Monday: Clothes
Marie Kondo suggests starting with clothes, as they’re among the easiest and least sentimental categories. For the easy win, start by turfing anything that’s holey, stained, or stretched beyond wearing. Then split everything into categories, which makes it easier to see multiples (six pairs of jeans?). From here, you might be able to separate groups of clothes from your everyday wardrobe – for example, gathering ski gear into a container for the top shelf, or storing seasonal items separately. Alaina Dalzell of Tidy Life Solutions suggests making more room again by swapping wooden hangers for thin velvet ones and uses this trick to give you a head start for next time: “Turn the hangers one way, and then as you wear the item, turn it back the other way. This helps you identify what is not worn after a certain period of time.”
Tuesday: Bathroom & laundry
With limited storage space, the bathroom is an easy win. Check for expired medicines and take them back to the pharmacy for proper disposal. Store duplicate products together, ordered by expiry date. Gather up half-finished and travel-size products and either purge or commit to finishing them.
Give the laundry the same treatment, editing the cleaning cupboard first. Then address clutter-collecting spaces, such as on top of the machines.
Wednesday: Kids’ bedrooms
Whip through the wardrobe, sorting (or storing for siblings) anything they’ve outgrown. Then turn your attention to the big one: toys. “Any broken toys or toys with missing parts can be donated or thrown out (if not useable),” says Alaina. Divide toys into “open-ended” and “closed-ended” categories. The former are toys that encourage creative play, like loose Lego, dress-ups and art supplies; order these and store them in accessible containers. Closed-ended toys, like Lego kits and jigsaw puzzles, are best rotated; put some in a box in the garage and regularly swap them around to keep rooms clean and playtime fresh.
Alaina’s “time-out box” method can work well for toys your kids may have outgrown. “If you have items that you are not sure of, put them in a box and tape it up. Clearly mark the box with the date. If you have not used the items in the box in a certain timeframe, they can be donated.” Try it with toys your kids can’t commit to releasing.
Thursday: Living spaces
Start with books and magazines, making piles for recycling, donating and keeping. Technology is a big one in living spaces, too; sort through the mass of cables and remotes, storing important items together and binning anything that doesn’t work. Clear out shelves and drawers in console tables and sideboards. Finally, sweep through and gather anything that’s washed up in the living room that doesn’t belong there in a “put away” basket.
Friday: Linen cupboard
“Linen cupboards are fun,” says Alaina. “Take everything out and donate any mismatched or unused items. Think about how much you need. I usually suggest two sets of sheets per bed and two duvet covers per bed, maximum.” Sort through towels and tea towels – frayed and holey items can be used as cleaning rags or donated to your local SPCA.
Saturday: Kitchen
Focus on the primary pain points: the pantry and the Tupperware drawer. “Quick win: getting everything expired out of the pantry,” says Alaina. “For any items you hardly use but are still within date, put them in a ‘use first’ pile, or donate to a food bank if you really won’t use them. Group foods by category and set up baskets for things like snacks, to keep them all in one place and easy to grab.” Tackle plastic storage, binning any containers with cracks or missing lids, and ancient drink bottles, too.
Sunday: Odds & ends
Your epic declutter is almost done. Use this day to wrap up any loose ends – if there are still items in your “put away” basket, tackle this now. Address any remaining cluttered surfaces. There will likely always be at least one surface that is a habitual dumping ground, like the hallway table or the top of your dresser. Alaina suggests putting a nice basket on that spot to catch the detritus, then once a week, sort through the bits and redirect them to a new home or the bin. Declutter complete, a good floor clean in the kitchen and other hard floor areas will set you up for the week ahead. Use Shark’s Steam Pickup 3-in-1 Steam Mop, which deep scrubs, picks up debris and steam sanitises in one fell swoop – and all without the need for chemicals.
Clutter free for life
Don’t slide back into disorder after all your efforts. To maintain your decluttered home and stop more mess accumulating, try one or more of these tricks:
One in, one out
Just like it says on the tin, the idea is that for every item that comes into your home, a similar one goes out, meaning your home stays ordered and storage won’t burst at the seams. A not insignificant side benefit is saving money, as you have to pause before making impulsive purchases.
Magic basket method
If you’ve rolled your eyes at the idea of an evening reset – who’s got the energy? – the magic basket idea is a realistic variation. Before bed, zoom round the house, grab anything that’s out of place and dump it in a basket. The house will look tidy and you can go to bed feeling satisfied with your easy win. In the morning, when you’re fresh, put everything away properly.
ABC
Always Be Cleaning. This sounds desperately boring and fastidious, but what it really means is just having an awareness of your surroundings, tidying surfaces as you move through the house. Practise this enough and it becomes automatic – when you take your coffee cup back to the kitchen, for example, you’ll subconsciously scan for other items you can carry with you.
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