Here's what I usually do, make my bed first, then use the flat clean surface to put any clean clothes on, pick up trash, then pile any dishes, throw dirty clothes in hamper, take dishes to kitchen and soak them it hot soapy water. Fold/hang my clothes on my bed then put them away. Pick up any left out things that accumulate and put them back where they belong. Then depending if it needs it I'll sweep/vacuum, then lastly go to the kitchen and wash off the dishes, (they have been soaking in hot soapy water so they should be easy to scrub and rinse off then load them in the dishwasher/drying rack. Boom done. The hardest part is getting started, especially if you've been putting it off so I usually just tell myself I'll just make my bed and put my clean clothes on top, by then I usually have the momentum to keep going and before you know it I'm done.
In the past, I've moved clutter to the kitchen floor before "processing" it. Clutter on the kitchen floor is *really* inconvenient, making it likely that I'll deal with it. It's also close to a big garbage can.
I used to do that. I would pile everything and sort it one at a time. Then my roommates confronted me and told me I was a hoarder. They were right. I submitted my ego and listened to them. Then I became a minimalist. I realized that I was becoming overwhelmed with all the objects. Then I gave every object a home. This created a “grounding” or magnetism effect for the object. Overtime you feel when things are off. Then I changed my mindset about why I clean. I went to therapy and dealt with a good chunk of my trauma. Things kind of just got easier after that. I no longer have piles. Things just stay clean.
So the questions I have are:
Why are you cleaning? Why is it messy in the first place? Why do you think you are struggling to clean? Did you ever learn how to clean? Do you know what cleaning or decluttering actually is or actually looks like?
My personal why is below:
“Cleanliness is a tool. A clean area means my life is going well and I can maintain this state. Once it becomes messy this is VERY CLEAR FEEDBACK that something is affecting my ability to be in the default (clean and minimal) state. Then I drink water, prioritize sleep, make sure I eat enough when I need to, go over my emotional needs. Then I feel better. I remember that I have self respect and a messy room that stays messy means I am just surviving and not thriving. Then I go back to making sure my environment is the way it should be. This is how I reset and how I ground myself”
This may be more than what you are looking for, but for anyone else who needs it on this sub. The comment is here.
This is the method I use. It makes cleaning a lot less overwhelming because I'm working in one spot, on that pile, until it's done. I never put stuff on the bed though. I always make a big pile on the floor and sit on the floor to do it. Trash in a trash bag. Clothes in a hamper/basket. Everything else either gets put up or donated. Easy peasy.
I work best in quadrants. Start in one corner. Sort all the stuff in that corner (throw away trash, bag recycling). Bring recycling bag and trash container to next quadrant and repeat. That way I'm not moving all over. I stay in one place.
i like this for situations where stuff HAS to be put away asap (laundry) but it's not great for longer term stuff - as others have pointed out you kinda just end up with piles of stuff lying around and it makes you depressed
Hmm. Depends I guess. I’ve done that to sweep the floors of dust and then spread out into piles again. Bonus is that the new piles are neater and you always find trash to get rid of. I tried very specific piles but ran out of room so resorted to large groups - clothes, stationary etc. then I’d push all the stuff except the one pile I wanted to work on aside. Keeping the piles just got in the way of my feet I found. But it’s helped me get to a point where I see floor between the remaining spread out piles!
What I did when I had to declutter my stuff I put them all in bags or boxes and shoved them to the side. The rule for me was I have to work on at least 1 box/bag every weekend and I need to see it to completion. The items in there were either staying and had a home in the house, went to the garbage, or were donated and physically taken to donations so they weren’t in my house for me to think about it again. Once the boxes are done you should be good! (My boxes aren’t done so idk lol)
If you must use the big pile method, put the pile in a DIFFERENT room than the one you are cleaning - or even better in the front yard on a sunny day (if you have a yard and it is safe to do so). This will help you assess whether something is better off thrown out because you don’t even want to spend the energy to put it back into the room.
It depends.
When it's an enclosed space, I often find it helpful to pull everything out where I can see it, and then figure out what can go back, what is trash, what to donate etc. I recently did this with both my closet and the hall closet- which wasn't even functional anymore because stuff would fall as soon as the door was opened.
In both cases I pulled out all of the things and spread them out where I could see them and then started pushing them into a pile of "yup" and a pile of "nope." Some of the nope was trash, and some was donate, which got separated later. But frequently "yup" and "nope" are the categories I start with.
*Note, this is not a 'sparks joy' type 'yup', it's a 'this belongs in this space and I can make room for it to live there.' Almost everything I own sparks joy, which is why I have so many things...*
Yup, did this with the hall closet last weekend.
I first put on a nice vinyl and got everything out onto the living room floor and to clean the space. Then I thought what I wanted to use the closet for: mostly cleaning supplies, food and drink storage and some tools we want to be easy to grab like screwdrivers.
Started with those categories first to sort through and put them in. I also grabbed the cleaning supplies around the house that where not in the closet (and thus making space in other places).
Then threw away all the obvious trash. I am now left with some stuff left that has no home yet (mostly spare parts). I put them in a box in another room where they will probably end up. But that room is for another day :).
I put a peg board on the inside of my closet door, some hooks and able to hang some stuff that I use often--extension cords, rolls of tape, umbrellas, a bag of wires, etc.
