Need a simple plan to help you toss that clutter–one that fits into your busy lifestyle? This simple and quick decluttering plan for busy people can help you with that.
How I Created My 52 Weeks to A Simplified Home Plan
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I know some of you are thinking, “wait, you said this was going to be quick, and that subheading says this plan is going to take me 52 weeks!” Yes, it is, but the time spent each week is minimal–as in an hour or two a week.
I don’t know about you, but I can find an hour or two somewhere in my week with much more ease than I can find an entire weekend or several hours per day for a month. So it might take you a year or more with this plan to declutter your entire home, but the plan itself has you decluttering in short, habit-forming bursts that are quick and simple.
This was a picture of the couch in my teenager’s room, but most of our home looked this way at the start of the original 52-week decluttering challenge.
Here is Why I Created This Decluttering Plan Back In 2014
Our family’s clutter piles got pretty bad in 2013.
The truth is that I was in a grief-induced fog after losing several loved ones in a row and I didn’t have the energy to deal with my stuff.
Near the end of that year, I read Ruth Soukup’s book “Living Well, Spending Less: 12 Secrets Of The Good Life”. Her chapter on simplifying her possessions convinced me that it was time I gave the house a top to bottom decluttering.
Many decluttering experts say to clear a few days and get the whole house done. But in my stage of life at that time, finding a few days to do nothing but declutter was next to impossible and it still is.
Instead, I decided to break up my home into 52 areas, one for each week of the year.
I also made a few rules.
Rules for 52 Weeks To A Simplified Home: The Quick & Simple Way To Declutter
1. Work ahead if you want: You can work ahead if time allows, but not to the point where you let other priorities in your life slide.
2. Don’t fall too far behind: You cannot fall behind for more than two weeks at any given time. If you do, you have to catch up right away.
3. Set a worth-it price: You must not save anything to resell that is under a “worth the time” price point set by you. Here is a post to help you decide whether to toss or resell items.
4. Set a sell-it deadline: All items you gather to sell should have a deadline written on the box you place them in or on a sticky note stuck to the item itself. This deadline is a set amount of time to resell the item. If you don’t sell the item by then, it goes off to the donation center. I suggest a timeline of one to two months tops!
5. Pretend you are moving: Approach decluttering like you are moving across the country; if you would not pack it up and move it, get rid of it.
6. Do not save items for the “future you.” As in, “One day I am going to take up knitting and I will need this basket of yarn.” If you can’t make time to start the new activity in the next few months, give it away to someone who will.
7. Do not save items for the “past you,” As in, “I used that treadmill every day–five years ago…” Again, unless you can realistically see yourself using the item again in the next few months, give it to someone who will.
8. Create a delayed decision box: Items you can’t let go of because you might need them go in a box with the date the first item went into it written on the outside. Anything in there one year after the date on the box gets donated or sold. A year’s worth of holidays and special events went by, and yet there it sat. Obviously, you don’t need it.
9. Set an easily replaceable money amount: If you are struggling with letting go of something before you place it in the delayed decision box, ask yourself, “how expensive is this to replace?” If the item is something you can replace for under your set amount, donate it. And remember, sometimes keeping it costs you more than tossing it.
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Now It Is Your Turn To Watch Those Clutter Piles Shrink
If you also have too much clutter and your daily life doesn’t allow you to tackle it all in a short amount of time, I would love to have you use my Simple & Quick Decluttering Plan For Busy People that my original 52 Weeks To A Simplified Home has become. I hope it helps you as much as it helped me.
How To Make This The Year You Finally Get Your Home Decluttered Despite Leading A Crazy Busy Life
I used my readers to hold me accountable and to humble me. I shared my mess all year long in the form of weekly updates (see the links to them at the bottom of this article). But you don’t have to blog about your clutter. Here is another option.
First: click here and join my decluttering Facebook group. That is where you will find support from other women struggling with clutter.
