Decluttering and reorganising your home involves sorting items into categories, making decisions about what to part with, and tidying what’s left – ideally twice a year. This process can be a great way to clear your mind, keep your hands busy, and enjoy a satisfying result.
After having a good sort out, many people feel motivated to reorganise other areas of their lives, too. So, if yours has been feeling cluttered or disorganised recently, why not take some time to tackle the contents of your bathroom cabinet or sort through the clothes you no longer wear?
Here, we’ve created a handy guide to help you get started. Hopefully, you can enjoy your decluttering and reorganising journey as much as the result.
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Why should I declutter and reorganise my living space?
It’s a good idea to declutter and reorganise your living space regularly, as research shows there are huge health benefits. For example…
Decluttering and reorganising can boost your energy
Often, when we start making a series of quick decisions about what to keep and how to organise things, our brains enter ‘doing’ mode. This boosts our productivity, making us feel more inclined to keep working through our to-do list for that day.
You might find that you finish decluttering and still have enough energy left for a run, or to try that carrot cake recipe you’ve been meaning to get around to.
When you sort through your things, you may find lost treasures
Nearly all of us have experienced the joy of being reunited with an item we’d forgotten about or thought was long gone.
For example, I recently found a ‘lazy arm’ contraption that clips to any flat surface and holds my smartphone for a hands-free experience. I got it for Christmas one year and had never taken it out of the box, but I’ve now started using it for home workouts and chatting with friends and family during video calls.
Decluttering and reorganising can reduce anxiety
Humans are drawn to order and symmetry, so when things are scattered, messy, or out of place, we can feel anxious. But taking steps to restore order to our surroundings can help us feel calmer.
Having a less cluttered living space can reduce tensions
Clutter can be stressful and make daily living less enjoyable. Every time you open a cupboard and something falls out, or you can’t find your keys and spend 15 minutes looking for them, it can cause frustration. And in these moments, you’re more likely to snap at those around you.
Therefore, being able to find everything you need easily can help reduce stress levels and put you and others at ease.
Decluttering and reorganising can boost confidence
As you sort through your things and work out how to make them fit into a particular space, you use problem-solving skills to make quick decisions. You’ll need to work out what to get rid of and how to organise the items you’d like to keep.
This process can help you build confidence in your problem-solving abilities – especially when you step back and admire your hard work.
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How to declutter and reorganise your home – 6 easy steps
1. Choose an area to focus on
If your home needs decluttering and reorganising, this can feel overwhelming, but it doesn’t need to be. Organising your home can be done over a few weeks, months, or even years.
The most effective way to get started is to pick a single area to tackle and leave the rest for another time. It can be helpful to start with areas that’ll benefit you daily. These are often the rooms we spend the most time in – for example, the kitchen or your bedroom.
You might like to try some of the decluttering ideas in the video below to get started. There are 100 ideas, so why not start with 5-10 and see how you get on?
2. Let it go, let it go...
For many of us, letting go of items we no longer need can be tricky. We often know that we don’t really need five pairs of sandals or that old teapot, yet we can’t shake thoughts like, “But what if I need it again in the future?” or “[Insert family or friend’s name] gave it to me, so I’d better keep it.” Thoughts like these can convince you that the only option is to keep things that are simply weighing you down.
Parting with items you’ve had for a long time can stir up many emotions, and some people panic at the thought of letting things go. However, once you start, you’ll often see that it’s okay to go, making the rest of the decluttering process much easier.
If you’re having trouble deciding whether to keep something, ask yourself: Do you need it? Would your life be much different without it? What would you use it for and how often? And could you easily forget about it if it were gone?
If it becomes apparent that you’re holding onto something simply because you’d like to avoid parting with it, let it go. If this is too hard and you’re not convinced you won’t miss it, try placing it somewhere out of the way for a month. If you don’t reach for the item or you forget it’s there, it’s safe to say that you don’t really need it.
You might find our article, 8 tips for minimalist living, a useful place to start with letting go. Alternatively, organising consultant Marie Kondo has a popular Netflix series, Tidying Up with Marie Kondo, which shows techniques to decide whether to keep items – especially those with sentimental value.
