Need to declutter your home but have no idea where to start? There are three simple secrets that make such a daunting task seem a whole lot more doable.

Getting started decluttering your home can be tricky, especially when you have piles of things on your counters, floors, and stuffed into your closet.

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My cluttered home made me feel like a failure

My husband always asked me, “Why do you care so much what other people think about our home?”

I don’t know that I cared so much about what other people thought, but it was more that I felt like such a failure for not being able to keep up with basic cleaning tasks. 

General pick-up would take hours.  Deep cleaning such as dusting and mopping seemed like a pipe dream, and we were running out of storage space in our home, quickly. 

We were even talking about getting a bigger house because all of our stuff did not fit in our current home!  Our house was plenty big, so that was nuts.

A new beginning

When I decided to declutter my home, it was actually the result of a New Year’s resolution to stop buying clothes.  I was spoiled really, spending way too much on things I did not need, especially clothes for my growing corporate career. 

After realizing how much lighter I felt from not spending money, I was inspired to do more to live with less.  That’s when we decided to clean out our home, better known as “The Big Declutter” in our house! 

Even if it feels like a daunting task, you too can declutter your home too.

Related Post: 11 Simple Tasks to Ease Into Decluttering

Decluttering seemed like an impossible task

I wasn’t going to try and tackle the entire house all at once.  In fact, that thought made me a little crazy and even more overwhelmed. 

After getting started, I knew things were going to take time.  They ended up taking a lot of time.  I was even discouraged at times. 

I remember searching Google for “how long does it take to declutter an entire home” hoping for some magical timeline and magical direction to get done what needed to be done. 

I found no magic timeline. 

3 secrets you need to know to declutter your home:

After months of pursuing my mission to declutter our entire home, I finally stumbled on what I think are the three best places to start. 

One of these places isn’t even a room, it was a new idea that I needed to embrace if I was ever going to be successful and if I was ever going to see the light at the end of the tunnel for my cluttered home.

1 – Start with you

The playroom is a mess, I get it.  There are toys strewn everywhere.  You can’t even walk in your kids’ rooms because you would have to first clear a path. 

Been there, done that.  You are not alone, mama.

However, if you want to make a real impact in your home, and you want to really see a difference in how your family maintains your home, you have to start with you. 

A little tough love here for a moment.  You cannot walk through your home with a garbage bag and start throwing away stuff that belongs to your family.  Well…you can, but I don’t recommend it.  There will be anarchy.

The biggest way to expect your family to embrace change is to first show them, leading by example.  

I tried the other way first.  That lasted all of a day, and my family members were hurt and angry. 

How on earth was I going to tackle the entire house when I was fighting them on every little trinket and every little book?!

Related Post: How to Declutter When Your Family Hates It

Here is the room where I recommend you start when tackling the clutter in your home:

Start with your bedroom

If you want to set an example for your family, start in a place that should bring you absolute joy. 

Start by decluttering your bedroom and decluttering your closet. 

How amazing would it be to end a busy day in a clean, bedroom retreat?

Imagine walking into your bedroom after work, or after putting the kids to bed, and your bed is made, inviting you to relax on it.  Your dresser is cleared from clutter, and only a picture of your family and the most recent book you are reading occupy the space. 

There are no random clothes on the floor, and your closet space is no longer overflowing.  In fact, you have some empty shelf space in your closet. 

It sounds wonderful, doesn’t it?

“But no one sees my bedroom!“

Having a clean, inviting space in your home where the toys and dirty clothes don’t overrun your space is possible. 

You may be thinking, “Why, oh why, would I start with the one room I know my guests won’t see?”

Why would I declutter my bedroom first, that’s the space where I hide stuff right before company comes over?

I know you.  I was you.

Out of all the spaces I decluttered first, and out of all the cleaning hacks I have developed over the years, my bedroom has always been the one space that has brought me the greatest joy when decluttering my home. 

We don’t have a very large master bedroom, but we have a relaxing retreat.

