Decluttering

Apartment Therapy Weekend Projects is a guided program designed to help you get the happy, healthy home you’ve always wanted, one weekend at a time. Sign up now for email updates so you never miss a lesson. In her most famous book, Marie Kondo revealed that she keeps her personal collection of books limited to less than 30. That statement got convoluted and incorrectly quoted as Kondo prescribing the same limit for everyone else in the world.

Apartment Therapy Weekend Projects is a guided program designed to help you get the happy, healthy home you’ve always wanted, one weekend at a time. Sign up now for email updates so you never miss a lesson. As Apartment Therapy’s cleaning editor, my number one job is to help our readers take care of their spaces. It has been so fun connecting with all of you during our group projects (like the January Cure) and on Instagram (I’m always here for questions!).

Just like finding the right eating method or exercise regimen, finding the right decluttering motto can be the key to keeping your home clutter-free. Many find an admonition by William Morris helpful when deciding what to keep and get rid of: “Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful.” But this popular decluttering criterion could actually become a pitfall if you’re not careful.

You don't need to hire an expert or spend a bunch of cash on fancy containers to get your kitchen in working order.

To say that there’s been hype around the idea of decluttering and organizing is an understatement. This past January was not only a time to refresh your space and start anew (perhaps through our January Cure), but also marked the month that “Tidying Up With Marie Kondo” came into our lives, whether you let it in or not.

Your personality can help you focus your efforts on a certain thing or category of items, so you can dig in and really start to make an impact in your space.

I wish that we could all hit pause on our daily responsibilities, welcome the prim and utterly delightful Marie Kondo into the most intimate recesses of our homes, and KonMari all the clutter out of our lives. But Kondo’s method of “tidying up,” popularized (and demonized) once again by her show on Netflix, might not always be accessible to everyone—no matter how inspired they are to speak to their belongings and make mountains of their clothing.

Nothing is worse than coming home to a messy apartment after a long day, but finding the time to clean in the morning can be equally daunting. That’s why we put together a list of micro decluttering tasks that can easily be incorporated into your morning routine. Read ahead for seven super small ways to organize your space in the AM, so you can start the day off productively (and come home to a tidier place when it’s over). If you’re anything like me (i.e.

Wondering about the current KonMari craze? Here's our primer for all things Kondo.

And still preserve that spark of joy, of course.

Sometimes all you need to declutter your space is a new frame of mind. Sounds easier said than done? Not so fast. Take a look at some of the best lessons we learned this year about how to live with less. You need to purge, but you might need that gigantic waffle maker at some point. Stop playing that game; you’ll never get the job done. Find out how washi tape can help: A Brilliant, Regret-Free Way You Can Use Tape to Declutter Your Kitchen. A marathon cleaning sesh only leads to fatigue.

The week between Christmas and New Year’s Day is usually a quiet one, so it’s the perfect time to go through your things and declutter. Between donating old pantry items and gently worn clothes, recycling gift boxes and catalogs, and tossing out old wine and leftovers, there’s plenty to clear out so you can make your home ready for the new year—and it’ll be conducive to helping you keep your resolutions.

A new year is about to start, and with that comes a new set of wardrobe needs with items that tend to be much bulkier and take up far more shelf space. If you’re hurting for storage, take a look around your closet and get rid of these items that you totally do not need anymore. If you haven’t worn that ketchup bottle getup since you bought it 10 years ago for your office Halloween party, it’s probably time to say goodbye.

Decluttering in December? Before you minimize your screen, hear us out. We get it: This time of year is super busy, and spring cleaning isn’t for another few months. But what better time to clear the way for better (and safer) things than before the year ends? Set yourself up for success (and less mess) in 2019 by taking some time to declutter now. Want to start 2019 off right? Sign up now for the January Cure. (it’s free!

Even where I live here in Florida, we’ve gotten out the sweaters and slipped on the Uggs. With warm weather truly behind us—December 21 is the official start of the winter season—it’s time to hunker down and savor the hygge. But the meaning of the kind of coziness that only this Danish word can describe doesn’t stop at chunky blankets and flickering flames. A big part of hygge revolves around contentment in simple things.

