8 Decluttering Methods That Actually Work (even if you're not a minimalist).

The average adult hasn't decluttered their house for two and a half years. 91% say they are overwhelmed by the clutter in their house. 50% of people say they won't invite their friends over to see their home. If this is you too, you are not alone. Moms with small children in particular seem to have a hard time. And as a mom myself, I really felt that. Most of us think that the answer is just to be ruthless or extreme. But I've found that there is a way to declutter without having a man-pb. Even if you're not a minimalist. I started massively decluttering our family home about three years ago and it's changed our lives for the better. These are eight methods that made decluttering so much easier for me. This is something I learned from Sahil Bloom. And he talks about this famous experiment run by Barry Schwartz. It was in a food market where they would offer jam samples to shoppers. Some days they displayed six kinds of jam. And then other days they would display 24 varieties of jam. And you would think that having more options means people would buy more. But they found the complete opposite of this. When they had only six kinds of jam on display, people were more likely to buy something. Whereas when there were 24 kinds of jam on display, people felt more overwhelmed. And they were more likely to just walk away without buying anything. And this is what the paradox of choice is. We think that having a lot of choice, even when it comes to our wardrobes for example, we think having a variety of options and having a lot of clothes in there means it's going to be easier for us to get dressed. Or it's going to mean we're going to be more satisfied with our wardrobe or our outfits. But it tends to be quite the opposite. We're less content with what we have. And that's what I found too. I constantly felt like I had to go out and shop for more, find more options. But in reality, when I narrowed down my wardrobe, it became so much easier and also much more fun. And that's why having less options of clothes, but having clothes that actually fit you, clothes that make you feel good, clothes that you love wearing, that's what actually makes you feel more satisfied with how you look, how you dress, the outfits you put together. And this is not what we are led to think through all the marketing and things we see on social media. It's making us feel like we constantly need new items, we constantly need to buy new things and have a lot of variety in our wardrobes. When in reality, what I found is that I've just needed less. The garage check. This is my next decluttering method that applies to all different kinds of storage places. So not just the garage, but also the loft, basement if you have one, not that we have it in the UK, sheds, whatever sort of storage you have. The garage check is simply to ask yourself, do I know what's inside there? Do I know exactly what's in there? Do I know where it is? And can I find it when I need it? We used to have a lot of things in our garage and it ended up being one of those dumping places where all of the things we didn't want to think about, we didn't want to make decisions on, we would just stuff it in there. And that's why our garage became just so cluttered even within just two or three years. And we realized that for one, there were so many things in there that we couldn't remember. We couldn't remember where they were. And also when we were trying to find something, it was so hard to do because when you have to rummage through piles of things, that's not fun and that's gonna lead to just frustration. And in the past, it led us to just going to the shop and buying the item again. When we knew we had it somewhere, we just couldn't find where it was. That was such a waste and it really made me realize that we need to declutter. We need to get rid of these items because if I don't know what's in my garage and I don't know where to find things when I need them, then what's the point of having a garage? Is it just like a dumping place, like a graveyard of things? That felt so pointless. So we started decluttering. Now we only keep, we don't have a garage anymore. We have a shed in the garden where we keep some garden tools and things that we need for out there. And then we have some storage space in the loft. It's not a ton, but in the loft, we make sure that we keep items that we actually need and that we know where to find when we need them. So, you know, things like luggage and Christmas decor and some little toys in a toy rotation, things like that. And we also go through that area regularly to make sure that we are staying on top of it and it's not piling up. Nothing goes just randomly thrown in a bag in the loft and forgotten about. We make sure we have some nice storage bins where we can actually see what's inside. The shuffle check is another decluttering method that I like to use. And this is simply asking myself, you know, when I am going around my house and I'm tidying or I'm, you know, trying to organize things better, am I getting rid of what's not needed or am I just shuffling stuff around? And this is what I used to do. I would go around my house and I would feel so overwhelmed, so stressed about the items. And I would say, right, this is the time I'm going to declutter, I'm going to organize, make it all better. So I would start doing that, just get a lot of storage bins. I would often go to the shop and buy new storage bins because I thought that was the answer. And I would try to organize things and put them in these little categories. But in reality, I wasn't getting rid of anything. I was just moving things around. And that can sometimes feel productive. You feel like you're doing something, but it's not really getting you the results that you want. It's not getting you that clutter-free home because the clutter is still there. It's just in a different bin. And what ended up happening for us is that all the items would so easily get messed up again. It was so hard to keep on top of and I couldn't understand why I felt like I was constantly organizing and tidying, but it never stays that way. And that usually makes us feel like a failure, makes us feel overwhelmed, but it's not us. It's just the stuff. If there's too much stuff, it's so hard to keep on top of. So what I tend to do nowadays is to minimize first. So just make sure I declutter first, get rid of the items in there that are not needed anymore. If it's a cupboard, for example, and then I will look into organizing the items that remain. But minimizing has to come first. The fire