Our house could be an absolute disaster (yes, that still happens from time to time, especially on cold, winter days when we are all kept indoors all day), but my bedroom is always clean.  I’m never willing to compromise that space.

2 – Declutter the quick-hit areas

Once you are done decluttering your bedroom, you will have built some momentum, but the idea of tackling the rest of the house may still seem a bit impossible.  That’s ok.  Divide and conquer, that’s my motto.  

I also want you to look for the quick wins.

Related Post: Declutter Quickly with These 20 Insanely Easy Quick-Hit Areas

Ever hear of the snowball effect?

When you start with something small, it snowballs, getting larger and larger and larger.  That is what it is like when you start building momentum decluttering with the small things. 

Pick one area, one drawer, one shelf.  It doesn’t have to be an entire room at one time. 

When you start small and gather your quick wins, in a week or two you will see some major wins.  Pick areas you can declutter in 10 minutes or less.

Related post: 21 Areas You Can Declutter in 5 Minutes to Make a Huge Impact

3 – Stop the inflow

One of the biggest reasons we have so much clutter is we have not figured out how to turn off the inflow of stuff. 

Unnecessary stuff equals clutter. Clutter eats away at our space, and more importantly at our time. 

You spend time cleaning and picking up clutter day after day.  You spend time moving clutter around from one spot to another so you can access your space. 

The guaranteed solution to clutter is not more organization and not more space.  The only guaranteed solution to clutter is to stop bringing in the clutter and to start living with less stuff more intentionally.

Pay attention to what clutter is taking up space in your home. 

How does it get there? Is it needed stuff or just things you buy for whatever reason? Is it mail you don’t need? Is it a shopping problem?

Take an inventory of the things you are getting rid of and figure out ways to stop letting it take up precious space in your home.

Related Posts:

Declutter Fast This Weekend

The Benefits of Being a Minimalist Family

The Flat Surface Clutter Rule

Use the Declutter Your Home Starter Kit to find other things to do with your family or for yourself that brings you joy rather than going shopping for fun. 

Find ways to turn off the inflow of mail. 

Get creative with managing the plastic junk your kids bring home or the freebies that are picked up around town.  You can do this. 

When you figure out the inflow problem, that alone will guarantee your decluttering process has started, without giving away a single thing!

Declutter Your Home Starter Kit

Don’t let clutter overwhelm you and take over your home.  You don’t need to spend all your time cleaning, and you deserve more free time for yourself and with your family. 

You also don’t need to bust your butt and go into debt to buy a bigger house only to store stuff you really don’t want or need.  There is a better way, and that is intentionally living with less. 

You can do this.  It may seem overwhelming, but it is more than possible.

Download my free Declutter Your Home Starter Kit.  Let me walk you through those first few steps so you can build the momentum you have been so wanting to achieve when you declutter your home.  You’ve got this!

Related posts: Declutter Your Home Fast in One Weekend + Detailed Schedule to Help!

3 Secrets To Jumpstart Decluttering Your HomeRead More

The benefits of decluttering go well beyond just a clean home. It’s not even the act of giving up stuff that benefits you. It’s the act of clearing out all the excess that makes you wish life were simpler, easier.

If you are feeling like your home is full to the brim with unnecessary items that take up your time and energy, decluttering can be the start to a simpler life… one not filled with so much excess stuff.

Here are a few powerful benefits to decluttering your home:

1 – Declutter to clean less

When you have less stuff in your home, your home is a bazillion times easier to clean. It gets stupid easy.

Your kids could be left alone for hours to their own devices, and you would still be able to pick up fairly quickly. That’s the true power of having less stuff.

No more moving piles around. ⁠

No making paths.

No hiding things in your bedroom just minutes before an unexpected friend swings by.

No more feeling embarrassed because every surface in your home is covered up in stuff.

When you declutter your home, you can quickly wipe down a counter or dust a furniture top. Seriously, it gets easy-peasy.

2 – Declutter to have more focused time

Another benefit to decluttering your home is it gives you more focused time.