I have an impressive pile of cards in the back of my top desk drawer. They’re almost a Rolodex of my life for the past decade, with cards ranging from Macy’s gift cards given to us for our wedding to old insurance cards to local yogurt bar loyalty cards. I can’t just throw these cards out—they hold not only memories (especially when I’ve held on to them for this long!) but the possibility of hidden money.

We declutter mostly for ourselves. We yearn for the empty space and the room to breathe. So we approach our cupboards, closets, drawers, and garages asking ourselves whatever version of the essential question—do I need this?—that gives us the most clarity. That’s how we decide what to get rid of and what to keep most of the time. But there’s another way to think about it, and there are others to declutter for.

By taking a bit of time to go through everything in your bathroom today, you'll be able to shed things that you won't (or by this point, shouldn't) use.

Use it every day or mostly just pass it by with a glance of admiration, your dining table, while definitely made to be used, wasn’t made to be a catchall. As one of the largest non-floor surfaces in your home, however, it may hold its fair share of puzzles, art projects, and, at this time of year, gift-wrapping supplies. We’re big fans of using every part of your home and furniture to serve you and your needs.

When I told my husband that I was going to write an article about what to get rid of in the dining room, he said without out a breath of hesitation, “How about the dining room?” It’s a bit of “A Subject” at our house because I inherited my grandparents’ entire dining room (the only thing I didn’t keep is the chandelier), and we’ve been shipping it from home to home for a decade.

You’re here on Apartment Therapy, and that tells me one thing: You love looking to real people and real homes for inspiration on living well. You also probably love IKEA. And you’re for sure going to love these books. My usual IKEA M.O. involves skipping right past the showroom to get to the marketplace below, but on my last fateful trip, I found myself strolling by the book section (at the very end of the showroom right after the kids’ stuff, at least in my store).

Clutter is just a fact of life. Stuff piles up, messes are made, and dealing with it all becomes one of many things on your to-do list. Easy enough to manage when life is calm and work is steady, but when things get hectic, it’s more and more tempting to let things slide and deal with them later. And eventually, all that procrastinating can turn into what feels like an impossible cleaning challenge. But, of course, that’s not the case.

One of the coziest things about the temps dropping is how much more of a cocoon your bedroom becomes. Turning in early with a mug of something warm and lazy weekends nestled amongst comforters—these are the things the best winter days are made of. Apartment Therapy Weekend Projects is a guided program designed to help you get the happy, healthy home you’ve always wanted, one weekend at a time. Sign up now for email updates so you never miss a lesson.

Decluttering is not for the faint of heart—it can take some serious self-reflection, a discerning eye, and the type of discipline not made for a world where Target exists. Author and organization expert Marie Kondo often shares her wisdom about the four biggest hurdles that keep us buried in a sea of our own stuff: space, sentimentality, guilt, and money all make the list. Truth be told, she has a point.

Tell me you never hang on to useless, obsolete clutter and I’ll ask you to show me where you keep your electronics’ cords. Yes, I have one of those baskets too. I manage to wrap them up sort of nicely most of the time, but do I know what all of them are for? No. Yet I shuffle back through the nest every time I need to charge my Kindle or headphones.

There are two kinds of junk drawers. There’s the kind that you open with one hand and, with the other hand, sweep the contents of the kitchen countertop into and shove shut. Then there’s the properly curated, random junk stashing spot. Here’s how to keep your drawer of chaos in check and looking like the latter. There will be things you always find in a junk drawer, like a burnt-out lighter and three sets of old, mysterious keys.

Summer’s over and fall is here, and that can only mean one thing: it’s time to do some major decluttering. (What, you thought that only happened in spring?). The change of seasons is the perfect time to reset by going through your home room-by-room to get rid of all the stuff you didn’t use all season, not to mention all the stuff you know won’t get much use by winter, either.

