Sort and Organize to Success: How to Declutter a Cluttered Home

Some things seem a lot simpler than they are. Take organization for example, knowing how to declutter seems as though it should be second nature, but for most people, it’s not that simple. Clutter can appear without us even realizing. Similar to an illness, your home slowly collects clutter until it reaches a breaking point. Oftentimes, by the time you recognize the signs of clutter, it’s too late to start the reorganization efforts. Or at least that’s the feeling you get every time the topic comes up. 

While the decluttering effort will initially feel like a monumental task to overcome, the process itself is straightforward. Once you’ve started assessing and organizing your clutter, you gain momentum on a job well done. This compounds and speeds up the process until suddenly, the clutter is gone, replaced with a pristine home.

Sorting and organizing go hand-in-hand, and there are often different methods you can take to plan your attack on clutter by utilizing simple steps on top of psychological methodology. All it takes is a little preplanning, elbow grease, and maybe some help from friends and family. 

How to Declutter: What is Clutter and Decluttering?

Before we get into how to declutter and kick off your battle plans, we need to define what clutter is. No, a few knick-knacks on the coffee table aren’t clutter, as you could easily move them somewhere else and they aren’t impeding your daily life. However, that pile of dishes in the sink or that stack of mail on the counter that’s been collecting for days or even weeks? That’s clutter. 

Clutter is the scattered or disordered items that collect around our home and create pockets or entire spaces of reduced movement and effectiveness. You can’t find the right clothes for tonight’s outing because everything is in a wrinkled pile. That book you wanted to read is nowhere to be found on an overflowing bookshelf. The bills from last month are somewhere in the stack, but where?

When it gets this serious, thoughts of decluttering start to crop up. Opposite of clutter, decluttering is the action of restoring your space to the state it was in previously. This is done by organizing your items and either putting them in storage, throwing them away, or donating them to someone who can better utilize them. Decluttering freshens up your home and your mind, as too much clutter will take root in the darkest corners of your psyche and lead to depression and anxiety. 

Start Your Sorting Journey with the Basics

The first step to tackling the clutter in your home is to recognize you have clutter. This may sound simple, but often we overlook or normalize our clutter until it becomes second nature. The clothes on the floor are easy enough to pick apart until you find a cleaner shirt. That stack of books is going to end up being read and placed on your shelf eventually. Those mementos are starting to pile up, but you can’t possibly part with all those memories. 

You can’t start decluttering until you admit to yourself that there is a problem at hand. Many people have to have it pointed out to them before they admit to themselves there’s an issue, while other people know they have clutter building up but don’t know where to start or don’t want to make the effort to improve their space. Either way, once you admit you have clutter on your hands, you can start your reorganization effort. 

Start Small, Work Your Way Up to Clutter Management

This is a marathon, not a sprint. That may seem daunting in practice, but you don’t have to finish this race in a few weeks. Start with a small goal, like selecting one room or even one section of a room. Learning how to declutter properly takes some patience. Assess the clutter, categorize it, then set one hour aside each week to work on it. 

Assess the clutter at hand and decide where you’re going to focus your efforts this week. If it’s a stack of books, sort them into piles. One pile of books is to keep, one is to donate, one is to store, and another is to throw away. Then next week, you can move each pile to their new home. The following week, you can start making a new goal for the next pile of clutter. 

Tackling clutter feels like an uphill battle because we often let it pile up until it feels insurmountable. However, setting up a pile system makes it easier to analyze the clutter at hand and makes the work more manageable. 

Reduce and Release Your Clutter

After sorting everything into piles, it’s time to focus on reductions. Sort through the piles to determine what is necessary for a continuation of your current lifestyle and what can go. Items that haven’t seen use in months, are trash, or have only been used sparingly can be moved into their own piles, with the first two in consideration for the dumpster and the third being a good candidate for donations. 

Now that you’ve separated the clutter down into manageable piles, you can release it. Trash and unused or unwanted items that are simply taking up space can be moved to the dumpster, while anything that is useful can either be stored or donated. If you don’t plan on using the items any time soon, there are plenty of donation options available around you that would gladly take them off your hands. However, if you know that you’ll need to use these items in the next few months, at maximum, then it's better to pack them away for safekeeping. 

Reset Your Room Through Reorganization

You’ve reduced the clutter down to a minimum, but the room still needs a touch of… something. Sorting is the act of moving pieces into piles based on category, but now that everything is sorted, you can begin organizing. Your room likely looks and feels barren. What once had piles of items littered across the floor and on furniture is now clear, which gives the space a new feeling. You may think that this is uncomfortable, which is why you begin reorganizing the space to fit your vision. 

You always wanted to make it cleaner, but now it’s almost too clean. Try to envision a room where everything is in its place. Maybe the couch could actually be on the other wall now that you have more room available. The TV stand can finally shift over a few feet. The shelves are ready to be reorganized now that much of their contents have been removed or packed away. Slowly, you can move elements of the room around to fit a new vision, even if it’s only minor adjustments. 

Tweaking Your Space to Stay Organized

Tweaking is a technical term that describes maintaining a space in small increments to keep it organized and sorted. Just because you’ve organized your space doesn’t mean it’s going to stay in perfect condition forever. Now that you have a system in place to set aside time each week to start sorting and organizing, you can now use that time to tweak your space. 

These are small, simple steps to keep a room fresh and organized. Remove bits of clutter that have been piling up, swap out baskets or plants, and make small changes all around to make the room’s character shine through. You don’t have to rearrange everything each week, but the little touches of personality you inject into the space each week will be great for your mind and astound your guests. 

Sorting and Organizing is an Ongoing Battle

Decluttering efforts are an ongoing battle that you must wage every week. You’ve succeeded in cleaning one room, but the rest of your house awaits. Split your time between adjusting current rooms to keep clutter organized and starting the decluttering journey in new rooms. Eventually, your house will be completely decluttered and you can focus all of your efforts on sorting, organizing, and tweaking. 

Don’t forget to take time to celebrate your success. It doesn’t have to be extravagant, but you should take some before and after photos to brag to your friends and family. Take time on the weekend to take a spa day or go for a hike to help you recoup after your efforts. Every small step is a step in the right direction. 

Decluttering, Sorting, and Reorganizing Home

Tranquil Transitions understands the struggle you may encounter during your attempts to sort and organize your space. Our team helps you determine what can stay and what should go while organizing everything that stays. We work closely with you to assess, organize, and throw out anything unwanted so your home goes back to the clean, healthy state it was meant to be in. When you need assistance in your sorting and organizing journey, Tranquil Transitions is here to help.