There comes a moment when you look around your house and think:
“Where did all this stuff come from?”
And yes those are Christmas decorations from last year. And yes this is my own place.
You don’t remember buying half of it.
Somehow there are 14 water bottles.
Three drawers full of mystery cords.
A cabinet containing enough plastic containers to open a small Tupperware franchise.
And that one chair?
It hasn’t been available for sitting since approximately 2022.
Welcome to clutter.
The problem is that when everything needs attention, suddenly nothing gets attention.
You look at the mess.
The mess looks back.
And then you decide this would be an excellent time to check Facebook.
Let’s fix that.
🧺 TO DO: Start With One Tiny Area
Don’t start with:
“I’m going to declutter the entire house today!”
That’s how you end up sitting in the middle of the bedroom surrounded by seventeen piles wondering where your life went.
Pick one small target.
Try:
- One drawer
- One shelf
- One countertop
- One bathroom cabinet
- One corner
- One basket
Set a timer for 10 or 15 minutes.
When you’re done, stop.
You are not required to become the Marie Kondo of Texas before lunch.
🚫 NOT TO DO: Pull Everything Out at Once
This is a classic trap.
You decide to clean the closet.
You pull everything out.
Now your bedroom looks like a clothing store lost a fight.
You get overwhelmed.
You sit down.
You find an old shirt.
That shirt reminds you of a vacation.
You start looking through vacation pictures.
Two hours later, the closet is still destroyed and you’ve learned that your cousin’s friend’s dog is apparently adorable.
One section at a time.
Leave the rest alone until you’re ready for it.
🗑️ TO DO: Make Four Categories
You don’t need an elaborate organizational system.
Use four basic categories:
KEEP
You use it, need it, or genuinely love it.
DONATE
Someone else could use it and you don’t need it.
TRASH
Broken, expired, ruined, or otherwise no longer useful.
MOVE
It belongs somewhere else in the house.
That’s it.
Four piles.
Four destinations.
Four chances to question why you own six spatulas.
🤔 NOT TO DO: Ask “Could I Ever Use This?”
Because technically?
Yes.
You could use almost anything someday.
That old basket could hold something.
That random cable might belong to something.
You might lose weight and fit into those jeans.
You could eventually need that weird little plastic thing whose purpose has been forgotten by everyone on Earth.
Instead ask:
“Do I actually use this?”
Or:
“If I didn’t already own this, would I buy it today?”
That question can be surprisingly brutal.
And occasionally necessary.
👕 TO DO: Deal With the Clothes
Clothing has a special talent for multiplying while we’re asleep.
If you’re overwhelmed by your closet, don’t try everything on.
Start with the obvious stuff.
Get rid of:
- Clothes that are damaged beyond repair
- Things that don’t fit and haven’t fit in years
- Items you never wear
- Things you hate wearing
- Duplicate pieces you don’t need
And yes, that shirt you keep because “it’s good for painting” counts.
How many painting shirts does one human actually need?
Probably fewer than 37.
🚫 NOT TO DO: Create a Maybe Pile of Doom
The maybe pile sounds reasonable.
“I’ll decide later.”
Except later is a mysterious land where decisions go to disappear.
If you’re genuinely unsure, put the item in a box.
Write the date on it.
Put the box somewhere out of the way.
If you don’t go looking for anything inside it over the next several months, that’s useful information.
You don’t have to make every decision today.
But you also don’t need to keep reopening the same debate every six months.
🧹 TO DO: Clear the Flat Surfaces
Counters and tables make clutter feel approximately 400% worse.
Pick one surface.
Clear it completely.
Then put back only what belongs there.
You may be amazed at how much calmer the room feels.
This is one of the fastest ways to make a house feel cleaner without actually cleaning the entire house.
Clutter has a volume knob.
Flat surfaces are where somebody keeps turning it up.
📦 NOT TO DO: Buy Storage Before Decluttering
This is a big one.
You don’t need a container for everything.