This is it! The final day of the September Sweep decluttering program. I hope that you’re feeling great about your space, and that each day’s assignment got you just a teeny bit closer to the organized and in-control home you’ve always wanted. The very last step of the sweep is where we take those boxes we’ve been sorting into since day one and finally get all of our discarded items out of the house for good. It’s “deal with it” day.

A less-cluttered home isn’t an item you can check off your to-do list. It’s more of a lifestyle. Something you need to practice year-round, weaving moments into your calendar where you focus your attention on keeping on top of your things and storage spaces. Spring cleaning is a great time to do some decluttering. So are Apartment Therapy’s programs like the January Cure and the September Sweep (I hope we’ll see you again next year!).

Decluttering isn’t just about clearing the coffee table or retiring some seasonal clothes. It’s about making sure your spaces—especially your storage spaces—are staying streamlined and working efficiently to help you live your life (and, you know, find the things you need when you need them). With today’s September Sweep assignment, we’re targeting three such spaces that don’t always get a ton of attention when it’s time to declutter.

Keeping your home clean around the clock isn’t the work of wizardly magic. It’s just an exercise in focus. You have to commit to give every single thing at home a place where it belongs, even if that place is kind of a zoo. That’s why, if you want to keep your home clutter-free, you don’t need a junk drawer… you need several. Let’s face it, not every object you own is easily categorized.

It can be all too easy to fall into the trap of using your bedroom like a giant junk drawer.

Emotional attachment to an inanimate object is one hell of a drug. It makes sentimental clutter especially difficult to say goodbye to. And for me, a writer who makes a living helping people with their homekeeping, it’s a very difficult thing to help you with. So I’m not going to tell you to get rid of anything at all. At least not yet. First, let’s open up the closets, drag out the boxes, and let’s find your sentimental stuff. What counts as sentimental stuff?

Kitchen clutter is like a gas: It’ll expand to fit the space allowed. If you have a small kitchen, you probably feel like there’s never enough space for your stuff. Well guess what? Big kitchen people have that same problem, too. No matter how many cabinets you have, or whether your countertop is better measured in inches or acres, your kitchen can probably use a little slimdown. So that’s what we’re going to do today. Do a 20-minute decluttering sweep of your kitchen.

Some facts just stick with you. I’ll never forget a comment one reader, ecuadoriana—a collector of pre-20th century medical journals—left on a post I wrote about paper clutter last year. Apparently hemorrhoids, some time around the late 1800’s, used to be called “piles,” and ecuadoriana had formed a lasting mental connection. “Every time I see piles of papers, magazines, wayward laundry, etc.

Twenty minutes doesn’t feel like a lot of time. It’s easy, mentally, to dedicate such a small chunk of your day (like while you’re cooking dinner or waiting for a show to start) to do something around the house. But 20 minutes is actually a surprisingly big period of time, and you can get a lot done if you stay focused. It’s even enough time to declutter your living room.

If you struggle with getting rid of clutter, it's important sometimes to switch gears and employ a bit of prevention.

I don’t know about you, but what’s inside my wardrobe is nothing like the magical land of Narnia. It’s mostly a mess of clothes that get rarely worn, but saved nonetheless. Because maybe one day I’ll get invited to a gala in the Maldives where that long, lime green bridesmaid dress can finally earn its keep on my hangers. I’m guessing that, while you might not have a floor-length green dress like mine, your closet is full of similar stories.

Your entryway is a hard-working space. It sets the tone for anybody who enters your home—like guests or, uh, you at the end of a very long day—so it should be an inviting and welcoming space. Not only that, your entryway area acts as the guardian of your home, quietly accepting cast-offs like mail, work bags, and the day’s other effects. Eventually all those moveables pile up.

There’s a hard way and an easy way to deal with a big mess of clutter. The hard way is trying to commit to tackling it all at once, mentally planning for a weekend project you know will never come, as you once again sit and dawdle and tell yourself it’ll be easier when the weather’s better, or when things aren’t as crazy in your life. The easy way is to chip away at the mess, little by little until it’s in a good place.