You gain time with your kids and your family. One reason is that you have less to clean (see #1).

You also spend less time trying to accumulate more clutter. You aren’t shopping on the internet for the next best deal or walking through Target with a Starbucks in hand hoping to find something you can’t live without.

Instead of finding ways to bring more clutter into your home or trying to figure out how to navigate around your existing clutter, you are doing things you enjoy.

Maybe you love crafting, but your craft room has been turned upside down and inside out.

Or maybe you can’t remember the last time you sat down and played a card game because you can’t get to the table.

When you declutter your home, you have time to focus on the things you love.
⁠

3 – Declutter to save money

When you declutter your home, you save money, and you save a lot of it.

When you learn to stop buying for fun or the next “good deal”, the money saved starts to add up. ⁠

In the first year I stopped shopping for fun, I saved so much money that I eventually quit my job! Living with less taught me so many lessons. Even better though, it fattened my bank account!

Related Post: 11 Lessons Learned From a Year of Not Buying Any New Clothes

⁠4 – Declutter to make your home feel bigger

Finally, when you declutter, your home starts to feel bigger. When there’s space in your home, it no longer feels cramped.⁠

You can get rid of an excess chair, and you will gain an entire section back from your space.

If you clear out your closet, your tiny walk-in closet that was never big enough may soon feel like a huge blessing.

When we decluttered our house the first time, we had a half-basement that was nothing more than a storage unit. After decluttering, we turned that space into a guest room, office, and playroom combo. It was amazing!

Related Post: How Much is Your Storage Space Costing You?

5 – Declutter to improve your relationships

When your home is clean and calm, you tend to have better relationships with those around you. Decluttering your space can help reduce any conflict among family members over messes and maintenance of the home.

I don’t know about you, but it’s way easier to relax when the house is clean than when there are a million things I feel like I should be doing.

6 – Declutter to reduce your stress and anxiety

A cluttered home and stress/anxiety often present themselves like the chicken and the egg. I’m not sure which one caused the other, but they go hand in hand.

When there is clutter all over your workspace, whether that be your desk, your kitchen counters, or somewhere else, it makes it very difficult to feel productive and calm.

Related Post: Declutter to Drastically Reduce Your Stress and Anxiety

7 – Declutter to feel more confident

Decluttering your home is also beneficial in that it can make you feel more confident.

You don’t have to be embarrassed for family or friends to come over.

Because keeping your home tidy is easier when you have less clutter (see #1 again), you start to feel like you are kicking butt in your home every day. This sense of achievement can increase your confidence significantly.

8 – Declutter so you have fewer decisions to make

Have you ever been camping or on vacation and had to “make-do” with something? It’s because you are often in a clutter-free space, without all the possible solutions to all your possible problems.

I’ve felt very MacGyver on a camping trip when I’ve come up with solutions for things simply because I had no other choice.

The same happens when you have less stuff. You remove the decision fatigue.

If you only have your favorite shirts to choose from when getting dressed, you don’t have to spend any extra minutes trying to pick out the best option. Decluttering allows you to have only your favorite options.

9 – Declutter for greater happiness

Decluttering can give you a greater sense of happiness. No, it’s not a magic action you can take to make you super happy. However, it can help you get rid of all the excess so that you can focus more on what really matters in your life.

Clutter isn’t just stuff. It’s obligations. It’s busy schedules. It’s all the things that make your life bigger but not better.

Decluttering Benefits Your Soul

Decluttering has huge benefits for making not just your home and life feel better but to make you feel better, deep in your soul.

You start to focus your time, efforts, and money on things and activities that fuel who you are and what you value as the most important.

The Powerful Benefits to Decluttering Your Home (It’s not just about cleaning up.)Read More

How do you declutter before the holidays? Holidays are stressful enough. Then, we had a whole bunch of excess to the mix.

The holidays are the source of sooooo much excess.  We buy more food, watch the piles of gifts continuously stream into our homes, and our calendars fill up while our obligations grow exponentially.

