PROJECTS 10 Minutes a Day to Declutter Your Home For the Holidays

Overwhelmed by all the stuff in your home? All you need is a plan. Here’s how to spend 10 minutes a day to declutter your home.

I’m not even sure if de-clutter is a word.

I’m not even sure where I came up with this system.  I’m really not sure how or where or when I started de-cluttering and realized the freedom that it brings.

I just know that it works.

I wanted to share these tips (and my little system) before the holidays arrive in full swing. The entire holiday season can be so overwhelming—so if you start this system now? It will make the holidays so much easier—because here is a little secret just between us.  If your house is picked up and de-cluttered…

….YOU HAVE TO DO LESS CLEANING.

I know, right?

Mind-blowing.

You have to do less cleaning because:

A. there’s less stuff and less stuff means less dust and less dirt.

B. the house looks cleaner because the stuff is put away

C. less stuff means less stress

D. you’re more likely to want to clean because there’s less stuff to ACTUALLY KEEP CLEAN

Are you nodding?  Are you agreeing?  Did you take a sip of coffee and say amen?  Are you wondering how I de-clutter?

Oh, good.

Come sit by me.

And spend 10 minutes a day to de-clutter your home before the holidays.

How to spend 10 minutes a day to declutter your home for the holidays

It all starts with the shoes

I know it seems random.

What do shoes have to do with de-cluttering?  I can’t explain it.  I just know that it works.

You are going to need those shoes to sprint.

Kind of like getting ready for a marathon where everyone throws their clutter out as they go.

So lace up your sneakers and line up at the start line.

If you are brilliant and are already wearing shoes, congratulate yourself and skip to step 2.

to declutter your home you want to start small

Rome wasn’t built in a day and neither was clutter.

For one week in the month of October, set aside 10 minutes a day.

10 minutes.  That’s easy, right?  10 simple minutes.  Set a timer.  Set your watch.  Set your phone.

Choose the clutter pile that gets on your nerves the most.  The one that makes you shudder when you walk by it.

And then?

Don’t invite it to the party and give it any more cheese dip.

Take 10 minutes and sort through that pile.  Throw away papers.  Toss old magazines.  Put bills in a folder in your office or workspace marked bills.

But here’s the key.

ONLY WORK ON IT FOR 10 MINUTES.

(total aside: I think it really helps if you put on music or a book you are listening to. Those 10 minutes will be gone before you can say Christmas.)

And when you are done.  Walk away.  Pat yourself on the back.  Tell yourself how amazing you are.  Call your mom and let her know she can stop by for a visit.

Save the next 10 minutes for tomorrow.

And the tomorrow after that.

Use the one-step rule

Don’t let your stuff travel too much.

For example, if you find a random coffee cup that needs to go in the dishwasher.

Don’t take it into the living room and set it down.

And then remind yourself it needs to go into the kitchen.

And then take it into the kitchen and set it down on the counter.

And then eventually put it in the dishwasher.

THOSE ARE FOUR STEPS.

Yikes.

Instead? You have the coffee cup in your hand.  Walk past the living room and the kitchen counter and put it DIRECTLY into the dishwasher.

This takes practice to think like this to declutter.  I know, I’ve been practicing for years. But here’s the thing, the more you do it, the more of a habit it becomes.

These 10 minutes are a habit that saves your clutter, one step at a time.

Baskets are your friend

I know the basic adage of organizing–a place for everything and everything in its place.  The hardest part of that whole concept is figuring out what all the places look like.

I get it.

I understand.  I really, really do.

That’s where baskets come in.

First of all, baskets are cute and pretty and have sides that hold things.

Here are some ideas that I use baskets for.  I use a basket for mail.  I use a basket for catalogs.  I use a basket for random coupons and business cards and tiny pieces of who-knows-what that collect on the counters.  I use a basket for things I need to do.  I use a basket for items I want to donate.  I use a basket for dog toys and supplies.  I use a basket for unfinished projects.

And on and on and on.

Around here everything has a basket.  It all goes in there if I don’t have time to sort through it or deal with it or think about it.

It just hangs out looking cute in a basket until I’m ready.

And then?  When the basket overflows I go back to idea number one and spend 10 minutes on it.

Keep the surfaces clean

In every home, there are a few surfaces that invite clutter to pull up a chair (like this little cabinet that I brought home from the Cape).

I don’t know why certain surfaces get cluttered.  I wish I did because I would be a zillionaire.  The key is figuring out which surfaces attract clutter and focusing on keeping them clutter-free.

That’s where the baskets come in.

Every night, I check the surfaces and sort the stuff from the surfaces into the baskets.

And then?

When the baskets overflow it’s back to our 10 minutes again.

Wipe down those surfaces with something that smells good

When you declutter your home, having the house smell good is like a clutter reward.

A clutter superpower.

Spray a cleaner that smells good and wipe down.

Here are some amazing ways I’m making my house smell good for fall.

And then guess what happens?

It’s like the spray and the smell repel the clutter all on their own.

No one ever wants to put a piece of clutter on a shiny, good-smelling surface.

Donate, Donate, Donate

Our house is full of stuff.

Stuff that we don’t really use anymore.  Stuff that I walk by and wonder what I should do with it.  Stuff that stopped fitting into our life in 1999.

On the first of every month, I go through the house (some from the basket where I put it waiting to be donated) and gather up two garbage bags of stuff left over from all my projects and donate it.

Someone else might need that stuff way more than I do and I would not want to deprive them of the joy of finding my half-finished cross-stitch.

And my baskets thank me.

Be kind to yourself

I think that’s where clutter defeats us.

It’s why so many have tried to show clutter to the door and fail.

We try to declutter our home and it overwhelms us and we sigh and look away and tell ourselves that we’ll handle it tomorrow.

Why not make your tomorrow start today?

You got this.

You can do it.

Yes, yes, YES you can.

All you need are 10 minutes and a few cute baskets to show clutter the door.

Just make sure to start with the shoes.

PS I’d love to hear how you declutter your home, too. Let’s discuss in the comments.

PPS And now? Here’s a little bit of holiday fun.

// $5 Target Christmas Finds //

And scroll past if you aren’t ready for Christmas! I get it, but I had so much fun with this I had to share. Here I am unpacking my Target Christmas order. I went ahead and ordered now because it was all $5 and I knew it would sell out.

You can shop all my finds here.

disclosure: affiliate links are used in this post

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