This post will help you declutter your house in 30 days AND feel a million times better about your living space!
We’ll utilize a 20-minute decluttering routine to meet that challenge.
Set aside just one month, and you’ll feel a ton of weight lifted from your shoulders … and closets. It’s not hard, I promise. Stick around and we’ll tackle this together.
With spring approaching fast, this is the perfect time to think about decluttering your house. You’ll feel so much better with less stuff to trip over, move around, clean, and think about. And it will make spring cleaning a cinch!
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Decluttering your house restores peace and saves time!
Excess stuff is actually really hard on us emotionally. Clutter causes stress whenever we can’t find important things we’re looking for. It’s a huge time waster.
If you work at home like I do, clutter is also super distracting and disheartening. As I move around my house, the extra stuff keeps calling out — “do something with me!” It feels awful.
We had a major declutter win in our garage this weekend, and it’s spurred us to keep going in the right direction. A giant entertainment center armoire finally found its new home!
I’d tried giving that sucker away numerous times. Someone actually bought it for $10 on the Facebook Marketplace — score! [Not the $10, but the extra garage space!]
The garage is a nightmare for most of us. What no longer fits in the house gets tossed right into the garage. And there it sits — and sits.
A sad wasteland of clutter that keeps cars in the driveway when it’s 20 degrees outside. That gets me irritated just thinking about it… but I digress.
Let’s get started and see how to declutter a home in just 30 days.
How will this 30-day declutter challenge work?
We’ll divide our 30 days into four weekly chunks. You can start fresh at the start of a month, or better yet, get started today! Each weekday has a 20-minute purging session, and weekends are used to get rid of stuff.
You’ll be moving through your house in sections. The first week has five easy 20-minute decluttering sessions. We need to see those quick wins to stay motivated for the big stuff!
The final few weeks are for deeper decluttering. Each weekday you’ll tackle a certain area of the house. Since basic decluttering is done the first week, you should be able to get quite a bit accomplished in 20 minutes a day.
Weekends are for getting the clutter off the premises. 😉
Prep-work for decluttering in 30 days
For never-ending paper clutter, grab this stylish over-the-door mail and paper organizer , a basket, or other small bin for important papers and mail.
Either sort it as you stash it (best option) or stick it in the basket as you go about decluttering the house. Put it in the right place before you go to bed.
Before any serious decluttering begins, you’ll need an area (garage is best) to organize things as you pick them up. If you have extra boxes around, set aside three medium-large ones and a smaller bin.
You can get moving boxes at Home Depot for a few bucks each. Personally, I use a handful of sturdy plastic storage bins that keep me organized after “the purge.” Ace Hardware and Target usually have great bins that won’t blow your budget.
Mark one box for donations, one for selling items of value, and another for keeping/relocating.
The smallest bin is your think-about box. Some stuff may need a little more thought, and that’s okay. But let’s make that a small box of things — deal?
**Your decluttering success will totally depend on taking action with the boxes of stuff every weekend!
- Take the box of donations to the donation place THAT WEEKEND
- Put the for-sale items on Amazon, Craigslist, Facebook Marketplace, your neighborhood site, eBay etc. THAT WEEKEND
- Decide on a new home for the keep stuff [and get appropriate baskets/bins to organize it] THAT WEEKEND
- Store your think-about items in a sturdy bin out of the way THAT WEEKEND
Public Service Announcement … a moment of truth and honesty.
Decluttering your home, and creating a lovely space, begins with peace and order on the inside. Simplify and streamline your daily schedule for a healthier life balance and cut the chaos for good. All you need is a solid plan.
If you need to get better at meal planning, scheduling regular workouts, creating a better morning routine, staying on budget … YOU’LL LOVE THIS PLANNER!
Twenty-minute quick wins
This first week is for quick declutter wins to get you started off strong. We can do anything for just 20 minutes — right? [Right.]
Overwhelm makes most people avoid decluttering like the plague. It’s best to start simple and reinforce how good it feels to get SOMETHING done. Quick wins reinforce good habits.
Developing a decluttered mindset, and making it a regular habit, will prevent things from overtaking your space again.
What you’ll need for each quick 20-minute declutter
- A large garbage bag
- A medium box or laundry basket
- Cleaning gloves if you’d like
- Good music or a podcast you’ve wanted to hear
Choose whatever time of day works for you, have a nice cup of coffee or tea beforehand, and set out your supplies. If you have a multi-level home, you can choose one floor or a few rooms for the first declutter sweep.
Before you start, take a few minutes to envision how you’d really like that area to look. What would make you feel most peaceful?
Set your timer for 20 minutes, and utilize your box and trash bag. Go through each area of the section you’re working in and put garbage or anything that’s unusable in the trash bag.
Place all objects that need a better home, need donating, or you don’t know what to do with in the box/basket. Try to move along at a good pace and don’t get paralyzed by thinking too hard.