Second: Sign up for my email list using the form below this point and download my free printable where you can fill in the areas of your home you want to declutter over the next 52 weeks. Once you have the empty decluttering list in hand, grab a pen and spend a few minutes going from room to room looking for clutter and giving each clutter hotspot its own week. Keep the spots small so that they can be completed in an hour or two.
Optional but fun! Purchase my five-page clutter-busting tracker PDF. It will motivate you to toss more, recycle more, sell more, and donate more as you track all of these things all year long. Watch your totals grow as your clutter shrinks! (This is currently only $2.5o, but the price could change at any time)
Third: Adapt the rules to fit your life best. Perhaps you would prefer working on one area a week, but instead of doing it all at once, you want to spend 5 to 15 minutes each day. Great! Do that.
Fourth: Begin!
Great posts to help you with your clutter roadblocks:
- How To Start Decluttering When You Feel Overwhelmed By It
- How To Declutter When You Just Don’t Feel Like It
A peek at the simple handwritten list I made before I began my original 52-week decluttering journey.
Answers To FAQs About Decluttering
Where Do I Begin To Declutter My Home?
Start with an easy win, like the top of an end table, side table, or coffee table.
What Room Should You Declutter First?
The room that your front door opens into. This will make you less embarrassed about having unexpected guests and give you a sense of calm when you enter your home, which will spur you on to make every room make you feel the same way.
How Do You Make A Decluttering Plan?
I suggest you grab your 52 areas list and a pen and go outside your home. Walk up to the front door and open it. What is the first pile of clutter you see? Write it down in week one. Repeat your way through that first room. Move into the kitchen, living room, and the bathroom guests to your home would use. Do you have or want to have overnight guests? What bedroom would they sleep in? Declutter that next.
Continue thinking this way until you have 52 areas of your home listed. If you are not out of clutter spots yet, it is okay! Print out another 52-week chart and continue the process. Slow and steady progress helps you make decluttering a habit. And habits stick!
What Are The Steps In The Process Of Decluttering?
1. Decide on what area you are decluttering first.
Remember to keep this area small. Nothing is more frustrating than having to stop part-way through decluttering an area and look at it repeatedly until you have an open spot in your schedule to work on it again.
2. Grab supplies
- Trash bags
- Basic cleaning supplies (a rag and a bottle of all-purpose cleaner will do)
- Five storage containers or boxes for recycling, donations, things to sell, things to return to another room or a person, and things you know you don’t use but can’t seem to let go of.
- Visual timer or timer on your phone if setting a timer helps.
- Music, podcast, or audiobook to help pass the time.
3. Clear out the area
4. Wipe down all surfaces
5. Sort through the items you cleared out, putting them in one of the five boxes or a keep-in-the-area pile.
6. Put things back
7. Put away decluttering supplies.
8. Make tidying-up time part of your daily routine. I do this for 5 to 15 minutes in the morning and evening. If you have kids in the home, make this a family routine. They can clear their toys out of the family room while you pick up dirty dishes and clear the kitchen counters. This will help keep the clutter from coming back.
How Can I Quickly Declutter My Home?
Quit trying to look for a fast and easy fix! Unless you are not much of a clutter bug, a weekend plan or a 30-day decluttering plan will not rid your home of clutter. Nor will it help you develop the habits you need to keep your home clutter-free.
That said, I feel there is a time for these fast-paced plans. They are great at the beginning of your decluttering journey when you are full of motivation and ambition.
If you decided you want to go this route, make sure that you continue throughout the year by spending the remaining forty-seven weeks of the year clearing the clutter in the more private areas of your home.
How Do You Drastically Declutter?
With the 52-week list, you can drastically declutter all areas of your home one week at a time. You must be willing to part with everything you or another family member who lives with you do not use.
When I did this challenge, I donated a carload or more each month, sold $1,000 worth of items (here are my tips for reselling items), and recycled and trashed numerous amounts. I think that is pretty drastic.
