Keep These Decluttering Rules in Mind. 12/12/12 Rule: Locate 12 items to throw away, 12 to donate, and 12 to be returned to their proper home. 20/20 Rule: Get rid of items you can either replace for $20 and under 20 minutes. 80/20 Rule: According to this rule, we use 20% of our belongings 80% of the time.

Choose a micro-area. Weiss is a fan of choosing smaller spaces to declutter one at a time, and the living room is no exception. “Start with a micro-area like one shelf on a bookshelf, a whole bookshelf, or a cabinet in the living room. Starting small will help avoid burnout,” she says. Create a blank space.

Otherwise, put away other items,' says Juliette Thomas. 'Kitchens are at their best when decluttered, giving more surface space to use and an overall tidy, contemporary look to show off the kitchen rather than the clutter. Put away spices, coffee/tea, oils, and so on. Completely declutter. 'Keep surfaces tidy.

To walk you through the process of a whole-house refresh, we created the Real Simple Guide to Decluttering Every Room. The guide offers tips for tackling some of the toughest clutter hotspots (hello, kitchen cabinets), recommends tidying techniques our editors swear by, and includes a room-by-room decluttering checklist so you can be sure every ...

If you don't make an appointment with yourself, you are bound to put something else in its place. ️ Take it one room at a time. Choose one room to focus on at a time and touch every item in that ...

Clutter makes it more difficult to find things, makes a small space look even smaller, and takes up valuable living or storage space that you may need. You don’t have to be a professional organizer to tidy your space and achieve a decluttered home—here are some tips. Whether it’s books in the living room, junk mail in the kitchen, or ...

2. Invest in savvy storage. Now that you've cleared your excess clutter, invest in suitable storage. Modular storage or space-saving units are a great way to organize and put things in their ...

Kitchen Decluttering Checklist. Duplicate kitchen tools (vegetable peelers, bottle openers, garlic presses) Appliances used once a year or less. Out-of-date spices and pantry items. Spices/dry ingredients bought for one dish that will never be used again. Mismatched and excess coffee mugs.

Decluttering does more than remove physical clutter—it can actually make your home calmer—and there are ways to make it easier. Some organizing pros recommend waging a whole-house war on clutter to knock out the excess stuff in one fell swoop, so no room remains untouched. This approach may take a whole weekend (or even longer), but it ...

1.Declutter little and often. For Lynda Wylie of Tidy Rooms, ‘mini habits’ are key and she encourages people to let go of things around key times in the year. She says, “Use any traditions ...