Whatever you do, don’t let magazines or boxes of pictures distract you! This happened to me the other day… before I knew it, I’d lost an hour looking at old pictures! Why do we do that?
When time’s up, toss everything that’s in the garbage bag into trash or recycling, and separate the stuff you’ve put in the box. Each item should fit into one of your labeled boxes. It’s either keep, donate, sell, or think about.
You’re going to repeat this each weekday of the first week. This is not deep decluttering time, it’s simply grabbing things you see on the surface of your home. It’s the stuff on floors, open shelves, counters, tables, bedroom corners, in closet piles, bathrooms, etc.
Decluttering tips for the first week
- Make it fun and listen to music — you need positive vibes for something you’ve been dreading
- For day one you can focus on rooms nearest the front door — entry + family room + main bathroom
- Maybe the second day you tackle the kitchen + eating area + pantry
- Third day could be master bedroom + bathroom + office
- Fourth day might be kids’ rooms + bathrooms
- Fifth day can be basement + spare room or guest room + any other main areas you haven’t covered yet
- Obviously, everyone’s house layout and size is different — do what makes sense to you
Decluttering your house for the big win!
It feels great to get that first practice week out of the way … doesn’t it? As you look around, are you starting to feel a sense of pride and more peace about your living space? You should be proud of yourself for getting started. That’s always the biggest challenge!
For the next few weeks, we’re going to dive a bit deeper into the clutter that’s beneath the surface. Kitchen appliances and spices that haven’t seen the light of day for years.
Stuff on bookshelves, in junk drawers, bathroom drawers, dresser drawers, coat closet, random boxes, linen closets, etc.
You’ll take the same approach as before. Arm yourself with good music (or podcast), garbage bag, and your handy box and get started. On Monday, set that timer for 20 minutes, unless you’d like to work longer, and dive into one area.
Don’t stress. You’ve got 15 days to do this part, each with a 20-minute decluttering session. It’s fine to get “carried away” and listen to that entire set or the hour-long podcast if you’d like.
You’ll cover more ground … and honestly, it can be addicting once you discover how GOOD IT FEELS to be rid of stuff!
**Remember not to spend too much time with decision-making or going down memory lane. Stick with the task at hand. Everything you touch needs to be separated into one of your labeled boxes or trashed.
Deep declutter zone ideas
- If the kitchen is really cluttered, split it into two separate sessions (days)
- Tackle one or two closets in a session
- Try one or two bathrooms in a session
- Your bedroom and under the bed might be a session (or two!)
- Have your kids participate if they’re old enough — show them what a session looks like and let them jam out in their rooms
- Tackle your refrigerator and pantry in a session or two
- Map out the various areas of your house, split them into 15 sections, and tackle each one during the fifteen weekday purges
You’ve tackled the clutter … now what?
Now that you’ve gone through every part of your house [or you’re nearly there], make sure you’ve kept up with the weekend rule. Decluttering is amazing, but you must commit to disposing of all items you’re not keeping.
If you’ve fallen behind with donations, choose a day to load it up and haul it out. Sell items you’d like to recoup money on, or give them to someone you know would appreciate them.
It’s easy to let money-guilt creep in with bigger-ticket items. Don’t let that paralyze you into keeping stuff that’s no longer USEFUL to you or your family. Give it to someone who needs it — and feel GOOD about that!
You’ll likely have a whole box of stuff that lacks a home. They’re useful items but need a place of their own. This is where you can set up a few systems to prevent clutter from building up in the future.
Remember the over-the-door mail and paper sorter I told you to get? You really should. My hanging organizers keep me sane.
There’s even one with deep pockets for my downstairs bathroom. The pockets can hold toilet paper rolls, extra bottles of shampoo, soap, wash cloths, and hand towels. It completely saves our small bathroom from clutter.
Look into storage systems that fit the items you have. Try a stylish storage tower for your entryway, living room, nursery, or closet… it truly will fit anywhere.
Would some drawer organizers for makeup or small kitchen items help? There are some amazing organizing products out there these days! You don’t have to suffer through clutter build-up ever again.
Look at this gorgeous bathroom organizer … which can be used in a closet, kitchen, on the wall OR over the door. This thing could solve most of the world’s clutter problems all by itself!
A decluttered house in 30 days is not impossible!
Concluding thoughts:
You’re a rockstar for tackling a project that you’ve likely put off for a long time. Well done!
It really is possible to declutter an entire house in just 30 days.
By breaking things down into small, manageable decluttering sessions, we were able to accomplish a LOT of work without overwhelm taking over.
You deserve a living space that provides a safe haven of peace and supports your life in healthy ways. We all get caught up in buying more than we need. The challenge is to recognize that pattern and be happy with what we have. AND maintain good storage systems!
Now… who’s ready for spring cleaning??
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