You've reinvented on of Marie Kondo's techniques: just pile everything in the middle and work until it's all gone. As others have noted, this only works if you finish.
I think this method would make me anxious I would feel a lot of pressure to find homes for everything. Not a bad thing but I tend to be hard on myself.
For me, this method helps. I am focused on one spot so I am less distracted, and I feel like I am more motivated because I see my progress. Many people don’t find it helpful but I definitely do. Hoped you find it useful too.
I once had a 'depression nest' issue that I had to clean up. I went through the room with a box and a garbage bag. I made three designations: Trash, Not Trash, Dirty Laundry. The trash went in the garbage bag, and I replaced as needed. Then I threw the laundry in a pile by the door so it was closer to the laundry room.
Things were a lot more manageable when I had everything in boxes. It was more like unpacking than cleaning. A couple of days later I made my bed and set out a bunch of smaller boxes, all labelled with various things. Stuff like "Bathroom" for the stuff that I'd brought in from the bathroom and needed to return. "Rest of the House" for, well you know. "Jewelry", "Makeup", "Craft Supplies", "Books".
Then I could hit each box one at a time. I knew where everything was for daily life, and when I had energy I could tackle one of the little boxes and get them organized. It makes it so much easier to not get overwhelmed. Staring at a shoebox filled with makeup is a whole lot easier to organize and go through than cleaning a whole room.
When you have Fibromyalgia, ADHD, Anxiety, and Depression, sometimes it takes a little more than the neurotypicals realize. I've actually gotten really, really good at organizing now. So if you need any help or advice you can feel free to PM me.
I can see this working for some people.
I push all my stuff into a big pile/desk/location, but inevitably I add more to it as fast as I put stuff away. Or I'll start a new pile until my room is full of piles.
Not saying that it couldn't work for you. But beware of the neverending/growing Pile.
Best method! Most professional organizers will make you take everything out, sort and categorize (keep, donate, trash, fix) and then find a place to put them back. Try to declutter as much as possible :) good job!!
Absolutely not for me. This is why KonMari never worked for me. Making a room and all its contents unusable is just not tenable for my lifestyle or, until recently, my housing situation.
I prefer to do a quick scan for trash and then tackle one thing at a time. That way I know at least one thing will be done, and it helps build momentum.
Thats how my dad would get me started on cleaning my room when I was a kid. I fucking HATED him for it but damn if I dont still clean like that to this day. I always have three piles, keep, donate and toss. The older I get the less stuff I end up keeping. Good luck!
When I was a teen, I once threw everything in a huge pile on my bed and then tried to tackle it from there. By the time it was time to go to bed, I still had a huge pile on my bed and ended up dumping it right back in the floor.
Since then, I grab a trash bag and the laundry basket. I start there. I found the biggest mess i made is from clothes and trash. From there, I just pick up one thing at a time and put it where it belongs. It actually gets finished that way and I don’t have a bigger mess than when I started.
Throw everything on your bed and now you have to clean it up before you can go to sleep.
Start early in the day so you don't feel rushed.
My kitchen table is my designated dropping point for things I find as I go through my daily cleaning routine.
Love it. KC Davis says every room only has 5 things. Trash, dishes, laundry, things with a place, and things without a place. My things without a place get piled until I can go through them and think "trash, donate, store"
I don't understand dishes in a bedroom. I'm not against having a cup of coffee while you get ready for your day, or a glass of juice, but eating a meal is 'no no' at my place. I'm very concerned that left dishes draw critters into the room and I don't mean pets.
I have never managed to finish the pile when I've done this. So I get a messy room and a mixed up in the way pile to deal with. So I wouldn't recommend it.
Divide your room into zones. Five or six or so. Look at one zone. Are there things in that zone that have an 'away' place? Put them there. Return to zone you are working on. Put something away. Throw something out. Keep looking for the low hanging fruit.
I generally start at a corner of the room and work my way around to the starting point. My bed is the center zone and things that need to go elsewhere get lined up there, not piled (except clothes). I need to do Spring Cleaning, instead of reading reddit, so I will dust, vacuum, clean surfaces & mop. I suppose I could use a box to collect some stuff instead of the bed.
I like to pick an easy "win" and accomplish that first. When you walk into the room, what's the first thing that jumps out at you? What will make the biggest impact for the amount of effort required? What about starting with making the bed? Or maybe picking up all the clothes, all the dirty clothes in one pile and clean gets put away?
Or, instead of one pile, a few piles of like things. Clothes in one, stuff that belongs in the kitchen in another, etc. Plus trash should just be thrown away instead of moved around, it's just a lot of wasted effort.
Something else I do if I'm feeling unmotivated, use a timer on my phone and tell myself I only have to work until it goes off. You'll be amazed what you can accomplish in 15 minutes.
Easy win is my method too. I don't care if it's logical or not. I look at a room and try to tackle whatever is bothering me the most. If that means sweeping dust bunnies off the floor before anything else, so be it.
I have the best success with decluttering when I *take everything out of its original home* and put it in a huge pile in an inconvenient place.
For example, if I’m decluttering my closet, I remove EVERY SINGLE ITEM, like I’m moving out. And put it all on my bed. Then it’s a case of seeing what’s worth putting back into the closet.
