How Mini Decluttering Sessions Can Make a Big Difference in Your Home

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Hi there! Let me guess. You’re here because you want a clean and decluttered home, right? Maybe you saw my post on how to declutter your home, and the thought of doing it all at once has completely overwhelmed you. Sometimes we get really excited to take on a task and then we realize that the task is just too much. So, instead of breaking that task down into manageable chunks, we end up becoming so completely overwhelmed that we just do nothing at all.

That’s a problem.

When it comes to our homes and the decluttering process, the longer we put it off the worse the clutter becomes. It just grows and grows. 

I’m a busy mama with five very little, little ones, so I know that feeling. I feel like I’ve finally figured out a great way to bring some peace to my home with mini decluttering sessions

Mini Decluttering Sessions

how mini decluttering sessions can make a big difference

Rome wasn’t built in a day, and a house full of years’ worth of clutter won’t be decluttered in a day, either.

Here’s how to do your own mini decluttering sessions:

Pick a time when you won’t be distracted 

For me, this is my kids’ nap time. I just cannot declutter with a toddler underfoot. Some of my best decluttering sessions happen when my toddler is napping. So, if you have small children, I would definitely suggest utilizing nap time to get the job done. You could also try to do a small decluttering task after your kids have gone to bed at night.

If you have an older child, set them down with an activity that will keep their attention for a bit. Once you have a little bit of time where you won’t be distracted you’ll want to do step 2.

Choose a small area to declutter

Choose a small area to declutter. By small, I mean small. Don’t think you’re going to be able to do all of your kitchen cabinets at one time if you only have a 30 minute window. For example, the other day my kids were napping and I chose one drawer in my kitchen to declutter. It was a junk drawer (yes, we have more than one) and I chose to focus on that one drawer and only that one drawer. 

Set the timer

Some of us work better under pressure. Set the timer for a relatively short amount of time. I suggest 20-30 minutes.

Pull it all out

Pull everything out of your space. You want to get the whole picture. Don’t take one thing out and then take it to another spot, or even throw it away. TAKE OUT ALL THE THINGS.

Separate into three categories

I want you to separate your stuff into three categories. 

  • Things you keep
  • Things you trash
  • Things you donate

You may or may not be donating things from a particular area. I didn’t donate anything from my junk drawer, but if I were doing my side of the master closet, I would definitely have a donate pile.

Sit down and separate all the things into piles before you do anything else. You may also find that you have things that belong in another space in your home. I found several batteries in my junk drawer, but I now have a space for batteries in my laundry closet, so I made sure to keep all the batteries together.

Put your stuff neatly back into the space

When I was finished sorting, the first thing I did was throw away the trash.

After throwing away the trash, I took misplaced items back to their proper homes. For example, the batteries I referenced earlier went to the bin in the laundry closet.

Once I had only the things I was planning to keep in the junk drawer left, I neatly put them back in place. I organized things by putting like items together, and even used a few Dollar Tree storage containers to help me corral some of those like items.

Yesterday, I did a quick mini decluttering session in one area of my homeschool closet. 

So, it’s the end of the school year and my homeschool closet was a bit of a wreck. The kids often get into it even though they shouldn’t and stuff was just in disarray. I wasn’t even sure what exactly was in there. 

Now, I have a pretty large closet. There’s a big area on the bottom of the closet, and a shelf that is higher up. I knew I would only have about 20 minutes to declutter, so I chose to focus on the area in the bottom part of the closet only. 

I had my kids asleep, I had the timer going, and I pulled everything out of that space.

Some things did not belong in the closet, so they got set aside. There was a lot of trash in the closet, so I put it in a trash bag that was with me in the area.

Once I rehomed the misplaced items, I began putting the other things neatly back in the closet.

Homeschool closet organization

It doesn’t look like a huge transformation, and it’s not “Pinterest” worthy (this is real life, folks), but now I know exactly what is in that space and where it is.

Homeschool closet before and after

Mini decluttering session will help transform your home even if you don’t have a lot of time to devote to cleaning and decluttering. Remember, decluttering is a process. Once you get in the habit of tackling trouble spots, you will spend less and less time each time you go to organize that area. Just take a small chunk of your day to get a spot in order, and you can make a big difference in your home!

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One Comment

  1. My circumstance is so different from yours. I’m 71, living alone in a 2/2 home in a 55+ neighborhood. I have a small immediate fam closeby that I enjoy entertaining a few times/yr. I play cards with a small group of gals that doesn’t require cooking, etc but love to entertain my gf’s from high school, 1-2×/yr. I’m joining a few gals in an effort to declutter. Where do I start and where do I stop? I don’t want to get rid of stuff only to go rebuy when I’m having a function.
    I have a few treasures from my past (depression glass and the like) that I have no plans to get rid of! Do you have a checklist, etc.

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