pile of clothes
Declutter Step 1: Dive In and Collect Everything
Pull everything out, dust everything off and place it all in a pile. If you’re tackling your whole home, go room by room.
Declutter Step 2: Organize
Now, sort everything into sub-piles – “Definitely Keep”, “Definitely Get Rid Of”and “Unsure”. Try to keep the “Unsure” pile as small as possible.
Declutter Step 3: Clutter Be Gone
Thoroughly clean the space and put away the “Definitely Keep” items, neatly arranging them into more organized piles or clearly labeled bins, like the kind available at The Container Store. Box up the “Definitely Get Rid Of” items and divide them up into items to sell, swap or donate.
Declutter Step 4: Sit On It
Scrutinize the “Unsure” pile. For those items that you really can’t make a decision about, pack them in to a box and keep them out of sight for six months. If after six months, you haven’t longed to pull them out of the box, get rid of them.
An organized closet
Declutter Step 5: Mission Accomplished
Keep the newly decluttered space as neat as possible and repeat the steps as items begin to build up again. Try these same steps to declutter other areas of your life, like all those commitments that weigh you down. Before you know it, you’ll be freed up to enjoy the things that have the most meaning for you. Good luck!
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Jennifer,
Really like your idea about putting the questionable items aside for six months — it’s a great litmus test! Also, two things that helps me donate stuff are realizing that my possessions might be put to much better use by someone else; and the tax deduction doesn’t hurt either!
Thanks Jacquie for posting our article and congrats on the new site! It looks amazing! We have tons of ideas for decluttering and also finding avenues to dispose of that clutter efficiently and in a green way! It’s amazing how much wasted space and dollars people retain with unused items lying around the home. Decluttering not only optimizes the usefulness of items it also provides some peace of mind by giving you more space to move around, less distractions, and sometimes even a little extra cash in your pocket!
Great ideas! I just retired and got rid of 4 storage sheds of old teaching supplies. I moved a lot of it into the garage and still sorting. Thanks for the inspiration.
Charlene
So great this has inspired you! Now you’ll be able to free up a ton of space and use it for something other then storage!
Jennifer – first off the intro to your bio is one of the best I’ve ever read!
Second, great post. As areas become more urbanized (thus, optimal sq. footage becomes a thing of the past) de-cluttering is a must.
I seem to hit a point where all my closets are full to the max every few months (this includes a storage space in my building’s basement too!) then I decide to toss most items to the curb or salvation army. Your tips are more organized, and something I should think about next time, as I tend to toss something I regret getting rid of later.
Thanks Eric for the kind words! This is definitely a more systematic way of decluttering so you don’t go through the dreaded “Why did I toss that?” moment. Hope this helps make it more efficient (and slightly more fun)!
Jennifer,
It’s great to see simple step by step ways for people to declutter their closets. I normally go through my closet every season to see if I want to keep or donate clothes. As a woman in her early 20s, I’m still weeding through my clothes to transition from a college student to a working woman. Now that consignment shops are all the rage, it is easy to grab a bag of decent clothes, drop them off to consign, and receive some money back (and a little tax deduction too!) I have an amazing consignment shop called The Fashion Exchange in my town. Anytime I need a dress, suit, or pair of shoes, I can run to my beloved shop and always find something. I bought a beautiful Ann Taylor pin-stripped summer suit for $10 the day before an interview in the city! Lucky, huh?
If more women and men go through their closets bi-annually (such as when we turn the clocks ahead or back) and bring them to a consignment shop, send them to your website closetdash.com, (which looks fantastic) or just donate them to Salvation Army or Goodwill, there would be much less clothing waste, warmer people, and less clutter for yourself.
I also like your additional advice in Step 5 to take decluttering to another level in regards to the rest of our lives. Simplicity really does make happier, more wholesome people. These are great steps that you can further with other proposed mechanisms of simplifying specific rooms in a household or perhaps writing a list on what are most important to you. I guess then we aren’t even talking about clothing anymore, but simplification in general.
Thanks so much for reading my post Katie! I’m glad you thought it was helpful and good advice! Consignment shops and thrift shops are a perfectly great and economical way to find amazing treasures at fractions of their original prices. And it’s always fun and rewarding when you find that perfect piece for practically nothing!
I would also hope that if more people “go through their closests bi-annually”, they would realize how much they already have! Wouldn’t it be great if we could de-clutter while managing our buying habits to the point where our closets rarely need to be organized because we’d be satisfied with what we already have? I think so!
Dina,
Love the idea of the bi-annual declutter. From what I know of habit-making, setting a firm date in the calendar is a good way to establish habits. Sounds like a good promotion-type idea for Goodwill: establish an annual ‘Declutter Day’– perhaps the first day of Spring? — in which everyone declutters the closet with the goal of ‘harvesting’ at least one bag of clothes that they can donate to charity.
Thanks for sharing these tips on how to declutter your home; I wish I had seen them sooner as I recently emptied out my childhood bedroom. It was amazing the amount of stuff I had squirrelled away, I must have found 10 half blank notebooks and homework from elementary school! I like your idea of boxing up all the “maybe” items and keeping them for six months, sometimes it can be difficult to part with some many belongings at one time. I am a pack rat by nature and find it difficult to give away or throw out most things. As someone who tried to live a sustainable lifestyle, I am always amazed at the amount of stuff I have been able to accumulate in a year. By shorting through all of my things more frequently than an annual purge will help me to keep more accurate track of what I’m regularly using and what I need. At least now I know I don’t need to buy any more notebooks!
After decluttering, I made a rule. If I put one thing in the house, one thing has to go. It doesn’t always work perfectly, but it has slowed my cluttering down a bit.
I’m with you, Mark. Living in NYC, there’s just no space for storing things that you don’t use. So, when one thing comes in, another goes out.
But I look at it this way: Nothing ever goes to waste. I typically give things away to others, or to a thrift store. So things just “move on” to someone else who can put them to better use. Makes me feel good, rather than like I’m giving something up.
Thank goodness for ebay.
Thanks for the tips about how to declutter a closet! I always try to clean out my closet every season and I try to take the opportunity to ask myself if I will really wear it. I think it’s a great time to analyze my own consumer habits and every time after I clean out my closet, I have less of an urge to shop!
With the “unsure” pile, I usually try to invite a few friends over to help give me a “closet makeover” where they take the items I don’t quite know what to do with and show me new ways to wear them. It’s a great way to extend the use of my wardrobe without having to buy any more items (and while having fun with friends too).
I’ll be sure to keep your tips in mind when I clean out my closet again!
I declutter one small section of one room at a time. That way, I never get overwhelmed. It’s the only sustainable way for me to go.
I’ve made a habit of spending 15-30 minutes decluttering right before every weekly vacuuming, rotating sections throughout the house. That way, clutter stays at a minimum year round. After decluttering, I vacuum up all the dust I’ve stirred up. And take stuff to Goodwill!
I run a cleaning service, and encourage my cleaning customers to do the same, to reduce my cleaning time. One customer, Kathy Flock, actually does it!
Please don’t try to do too much decluttering at once. Unless you truly have the time, and will keep it decluttered. I helped a customer, “Monica”, declutter her study. It took us both 5 entire days, and looked great. But within a few short months, Monica’s study was full of clutter again. And after a few years, it still is.