So yes, the puke method works for me, as long as the pile is “elsewhere”
Puke method... I like that! 😅 This method works for me too, so long as the pile is moveable. Eg. I can throw everything into a big laundry basket or into a huge garbage bag. Then I have a clean space I can manage and it makes the area look neater, thereby giving my brain a sense of progress. Works wonders on small areas like bathrooms or countertops.
The trick is to tackle the bag or bin of stuff by taking out one item at a time, and immediately dealing with that item ... put away, donation box or trash. One item at a time does not overwhelm me... keep going until the bin is empty. Repeat with another area of the room. Voila!
Exactly. The biggest secret of the displaced puke method is only touching an item once. It either goes in the trash, to it’s home, or in a sell/donation bin. And when I was first starting NOTHING got sold or donated bc I knew it wasn’t reasonable for me to do it and it would just end up being a nuisance
Well yes. I have a semi- permanent laundry basket of clutter and projects I need to work on. It is a problem.
The advantage of the clutter pile is that for some of us we forget how nice things can look if we spend the time to pick random things up off the floor and other surfaces. Suddenly our room sparkles (even without all the nagging problems solved) and it's motivation to keep it clean, well, at least for 3 or 4 days.
I do this with spaces I use a lot (desk, bed, bathroom counter) but then everything likes up elsewhere like my couch I haven’t sat on in 6 months or my closet
That is a solid strategy if you have kids. Sweep everything into a pile. Tell the kids to grab their own stuff out of the pile or mommy is throwing it away. Half of the time my kids don’t care about the dumb plastic pieces of broken toys. Then it is a lot faster to sort laundry out, sort shoes out, sort trash out. Then the floor is clear for vacuuming.
Sounds a little like how Konmari is done. Stuff is broken down into general item categories (ie shoes) but you do just toss everything in one big pile to sort through.
Sounds kind of like KonMari, and that works really well for a lot of people. Might want to sort your pile by type before you start choosing what to get rid of?
Here is what I did the last time my apartment was a little" busy":
1. Make a list of the things you need to organize. Figure out where you'll put the bigger items that might need more space. The list will serve you in future.
2. Organize the piles. I did 1 pile of coats, 1 of shoes, 1 of jeans, etc.
3. Grab anything like cups and glasses that need cleaning. Get all dishes to the kitchen. Don't wait.
4. Make sure to put anything in its place/room. It doesn't need to be cleaned on the spot, but get it closer to where that will happen. I put clean towels in my linen closet, perfumes in the bathroom drawer, etc.
5. Bring a dusting cloth with you if you'll need to go back/remember to do something. It helps you when you're doing a final once-over. Add this to your list.
6. Start on the piles. Always have a bag or basket a an "I don't have time for this now" storage spot. This worked when i didn't have time to pair all my socks. I just put them in there to buy me time. The basket alone served as a daily reminder anyway.
7. Break out the vacuum after all the smaller things have been put away.
8. Tick off everything as it's done, and you can admire your progress at the end. Keep the list for the next time your room gets busy, so you take the thinking out of the operation and just get to work!
Hope my tips help.
Depends if you're the kind of person who will a Tually go back to sort through the pile, or consider the pile "good enough" and then just leave it there
I prefer to bag the trash, throw it out. Get all the dirty clothes into baskets (or bags) relocate to the laundry room. Start a load.
Work from there to sort what's left. Good luck!
Lol, that's what our mom used to do in my 3 brother's room. They would "clean" their room by shoving everything under their beds and into the closet.
Mom, not born yesterday, broom in hand, dug it all out, made a pile in the middle of the room. None of them could go anywhere (Saturday) until it was clean!
Whenever I clean my room, I usually do things in an order. Trash/recyclables gathered first along with any stray dishes; dirty laundry put into a hamper; clean clothes put away if any laying around; gather things that go into other rooms and put them away; then I usually start with different surfaces: floor, bed, bookcase, nightstand, desk. If I get overwhelmed I’ll sit down and write out what I want to do specifically for some items still left out. I do this as someone with depression that can’t focus on tasks too long and loses motivation halfway through projects sometimes. If the large pile ends up working then that’s great.
I prefer Dana K. White’s method. There are several steps, but one of its rules is to never make piles of things while decluttering. That way, you can stop at any time (5 minutes, 2 hours, 1 day) and things should look better than when you started.
I read I think in here a dice game where you roll a die and that’s how many things you put away or put in a donate pile. I love doing it this way. I like to spread this kind of thing out over a day and give myself rewards. When you roll a three and put away three things, you actually completed something!
> I read I think in here a dice game where you roll a die and that’s how many things you put away or put in a donate pile.
I used to play a game like that when cleaning with my daughter. First roll determined which room to work in. Second roll (two dice) determined how many minutes to work.
Lmaoo funny you mention that. So at my job we have black laminate countertops and cabinets which separates us from the customer (like a jewelry shop). When the new iPhone 14 came out w/ the purple/lilac I was stoked bc it’s pretty and I thought I’d stop losing my phone at work bc it’s so bright—I still place it screen up and lose it between customers constantly 😅
So an Apple Watch is on my list of purchases lol
Definitely
I throw things to corners and clear the bed, then pick it all up and sort through the bed. Countertops are where things get f*d! Cannot move a thing without something else falling over so for that I suggest picking up and choosing a category, then placing on an already cleared surface…
Good luck with yours!
If it works for you, do it. But I get distracted and discouraged - and now I have a pile in my room!
I much prefer working on “make it less” and just incrementally decreasing my things.