If you buy 14 organizing bins before figuring out what you’re keeping, you’ve just created organized clutter.
Congratulations.
The clutter now has matching containers.
Declutter first.
Organize second.
Buy storage only when you know exactly what needs storing.
🧠 TO DO: Give Everything a Home
Once you’ve decided to keep something, figure out where it lives.
If an item doesn’t have a home, it will eventually migrate to:
the counter.
The counter is where homeless objects go to establish a new civilization.
Give frequently used things easy-to-reach homes.
Things you rarely use can go somewhere less convenient.
The goal isn’t perfection.
It’s making it easier to put things away.
🚪 TO DO: Use the “One In, One Out” Rule
Buying a new pair of shoes?
Consider letting an old pair go.
New coffee mug?
Maybe one of the 26 existing mugs needs to retire.
New kitchen gadget?
Look at the gadget drawer before bringing home another appliance with a single purpose.
You don’t have to follow this rule perfectly.
It’s simply a way to prevent your stuff from quietly staging a population boom.
⏱️ NOT TO DO: Wait for a Whole Free Weekend
If you wait until you have an entire uninterrupted weekend to declutter, you may be waiting a while.
Instead, use little pockets of time.
Five minutes before dinner.
Ten minutes while coffee brews.
Fifteen minutes before bed.
One drawer while you’re waiting for something to cook.
Small amounts of progress add up.
You don’t have to defeat the entire house in one dramatic battle scene.
🧺 TO DO: Keep a Donation Box Going
Put a box or bag somewhere convenient.
When you find something you no longer need, put it in.
When the box is full, donate it. Try not to put it in your car and forget. Maybe take then treat yourself to something. Maybe that cup of seasonal coffee, maybe a sweet treat. Try not to bring anything back into the home. Kind of defeats the purpose.
This turns decluttering into an ongoing habit instead of a once-a-year emergency.
And there’s something deeply satisfying about watching a box of stuff leave the house.
The house gets lighter.
You get more space.
And somebody else may actually use the things that were just taking up room.
Everybody wins.
🚫 NOT TO DO: Turn Decluttering Into Self-Punishment
Your house doesn’t have to look like a catalog.
People live here.
People eat.
People drop things.
People have hobbies.
People own approximately seven chargers for devices they no longer possess.
Life happens.
The goal of decluttering isn’t to create a sterile, perfectly styled house where nobody is allowed to touch anything.
It’s to make your home easier to live in.
That’s a very different goal.
🧡 TO DO: Keep the Things That Matter
Decluttering doesn’t mean getting rid of everything sentimental.
Keep the things that actually mean something to you.
Photos.
Letters.
Souvenirs.
Handmade gifts.
Family items.
The weird little object that makes absolutely no sense to anyone else but makes you smile every time you see it.
Those things aren’t clutter just because they’re old.
Meaning matters.
The trick is knowing the difference between meaningful and merely familiar.
🌪️ NOT TO DO: Expect Yourself to Finish Everything
You may not finish the closet today.
That’s okay.
You may only clear one shelf.
That’s okay too.
One drawer is still one drawer.
One bag of donations is still one bag.
One clear countertop is still a victory.
Decluttering isn’t about having a magical day where your entire house suddenly becomes perfect.
It’s about making tomorrow a little easier than today.
🏆 The Errant Corner Decluttering Plan
When you don’t know where to start:
Pick one small area.
Set a timer.
Make four piles:
🧺 Keep
🎁 Donate
🗑️ Trash
🏠 Move
Then stop when the timer ends.
You can do another round later.
And if you get distracted halfway through?
Welcome to the club.
Just try to remember what you were doing before you ended up researching whether raccoons can open refrigerator doors.
The answer is apparently yes.
But that’s not important right now.
Go clean your drawer.
The raccoons can wait.
It’s okay to fail 99 times, just don’t give up. (The raccoon was interesting though)
-Head Raccoon-Errant Corner HQ
Leave a comment