Before you know it, what should be a joyous, relaxing season turns into stress, anxiety, and feelings of inadequacy.

One way you can simplify your holiday excess is to work on decluttering as much as possible BEFORE the holidays get here.

When should decluttering be done before Thanksgiving and Christmas?

If you are waiting until the week of Christmas to declutter, you may be a little late to the game. Don’t despair. You can still get things done, but it may not be to the degree you were hoping.

Get ahead of the holiday season this year, and start early!

I like to start thinking about the onslaught of gifts around October and early November. Decluttering early, before Christmas gets here also allows for you to have a stress-free Thanksgiving too.

If you have kids, starting early works well because they can see you practice decluttering before they are asked to do the same. It also gives you time to plant the seed that this is happening, so it’s not quite so shocking and so they can get on board without full-on panic mode.

Here are the 10 best things to declutter in your home before the holiday season:

1 – Declutter the pantry and fridge

One to two weeks before your big holiday events, start working on decluttering your pantry and fridge. 

You may even take a no grocery shopping challenge by getting creative with what you already have, and create some space for all those traditional meals and leftovers that will stuff your space in no time at all.

If you have items in your pantry you know you will never eat, now is the perfect time to share with your local food bank to help those in need.

2 – Declutter toys

Decluttering toys with kids can be painful.  I get it.  However, the holidays are the perfect time to motivate your children to actually help you out!

Kids get excited about the toys and new gifts they know are coming, and oftentimes, if you remind them of this, they will gladly help make room for the new. 

Start early, encouraging your children to pick out 5 books or maybe 5 stuffies to let go.  Ask them if they have any toys they no longer enjoy.

Start thinking about where new toys will be stored, and make sure to create room in those spaces.

If your children are really young, you can do the decluttering for them.  As they get older, they will often need to be participants in deciding what stays and what goes.

Don’t force an all-out clean-out in one day.  Children need time to process.  Give them time to think about it, encourage filling a box, or ask for a specific number of items. 

Do this several times before the holidays, and they will get better each time. 

You can also encourage children to donate their gifts to other children in need.  Kids are often very generous when they know children may not receive as many new toys.

If your kids are older, you can also encourage them to sell any high-value toys, and let them keep the proceeds.  This worked well when my children outgrew their Thomas the Train table. 

Related post: How to Get Children to Help You Declutter Their Toys

3 – Declutter books

Many booklovers receive new books over the holiday season.  Take advantage of this time to make room on your shelves for a couple of new additions. 

This is also the perfect time to pick out books you loved and give them to someone else who you know will equally love the book. 

One of my favorite budget gift ideas is to grab a book you love, write a personal note to stick into it, and share it.  Most folks don’t mind a used book, and it is a super thoughtful way to share something you love.

Related post: How to Declutter Your Books When You are a Book Lover

4 – Declutter your kitchen countertops

With the holidays, you will have guests over, lots of food, and plenty of decorations.  Give your kitchen counters a little boost by decluttering them before the holidays. 

Not sure where to start? Start with the mail pile first. 

Recycle any junk mail, flyers, or other items you know you won’t review. 

Then, create a “handle soon” folder and stick the rest of the mail in there.  It’s not a perfect system, but at least it will clear any mail piles quickly.

For many of us, our countertops become dumping grounds for all the things too.  Grab a laundry basket, clear the counters, and ask your family to help put everything where it goes. 

Give yourself a clean slate before the holidays start!

Related Post: Clear Your Kitchen Countertops

5 – Declutter your clothes

Chances are, you will get at least one new sweater, coat, or other items of clothing this holiday season. 

Grab a single bag, and do a quick declutter of your closet! Even if you only clear out five items, you will have made room for that many to enter your closet.

Think of others in need this holiday season too.  It’s the perfect time to look for coats and other warm gear you can share with local coat drives or shelters. 

6 – Declutter lotions, candles, and throws

Lotions, candles, and throws seem to be the go-to gifts when folks aren’t sure what to give you.  These gifts can be fantastic, but start making room for them now!