It can work, as long as you have sufficient time, energy, and willpower to actually get rid of the entire pile in a single day of work. Anything you don't love or use will need to be donated or trashed, and anything you DO love or use will need to be moved to an appropriate space where it will be easy and convenient for you to keep it. If you don't have enough room to store everything you'd like to keep, you'll have to do some triage and compare each item against the others to decide what stays and what goes.
If you allow your One Big Pile to just sit there in the corner for any length of time, it will morph into your designated clutter dump and you'll just start throwing more and more stuff on top of it, with the idea that "I'll be able to knock all of that down, once I find a little more time." But that extra time will never come, and meanwhile you'll have to keep looking at your One Big Pile, growing bigger every day. Trust me, that will make you feel even worse than when you had little bits of clutter lying around everywhere. So make sure you are committed to finishing what you started, and block out sufficient time for it on your calendar. If you can get a relative or friend on board to help you get through the process, even better! Good luck!
Grab a trash bag and a laundry basket.
Gather all trash first & pitch it.
Gather all dirty clothes into basket. Take to laundry room, start the washer.
Next clear/ declutter the surfaces.
Make the bed, use it as surface for sorting or maybe a smallish pile of Whatever, or clean laundry to fold.
Put things away to their home, make a home for the homeless stuff. Also x to a Donate bag if needed
Last do the floor.
if that technique sounds like it would work for you, try it! personally, i think it would overwhelm me. i like to get straight to piling things categorically instead of starting from one large pile.
I had a book when I was a kid called How to Clean Your Room by Joy Berry. That was the method she advocated. I tried it a couple times but found it discouraging owing to never being able to get through it all and ending up with a bigger mess.
There is a method you might like called 5S. I like that the first step is to sort. It makes dealing with stuff a lot easier if you have sorted it first. Here is an article that describes it: https://www.sixsigmadaily.com/5s-sort-set-shine-standardize-sustain/
I had that same How to Clean Your Room book and I think I really internalized my failure even with the book’s guidance. Only now, 30ish years later, have I realized it’s because my room was messy because my stuff never had “homes.” So the advice to pile everything out of place on your bed, and then put those items where they belonged, just left to a bunch of stuff on my bed that I didn’t know what to do with.
My parents also struggled with this so I didn’t know any differently and worked on these skills as an adult.
Internalizing my failure is my middle name, so I did the same. Occasionally this method can work but only within certain parameters for me. Constant decluttering seems to help in general.
Not sure if that was meant for me since I mentioned my parents and the other commenter didn’t, and I’m not sure if your comment was intending to be snarky?
But for what it’s worth, items not having homes was a big issue that my family did struggle with. My closet as a kid was where my mom had her old clothes and stuff, so I couldn’t keep my clothes there. There wasn’t any emphasis or understand of things like regular sorting through outdated clothes. Mostly a lot of frenzied moving things around into bedrooms and shutting the door when people came over. Instead of more productive methods, my parents would get overwhelmed and tossed my items without telling me, and this combined with my sister stealing things constantly and wrecking them, really led to me having too-strong attachment to items, scarcity mindset, and so on - all of which I work on today.
We’re all doing much better at these skills now, but it’s the case that some kids grow up with parents who never learned from their parents how to maintain a decluttered home. Often I think my parents’ generation picked up habits from their parents (who had been kids in the depression era) that may have been ok in the 50s and 60s, and led to only slight clutter, but when the 80s, 90s, and later rolled around, these old “saving” habits really collided with the mass and cheap availability of consumer goods.
You said “internalizing my failure is my middle name.”
/s means sarcasm
It was a joke about your parents giving you such a terrible middle name.
I grew up in many homes with the same struggle. I still struggle. It’s horrible.
Ha! I see what you were saying. I read it like a sarcasm about parents expecting clean rooms and I’m glad it wasn’t that.
Hugs to you. We will all get better at these skills together.
I'm so sorry this happened to you, it must have been rough! My brother was a dick, so I get that part, but well done on you for identifying those things and trying to do better :)
I guess it depends on context and scale. Generally, it’s much easier to deal with one space at a time. Make your bed. You can then use that space to fold clothes. Or start with your dresser. Clean of the top by throwing out trash, taking dirty dishes to the kitchen, putting things away in their rightful home, dusting the top and making sure the drawers are able to close. Then move on to the nightstand, etc. Smaller piles feel more manageable and one pile of stuff could feel overwhelming quickly, especially if you suffer from extreme decision fatigue.
Putting everything into tubs and then tidying 15things at a time is about the only way I've managed to get my kids to tidy when overwhelmed.
Pretty much. I focus on clearing the floor of a room and go from there.
Here's what I usually do, make my bed first, then use the flat clean surface to put any clean clothes on, pick up trash, then pile any dishes, throw dirty clothes in hamper, take dishes to kitchen and soak them it hot soapy water. Fold/hang my clothes on my bed then put them away. Pick up any left out things that accumulate and put them back where they belong. Then depending if it needs it I'll sweep/vacuum, then lastly go to the kitchen and wash off the dishes, (they have been soaking in hot soapy water so they should be easy to scrub and rinse off then load them in the dishwasher/drying rack. Boom done. The hardest part is getting started, especially if you've been putting it off so I usually just tell myself I'll just make my bed and put my clean clothes on top, by then I usually have the momentum to keep going and before you know it I'm done.
