Is there a best way to clear clutter? And how would you do this?
On this page I will help you through a good way to declutter and organise.

You are an intelligent person and of course you know that in theory it is very simple; decluttering is moving clutter out of our home. But is their a best way to clear clutter? And how do you really declutter your life?

There has to be a process, a plan of attack that will help you get started and work systematic on decluttering your house.

Hopefully I can help

On this page, I'd like to delve a bit deeper into the topic of how to go about this process of clearing clutter in a way a professional organiser would approach it.

A professional organiser groups things

I'll talk more about this in the organising section but basically in the declutter process you decide to keep or toss an item.

“If you keep it you need to find a home for the item”

— Sabine

It is simple, but warrants repeating: Categorise; group your items together

This is important for the items we decide to keep. When we sort through items, we make piles in boxes, bags, and/or on the floor. We group like items and place a sticky note with a (temporary) label somewhere on the pile. I'll explain this more in the organising and decluttering course.

Categorise in a way to makes sense to you

One of the secrets to how to declutter (maybe even the best way to clear clutter) is categorise. Do this in a way that makes sense to you, allowing you to clear clutter in your house according to your priorities. I talk about this a fair amount in the secret to organising.

Questions to ask when you decide not to keep the item could be:

· What do I need to throw away?

· What do I need to give away?

Then ask, "How will I go about this?" Both throwing away and giving away create additional decisions. You might need to plan when you'll take items to the second hand shop or bring items to the dump, and so on.

The best way to clear clutter is have a process

It is in line with what we did previously, I am expanding the points here with a stronger focus on grouping items together. Let’s look at our list that is very similar to the; How to declutter your life page, here we go in a bit more depth.

1. Have all of your preparatory items ready

2. Choose one area or set a goal

3. Set a time limit

4. Declutter by grouping similar items together (an extension of sort through items).

5. Put away items

6. Finish the task

7. Reward

Here where we discuss the best way to declutter, our strongest focus is on Point 4, decluttering by grouping items together, as this is the basis for decluttering any space.

1. Have all preparation items ready

This one is pretty easy, it's a good idea to have a declutter kit, with sturdy garbage bags, good markers, and sticky notes (the kind that actually sticks). Some sheets of white paper or a notebook for jotting notes and ideas on how to declutter the next area, or on cleaning or organising the area where you're currently working. When I visited homes as a Professional

Organiser I did have a kit with me which made the whole process easier no matter what situation I was in and what declutter challenge we had in front of us.

2. Pick one area or goal

When learning to declutter, it helps to narrow down your space and work, to start out with success on a small scale, rather than to start out with failure on a larger scale.

Example

People go wrong when they say, "I will declutter the garage this weekend." If you are like most people, you will be furiously spinning your wheels, with lots of activity, moving, shuffling, and tossing. It is, however, highly likely that we'll end up short of time, among many piles of unidentified items. We then shove the piles of stuff back in the garage for the next declutter session (next week – maybe). And we're left worse off than when we started.

Professional Organiser Experience

This is not how to declutter! A professional organiser will always come with a plan and a realistic time frame for tackling the area, with many small wins along the way.

In our example, if you have the whole weekend, it's better to divide a large area, like a garage, into multiple manageable goals.

For example break it down in 3 mini goals within one small are

Put all boxes to one side
Pick out all of the large items that can be thrown away
Sort one shelf at a time
Then sort one corner of the garage at a time

3. Set time limits

For the garage, you could set two two-hour blocks to do the work. Most of my clients are exhausted after four hours.

When setting time limits, make sure you still have specific goals for what you want to achieve. Keep it realistic; you can start an area and maybe finish it or run out of items in which case you simply pick up where you left off. No clear goal could mean you might be aimlessly moving items for four hours, rather than actually decluttering.

4. Clear the clutter - Declutter by grouping items together

This falls under how to declutter 101 in detail! It means that we have to ask ourselves numerous questions about each and every item we pick something up.

You need to be clear and make sure you make a decision on every item you pick up.

5. Put items away

Place the items you want to keep into categories, which are rough groupings of where the item will live.

Then we go deep and ask:

· Where will this item fit?

· What is its place in the house?

· Does it belong to a group of like items?

· Where will I look when I need it again?

If you want to keep the item in the spot you have just sorted, clean the spot and straighten the area. Put the item back in its place, with a little extra room. The actual organisation of the space will happen later. If the items you have sorted and want to keep belong in another area of the house, move them to that area, but don’t get sidetracked and declutter these new areas. If you begin in the craft room, stay there. Make sure you don’t find yourself decluttering the bathroom because you went in there with some items from your original area. We need to keep our decluttering to a single, clear, small area, and we need to keep it simple.

We can use our groups to put items away and finish our session. Not allowing for enough time to put items away is a basic decluttering mistake. Take into consideration that you still might need to walk to the trash container or the car, drive to the second-hand shop, or call friends to whom you will give things (back). It might feel as if you're not decluttering when on the phone or driving through town, but you are, this is exactly how to declutter your spaces.

“Over time you will see all of your combined efforts will pay off.”

— Sabine Straver

6. Finish the task

This final step, the completion of your decluttering tasks and the conclusion of your session, is very important. If you start this process with a project and don’t finish it, your house is going to look worse. You won't feel good about it, and will never want to sort through your belongings again. You might be reasoning that sorting through things is clearly not working for you or is something that is too hard for you. This is simply not how to declutter.

If you change the way you work, if you do one small area at a time, if you do it well, and finish all of your To-Dos, as well as finish each separate session completely, you'll succeed over time and feel great every time you finish one area.

7. The best way to clear clutter, have a reward

My favourite part of any organising and decluttering have a reward on the end. It could be reading a book, having a cuppa or a bath.

“It is important to acknowledge your hard work, you are doing great and deserve a reward.”

— Sabine Straver

The best way to clear clutter from your house

The magic is now for you to test these ideas and find out if they work for you! If you have any decluttering tips/tricks or ideas on what the best way to clear clutter is for you feel free to share!

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It will give you an email course, a worksheet, a number of videos helping you understand some key organising principles on how to get started with how to declutter and organise your life.