Marie suggests holding items one by one and deciding whether each one sparks ‘joy’ or makes you feel weighed down. If it doesn’t spark joy (or doesn’t have a regular, practical use), she suggests letting it go. She explains this process in the clip below, but it’s worth watching the full series! If you don’t have Netflix, you can still access plenty of decluttering and organising tips and tricks on her YouTube channel.
3. Sort items into piles
The decluttering process can be made much easier by sorting items into piles. For example, you could create…
A pile of items that you don’t need but are in good enough condition to be sold or donated
Try to be selective about the items you donate and stagger your donations to avoid overwhelming charity shops.
Before donating, consider the condition of the item – is it worthy of being sold? You could also consider listing items on Freecycle, where you can give things away to people who need them.
Alternatively, it’s worth remembering that you can make money by selling items you no longer need. You can sell unwanted belongings online – try eBay, Vinted, Gumtree, and Facebook Marketplace. You can find more advice in our article: How to make money from your clutter.
A pile of items that are damaged or that constitute ‘rubbish’
It’s worth considering which unwanted items are made of recyclable materials (e.g. plastic, glass, and cardboard) and placing them in the correct bins.
You can use this recycling locator to find out where to recycle specific items locally.
A pile of items that’ll be useful to you once they’re fixed or cleaned
This pile is by far the most rewarding and will give you something to do on a rainy day. You can chip away at fixing and cleaning items when you have spare time.
There’s something satisfying about restoring old things that, with a bit of TLC, can start adding value to your life again.
For inspiration on fixing up and repurposing your old items, check out our article: 16 creative upcycling ideas that could save you money and help the planet.
A pile of things you want to keep
Sorting things into piles can help speed up the organising process, and can also make letting go of items you no longer need much easier.
For example, if you know that certain items will be passed on to others who can give them a second life, this will hopefully ease any guilt about not keeping them yourself.
Similarly, placing items in a rubbish pile (because they’ll be of no use to anyone else) can help remind you that they’ve run their course and that it’s okay to recycle or discard them.
Give unwanteds a better next chapter
Your once-loved items are just waiting to be useful again. Pop them in a box, send them to Vintage Cash Cow for free, and they’ll make you an offer to rehome them all.
4. Get creative with storage space
Once you’ve decluttered, the next thing you’ll need to do is work out what to do with the space left, and how to organise the things you’ve decided to keep.
One of the best things about decluttering is that it helps you identify the items that truly matter – which are usually the ones that you use most regularly or bring you joy. For this reason, it’s important to organise your space in a way that caters to this and allows easy access to these items.
This is your opportunity to think creatively about your storage space – which can be a lot of fun! For example, if you’re organising your kitchen cupboards, consider inserting a piece of tension curtain rod to hang cleaning sprays or food packets.
For clothes you won’t reach for this season, try vacuum packing them and storing them out of the way. This can help to make more room in your wardrobe for clothes that will get plenty of wear in the coming months.
Check out our article, 20 clever storage solutions to maximise space in your home, for ideas. Or, YouTube is also a great place for decluttering and organising inspiration. I’ve selected a few of my favourite videos below…
Inspiration for organising a cluttered kitchen pantry
Inspiration for making the most of storage space under the stairs
5. Take before and after photos
One of the most rewarding things about decluttering and reorganising your home is the result. However, it’s easy to forget how a space looked before.
A fun and useful way to track your progress is to take before-and-after photos. This can be incredibly satisfying and make you feel great about what you’ve accomplished.
Hopefully, once you see what you’re capable of with a few spare hours and some determination, you’ll feel inspired to declutter and reorganise other areas of your home or life.
6. Make your own rules
There are no hard-and-fast rules when it comes to decluttering – though it can help to spend some time considering why you hang on to things in the first place. Do they bring you comfort? Do you simply forget to throw things away, and before you know it, they’ve piled up?