Do you still have lotions from last Christmas? Either commit to using them up or help them find a new home if they are still unopened and unused. 

If you have lotions or candles that are partially used and don’t like, I give you full permission to throw them away now.  😊

This is a good time to look for blankets and throws you don’t use either.  There are plenty of shelters (pet shelters included) that are happy to take your excess throws and blankets.

7 – Declutter gift wrap

Holiday gift wrap is often stored out of the way.  Use this time to assess what you own. 

After taking inventory, it’s easier to NOT spend money on more stuff, as you know you already have 6 rolls of wrapping paper and 24 recycled gift bags from last year!

Look for bags, boxes, ribbons, paper, etc. that are torn, wrinkled, or generally past their useful life. 

Create a storage system for what’s left, and commit to not going over that container to prevent excess clutter from building up.

8 – Declutter holiday décor and ornaments

Holiday décor and ornaments are often used year over year, which is great.  However, we all have those few pieces we don’t like but feel obligated to hold on to.

If you aren’t using the same holiday décor and ornaments year over year, it’s totally OK to help them find a new home (or throw them away).

Yes, some of this stuff is passed down to us.  I encourage you to either commit to using it or recognize as long as you hold on to it, it will continue to add to your clutter.

I found myself holding on to some holiday décor that I know was passed down to me or given to me by someone special. For the life of me, I didn’t know its story, nor did I use it.  At that point, the piece lost its special qualities, and it was OK to let it go. 

9 – Declutter your giving list

It’s OK to not give presents to every co-worker, neighbor, distant family member, and friend.  I want to encourage you to rethink and declutter your gift list this year!

I’m often surprised by how relieved friends, acquaintances, and family members can be when I suggest we no longer do a gift exchange. 

If gift-giving is causing you stress, both in planning and financially, there’s a good chance it is causing the recipient stress too. 

If gift-giving is your love language, try to simmer down the level in which you give.  Maybe look to share a fresh-baked loaf of bread or a used book with a note, rather than a gift you aren’t even sure they will love. 

Oftentimes, it is the thoughtful, homemade gifts that are more appreciated than the obligatory gifts that really only add to someone else’s clutter.

10 – Declutter your obligations

In order to simplify your entire holiday season, try to cut out the excess obligations that are cluttering your calendar. 

Grant it, 2020 has presented unique challenges where we don’t have many of the same obligations, but even with less travel and fewer events, there’s still a level of stress.

For me personally, we wanted this year to be extra special for our kiddos, a kind of relief from all the crazy. 

However, if you aren’t careful, all the extra special activities can often clutter up your calendar and make you feel unnecessarily stressed out. 

It’s OK to say “no” to excess obligations and keep the holidays simple.

Declutter before the holidays to prepare your home and mind

The holidays should be a time for joyous activities, time with family, and celebrating what is important to us. 

Help yourself keep the holidays simple, and prepare your home by decluttering a few of these quick-hit areas in your home (before the holidays get here) so you can kick back and relax.

The Top 10 Areas to Declutter Before the HolidaysRead More

Clutter can cause anxiety. It may not be the root cause of it, but it certainly doesn’t help.

I battle with anxiety, and I hate it.  I hate that my worries and my emotions can dictate my mood and general well-being. 

Decluttering didn’t cure my anxiety, but having a clutter-free home has greatly reduced my anxiety and stress.

There’s a good chance decluttering can help you too if you’re dealing with anxiety or stress.  

Our first big declutter was when my two children were fairly young.  I was a very busy mom, working full time outside the home, with a traveling spouse.

Life was not always easy.  Home management was nothing short of impossible many days.

It was during the act of decluttering I discovered how peaceful I was making my home and how much the feel of my home contributed to my overall mental health.

Can clutter give you anxiety?

Clutter is visual chaos. It usually looks like a giant mess, even if it’s organized into piles or has some “system” assigned to it. 

