I confess.  The clutter in my house has taken on a life of its own.   For years my family has been so involved with activities, projects and commitments outside the home that I just did not notice the clutter as it accumulated item by item.  Until the clutter took over completely.  

So now I am planning to dig out from the madness by coming up with a process for decluttering and organizing my house that I won’t quickly abandon because the task is too overwhelming.  I am considering a few different strategies.  Hopefully one of them will work. 

Strategy #1 – Room by Room

There is something logical about decluttering a home one room at a time.  Concentrating all of your efforts into a single space can give you the kind of focus needed to see results fairly quickly.  Sometimes though, you don’t even know which room to start first.  

Some people think that it’s best to start with the bedrooms because that is where you start your days.  Others think that starting with the kitchen or family room would make the most sense because those rooms are more visible.  Another approach would be to start with the easiest room because then you will be motivated by the quick results.  Or you could start with the most cluttered room because once it is done, everything else will feel like a piece of cake.  

To me, all of the options sound equally reasonable.  I think I’ll just pick my poison and begin. 

Unfortunately though, I always seem to get stuck on exactly how to begin.  My instinct has typically been to start by clearing off the visible clutter from the surfaces of a room.  But that method has never worked out well because all I end up doing is shuffling stuff around because there’s no other place to put it.  

Now I know it’s best to start with the invisible clutter.  When I open the drawers and cabinets in a room, I see why I have resorted to using the surfaces as storage.  My drawers and cabinets are filled to capacity.  That is the first problem that must be corrected.

Even though I hate the thought of doing this, I think dumping all of the items out of a drawer and then filling it with only the most essential items is the best way to go. I’ve been reluctant to try that in the past because it seems so drastic. But after reading The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo, I think it’s worth a try.

Once I free up space in the drawers and cabinets, I can do more than shuffle items around. I can actually find “homes” for everything that is out in the open and it will look like I am making progress.  But honestly, even if one room is starting to shape up, looking at the other rooms in the house that are a hot mess but aren’t being touched may give me angst.  That is why some people prefer using a different strategy to declutter.  

Strategy #2 – Targeting the Hot Mess Spots

This strategy focuses on the “hot mess spots” or “clutter magnets” in every room that will cause the room to look like a hot mess.  The idea is to handle the hot mess spots in every room first so that you can see instant improvement throughout the house and stay motivated.  Then, after you address those areas, you can go back and perform a deeper more thorough decluttering and organizing of each room.  

The hot mess spots in my bedroom are my vanity, the bench at the foot of the bed and my nightstand.  I am constantly experimenting with different kinds of make-up and skin care products so sometimes you can’t even see the surface of my vanity.  That space needs to be handled.

I am an avid reader and I devour multiple books at a time.  That is why my nightstand overflows with books on a regular basis and the overflow ends up on the bench in front of the bed.  I need to handle those spaces too.

There are a few hot mess spots in every room of my house.  I think it will make sense for me to start the decluttering process by attacking one hot mess spot in every room.  That way I am less likely to get discouraged by how much work I will still have ahead of me.  And believe me, there will be lots of work to do! 

Strategy #3 – Re-prioritizing 

Life is constantly changing.  As life changes, so do your priorities.  

Over the years I have collected an ample supply of wire racks, aluminum pans, chafing dishes and huge serving platters.  These items came in handy as I often hosted celebrations and other events at my house.  

The global pandemic has changed that.  I don’t know when I will be able to safely host another large gathering at my house.   Therefore, all of those lovely hostess items have dropped to the bottom of the priority list.   As a result, I have evicted those items from the prime real estate they once occupied in my kitchen storage closet to a much more obscure storage location in the basement.  I certainly hope I will be able to use those items at some point in the future.  But for now, I have created more space for the items I use regularly and my home feels less cluttered. 

So it’s time for me to start decluttering and organizing.  I know that when we let go of things that no longer serve us, we are creating space in our homes (and lives) for new things to come in.  This article details my system for figuring out which items should leave my house. If you have any decluttering tips that have worked for you, please let me know.  Some of my favorite resources that I used for motivation to start this journey are below. Wish me luck!