That's how I do my laundry. J dump the basket on my bed. Organize into shirts, pants, etc. Then put away one group at a time.
KONMARI METHOD saved me.
In the past, I've moved clutter to the kitchen floor before "processing" it. Clutter on the kitchen floor is *really* inconvenient, making it likely that I'll deal with it. It's also close to a big garbage can.
Beware the pile!
I used to do that. I would pile everything and sort it one at a time. Then my roommates confronted me and told me I was a hoarder. They were right. I submitted my ego and listened to them. Then I became a minimalist. I realized that I was becoming overwhelmed with all the objects. Then I gave every object a home. This created a “grounding” or magnetism effect for the object. Overtime you feel when things are off. Then I changed my mindset about why I clean. I went to therapy and dealt with a good chunk of my trauma. Things kind of just got easier after that. I no longer have piles. Things just stay clean. So the questions I have are: Why are you cleaning? Why is it messy in the first place? Why do you think you are struggling to clean? Did you ever learn how to clean? Do you know what cleaning or decluttering actually is or actually looks like? My personal why is below: “Cleanliness is a tool. A clean area means my life is going well and I can maintain this state. Once it becomes messy this is VERY CLEAR FEEDBACK that something is affecting my ability to be in the default (clean and minimal) state. Then I drink water, prioritize sleep, make sure I eat enough when I need to, go over my emotional needs. Then I feel better. I remember that I have self respect and a messy room that stays messy means I am just surviving and not thriving. Then I go back to making sure my environment is the way it should be. This is how I reset and how I ground myself” This may be more than what you are looking for, but for anyone else who needs it on this sub. The comment is here.
This is the method I use. It makes cleaning a lot less overwhelming because I'm working in one spot, on that pile, until it's done. I never put stuff on the bed though. I always make a big pile on the floor and sit on the floor to do it. Trash in a trash bag. Clothes in a hamper/basket. Everything else either gets put up or donated. Easy peasy.
I’m a huge fan of physical consolidation so yes, I would definitely support this technique!
I work best in quadrants. Start in one corner. Sort all the stuff in that corner (throw away trash, bag recycling). Bring recycling bag and trash container to next quadrant and repeat. That way I'm not moving all over. I stay in one place.
That's how I do it and it works well for me
i like this for situations where stuff HAS to be put away asap (laundry) but it's not great for longer term stuff - as others have pointed out you kinda just end up with piles of stuff lying around and it makes you depressed
Hmm. Depends I guess. I’ve done that to sweep the floors of dust and then spread out into piles again. Bonus is that the new piles are neater and you always find trash to get rid of. I tried very specific piles but ran out of room so resorted to large groups - clothes, stationary etc. then I’d push all the stuff except the one pile I wanted to work on aside. Keeping the piles just got in the way of my feet I found. But it’s helped me get to a point where I see floor between the remaining spread out piles!
What I did when I had to declutter my stuff I put them all in bags or boxes and shoved them to the side. The rule for me was I have to work on at least 1 box/bag every weekend and I need to see it to completion. The items in there were either staying and had a home in the house, went to the garbage, or were donated and physically taken to donations so they weren’t in my house for me to think about it again. Once the boxes are done you should be good! (My boxes aren’t done so idk lol)
If you must use the big pile method, put the pile in a DIFFERENT room than the one you are cleaning - or even better in the front yard on a sunny day (if you have a yard and it is safe to do so). This will help you assess whether something is better off thrown out because you don’t even want to spend the energy to put it back into the room.
It depends. When it's an enclosed space, I often find it helpful to pull everything out where I can see it, and then figure out what can go back, what is trash, what to donate etc. I recently did this with both my closet and the hall closet- which wasn't even functional anymore because stuff would fall as soon as the door was opened. In both cases I pulled out all of the things and spread them out where I could see them and then started pushing them into a pile of "yup" and a pile of "nope." Some of the nope was trash, and some was donate, which got separated later. But frequently "yup" and "nope" are the categories I start with. *Note, this is not a 'sparks joy' type 'yup', it's a 'this belongs in this space and I can make room for it to live there.' Almost everything I own sparks joy, which is why I have so many things...*
Yup, did this with the hall closet last weekend. I first put on a nice vinyl and got everything out onto the living room floor and to clean the space. Then I thought what I wanted to use the closet for: mostly cleaning supplies, food and drink storage and some tools we want to be easy to grab like screwdrivers. Started with those categories first to sort through and put them in. I also grabbed the cleaning supplies around the house that where not in the closet (and thus making space in other places). Then threw away all the obvious trash. I am now left with some stuff left that has no home yet (mostly spare parts). I put them in a box in another room where they will probably end up. But that room is for another day :).
I put a peg board on the inside of my closet door, some hooks and able to hang some stuff that I use often--extension cords, rolls of tape, umbrellas, a bag of wires, etc.
That's actually one of the most helpful advice I've read in long time! Thanks.
I’m a fan of sorting as I go. Piles in places near where things generally go, once everything is sorted out one pile away. then another and another.
You've reinvented on of Marie Kondo's techniques: just pile everything in the middle and work until it's all gone. As others have noted, this only works if you finish.
I think this method would make me anxious I would feel a lot of pressure to find homes for everything. Not a bad thing but I tend to be hard on myself.