If you can uncover what causes the build-up in the first place, you can take conscious steps to prevent it from escalating. Everyone is different, so it’s up to you to find a decluttering method that works for you.
Perhaps you could get into a routine when donating to charity shops. Some people commit to decluttering and making donations every few months. Others who struggle with giving away many belongings at once, or prefer to keep on top of their clutter, might give away a few items every couple of weeks.
Extra decluttering and reorganising tips
View your home as though you’re visiting it for the first time
It’s not uncommon to stop noticing clutter in your home when you see it every day. Sometimes, we even become used to annoying habits, like things falling on us every time we open a cupboard, or tripping over things in the way.
This is why it can help to step back and try to see your home through the eyes of a visitor. What would they think if they were viewing your space for the first time? Using this method can help you identify areas that need the most improvement.
Make use of labels
It can be much easier to create order at home if things live in easily identifiable places. You can buy baskets, hampers, and boxes fairly cheaply on Amazon or eBay, which you can add your own labels to. For example, you could use them to store shampoo in the bathroom, herbs and spices in the kitchen, or screws in the garage.
If everything has a place, you’ll be much less likely to keep things that don’t fit into these and will hopefully be able to avoid building up too much clutter.
Consider using a decluttering checklist
Sometimes, the problem isn’t that you own things that aren’t useful; it’s that you own too many useful items. For example, towels and kitchen utensils are always handy, but this doesn’t mean you need to keep three garlic crushers and 20 towels.
If you have many different items in your home, it can help to run through a decluttering checklist. Becoming Minimalist has a great one here.
Make your bed
When decluttering and reorganising your bedroom, it’s always a good idea to start by making your bed. In many cases, a bed takes up the most space in a bedroom, so when it’s unmade, it can make the room look and feel more cluttered.
When my room is unbelievably messy, I often feel overwhelmed and want to avoid the mess rather than tackle it. Making your bed can make a big difference in how the room looks, and make the task ahead seem more manageable.
Always consider whether you can repurpose items
Just because an item is no longer useful in the way it was intended, this doesn’t mean that it won’t be useful in another way.
For example, I recently found myself with too many plant pots and nowhere to keep my washing-up sponge, scourer, and brushes, so I decided to use one of my disused plant pots as a holder.
Repurposing items is satisfying – it’s a great feeling, knowing that you saved money and avoided creating waste.
For big decluttering jobs, acknowledge that you’ll have lots of cleaning to do
As clutter builds up, so does dust and dirt, so it’s likely that as you begin to sort through things, you’ll uncover areas that need a good clean. This is especially true in difficult-to-reach cracks and crevices.
To help with this, have a read of our article: 7 effective natural cleaning products which cost pennies to make.
Give unwanteds a better next chapter
Your once-loved items are just waiting to be useful again. Pop them in a box, send them to Vintage Cash Cow for free, and they’ll make you an offer to rehome them all.
How often should I declutter my home?
Most experts recommend decluttering your home at least twice a year – once in spring and once in autumn. However, if clutter builds up quickly, a light sort-through every few months can help you stay on top of it.
Some people find it helpful to schedule decluttering sessions in the same way they would other commitments, adding it to the diary and even taking time off work to get stuck into it if it’s a particularly big job.
How do I start decluttering when overwhelmed?
The best way to start decluttering is to pick just one small area – a single drawer, shelf, or cupboard – rather than tackling the whole room at once. Completing even a small task can give you the momentum to keep going.
While some people find it more efficient to dedicate a day, weekend, or week to decluttering, others find it easier to manage, emotionally and physically, if they break it up into smaller sessions over time.
Final thoughts...
We hope these tips for decluttering and reorganising your home have been helpful. And, remember, the key is to be easy on yourself and make a plan to tackle clutter bit by bit.
For more house and home content, head over to our home and garden section. Here, you’ll find a variety of helpful articles, including 8 ways to make your home cosy and 24 things to add to your spring cleaning checklist.
Have you recently decluttered or reorganised your home? Do you have any additional tips you’d like to share? We’d love to hear from you in the comments below.