Decluttering a space is a gargantuan task, no matter how small the space itself might seem. That’s because the real challenge isn’t how much stuff you have, or how messily it might be lumped around. The really tough part of decluttering is when you pick up a single object in your hand, knowing you have no good reason to keep it, but finding it impossible to let the thing go.

Fall always feels like a fresh start to me. Maybe because it’s the unofficial start to nesting season—the time of year when we all begin to pile inside, sip hot drinks, and relish in our homebody tendencies. Being at home more means wanting to love your home more. And after spending some cozy nights inside, maybe you’re a little more apt to notice that, yeah, the cluttered TV console really does kill your vibe on Netflix night.

I don’t know about you, but after this grueling hot summer, I’m feeling so ready for fall. I’m ready to bundle up, sip something warm, and make myself a permanent spot on the sofa. But before we all hibernate for the season, we need to channel some of this end-of-summer energy into making our homes the calm and in-control sanctuaries they ought to be. An organized home looks different for everyone.

In the end, decluttering is generally pretty satisfying. But in the process? It can be an emotional, guilt-ridden and stressful situation. You want your home to be a positive space, but if you’re holding onto things that you really don’t need, or even things that actively make you feel bad, it’s time to let go. It’s time to invest in and focus on the things that do make you happy.

Clutter is an ever-present nemesis that we battle both daily and in larger, strategic attacks. We laud the merits of one-thing-in-one-thing-out principles. Talk (often from a privileged standpoint) about “simple” lifestyles in which we attempt to choose to have only what we need. And we toss around all kinds of tips, tricks, and lists for getting junk out of our homes.

Labor Day weekend isn’t necessarily the time you will (or should) say to yourself “Oh, this is the perfect time for housework!” But between BBQs and general leisure, devoting some of the extra time afforded by a three-day weekend to your home can give you the gift of a cleaner, happier home just in time for the coming busy fall season. Here’s a plan for doing a few strategic tasks a day so you can make some significant progress without sacrificing your entire weekend.

We go to great lengths to get things out of our homes, but there's one popular trope that will always work.

As much as we love our homes, sometimes even rooms that are “done” can feel a little tired. Or maybe we’re feeling in a bit of a slump and could use the pick-me-up that an updated space could provide. As much as we wish we could plunk down the cash for that couch that’s been on our wish list or finally switch out the wall-to-wall carpet for hardwoods, there are room fixes that aren’t just budget friendly, but entirely free.

The kitchen is the biggest workhorse room in almost every household. It’s not only the place where we store our food and prepare our meals, but especially in the age of the open concept home, it’s also a hangout spot and maybe even a homework or work area. With so many things going on in the kitchen, and so many people in and out of it constantly, it’s easy for our kitchens to become cluttered, and fast.

Junk drawers don’t always deserve their bad rap, since they can proffer whatever odds and ends we need at a moment’s notice. But when they’re choked with actual junk? That’s when they fail to achieve their usefulness potential, leaving this humble drawer to be little more than a ticking time bomb that will eventually require a massive and mind-numbing go-through.

Decluttering efforts tend to come in fits and spurts. There’s no denying that it feels awesome to go on a purging rampage and get bags of stuff out of our homes. Afterward, our physical and even mental spaces usually feel cleaner and clearer. But it turns out there are two reasons to sometimes put off decluttering (and not just in the way of going about the task more methodically).

Living rooms come in all shapes and sizes, and unfortunately, the smaller the apartment, the harder it can be to keep yours organized. Throw in a busy work schedule and a somewhat active social life and suddenly a tiny living room can turn into a cluttered disaster zone, especially when you don’t have a lot of extra room for storage. But fret not my busy, unorganized friends; we’re here to help.

You may have only heard of decanting when it comes to wine, but this technique is a game-changer for organizing your home. By moving everyday products into containers, you’re eliminating the visual clutter created by clunky shelf packaging—which was never meant to fit neatly on your shelves. This is also great for those who buy—or want to buy—in bulk. No need to store the extra-large box on your shelves, instead, decant into a usable jar and refill as needed.