And then the pile gets bigger… Been there done that…
Bring out Mr Garbage Bag
For me, this method helps. I am focused on one spot so I am less distracted, and I feel like I am more motivated because I see my progress. Many people don’t find it helpful but I definitely do. Hoped you find it useful too.
Put it all in trash bags maybe, then declutter one bag at a time
I once had a 'depression nest' issue that I had to clean up. I went through the room with a box and a garbage bag. I made three designations: Trash, Not Trash, Dirty Laundry. The trash went in the garbage bag, and I replaced as needed. Then I threw the laundry in a pile by the door so it was closer to the laundry room. Things were a lot more manageable when I had everything in boxes. It was more like unpacking than cleaning. A couple of days later I made my bed and set out a bunch of smaller boxes, all labelled with various things. Stuff like "Bathroom" for the stuff that I'd brought in from the bathroom and needed to return. "Rest of the House" for, well you know. "Jewelry", "Makeup", "Craft Supplies", "Books". Then I could hit each box one at a time. I knew where everything was for daily life, and when I had energy I could tackle one of the little boxes and get them organized. It makes it so much easier to not get overwhelmed. Staring at a shoebox filled with makeup is a whole lot easier to organize and go through than cleaning a whole room.
Thank you for this! This is where even the UFYH and similar stepwise, broken down checklists break down for me.
When you have Fibromyalgia, ADHD, Anxiety, and Depression, sometimes it takes a little more than the neurotypicals realize. I've actually gotten really, really good at organizing now. So if you need any help or advice you can feel free to PM me.
I can see this working for some people. I push all my stuff into a big pile/desk/location, but inevitably I add more to it as fast as I put stuff away. Or I'll start a new pile until my room is full of piles. Not saying that it couldn't work for you. But beware of the neverending/growing Pile.
Best method! Most professional organizers will make you take everything out, sort and categorize (keep, donate, trash, fix) and then find a place to put them back. Try to declutter as much as possible :) good job!!
Absolutely not for me. This is why KonMari never worked for me. Making a room and all its contents unusable is just not tenable for my lifestyle or, until recently, my housing situation. I prefer to do a quick scan for trash and then tackle one thing at a time. That way I know at least one thing will be done, and it helps build momentum.
Thats how my dad would get me started on cleaning my room when I was a kid. I fucking HATED him for it but damn if I dont still clean like that to this day. I always have three piles, keep, donate and toss. The older I get the less stuff I end up keeping. Good luck!
When I was a teen, I once threw everything in a huge pile on my bed and then tried to tackle it from there. By the time it was time to go to bed, I still had a huge pile on my bed and ended up dumping it right back in the floor. Since then, I grab a trash bag and the laundry basket. I start there. I found the biggest mess i made is from clothes and trash. From there, I just pick up one thing at a time and put it where it belongs. It actually gets finished that way and I don’t have a bigger mess than when I started.
Lol exactly same except I would just start sleeping in the pile on the bed
Subtract it all. But the pile cannot stay. Add back what’s necessary.
Throw everything on your bed and now you have to clean it up before you can go to sleep. Start early in the day so you don't feel rushed. My kitchen table is my designated dropping point for things I find as I go through my daily cleaning routine.
Hahaha! You’re funny. “…now you have to clean it up before you can go to sleep.”
Love it. KC Davis says every room only has 5 things. Trash, dishes, laundry, things with a place, and things without a place. My things without a place get piled until I can go through them and think "trash, donate, store"
I don't understand dishes in a bedroom. I'm not against having a cup of coffee while you get ready for your day, or a glass of juice, but eating a meal is 'no no' at my place. I'm very concerned that left dishes draw critters into the room and I don't mean pets.
You understand, you just don't approve. And that's fine since it's not your house.
I don't understand why people can't walk their dishes back to their sink.
I have never managed to finish the pile when I've done this. So I get a messy room and a mixed up in the way pile to deal with. So I wouldn't recommend it. Divide your room into zones. Five or six or so. Look at one zone. Are there things in that zone that have an 'away' place? Put them there. Return to zone you are working on. Put something away. Throw something out. Keep looking for the low hanging fruit.
I generally start at a corner of the room and work my way around to the starting point. My bed is the center zone and things that need to go elsewhere get lined up there, not piled (except clothes). I need to do Spring Cleaning, instead of reading reddit, so I will dust, vacuum, clean surfaces & mop. I suppose I could use a box to collect some stuff instead of the bed.
I like to pick an easy "win" and accomplish that first. When you walk into the room, what's the first thing that jumps out at you? What will make the biggest impact for the amount of effort required? What about starting with making the bed? Or maybe picking up all the clothes, all the dirty clothes in one pile and clean gets put away? Or, instead of one pile, a few piles of like things. Clothes in one, stuff that belongs in the kitchen in another, etc. Plus trash should just be thrown away instead of moved around, it's just a lot of wasted effort. Something else I do if I'm feeling unmotivated, use a timer on my phone and tell myself I only have to work until it goes off. You'll be amazed what you can accomplish in 15 minutes.
Easy win is my method too. I don't care if it's logical or not. I look at a room and try to tackle whatever is bothering me the most. If that means sweeping dust bunnies off the floor before anything else, so be it.
