How to Declutter 60% Faster!

Don't we all want to see results faster on pretty much anything we do?!?  Most of us are just a bit impatient, LOL, especially when we have a new goal!  There are soooo many benefits to decluttering.  It lowers anxiety, makes your home more peaceful, and once you declutter something, you literally never have to touch it again!  If you want to know some of the best ways to speed up the process, keep reading, or check out the video here!

1.  Start with one small area to build momentum.

Choose a relatively “easy” area to declutter, and work on it until it's completely done!  While this doesn't necessarily “speed” up the process because you still have the same areas/rooms to declutter, it does help in these ways:

• It eliminates the back and forth traveling around.  If you're in one small area, you're not roaming all over your house, so it cuts out “travel time.”
• Once you accomplish something, it will get you much more excited!  Once you have excitement, you'll naturally keep going and work a bit faster because you're more motivated!

2.  Use a timer and race the clock.

Anytime something is counting down, you will always go faster.  It kind of becomes a game at that point.  Often, I race myself to see how much I can get done in 20 minutes, or for however long I set the timer.

It works best in smaller bursts because you can work at max speed.  If it's just 20 minutes, I can really move fast, but it would be hard to sustain that pace for 4 hours.  So use this when you have smaller chunks of time to get more done in the small bits that you do have.

3.  Use boxes or bins with decluttering signs.

If you have bins labeled, it reduces time trying to remember which pile goes where.  I also always have a bin for stuff that I need to keep but that belongs somewhere else.  When this bin is full, I'll then go and “deliver” the items where they belong.

By doing this all at once, it reduces travel time running stuff around.  One caveat here– I try to get at least 12,000 steps a day.  So sometimes I intentionally try to take things one at a time so I walk all over the house.  I'm purposeful about this, though, and I only do it when I have a ton of time, so I'm literally trying to be inefficient, LOL!

4.  Keep a decluttering kit on hand.

I keep my labeled boxes on hand all the time.  Other good items for your kit are trash bags, tape to tape the signs, and a set of the signs if you don't keep your boxes/bins labeled all the time like I do.

When you're ready to start decluttering, the last thing to be doing is looking for boxes/bins, and printing signs.

5.  Schedule donation pickups.

This of course saves time of driving to the donation center.  But possibly an even better part about this is that it creates a deadline.  Most of us will want to get as much decluttering done as we can before that pickup, so it can be really motivating to work harder and faster!

6.  Use the “touch it once” rule.

This means exactly what it says.  You only touch an item once, make a decision, and then don't handle it again.

7.  Make decisions faster.

Probably the most time spent on decluttering is in the decision making!  The faster you can make decisions, the faster the entire process will go.  Also, your first gut instinct is usually the right choice.  Forcing yourself to think quickly makes you more efficient and helps you make good decisions.

8.  Simplify Decisions with 4 categories.

I go into this in a lot more detail in my new course, Declutter University!  If you only give yourself the four options (trash, donate, keep, move elsewhere), you can decide MUCH faster!

9.  When you put items away, don't get distracted organizing.

If I'm trying to be speedy, I will still put something in its home where it belongs, but I won't take time to tidy up or reorganize that drawer or shelf!  If you let yourself get distracted organizing, it will be hard to ever get anything fully decluttered.  Organizing can take quite a bit of time because it involves a lot of thinking, buying bins or organizers, etc.

10.  Use outboxes.

I'm such a fan of this.  In almost every room of my home, I have a bin where I place things I want to declutter.  It's especially important in bedrooms.  If I try something on, and I just hate it, I can put it right in the bin.  Then on donation day, I can gather up everything from all the outboxes and take it straight to the donation center!  This makes it super easy and fast to declutter in the moment instead of sticking it back in a drawer and having to deal with it again later.

11.  Declutter in small pockets of wasted time.

We all have pockets of time where we're waiting for something and don't really have anything to do.  For example, if I'm microwaving my lunch, could I use those 1-2 minutes to open a kitchen drawer and find a couple things to declutter?  If you do this every day or even a few times a day, think about how many items that adds up to!!

12.  Focus on decluttering and don't organize as you go.

Once you declutter a drawer, move on to the next!  Don't get drawer organizers and start in on that part.  You can do this later, but in the meantime, you'll enjoy a lot less stuff to sort through when you need something!

13.  Never leave a room empty-handed.

We can get so much done without extra effort if we just glance around and grab what needs to be moved from room to room before we leave a space.  This is especially true if you're going up and down stairs.  Reducing travel time can really make things more efficient.

Tidying up always helps decluttering.  If I have to tidy a space before I declutter, it adds so much time and effort to the job.  The more we can tidy in daily life, the less work we have to do before decluttering even begins.

14.  Watch what comes into your home and celebrate the things you didn't buy.

It's easy to celebrate the decluttering.  Every item we get rid of feels like letting a weight go!  However, we also need to learn to celebrate the things we think about buying but choose not to!  If your habits of bringing stuff into your home don't change, you'll end up right back in the same place again.

I'm not saying that you'll never have to declutter again.  It's an ongoing process.  People change and evolve.  Our needs and tastes change.  Children grow and move into different life stages.  Of course you'll have to declutter again.  But the less we bring into our homes in the first place, the less stuff we'll have to manage over time!

Recently I found the cutest dish drying mat at the grocery store.  I dry my dishes on the counter all the time and just use towels.  They work, but the mat would be so much more fun!  However, I didn't really have a place to store it, and the towels were working just fine.  So I decided not to buy it– that's a win!

I also really wanted a Dash waffle maker with the interchangeable plates.  We eat waffles a lot, and it was so cute.  But my waffle maker works great, and I knew it would be something I'd use a ton for about two months while I was really excited about it.  Then when the novelty wore off, I'd end up storing it my pantry for a few months before decluttering.  So I just left it at the store– another win!

Changing our mindset and habits is absolutely key to staying clutter free over the long term!  If you want more tips and a TON of extra help with decluttering, check out the best and most extensive course I've ever written on the topic– Declutter University!  I know it will give you so much to think about and try as you go through your own decluttering journey!

Organization that actually sticks for busy, happy lives.