If you suffer from anxiety, this visual chaos will fuel it like gas poured on a fire.  It’s intense. 

I didn’t realize just how intense these feelings were until the clutter started to disappear.

You know that relaxed feeling you get when you enter a clean home or a hotel room on vacation? I guarantee you, at least part of that feeling is the lack of clutter. 

When we surround ourselves with outer order, we feel calmer inside. 

Related Post: 11 Simple Decluttering Questions You Should Be Asking Yourself

Clutter reflects how we feel inside

Often, our physical environment reflects how we are feeling internally.  If you have a cluttered, stressful home, chances are you feel stress and disorganized inside as well.

This isn’t always the case, some of us are completely clutter-blind and happy.  However, the relationship between clutter and mental health is very strong for most. 

Have you ever recognized how clutter (and messes in general) build up when we are having bad days? There’s no real drive to take care of things, and we let the messes get out of hand. 

One item left here.  Another item left there.  Before you know it, you have a giant pile that seems crazy overwhelming to even think about tinkering with.  Then, it sits there so long, it becomes part of the landscape of your home. 

The clutter build-up can happen fast.  Believe it or not, decluttering can be self-care.

Related Post: 3 Secrets You Need to Know When Decluttering

Clutter creates an environment of chaos

Clutter attracts more clutter.  Clutter also attracts chaos.

To oversimplify this concept, think of your “dumping ground.” 

A “dumping ground” is the catch-all place where you put things when you walk in the door or when the items have no other home.  They are “orphaned items.”

If this dumping ground is the home to your car keys, cell phone, purse, laptop, mail, bills, calendar, kid’s artwork, etc, it gets crowded quickly. 

Before you know it, you are also leaving your coffee cup there, the magazine you just bought, and the permission slip you forgot existed. 

When it’s time to run out the door in a hurry, you can’t find anything you need, and you leave late and frustrated. 

This is the perfect example of how your clutter creates an environment of chaos.  Clutter is frustrating.  Clutter causes anxiety.  Clutter causes stress. 

You deserve better than this!

Related Post: How Decluttering Can Help When Overwhelmed as a Mom

Clutter wastes time

Clutter is also a huge time suck. 

Nothing wastes your time like having to move piles around, search for lost items, and “pick-up” only to have no real great spot to put something. 

This dreadful cycle of time wasters related to your clutter creates more unnecessary anxiety and stress. 

Clutter wastes money

The most common stressor for many families is money.  Clutter wastes money, which creates more anxiety and stress for people.

Think about all the unnecessary expenditures you make in a day, week or month that do nothing but add to your clutter.

If you weren’t spending money on items you don’t need, you would be saving money and preventing the pile-up of unwanted items in your home!

Related post: 12 Things I Stopped Buying Since Becoming Minimalist-ish

Decluttering to reduce anxiety and stress

What does one do to conquer clutter and reduce their anxiety and stress?

Simply saying, “I’m going to declutter” is easier said than done.  It takes people a lifetime to accumulate clutter, so getting rid of it takes some time too.

Unless you hire a professional organizer (and trash/junk removal service), you will have to spend some significant time and invest some hard work to get rid of the clutter.

First, realize that decluttering can greatly help your anxiety and stress.  It may not be the cure for it, but it’s one action you can control to make yourself feel better.

If you want to jump in and declutter quickly, this post is for you: Declutter Fast This Weekend.

If you prefer to dip your big toe into the decluttering pool, this is the post for you: 11 Simple Tasks to Ease into Decluttering.

Decluttering can feel therapeutic

For an entire year, decluttering was my therapy and self-care.  It was actually therapeutic to go through my belongings and take back my home.

Like exercising, decluttering felt healthy.  For a full year, when I did my big declutter, I committed to at least ten minutes a day to take back my home.

You may not always want to declutter.  Some days, you will hate it. 

However, if you commit to this form of self-care every day (or at least most days), you will get the benefit of learning how to let go of the past and embrace a calmer future with space to breathe and grow.