When we declutter, our focus tends to be on getting things we don’t need or love out of our homes. But it never hurts (and often helps) to flip the script, turn our eyes away from ourselves, and, in this case, consider where our shed items are going. Turns out there’s a national day for that: July 15 is National Give Something Away Day, and it’s the perfect occasion to squeeze in some decluttering and feel extra good about it—on both ends.

There is endless advice in the world about how best to declutter your home—some of it is helpful, a bit of it is masterful, and much of it is inconsistent. “Keep only the things that spark joy” they tell you… but, I mean, you need to keep your screwdriver and vacuum, no matter how boring or frustrating their utility may be. Point is, the “rules” don’t always work.

Part of the benefit of vacations is the renewed perspective they give us through a change of scene and distance from the daily grind. While we may return with a fresh appreciation for our homes and the predictability of routines, there may be one area of vacation-inspired clarity that we forget to use to our advantage. With everything that has to be done to prepare for travel, it’s not usually realistic to add decluttering to the list before you leave.

Stuff. We’ve all got it, and generally way more of it than we can handle. According to the Los Angeles Times, the average household has collected more than 300,000 personal items. And with the average size of new apartments dropping to just 934 square feet, our closets, drawers, and shelves are overflowing more than ever—making that minimalist aesthetic we see splashed all over social media seem all the more unreachable. (Seriously, where do the influencers put all their clutter?

I’m expecting a baby in late August and I’m in major nesting mode. It’s a wave I really like to ride to get things cleared out and in order in our home before we welcome a new baby. Lately, as I’ve been combing through cupboards, closets, and boxes of things I was sure I’d want to keep (but now just want to toss wholesale), I’ve been remembering a three-word phrase that’s become an extremely helpful decluttering mantra.

You’d rather eat glass than put your great aunt’s ugly statue on your living room shelf. But Jacquie Denny, co-founder of online estate sale company Everything But the House, says you may be making a serious (and costly) mistake. Denny declares that the most common misstep people face when cleaning is assuming that things they don’t like have no resale value.

We’re on a mission to do something good for our homes each weekend. Sometimes we have to roll up our sleeves and tackle a dreadful, somewhat thankless task that simply must get done. Other weekends, we do something that feeds the soul for the week ahead. This weekend, rather than a deep-dive in one particular area, we’re going to blitz around our homes and attack a handful of 5-minute tasks. Turns out you can get a lot done in five (or 10, or 15) minutes.

Getting your sh*t together isn’t easy. Staying organized is especially hard when you’re a self-proclaimed “messy” person. Luckily, we know some amazing professional organizers to call upon for help. We hit up five of our favorite pro-organizers for the number one piece of advice they’d give “messy people” looking to get their homes—and lives—in order and here’s what they had to share.

When you feel a decluttering binge coming on, you might be tempted to grab a bag or box and start filling it with things to toss or donate. That certainly is one plan of attack, and you may end up with a bulging bag of stuff that you need to get out of your house. Which is great, of course. And if that works for you in the long term, then keep on going!

My husband and I recently replaced our dresser, which spurred an event which I’ll be referring to in the confines of our relationship history as “The Great T-Shirt Eradication of 2018.” You see, between us, we own many, many tees. We could, as a couple, each wear a different shirt every day and maybe make it until Independence Day without doing laundry. At least, that was the case before “The Great T-Shirt Eradication of 2018.

Getting rid of clutter just feels good. And while there’s absolutely nothing wrong with doing something for our own well-being or for the benefit of our homes, Earth Day has us feeling a little green at the moment.

This year, we’re on a mission to help you tackle spring cleaning on your time. Each weekday until April 13, we’ll guide you through a plan to clean and organize different areas of your home, but you’ll have the flexibility to choose exactly what to work on and how long you have to dedicate to the job. This is it! Our final spring cleaning mission.