I know the feeling of being too overwhelmed by clutter to even think about Spring Cleaning. So how do you get started anyway?
Instead of going to bed until the return of winter?
Give yourself permission to just declutter. Use that spring cleaning energy to get clutter out of your house. Even if you don’t get to the deep cleaning you really want to do, your house will look and feel so much cleaner.
When Facing an Overwhelming Mess:
My #1 rule is to start with the easy stuff, and the easiest of the easy stuff is trash. Get rid of that and you’ll reduce the overall mess, and reduce your overwhelm. I recommend using a black trash bag, especially if you have kids, so they can’t see what you put in the bag and decide it’s their very favorite possession ever.
After you get through the trash, how do you decide what to do next, how do you keep going?
Do the other easy stuff. Look for things that have an established home, but aren’t in that home. Take them where they go.
But what if you’re not sure where something should go?
I have two simple decluttering questions, and they work no matter how overwhelming the mess.
Question #1: If I was looking for this item, where would I look for it first?
Don’t analyze, just go on instinct. Then (and this is so important) take it there right now so you don’t make a pile to have to deal with later. (More on that and why it’s so important here.)
If I can’t answer that first question, I have to be honest with myself and answer my second decluttering question.
Question #2: If I needed this item, would it ever occur to me that I already had one?
If the answer is no, I stick it in my Donate Box. If I didn’t know I had it, I wouldn’t look for it and would go buy another one.
Really. If you’re not convinced, go here to see how the two decluttering questions play out in real life.
What’s unique about my Donate Box?
It has to be donatable. I’m going to send the box itself off to be donated with the stuff that’s inside it. I don’t want a pretty Donate Box because then I’d have to transfer my clutter into another container before it actually left my house, and that’s a recipe for disaster. This way, I’m forced to make a final decision about each item as I either put it away or donate it.
Should you clean as you go?
If the clutter is overwhelming, the focus needs to be on decluttering, but having basic tools for dusting and sweeping is helpful so you can deal with the dust bunnies and dirt you uncover as you purge the clutter. I like to keep my duster and a sweeper handy as I declutter. As I move through a space, the area I finish is clean and looks finished, even if it isn’t deep cleaned.
I use (affiliate links alert): Swiffer Duster and Swiffer Sweeper
Nony, er I mean, Dana,
I have a question. Was the above picture staged??
Ha! I believe it was! I’m at a stage in book Book Two where I write the post and then ask, “Hey, can you take a photo of a pile of clutter with some cleaning stuff on top?”
hey, Melinda!
Wanted you to know, I’m responsible for this photo (as Dana’s assistant I sometimes have to find or shoot photos for her) It’s a totally for-real pile of clutter – the only thing staged is the feather duster.
This is one of the out-of-sight-out-of-mind places and was ironically happy to find my kids had left this pile in our play room 🙂
I absolutely was at the stage where my clutter made it impossible to do any type of respectable cleaning for spring. I had PATHS not floors….you get the idea. I have been pretty ill, so things got away from me. Any effort I made to fix it just depressed me as little changed daily. THEN, I found your blog and gave myself permission to just DECLUTTER. NO cleaning, no dusting, no vacuuming….Just decluttering. I’m just getting started on the stage where I look at the items with your two questions, so I’m in the very early days, but this is LIFE CHANGING!!! For the first time in my life, I realize that I was doing this all wrong for how I think. Thanks for coming clean with this (pun intended) and helping folks like me!!
Oh this is so awesome to hear!
I’m at a stand still! Mine is grief things. My daughter died 18 years ago after a lot of hurt. She was 19 and my life. I have everything of hers. I try to get rid of somethings but just live in a mase. Everything seem so important. Help
Hi Judy, This verse came to mind with all the ups and downs of this short sorrowful life Joy does still come …in the morning☼ Psalm 84:11
“For the Lord God is a sun and shield: the Lord will give grace and glory: no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly.” Love you am praying♥~Leslie the mom who cares for our 33 y.o. daughter Laurie who has a Traumatic Brain Injury, on a feeding tube and is non verbal with saying mom about once a year♥ Thanks be to God for Beauty from ashes♥♥♥
To Judy,
I’m so sorry!
I lost my sister in 2012 and then my parents 6 months apart in 2016 and 17. I was able to keep a lot of mom and dad’s things. I took time to cherish them, talk about them, USE them. And as time passed, I realized I was ready to let go of some of the things. Eighteen years is an intensely long time to keep your daughter’s things. How about using (touching included) some of her things and celebrating her life with them. Maybe you’ll get to the stage I did, in which it became easier to let go. You could even write down a memory of that item before passing it along. Also, maybe your daughter had other loved ones, who might like to have tokens of her memory as well. It could be healthy to share and talk about what made her special. 🙂 hugs.
Anytime you need any photos of clutter I can oblige, funnily I have loads of cleaning products but with so much mess it’s really hard to clean. I have really struggled with my home all my life and this method is the ONLY one that actually works for me – as long as I actually do it and don’t just read your books over again!
Thank you so much x