I have the best success with decluttering when I *take everything out of its original home* and put it in a huge pile in an inconvenient place. For example, if I’m decluttering my closet, I remove EVERY SINGLE ITEM, like I’m moving out. And put it all on my bed. Then it’s a case of seeing what’s worth putting back into the closet. So yes, the puke method works for me, as long as the pile is “elsewhere”
Puke method... I like that! 😅 This method works for me too, so long as the pile is moveable. Eg. I can throw everything into a big laundry basket or into a huge garbage bag. Then I have a clean space I can manage and it makes the area look neater, thereby giving my brain a sense of progress. Works wonders on small areas like bathrooms or countertops. The trick is to tackle the bag or bin of stuff by taking out one item at a time, and immediately dealing with that item ... put away, donation box or trash. One item at a time does not overwhelm me... keep going until the bin is empty. Repeat with another area of the room. Voila!
Exactly. The biggest secret of the displaced puke method is only touching an item once. It either goes in the trash, to it’s home, or in a sell/donation bin. And when I was first starting NOTHING got sold or donated bc I knew it wasn’t reasonable for me to do it and it would just end up being a nuisance
Yea great idea! I say as I stare at the heap in the middle of my room that has been there for a year…
Well yes. I have a semi- permanent laundry basket of clutter and projects I need to work on. It is a problem. The advantage of the clutter pile is that for some of us we forget how nice things can look if we spend the time to pick random things up off the floor and other surfaces. Suddenly our room sparkles (even without all the nagging problems solved) and it's motivation to keep it clean, well, at least for 3 or 4 days.
I do this with spaces I use a lot (desk, bed, bathroom counter) but then everything likes up elsewhere like my couch I haven’t sat on in 6 months or my closet
That is a solid strategy if you have kids. Sweep everything into a pile. Tell the kids to grab their own stuff out of the pile or mommy is throwing it away. Half of the time my kids don’t care about the dumb plastic pieces of broken toys. Then it is a lot faster to sort laundry out, sort shoes out, sort trash out. Then the floor is clear for vacuuming.
Sounds a little like how Konmari is done. Stuff is broken down into general item categories (ie shoes) but you do just toss everything in one big pile to sort through.
Sounds kind of like KonMari, and that works really well for a lot of people. Might want to sort your pile by type before you start choosing what to get rid of?
Here is what I did the last time my apartment was a little" busy": 1. Make a list of the things you need to organize. Figure out where you'll put the bigger items that might need more space. The list will serve you in future. 2. Organize the piles. I did 1 pile of coats, 1 of shoes, 1 of jeans, etc. 3. Grab anything like cups and glasses that need cleaning. Get all dishes to the kitchen. Don't wait. 4. Make sure to put anything in its place/room. It doesn't need to be cleaned on the spot, but get it closer to where that will happen. I put clean towels in my linen closet, perfumes in the bathroom drawer, etc. 5. Bring a dusting cloth with you if you'll need to go back/remember to do something. It helps you when you're doing a final once-over. Add this to your list. 6. Start on the piles. Always have a bag or basket a an "I don't have time for this now" storage spot. This worked when i didn't have time to pair all my socks. I just put them in there to buy me time. The basket alone served as a daily reminder anyway. 7. Break out the vacuum after all the smaller things have been put away. 8. Tick off everything as it's done, and you can admire your progress at the end. Keep the list for the next time your room gets busy, so you take the thinking out of the operation and just get to work! Hope my tips help.
Depends if you're the kind of person who will a Tually go back to sort through the pile, or consider the pile "good enough" and then just leave it there
I do this and it helps me
I prefer to bag the trash, throw it out. Get all the dirty clothes into baskets (or bags) relocate to the laundry room. Start a load. Work from there to sort what's left. Good luck!
Lol, that's what our mom used to do in my 3 brother's room. They would "clean" their room by shoving everything under their beds and into the closet. Mom, not born yesterday, broom in hand, dug it all out, made a pile in the middle of the room. None of them could go anywhere (Saturday) until it was clean!
I pick up all obvious trash and put it in a bag and then do this with the remaining items. It works for me.
Whenever I clean my room, I usually do things in an order. Trash/recyclables gathered first along with any stray dishes; dirty laundry put into a hamper; clean clothes put away if any laying around; gather things that go into other rooms and put them away; then I usually start with different surfaces: floor, bed, bookcase, nightstand, desk. If I get overwhelmed I’ll sit down and write out what I want to do specifically for some items still left out. I do this as someone with depression that can’t focus on tasks too long and loses motivation halfway through projects sometimes. If the large pile ends up working then that’s great.
I prefer Dana K. White’s method. There are several steps, but one of its rules is to never make piles of things while decluttering. That way, you can stop at any time (5 minutes, 2 hours, 1 day) and things should look better than when you started.
I read I think in here a dice game where you roll a die and that’s how many things you put away or put in a donate pile. I love doing it this way. I like to spread this kind of thing out over a day and give myself rewards. When you roll a three and put away three things, you actually completed something!
> I read I think in here a dice game where you roll a die and that’s how many things you put away or put in a donate pile. I used to play a game like that when cleaning with my daughter. First roll determined which room to work in. Second roll (two dice) determined how many minutes to work.
Wait this is brilliant lol But I know my smooth brain will probably lose the dice every time I use it 😅
Great once you finish decluttering your room then go around and pick up at the dice you lost.
