30 days to a decluttered home

Little steps add up

“Declutter my house” is a popular New Year’s resolution. It’s also one that’s often chucked when life gets busy, because unless someone is coming over to film your home, it’s almost never urgent. It is quite possible to live in a cluttered house. Many of us simply suspect that life would be more pleasant without giant stacks of objects everywhere.

Another problem with this resolution is that when people decide to declutter their homes, they often think they need a huge amount of time — think 3 weeks off work or something like that. Of course, by setting that as the initial first step, you almost guarantee nothing will happen, because you’re not going to get 3 weeks off work. And if you do, you won’t want to use it to clean out your junk drawer!

So instead, I think this resolution is best approached in a series of small steps. The good news is that little bits of time do add up. After all, spending 30 minutes a day for 30 days on something is the equivalent of 15 hours. That’s not a week off work, but it is a lot more than you’d probably find in a weekend.

Here’s how to break this project down into tiny steps.