Let’s talk about how much time you should spend decluttering.
In a home with excessive clutter and disorganization, I would recommend spending an entire weekend getting rid of as much stuff as possible. Use the KonMari method to remove most items that no longer have a place in your house or heart.
Once you’ve removed the majority of the clutter from your home, you can dedicate far less time to cleaning and decluttering.
This was the approach that I implemented, and I’m so glad I did because I was able to spend no more than 30 minutes a week thereafter to keep my home clutter-free and organized.
If you are clear about what items no longer serve a useful or sentimental purpose in your life, this process can be simple and effective.
I recently wrote about extreme decluttering, and for someone who has a habit of attaching sentimental value to most belongings, I’d recommend adopting this mindset to get rid of belongings in a time-efficient manner.
The reason extreme decluttering works is because the classification of what constitutes clutter is so brutal that it becomes easy to differentiate between what stays and what goes in your home.
If this approach is too much of an investment for you, how about decluttering for 15 minutes per day?
Spend 15 minutes per day to declutter during the work week, and that would amount to 62.5 hours of decluttering in one year!
It’s a small commitment of time per day, but the accumulation of reps will build a habit and generate significant results over time.
Related article: Extreme decluttering (what is it and should you try it?)
What Should I Declutter First?
The simpler you keep it, the more likely you are to successfully declutter.
There are two options at your disposal, and they are as follows:
- Start with one room at a time.
- Start with one category, as stipulated in the Konmari method.
If you start with one room at a time, choose the smallest and easiest room to declutter to avoid overwhelming or exhausting yourself.
If you start with one category, choose one with the least amount of stuff, like stationary or books.
Related article: The 6 types of clutter to minimize in your life
Can Your Home Become Cluttered Again?
No, not if you were to dedicate 30 minutes per week to maintaining a clean and organized household after decluttering for an entire weekend or using the extreme decluttering approach.
What guarantees a clutter-free home is the implementation of certain practices.
I’m a huge fan of the 1-in and 1-out rule. Every time you add one item to your home, it is mandatory to remove one other item from your home.
Using this technique ensures that you never add clutter back into your home.
Another practice worth mentioning is budgeting.
Let’s be honest, how many of us actually sit down with a pen and paper to write down exactly what we spend our money on?
I’m sure the number is far less than what is claimed.
Before adopting minimalism, my claim to budgeting merely amounted to a mental rundown of how I planned to spend my money.
Nowadays, I actually sit down and budget every dollar I earn so that I can avoid retail therapy or impulsive shopping sprees.
That brings us to the end of this article on how much time you should spend decluttering. Whether you opt for extreme decluttering or a daily session of 15 minutes, just get started and build momentum. You’ll be so happy and proud of yourself when the results of your actions become apparent.
Related article: 12 Tips to make decluttering easy