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There was a time when just walking into my cluttered kitchen made me feel overwhelmed. I’d start pulling everything out, thinking I was being productive. And I would end up surrounded by piles, just too exhausted to finish. 

That’s when I realised I just needed a better approach, something manageable that actually worked. 

Over the past few years, I’ve read many decluttering books, and I’ve tried many decluttering techniques. Not all of them lived up to the hype. But the ones that did have completely changed how I approach my home. And they might be helpful for you too.

Here are 9 decluttering methods that actually work.

The 30/10 Rule

This decluttering method is so simple, yet so effective.

I realised if I just did a little bit every day, it actually made me feel a lot more accomplished. You know, taking those things off my to-do list without having to do a whole weekend of decluttering—that just made me feel overwhelmed. 

So you can start by trying 10 minutes every day for 30 days. 

Doing 10 minutes a day doesn’t sound like much so it’s very unlikely for it to get overwhelming. It’s also going to help you focus on just a really small spot in your home. It might be a kitchen drawer, your under-bed area, or a bedside table. 

But 10 minutes every day for 30 days means 300 minutes. That’s 5 hours that you would have spent decluttering and creating a better home for yourself and your family. 

This method has actually worked really well for me. Incorporating 10 minutes, or 15 minutes—just whenever I had a chance—really added up in time.

Keep reading below or watch the video:

Sentimental items last

Before I started decluttering, I would always call myself a sentimental person. I kind of used this as a reason to keep a lot of things that weren’t actually that special to me. In all honesty, they didn’t bring me that much joy to look at. I just felt like I needed to keep them for whatever reason. 

I’m not saying we need to get rid of everything that’s sentimental. But when we have piles of things all around us, calling all of that stuff ‘sentimental items’ kind of loses its specialness a little bit. And it also makes us way less likely to actually appreciate and enjoy those items if they’re scattered in piles.

I think that when we have special items, we take good care of them. We display them beautifully. We keep them in a safe space so they don’t get ruined. 

So I tried to narrow down what is actually a sentimental item and what I don’t really need to keep anymore.

When I started my journey, I felt like it was going to be so hard to declutter because I was sentimental. I expected to have a hard time letting go of those things. But then I realised I don’t have to start with sentimental items because those are usually the hardest to go through.

So if you are just starting on your journey, don’t start with those. Start with something simple, something that you don’t have such an emotional attachment to. 

It depends on everybody what sentimental is. But for most of us, it’s easier to start with something like the bathroom—not a lot of sentimental items in there. Or maybe kitchen appliances or your understairs cupboard. Any area where you don’t have a lot of sentimental things will do. Start with that, see the progress there, and then move on to sentimental items. 

That’s what I would do if I were to start again now.

The Swedish ‘death cleaning’ method 

When I first read about this, I thought, “Oh, that sounds grim,” but actually, it makes a lot of sense.

To use this method, you basically approach decluttering from a little bit of a different perspective. 

You think about the items in your home as to when you pass away one day, and your loved ones will have to go through the house, maybe clear it out, decide what to keep, and what to let go—especially when it’s a vulnerable time for them.

This whole method focuses on trying to make that process a lot easier for them. So to really think about what items they would actually appreciate having and what items they probably wouldn’t care about.

This can be a little bit of a perspective shift for when we’re decluttering our items.

The four-box method 

When we’re doing a decluttering session, it’s really helpful to have four boxes or bins.

The four of them will be:

1. Things that we need to bin,
2. Things that we’ll donate,
3. Things that we keep, and
4. Things that need to be relocated somewhere around the home.

I know that when I’m decluttering the kids’ rooms, for example, I am bound to find items that actually belong in the kitchen, downstairs in the living room, or just anywhere else around the home.

So when you are doing a bigger declutter, it’s really helpful to have these four bins. Then you can reassess the space, how many things you’re keeping and how many you’re getting rid of.

It can just optimise and make the process a bit smoother. You’re also not just creating piles everywhere that are going to feel overwhelming.

Reverse Decluttering

This method is interesting because we usually do the opposite. 

When we do a declutter, we look at our wardrobe and we just think, “Oh, what items am I going to get rid of?” So we look through the clothes and decide what we’re going to get rid of. We really focus on the loss, on the things that we’re moving out of our home and life.

I’ve learned from the book “Thinking, Fast and Slow,” that as humans, we are very loss-averse. So when we think about, for example, money—earning £10 or losing £10—the loss of the £10 is going to feel so much more intense than earning £10.

So when it comes to reverse decluttering, what we want to do is focus on what we are keeping. 

When we look at the pile of things or in our wardrobe, this method encourages us to focus on the things that we are keeping, the things that we value, and pick those items.

It’s kind of like shopping from our wardrobe. We pick the items that we love, the items that we would buy again if we were in a shop. We focus on the things that we’re keeping rather than the items that don’t bring any value to us but just feel like a loss getting rid of them.

The Minimalist Game

I learned this from watching the Netflix documentary The Minimalists. It can be a really fun game to incorporate to get rid of some items. 

Throughout 30 days a month, for each day of the month, you pick the exact number of items to get rid of. If it’s the 7th of December, you get rid of seven items. If it’s the 30th of January, you get rid of 30 items. It can be a really fun way to approach decluttering.

One thing I would do here is, at the beginning of the month or those 30 days, I would focus on big-ticket items. 

If you’re only decluttering one thing on day one, look at something big around your home that maybe you don’t need. It might be a piece of furniture, a big toy that the kids don’t use anymore, or a bike they’ve outgrown—anything like that. Those can be the beginning items.

Then, moving on towards the end of the month, you can go through the smaller items. So you end up getting rid of a lot of items in a short amount of time.

The Closet Hanger Trick

This is one of the simplest ways to declutter your wardrobe. 

At the beginning of the season, take all of the hangers in your wardrobe and switch them the other way around. After you wear an item, when you put it back in your wardrobe, put the hanger as you usually would.

Then, in three months’ time, you can assess, “Okay, which items in here still have the hanger turned around?” Because that means you haven’t worn them in the past three months, or however long you’ve given yourself.

This is going to be a really good indicator that those are items you don’t truly need, you don’t truly wear. You might as well get rid of them because you’re not getting use out of them.

You might even get some money back from those if you end up selling them. But even if not, you’re clearing up a lot of space in your home.

The Seasonal Decluttering Method

This is also one of my favourites because it’s just so convenient. 

When I take Christmas or Halloween items down from the loft, to decorate the house, I see if there’s anything I’m not using this year. Is there a reason for it, or is it just that I don’t like it anymore? If that’s the case, it’s a really good idea to pass them on.

Since I just took them down for the season, it means it’s the beginning of the season. This means people are going to be interested in either buying them or getting them from a charity shop. 

And it’s not just decor—you can do this when you take out the coats, like winter gear, swim gear for the summer, anything like that. Whenever you do a seasonal swap, it’s a really good idea to go through those items. Don’t take them back to the loft. Don’t put them back in the garage—just get rid of anything that’s not useful to you anymore.

Declutter with someone

92% of people don’t achieve their goals due to the lack of accountability. But having an accountability partner can actually make such a big difference, especially if you struggle with getting motivated, staying motivated, and completing a task on your own. 

So maybe it can be a partner, maybe it can be a friend, and you can declutter together. It can be with me if you want to just put one of my videos in the background. Or it can be a community if you join my Simply Decluttered program that helps you declutter. We have a really nice group in there where we support and keep each other motivated.  

If you want a list of 100 things you could declutter right now, you might find this article helpful. Remember to drop a comment below and let me know how it’s going for you!