Follow Along On My Personal Decluttering 52 Journey
If you want to see if decluttering an hour (or so) a week is going to make a difference, check out my progress in a year.
1. 52 Weeks To A Simplified Home: Week One
A bookcase full of kids’ books
2. 52 Weeks To A Simplified Home: Week Two
A built-in bookcase full of board games, books, and miscellaneous items.
3. 52 Weeks To A Simplified Home: Week Three
A sofa table. The shelves were filled with children’s puzzles and way too many tablecloths.
4. 52 Weeks To A Simplified Home: Week Four
A stand-alone wardrobe that was acting as a storage space for craft clutter and photo albums.
5. 52 Weeks To A Simplified Home: Week Five
My extensive collection of purses.
6. 52 Weeks To A Simplified Home: Week Six
A dresser that held my workout gear, a junk drawer, and a paperwork area.
7. 52 Weeks To A Simplified Home: Week Seven
A week to redo what had gotten re-cluttered.
8. 52 Weeks To A Simplified Home: Week Eight
A sideboard that was holding more paperwork items, including way too many useless receipts.
9. 52 Weeks To A Simplified Home: Week Nine
A bathroom cabinet. In it, I tackle cleaning products and personal products.
10. 52 Weeks To A Simplified Home: Week Ten
The downstairs bathroom counter.
11. 52 Weeks To A Simplified Home: Week Eleven
The bathroom floor and the bathroom junk drawer.
12. 52 Weeks To A Simplified Home: Week Twelve
Small appliances stored in a bathroom cabinet. Yes, you read that right–kitchen appliances in the bathroom.
13. 52 Weeks To A Simplified Home: Week Thirteen
Organizing the linen closet. And an epic simplification fail!
14. 52 Weeks To A Simplified Home: Week Fourteen
Attacking the clutter in the hallway study nook.
15. 52 Weeks To A Simplified Home: Week Fifteen
I create a system of bins to collect donations for the local thrift store.
16. 52 Weeks To A Simplified Home: Week Sixteen
Why is there a box of Miracle Grow in the bathroom?
17. 52 Weeks To A Simplified Home: Week Seventeen
That is an odd spot for a dirty sock!
18. 52 Weeks To A Simplified Home: Week Eighteen
It is becoming clear that my children are taking advantage of untouched cabinets to hide their sins.
19. 52 Weeks To A Simplified Home: Week Nineteen
I tackle what was the laundry room, but is now the mud room.
20. 52 Weeks To A Simplified Home: Week Twenty
Marie Kondo would be proud of how I declutter our coat collection.
21.52 Weeks To A Simplified Home: Week Twenty-One
How I deal with my husband’s clutter.
22. 52 Weeks To A Simplified Home: Week Twenty-Two
I use the timer method to start attacking the one and only closet on the main floor.
23. 52 Weeks To A Simplified Home: Week Twenty-Three
I let go of two half-finished blankets. Finally coming to terms with the “old’ me versus the “current” me.
24. 52 Weeks To A Simplified Home: Week Twenty-Four
I find more unfinished crafts and part with 1/3 of my fabric collection.
25. 52 Weeks To A Simplified Home: Week Twenty-Five
I move on to our Master Dump Room.
26. 52 Weeks To A Simplified Home: Week Twenty-Six
Magazines, books, and papers, oh my!
27. 52 Weeks To A Simplified Home: Week Twenty-Seven
I hoped a tray would help me limit what I put on my dresser. Did it work?
28. 52 Weeks To A Simplified Home: Week Twenty-Eight
Killing two birds with one stone.
29. 52 Weeks To A Simplified Home: Week Twenty-Nine
I share some decluttering tips to help you keep your dresser drawers clutter-free.
30. 52 Weeks To A Simplified Home: Week Thirty
I start decluttering our walk-in closet.
31.52 Weeks To A Simplified Home: Week Thirty-One
More clothes! Will they ever end?
