Room By Room Decluttering Tips For Busy Professionals

Want to Get Organized?

Decluttering Takes Time

We know that not everyone has the luxury of setting aside extensive periods of time to declutter their belongings. Whether you work remotely, spend hours commuting to your job or just find it impossible to get a handle on the chaos in your home, we have some quick tips to help you declutter, even when you have zero time to spare.

Habit Stacking

Our basic advice when you don’t have a lot of time to devote to decluttering is to habit stack. Not sure what this means? Basically, habit stacking is the process of incorporating a new task on top of one that you’ve already established into your daily routine. Below, we’ll explain how this can work in each room of your home so you can make the most of every spare second you have. While you may not see an immediate transformation when you implement this practice, over time, your home will feel more organized with less effort on your part.

Kitchen

For many people, the kitchen is the room they spend the most time in. Whether you’re cooking for yourself or multiple family members, if your kitchen is disorganized it will definitely cause you unneeded stress. But the good news is it’s one of the easiest rooms to implement a habit stacking routine.

The first thing you need to do is evaluate your daily habits – do you make coffee every morning, brew a cup of tea, make breakfast for your kids? By recognizing what you do every single day, you can determine a good place to implement a new habit. For example, if you spend every morning scrolling on your phone while your coffee is brewing, a better use of that time would be to clear off your counters, wipe them down, and edit your belongings. Sure, you’ll only have about 5 minutes but even if you don’t get your counters spotless on day one, after a week, you’ll see a noticeable difference. And the more often you spend 5 minutes focusing on this task, the less you’ll have to do while getting better results.

Bathroom

The bathroom can be an interesting challenge because while you spend a lot of time in there, your routine likely doesn’t have much room to add another habit. In the mornings, you’re rushing to get ready for work and at night, you’re probably beat and just want to get to bed. But there are small changes you can make to boost the organizing level in several areas.

Similar to the kitchen, your counters will benefit from some daily attention. The key is to get as much of your lotions and potions into drawers or under the sink as you can. The less you have to work around, the cleaner and less chaotic your counters will be. So initially, you may have to take half an hour of focused time to sort and edit your cosmetics and products. At a minimum, put your favorites into a small bin that you can move aside all at once, wipe down the space and then put it back. If you’re a good multi-tasker, you can handle all that while you brush your teeth!

Also, taking a few minutes (literally) to wipe out your sink and clean your mirror after you’re finished with your routine will mean you never have to set aside a huge chunk of time to clean your bathroom. Key to success is to have the proper supplies at your fingertips, so either a basket of rags under the sink or some disinfecting wipes will make the job effortless.

Living Room

There’s one way to habit stack in your living room that will lead to dramatic change, but everyone in your family needs to get on board. And that tip is – never leave the room empty handed. Whether it’s dirty dishes, shoes, paper clutter, pet toys, electronics, etc your living room can become a dumping ground for all the random items in your home. If you and your family members can make a habit of taking one thing out of the living space every time you walk out and putting it where it belongs, your living room will get, and stay, decluttered.

Main Bedroom

Studies have shown that the less clutter in your bedroom, the better your sleep will be. So effective habit stacking is especially important here because it can have a positive impact on your health and disposition.

In your closet, we suggest keeping a bag or box for donations so you can easily incorporate decluttering into your daily routine. If you’re getting ready for work and you pass over a shirt that you haven’t worn in months because it doesn’t fit, it’s itchy, or the color isn’t right – don’t pass by it one more time. Take if off the hanger and put it into your donation bag. If you do this consistently, you’ll never have the overwhelming task of going through your entire wardrobe because it’s full of things you never wear.

If the furniture in your bedroom tends to collect reading material, paper clutter or cast off clothing, consider habit stacking with just one item a day. Perhaps part of your routine is to grab your purse last thing before you leave your bedroom for the day. If you can add just one task – hanging up a shirt, grabbing a piece of mail for recycling or putting one book back on the bookshelf, your room will become the calm and soothing space you need for a good nights sleep.

Kid’s Bedroom

Depending on the age of your kids, habit stacking is something they can be included in and it’s an excellent way to teach independence without overwhelming them. Just as you would do for yourself, help them identify their routine and then find a place to stack a new task. For example, between brushing teeth and putting on pajamas they could pick their stuffed animals off the floor. At the same time, you can ask whether there are any toys they no longer want and if they’d be willing to donate them (or edit yourself if they’re too young to make decisions). Teaching your children early on about letting go of things they no longer love, want or need is a lesson that will last a lifetime.

Dining Room

If you’re lucky enough to have a dining room, keeping it decluttered and organized can be tricky. If you use it for entertaining, you may not spend a lot of time in there on a daily basis, so incorporating a new habit can be challenging. And if you use this space as more of a home office/homework station/craft area, you may spend a majority of your free time here. In either case, a well organized dining room is possible!

If you use your dining room for entertaining, consider incorporating a habit stack into a weekly routine, rather than a daily one. For example, if you have a cleaning chore that you do every few days such as vacuuming, dusting or mopping, include a quick sweep through the dining area to make sure it’s decluttered. If there are items that belong elsewhere, move them as you go about your cleaning routine. By adding this task to ones that already exist, it won’t feel like an added burden.

On the other hand, if you utilize your dining room as more of a home office, a daily habit stack will be more effective. At the end of your time in the room, before you turn off the light, choose three things that could be recycled, filed or thrown away. The goal is to find small things you can do every day that will build up into bigger wins as time goes by.

Storage Rooms

Storage rooms such as basements, garages and attics are spaces that you likely won’t declutter on a daily basis. That doesn’t mean you can’t implement a habit stacking routine! Let’s take holiday/seasonal decorations as an example. If part of your routine is to bring bins full of decorating items down from your attic as the seasons change, incorporate decluttering as you pull things out. Check to make sure you still like an item – if you’ve chosen not to use it the last couple of years, it can likely be donated. Then, declutter again as you put things away when the season is over. Perhaps there’s something you displayed because you weren’t ready to donate it but after looking at it for a few months and not loving it, you can donate it rather than packing it up.

Apply this same logic to all of your storage areas. When you’re in your basement, attic or garage, take a couple of minutes to declutter just a few items at a time. These spaces can be extremely overwhelming because it’s where items go when you can’t make decisions about them and decluttering the entire area can seem impossible. If you do it in bite size pieces as you live your life, rather than tackling it as you’re ready to move, your future self will thank you.

Utility Closets

For habit stacking purposes, we’re referring to utility closets as the ones you don’t use daily. So your linen, front hall, cleaning supply or mudroom closets would all be included here. As they’re likely not top of mind since you don’t use them consistently, it’s important to implement decluttering when you do use them. Grabbing clean sheets to change your bed? Take just five minutes to edit your pillowcases. Pulling your raincoat out for the first time in the spring? Go through your umbrellas and trash the broken one and donate the one with the business logo you never use.

Change Your Habits, Change Your Life

The examples are endless but you get the idea. 5 minutes here and there, added to what you’re already doing can literally change your life. If you feel like you don’t have time to have a decluttered and organized home, you may need to find small periods throughout your day rather than big chunks of time that never materialize.

If habit stacking is too slow for you and you need a transformation asap, contact us today! We can declutter your entire home in a fraction of the amount of time it would take for you to do it on your own. Our team of experienced professionals has seen every situation imaginable and handled it with ease.