10 Smart Tricks That’ll Prevent Clutter at Home for Good
Apartment Therapy’s Decluttering Cure is a free two-week decluttering program that’ll help you achieve a tidier home. Sign up here and get all 14 assignments delivered to your inbox.
Frequently decluttering your home is a great way to get your place looking clean and organized on a regular basis. But it’s not the total fix for future problems. For that, you’ll have to take a look at your current organizational systems and see how you can improve them to prevent clutter from appearing as often. Here’s how.
Day 8: Do one thing to prevent clutter.
For today’s assignment, we’ll be doing just one thing to help prevent clutter. Here are some ideas to get you started, and feel free to do as many as you want now or save them for later!
- Cancel a subscription. Cancel anything you no longer use or read, like a streaming service, physical magazine, or digital subscription to a newspaper.
- Stop catalogs. You can find a number on the back of most catalogs to call and request that you be taken off the list.
- Get your address off junk mail lists. The Federal Trade Commission recommends using the website www.optoutprescreen.com to prevent letters for up to five years or permanently.
- Sign up for online statements. You can usually opt for email-only statements for all your banking, bills, and more.
- Set up a home landing strip to stop clutter at the door. This can include a surface, like a table, to hold items as they come and go; a container/bowl to hold wallets, keys, and other things; and a wastebasket to gather trash, to name a few.
- Unsubscribe from unwanted emails. Don’t let digital clutter pile up!
- Think before you print. Consider if something needs to be printed or can be kept digitally instead.
- Implement a really good decluttering rule. The one-in, one-out rule — or the more intense one-in, three-out rule — can prevent clutter because you’ll always take something away before you can bring something into your home.
- Declutter regularly. Along with following our annual Decluttering Cure, try to incorporate “declutter dates” on your calendar so you are constantly editing your home.
- Set up a permanent “donate” outbox. And commit to monthly trips to empty it!
PRO TIP: Having tried-and-true organizational methods, systems, and tools in place can also help rein in messes. Need some tools? Check out our 2025 Organization Awards for some of the best organizing products out there.
What else do you do to prevent clutter? Tell us in the community forum!
More ways to participate in the Decluttering Cure:
- Sign up for email updates.
- Visit the 2025 Decluttering Cure page and catch up on assignments.
- Download the Decluttering Cure calendar.
- Join the conversation by checking out the Decluttering Cure board in our community forum.
- Check off that you’ve completed this task and track your overall Decluttering Cure progress here!
- See all the winners from our 2025 Organization Awards to get your home organized.
The Cure Program is a tradition here at Apartment Therapy — it happens every January, April, and September. Click here to learn more about the year-round program and when to sign up.