method might sound a bit extreme, but it's really effective, I think. Obviously, this might not apply to every little item that we own, but I'm trying to think when I'm decluttering and I'm kind of hung up on an item, I don't know if I should get rid of it. It's not really essential, but I'm just kind of in between. Then I will try to ask myself this. If this item got ruined in a fire, would I replace it? Would I miss it? Would I even notice that it's gone? And if not, then that's probably an item I can get rid of. I'm not saying I might not need it sometime in the future, but the thing is, and what we realize is that sometimes we would keep something in our garage, for example, to store it because we thought, well, we might need it in the future. But what ended up happening is it got ruined because the garage got damp, the items got moldy, and then we just had to get rid of them. So yes, it can be a good idea to keep some items that we might need in the future. But I think when we end up keeping a lot of items like this, a lot of these just-in-case items, that's when we end up getting really overwhelmed and we end up with piles and piles that are just not serving us. And in time, they might get ruined. Things might get obsolete, like things like technology. If we keep those in storage within five or 10 years, those might not be of any use to anyone anymore. But if we try to get rid of them now, maybe even sell them if it's something in OK condition, then we can get something out of it and somebody else can get use of that item. Get in the flow. The flow state was coined by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. He describes this state where when we get really engaged in an activity that we do, then it just becomes easier to keep doing it. Like you get in that flow. I'm sure you know what I mean when you don't feel like starting to clean your house, but then you just start doing it. And within 10 to 15 minutes, you're suddenly doing so much more than you thought you would do. And you're really into it. You've got this momentum going. That's the flow state. And I love a quick declutter and sometimes I'll just do that. But it can be really helpful to try to get in that flow state. And you don't even have to try. You just have to start. And what you can do is maybe play some music or listen to a podcast or do something that motivates you just to get started. Because once you start, once you're in it, it's so much easier to keep going. So if you're struggling with decluttering and trying to kind of wait around for that perfect time, that perfect time probably will never come. So we just have to get started and the rest will just flow. Chase the dopamine bubbles. And this is something that comes with the flow state. So we get in that flow state. We do things around our house. But actually, it's not just tidying your house. It's not just making it look nice for aesthetics because it's been proven that actually having a clean space and taking care of your space around you activates those dopamine bubbles that make you feel really good, that make you feel more motivated in general. This is something I learned from the Dose book by T.J. Power. And he says that when you do things like even changing your bed sheets or, you know, making your bed in the morning, taking out the bins, these random little chores that we don't really put that much importance on actually release dopamine, which is a feel-good chemical in your brain. And what he says is that in time, your brain will have a much greater capacity to generate that dopamine than the average brain. And that means you're going to become a more motivated person in general. So it's not just motivating yourself to clean your dining table. It's actually going to make you more motivated with other aspects of your life, like getting your work done or, you know, working out or all of these other things that are on our to-do list. We want to do them, but we never truly feel motivated to do them. So if nothing else gets you going to declutter, then just know that simply decluttering and taking care of your space can actually do so much more for your mental state than you might realize. The 30-10 method is something I also like to do. So it's nice to get in that flow state and get a big declutter done or a big tidy, a big clean. But sometimes you don't have the time or the capacity to do that. And that's where the 30-10 method can be really helpful. For the next 30 days, do 10 minutes of declutter or tidy. It can be something small. It can be just cleaning your fridge or, you know, decluttering some of the hats or going through your jeans. It can be just a small category that you tackle each day. And within 30 days, you might be amazed at what a difference that can actually make. The pile method is one that I also like to think about. And especially in the beginning. Nowadays, we don't have that many more piles left. I don't mean to be smug, but simply having less stuff in your home means there's not going to be that many piles lingering around. And what I learned throughout decluttering and especially in the beginning of the process is that when I see piles like piles on my dining table, that usually means that those items don't really have a home or we don't have a system to tackle them yet. The easiest way to tackle this is to give them a home. Because when my kids know that their hats and gloves and, you know, coats go somewhere, they're less likely to just throw them on the dining table. Or even if they don't tackle it, it's easier for myself to take care of those piles when I need. So if there's paperwork, if there's homework that they brought home from school, if it's just lingering around there, then maybe I need to give them a little space where they belong. Like maybe a tray, maybe a bin or a basket or somewhere where they can go. If we have shoes next to our backdoor entrance and they're like garden shoes all over the floor, that means those need a place to go. So I put this little basket, I think it's supposed to be a magazine rack, but I just put that next to our backdoor entrance and that's where all the garden shoes go. And it's creating little spots like this for those items that just get thrown around that are in piles that can be really helpful to make your home more clutter-free, more functional, and also just look more tidy as well. If you want more ideas on things to declutter and decluttering methods, I always have my free decluttering checklist linked in the description box. I do hope this was helpful. Let me know how you are getting on with your declutter and I will see you in the next one.