Related: 5-Minute Decluttering Tasks That Can Make a Huge Dent in Your Mess

Decluttering can give you a sense of control over chaos

Sometimes life throws us fastballs, and we aren’t quite sure how to deal with what comes our way. 

Sometimes, our homes create so much work for us that we don’t get to enjoy them as a place to relax and spend time with our family.

When you declutter, you get to reduce the anxiety and stress in your life by taking back control over some elements of chaos. 

Decluttering won’t solve all your problems.  However, sometimes, it gives you that sense of control that is craved whenever everything else seems so crazy.

Related Post: 5 Real Health Benefits to Owning Less

Decluttering makes managing a home easier

If nothing else, decluttering can help your stress and anxiety because it makes managing your home super easy. 

When you declutter, you have less stuff to pick-up and put away.  You can see your counter-tops, you have systems in place, and everything seems to have a “home”.  No more orphaned items taking up space!

Without the mess from clutter, tidying up and staying on top of your home management gets way easier, ultimately saving you time and the stress of keeping up. 

Related Post: Declutter and Clear Your Counter-Tops with the Flat Surface Clutter Rule

Does your house stress you out?

If your house is stressing you out, it may be something as simple as clutter.

Decluttering doesn’t mean you have to have a perfect home. Nope. Far from it. 

If you are feeling stressed out about your clutter and don’t want to start because you feel like the end goal is impossible, take a step back.  

Do you really need an Instagram-worthy home? Or could just getting your home functional do the job? 

I guarantee you, if you got rid of enough clutter to make things feel functional, you’re going to feel a heck of a lot better! 

What to do when your house overwhelms you

So what do you do? 

Start small.

Here’s an example. 

Maybe you have too many plates, so you simply use them all before you actually do the dishes.  

This causes your sink to back up, which makes using your kitchen frustrating.  

Then, you have two loads of dishes to cram into the dishwasher before you’re “caught up”.

Meanwhile, you are still eating off of plates that went through the first run of the dishwasher. 

Begin never-ending frustrating clutter cycle. 

What if…

You got rid of any plates beyond a dishwasher load?

Say you hide all but 6 or 8.  Put them in a box in the garage for a week or two. 

Then, see what happens.  

Don’t get me wrong. I don’t want to be washing the same mug over and over to use it.  I love my dishwasher.  

However, if our level of clutter starts to make things frustrating, then life can get even more stressful. 

Related Post: 5-Minute Decluttering Tasks to Simply Help You Get Started

Declutter for your health

Declutter for your health.  Reduce the chaos and you will likely reduce anxiety and stress too.

You will feel calmer in your home, and you will have a place to relax, rather than continue to be stressed by the mess around you.

Declutter to Drastically Reduce Anxiety and StressRead More

I jokingly say my husband is clutter blind.

I’m a firm believer some are more bothered by clutter than others.
I don’t just love a clean home. I thrive in one. When the house is a mess, I feel like a mess.

What is clutter-blindness?

Clutter-blindness is a person’s inability to see clutter in a place.  We ignore the mess, seeing it as nothing more than a permanent fixture in our home.

You know that pile of papers on the kitchen counter that’s ALWAYS been there?  Does it even bother you anymore?

When our excess has no home or has “outgrown” its home, it simply takes up residence wherever it’s left. 

Before you know it, you are stepping over a box you don’t know where to put or you have given up on the toys strewn all over your child’s room and accepted defeat. 

This is clutter-blindness. 

What causes clutter-blindness?

Clutter blindness is the result of having too much stuff and no system for organizing and storing the stuff we want to keep. 

Look around.  When you find a place where clutter has been handing out a while, think about how long it has been there.

Where do the items on the counter go? Do they even have a home?  Maybe that spot has become a dumping ground for all your clutter. 

You need to declutter.  THEN, you need a system. 

If junk mail is the problem, maybe you need to stop how it enters your home. 

If toys are the problem, maybe it’s time to stop buying toys for no real reason and donating the ones your little one has outgrown. 