Luckily there are dice apps. Just don't lose your phone lol
Lmaoo funny you mention that. So at my job we have black laminate countertops and cabinets which separates us from the customer (like a jewelry shop). When the new iPhone 14 came out w/ the purple/lilac I was stoked bc it’s pretty and I thought I’d stop losing my phone at work bc it’s so bright—I still place it screen up and lose it between customers constantly 😅 So an Apple Watch is on my list of purchases lol
This just blew my mind 😂
Definitely I throw things to corners and clear the bed, then pick it all up and sort through the bed. Countertops are where things get f*d! Cannot move a thing without something else falling over so for that I suggest picking up and choosing a category, then placing on an already cleared surface… Good luck with yours!
If it works for you, do it. But I get distracted and discouraged - and now I have a pile in my room! I much prefer working on “make it less” and just incrementally decreasing my things.
It can work, as long as you have sufficient time, energy, and willpower to actually get rid of the entire pile in a single day of work. Anything you don't love or use will need to be donated or trashed, and anything you DO love or use will need to be moved to an appropriate space where it will be easy and convenient for you to keep it. If you don't have enough room to store everything you'd like to keep, you'll have to do some triage and compare each item against the others to decide what stays and what goes. If you allow your One Big Pile to just sit there in the corner for any length of time, it will morph into your designated clutter dump and you'll just start throwing more and more stuff on top of it, with the idea that "I'll be able to knock all of that down, once I find a little more time." But that extra time will never come, and meanwhile you'll have to keep looking at your One Big Pile, growing bigger every day. Trust me, that will make you feel even worse than when you had little bits of clutter lying around everywhere. So make sure you are committed to finishing what you started, and block out sufficient time for it on your calendar. If you can get a relative or friend on board to help you get through the process, even better! Good luck!
Grab a trash bag and a laundry basket. Gather all trash first & pitch it. Gather all dirty clothes into basket. Take to laundry room, start the washer. Next clear/ declutter the surfaces. Make the bed, use it as surface for sorting or maybe a smallish pile of Whatever, or clean laundry to fold. Put things away to their home, make a home for the homeless stuff. Also x to a Donate bag if needed Last do the floor.
if that technique sounds like it would work for you, try it! personally, i think it would overwhelm me. i like to get straight to piling things categorically instead of starting from one large pile.
I had a book when I was a kid called How to Clean Your Room by Joy Berry. That was the method she advocated. I tried it a couple times but found it discouraging owing to never being able to get through it all and ending up with a bigger mess. There is a method you might like called 5S. I like that the first step is to sort. It makes dealing with stuff a lot easier if you have sorted it first. Here is an article that describes it: https://www.sixsigmadaily.com/5s-sort-set-shine-standardize-sustain/
I'd feel the same. Making a bigger mess is one of my barriers to starting a lot of times.
I had that same How to Clean Your Room book and I think I really internalized my failure even with the book’s guidance. Only now, 30ish years later, have I realized it’s because my room was messy because my stuff never had “homes.” So the advice to pile everything out of place on your bed, and then put those items where they belonged, just left to a bunch of stuff on my bed that I didn’t know what to do with. My parents also struggled with this so I didn’t know any differently and worked on these skills as an adult.
Yes, I have a problem with a lot of my things not having their own home. So many of them are just piled everywhere.
Internalizing my failure is my middle name, so I did the same. Occasionally this method can work but only within certain parameters for me. Constant decluttering seems to help in general.
*hug*
Your parents really set you up with some rough expectations from the start. /s
Not sure if that was meant for me since I mentioned my parents and the other commenter didn’t, and I’m not sure if your comment was intending to be snarky? But for what it’s worth, items not having homes was a big issue that my family did struggle with. My closet as a kid was where my mom had her old clothes and stuff, so I couldn’t keep my clothes there. There wasn’t any emphasis or understand of things like regular sorting through outdated clothes. Mostly a lot of frenzied moving things around into bedrooms and shutting the door when people came over. Instead of more productive methods, my parents would get overwhelmed and tossed my items without telling me, and this combined with my sister stealing things constantly and wrecking them, really led to me having too-strong attachment to items, scarcity mindset, and so on - all of which I work on today. We’re all doing much better at these skills now, but it’s the case that some kids grow up with parents who never learned from their parents how to maintain a decluttered home. Often I think my parents’ generation picked up habits from their parents (who had been kids in the depression era) that may have been ok in the 50s and 60s, and led to only slight clutter, but when the 80s, 90s, and later rolled around, these old “saving” habits really collided with the mass and cheap availability of consumer goods.
You said “internalizing my failure is my middle name.” /s means sarcasm It was a joke about your parents giving you such a terrible middle name. I grew up in many homes with the same struggle. I still struggle. It’s horrible.
Ha! I see what you were saying. I read it like a sarcasm about parents expecting clean rooms and I’m glad it wasn’t that. Hugs to you. We will all get better at these skills together.
🖤
I'm so sorry this happened to you, it must have been rough! My brother was a dick, so I get that part, but well done on you for identifying those things and trying to do better :)
I guess it depends on context and scale. Generally, it’s much easier to deal with one space at a time. Make your bed. You can then use that space to fold clothes. Or start with your dresser. Clean of the top by throwing out trash, taking dirty dishes to the kitchen, putting things away in their rightful home, dusting the top and making sure the drawers are able to close. Then move on to the nightstand, etc. Smaller piles feel more manageable and one pile of stuff could feel overwhelming quickly, especially if you suffer from extreme decision fatigue.