32. 52 Weeks To A Simplified Home: Week Thirty-Two
I talk about how grief has caused a lot of clutter in our home.
33. 52 Weeks To A Simplified Home: Week Thirty-Three
I find brand-new kids’ DVDs in my closet, even though my kids are way past the intended audience age.
34. 52 Weeks To A Simplified Home: Week Thirty-Four
For a 10-foot by 4-foot space, our master bedroom closest sure is storing a lot of stuff.
35. 52 Weeks To A Simplified Home: Week Thirty-Five
Decluttering a tiny area is still progress!
36. 52 Weeks To A Simplified Home: Week Thirty-Six
I finally admit to myself that I will not fit back into those jeans.
37. 52 Weeks To A Simplified Home: Week Thirty-Seven
I find an unpacked box from our move seven years ago!
38. 52 Weeks To A Simplified Home: Week Thirty-Eight
More stuff that got shoved on a shelf to unpack later. Seven years is later, that is for sure.
39. 52 Weeks To A SimplifiedHome: Week Thirty-Nine
If there is an empty corner, I will stuff it with things!
40. 52 Weeks To A Simplified Home: Week Forty
Is it a master bedroom or a storage container? I am beginning to wonder.
41. 52 Weeks To A Simplified Home: Week Forty-One
One more box out of our bedroom!
42. 52 Weeks To A Simplified Home: Week Forty-Two
More on how I deal with my husband’s stuff.
43. 52 Weeks To A Simplified Home: Week Forty-Three
The master bedroom is almost done!
44.52 Weeks To A Simplified Home: Week Forty-Four
I think free t-shirts breed.
45. 52 Weeks To A Simplified Home: Week Forty-Five
I explain the Podcast method of decluttering.
46. 52 Weeks To A Simplified Home: Week Forty-Six
I think this is the biggest pile to head to the thrift store this year.
47.52 Weeks To A Simplified Home: Week Forty-Seven
More kids’ toys and decor items head to the thrift store.
48. 52 Weeks To A Simplified Home: Week Forty-Eight
I declutter the top of a desk.
49. 52 Weeks To A Simplified Home: Week Forty-Nine
A re-cluttered area gets attacked.
50. 52 Weeks To A Simplified Home: Week Fifty
This a reminder that it really doesn’t take long to put things where they belong!
51. 52 Weeks To A Simplified Home: Week Fifty-One
One more re-cluttered area gets tackled before Christmas.
52. 52 Weeks To A Simplified Home: Week Fifty- Two
An emotional end and an invitation to join me in my next decluttering challenge.
Decluttering Help For Areas I Didn’t Touch
The Medicine Cabinet
Here is a step-by-step guide on how to attack your medicine cabinet
And here is a guide telling you what to do with expired medications
The Kitchen
Are your cupboards overflowing with pots and pans? Home Storage Solutions 101 has an excellent post that will walk you through which ones to part with and which ones to keep.
The Pantry
The Simplicity Habit has a very detailed post that will motivate you to declutter it. It also walks you through how to organize it with tools such as a label maker and labels so that it doesn’t become a disaster again.
The Fridge And Freezer
Clean Mama walks you through how to clean and organize your refrigerator.
This post over at The Kitchn won’t help you clean and declutter these two areas, but it will help you keep a clean and organized refrigerator and freezer.
DVDs, CDs, And Other Media Items
Journey Towards Simple shares some great questions to ask yourself as you declutter your movie and music collection.
The Basement
If your basement is used for storage, Best Life has an article that will help you organize it and keep it that way.
The Garage
This Simplified Home has a plan that includes creating a decluttering checklist for areas of the garage to decrease overwhelm.
Let’s get on with it. Let’s toss the clutter and embrace the awesome feeling of a simplified home.
This five-page printable pack was created to accompany my 52-week simple decluttering plan for busy people. There is something about tracking what you toss that spurs you to keep decluttering and parting with more! Grab your copy for the low price of $2.50 here (the price could change at any time).
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