Related post: How to Help Your Kids Declutter

Here are some signs you too may be clutter blind:

1 – Piles 

You have piles of stuff all over your house and you are comfortable with it.  

There’s the clean clothes pile, the dirty clothes pile, and the needs ironing pile. 

You have a “system” for piles of papers on your desk, entryway table, and kitchen table. The coffee table long ago became the victim of its own piles.  

If you are comfortable with piles, you, my friend are clutter blind.  

2 – Nothing has a designated place 

Some sweet person in your family holds up an object and asks, “Where does this go?” Your answer, “I don’t know.  Just set it over there.”

Better yet, something new enters your home and it makes its way to the infamous dumping ground (see my dining room table below). 

Why does it go there? Because it belongs nowhere. It has no designated place.  

Not assigning items a designated place makes you clutter blind!

3 – You have no system for paper

If your new mail gets dropped in a certain place, and it sits there unattended for weeks on end, you are likely clutter blind. 

My husband and I once thought we were “organized”. We had a small end table in our kitchen and all our mail got placed on it to work on “someday”.  

Often times, our mail pile was one foot high! That’s a lot of paper. 

You need a system for the paper that enters your home.  If you don’t have a system, you are clutter blind.  

Related Post: A Simple Method to Organizing Paper Clutter

4 – You have to make paths through your stuff 

If you have to make paths through all your stuff, you are clutter blind!

Our garage used to be the perfect example of a room with paths.  We had so much stuff, and in an attempt to avoid extra storage costs, it all went into our garage.  

We literally had paths to the exit, the workbench, and the outdoor toys.  

There was so much stuff in our garage at one point that I forbade my young kids to go in there, fearing the boxes and piles would tumble down onto them.  

We were seriously clutter blind. 

5 – Your spouse is annoyed the house is always a mess 

Whether it is passive-aggressive or in your face, if your spouse is constantly annoyed the house is a mess and you don’t see it, you are probably clutter blind.  

It’s ok. Some people don’t mind the clutter.  I’m almost jealous of these people.  

However, if your spouse is constantly nagging you about the state of the house, it probably makes them feel so much better to operate in a house with a lot less chaos.  

6 – Your friends offer to help you clean

Have you ever had a friend come to your house and sweetly offer to help you “organize”?

If this has happened to you, chances are they see the chaos, and you are clutter blind!

7 -You never feel like the house is clean but don’t know why

I used to spend every single Saturday trying to clean the house.  

No matter how hard I tried, and no matter how much I organized, the house always felt like it was a mess.

It was a mystery I never understood until my eyes were opened to what clutter looked like.  I was clutter blind! 

Related post: How to Maintain a Clutter-Free Home (Even with Kids!)

8 – You always take free stuff 

If you say “yes” to free stuff, even if you don’t need it or want it, you are likely clutter blind. 

Free mugs, bandanas, note pads, pens, grocery bags…the list goes on. 

We used to say “yes” to all things free.  It was a habit that started when we didn’t have much money.  If it was free, it would be stupid to turn it down.  
Thing is, we didn’t always need the free stuff offered to us.  

So what happened to all that free stuff?

It usually ended up in a pile or a box in our “junk room”.  

Break the cycle of taking free stuff or face forever being clutter blind!

Related post: Three Secrets to Declutter Your Home

Why can’t I get rid of clutter?

Chances are, you are overwhelmed by the clutter you already own and continue to let clutter enter your home. 

There are two actions you can take right now to get rid of clutter for good. top the inflow of clutter. 

First, take a 30-day challenge to not buy clothes (or other guilty pleasure). 

Secondly, simply start decluttering.  If you feel stuck, check out these 5-minute decluttering tasks you can do RIGHT NOW to start making an impact. 

Are you clutter blind?

If any of these characteristics sound all too familiar, there is a good chance you are clutter blind!

So what do you do if you are clutter blind? 

Start small.   Start recognizing clutter and find a way to get rid of it! 

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