Decluttering 101: How to Get Started and Stay Motivated

"Every small success can be a big win"

Just like having a knack for languages or being good with numbers, some people are naturals with being organised. And just like languages or maths, being able to declutter and keep your space tidy is a skill that can be learned: it starts with the knowledge of basic strategies and small steps at first.

From my years of experience, here are the steps most likely to lead to lasting success...

Start small. Picking a defined small project allows you to deal with the issues you encounter and learn lessons that will serve you well for bigger projects. Small projects take less time and you are more likely to get a general view of the project and bring it to a successful conclusion.

Plan ahead. Be clear about your goal and why exactly you are doing this. Is it lack of space? Or maybe you struggle with finding things? Once you have that clear goal, make sure to make it the measuring guide when you make decisions.

Decluttering is not only about extracting items that no longer serve you, but dealing with the follow-up: Let’s say you organise a drawer and after sorting and extracting you find that there are two distinctly different types of things here. Will both categories go back into the drawer (hopefully separated in some way), or do you need to find another (more logical) place to shift one of the categories?

And of course, you’ll have to deal with whatever you have decided to let go: is this going to the rubbish bin, can it be recycled or donated to a charity?

Make enough time. Many decluttering projects fail because they are done in the spirit of “I’ll just do this quickly” and then you run out of time. When that happens, more often than not, all the stuff goes back into a drawer, box or bag and is – once more – relegated to “maybe later”. Unfortunately, this often leaves you with more of a mess than you had before.

Running out of time is actually one of the main reasons why projects aren’t finished. Time is a tricky mistress, but there are ways to manage this resource during a decluttering project: either do projects with no other plans afterwards so you can spend as much time as you need, or you can try and cut a project into smaller bits that feel more manageable time-wise.

Stay motivated. This is where the first three steps come together: each time you finish as small project and you see the improvements – small as they may be – you’ll be rewarded with a sense of success. One more job done, some items easier to access, things looking more tidy, etc.

I’m aware, of course, that small projects will not immediately change you life in a big way, but they are much more likely to succeed in the early stages of your efforts and they will teach you how to tackle larger ones (think: loft or garage).