Declutter Day is how I take care of the clutter that just creeps into my house. With 3 kids here plus my house being the babysitting house, it just sneaks up on you over time. And unless you’re the best of the best, your house probably gets a little cluttered from time to time too. Everyone’s definition of clutter varies, but when you know, you know.
Recently our kids started 24-hour visits, so instead of being sad, I decided to do a declutter day. It is for sure easier with no kids, so if you have the opportunity to let the kids visit someone else, I do recommend it. I thought I’d share my process. The key to any care task is to figure out what works for you, so edit this process as you need to.
Now, let’s look at how to have a Declutter Day.
- Identify what rooms you’re going to declutter: The last time I did a declutter day I focused on my bedroom, study, living room/kitchen, and husband’s office. My kids are supposed to keep their place in order, but usually, they have declutter days too where I more closely direct them on what to do and getting rid of their trash and broken toys. These are the spaces I live in the most, so having them put together helps me feel a little more on top of things. And this number of rooms was a pretty solid day for me.
- Find a box or bag for every room plus a give-away box, a project box, and a large trash bag: I love a good canvas bag or tote, so I have plenty of these. If for some reason you aren’t well-stocked in this area, I recommend either IKEA totes if you’re close to an Ikea, or these totes from Amazon are some of my favorites that are a good size and collapse if you’re not using them. You can also use laundry baskets as a double-use option.
- Designate a collection room: I made my living room the collection room. As I went through my rooms, I brought everything to this room to re-sort and go through, plus I could catch up with some tv shows while I sorted.
- Remove all dirty clothes from bedrooms and sort them in the laundry room/space. (bonus, start a load of laundry)
- Go through each room with the box, and collect everything that doesn’t belong or doesn’t have a home. Throw away trash either in the room can or bring the large trash bag with you as you go. When you leave the room make sure you feel good about what is still there and how it looks. If it still feels too cluttered, or you don’t like something that’s in there, remove it and take it to the collection room.
- Bring the collection boxes from all other rooms to the collection room: Empty the boxes and set them against a wall in the collection room. Start going through everything and sort them to the proper room, or place it in the give-away box. If you come across something that needs fixed or worked on place it in the project box.
- Return items to proper room in proper space: And don’t just return the box, but actually put the items where they belong. If you get an item to a room and decide you don’t like it there anymore, return it to the collection room.
- Go through the remaining items in the collection room: These are the items that didn’t have an obvious place, so ask yourself if you really need it. If not, put it in the give-away box. If you do, decide where its home is going to be and take it there.
- Make a list of projects: If something needs a project in order to be put away (like a hanger on the wall) or it needs to be fixed before putting it away, it goes in your project box. Go through your box and make a list of the projects that need to be completed. Make sure it feels worth the time for the project for the item. If not give it away or throw it away.
- Treat yourself: you worked hard and your house feels good, enjoy it.
You can be as detailed or minimal with the declutter as you would like to be. If you want to do one room with a fine-tooth comb or do the whole house, you’ll be able to get through a lot of space at once. If you’ve never done a Declutter Day before, I recommend only 4 medium rooms, depending on your amount of stuff. If you don’t get through everything in one day, you wind up with boxes of stuff everywhere and feeling more overwhelmed than you were before.
If you’re not sure where to start with your decluttering process, check out 4 places to declutter right now to get your mojo going.
