The Foolproof Decluttering Method That Works
I want to talk about the exact moment most decluttering attempts die. It’s the moment you stand in the doorway of the messy room, feel the sheer overwhelming size of the job, and quietly decide that today is not the day. Again.
I’ve got a method that beats this every single time, and it works precisely because it’s almost laughably easy. Ready? Start embarrassingly small. So small it feels a little silly. So small that you genuinely have no excuse not to do it. That’s not me lowering the bar because I doubt you. It’s me handing you the one approach that actually works.
A good clean-out is a step you absolutely cannot skip when you’re organizing a home, so let me teach you the decluttering method that works – and that you’ll actually finish.
Learn more design insights from my book, Right at Home, including Why You Don’t Need to Know Your Design Style, Before You Buy Anything For Your Home, Ask Yourself This Question, and Function: The One Rule Behind Every Good Design Decision.
THE DECLUTTERING METHOD THAT WORKS
First, What Organizing Actually Is
Before you throw money at the Container Store, let’s break down what we’re really doing here, because the word “organizing” scares people far more than it should. Organizing is simply the act of creating a functional system. That’s it. And I promise you, anything can be a system.
If you keep your shampoo backstock under the sink and pull it out when you’re running low in the shower, congratulations, that’s a system. Now, if pulling out that extra shampoo knocks down a tumbling pile of cotton pads, toilet paper, and your water flosser, then yeah, that particular system could use a rethink. Your whole home is really just a bunch of smaller systems: your bathroom storage is one, your kitchen setup is another, all laddering up to one big system that keeps the place running. So when you organize, what you’re really building is a kind of personal infrastructure, a system of living that genuinely works for you and the way you want to live. When a system is set up properly, it provides order, sets up a process, and establishes rules, and that order is what your mind craves.
Learn How to Organize Your Fridge: Expert Tips for Every Shelf, Drawer & Door.
THE DECLUTTERING METHOD THAT WORKS
The Method: Starting (Embarrassingly) Small
Start Small. Embarrassingly Small. That’s the key to decluttering. There’s real psychology underneath this, not just a feel-good slogan. Studies show that when you set your goals too high, you become way less likely to even get started, because you’ve most likely mismatched the goal with your current capacity, ability, or resources for the day. Your brain takes one look at “declutter the entire garage this weekend” and quietly nopes out before you’ve lifted a single finger.
So we shrink it. Maybe the dreaded junk drawer feels too overwhelming right now. Maybe that corner of the garage you can’t bring yourself to make eye contact with just isn’t happening this weekend. Fine. If the only thing you can get yourself to do is tackle that one teeny tiny problematic spot on the middle shelf of your medicine cabinet, then that is the whole entire goal for today. And that little moment of zen you get from F-I-N-A-L-L-Y figuring out how to make that one spot work for you should not be minimized. One less thing for you to be annoyed about is one less thing. It counts. It matters. It’s worth it. And it almost always sparks just enough energy for the next small thing, then the one after that.
THE DECLUTTERING METHOD THAT WORKS
Make Tough Decisions First
Before we get to any of the fun eye-candy styling, we take out the trash. Literally. The genuinely hard part, making the tough decisions about what to actually get rid of, the decluttering, comes first, while your energy and resolve are still fresh.
It’s tempting to skip straight to the pretty part, the bins and the labels and the satisfying after photo. But you cannot organize around clutter you haven’t dealt with yet. So you clear first, decide first, toss first. Then, and only then, do you get to the gorgeous part. The veggies before the dessert. Do it in that order, and the results are so much sweeter, because you’re styling a space that’s actually been cleared instead of just shuffling your clutter into prettier piles.
For even more info on organization, check out my book, Right at Home.
THE DECLUTTERING METHOD THAT WORKS
And Make It Fun
Decluttering does not have to feel like punishment, and the whole experience genuinely transforms when you bother to set the scene first.
Turn on a podcast or your favorite playlist. Music has a proven effect on your mood, so if cleaning stresses you out, try working yourself up to it by blasting some of your favorite tunes and having a quick little dance party to shake out the scaries before you start. Pour yourself a drink if that’s your thing. Turn on some reruns of a show you’ve seen a hundred times, because watching something deeply familiar actually soothes anxiety while your hands stay busy. Order food so you don’t have to think about cooking. Plan a real reward for when you hit your stopping point. And keep gently reminding yourself of the why through the whole thing: you’re doing this to make your space work better for you.
Shop The “Start Small” Organization Tool Kit
THE DECLUTTERING METHOD THAT WORKS
Decluttering Can Bring Up Feelings (And That’s Ok)
Here’s the part almost every piece of organizing advice on the internet skips entirely, and it’s the part that matters most. Decluttering can dredge up feelings you weren’t prepared for. If you get emotional about something, allow yourself to get emotional. If you need a moment, take the moment. If you need a break, take the break. Do what you need to do to get through one full session, and don’t forget to pat yourself on the back when you’re done.
And give yourself explicit permission to not decide everything on the spot. Decision fatigue is real, and it genuinely exhausts your executive function, the same mental muscle you need for making good choices. So if it helps to hang onto a few maybes until the next round, when you’ve got more energy or more clarity, that is completely okay. You can always revisit those items later. Letting them wait isn’t weakness – it’s strategy.
Learn 4 Simple (and Free) Organization Tips.
“When you’re truly stuck on the hard calls, especially clothes and shoes, phone a friend. Asking for help keeps you accountable, since studies show that telling other people about your goals makes you more likely to follow through.”
THE DECLUTTERING METHOD THAT WORKS
This Is Bigger Than Tidiness
When life feels out of control, and sometimes huge, genuine chunks of it are completely out of your hands, organizing the small thing right in front of you can be an actual lifeline. A disorganized home can be both a symptom and a cause of poor mental wellness, and the two feed each other. Mess and disorganization tend to reflect an emotional buildup, and clutter has been directly linked to increased cortisol levels and a measurably reduced ability to focus.
But here’s the hopeful flip side. Organizing something is a way of saying, this matters. What you choose to keep in your home should support who you really are in the present and where you’re really at right now. So when you bring order to even one small, annoying spot, you’re not just tidying a shelf. You’re telling yourself that your space, and your peace, matter. That’s why the embarrassingly small win counts for so much more than its size.
THE DECLUTTERING METHOD THAT WORKS
The Bottom Line
Forget the all-at-once fantasy. That fantasy is exactly the thing that’s been stopping you this whole time. Remember that organizing is just building a system that works for you: eat your veggies and clear the trash first, pick one embarrassingly small spot, make the process genuinely pleasant, and let your feelings come if they come. Then do it again tomorrow with the next small spot. That is how real, lasting order actually gets built. Not in one heroic weekend you keep not having, but in a hundred small moments of zen that quietly add up to a home, and a mind, that finally feel clear.
This article is adapted from my book, Right at Home: How Good Design Is Good for Your Mind. For the full deep dive, including room-by-room guides and interactive workbook activities, grab your copy here.
