Decluttering can help reduce visual distractions and benefit mental health, attention, and working memory. If getting started is hard, focusing on a small area at a time or trying a popular method can help.

Decluttering usually involves getting rid of things you don’t use to make more space for yourself and the things you do use. It can also include removing and relocating items to a more suitable place.

Decluttering has benefits for mood, stress reduction, and focus.

While it may feel difficult, or even overwhelming, to determine what to keep and discard and where to start, following a decluttering method and starting small can have positive effects. This includes improving your motivation to continue.

Keep reading to learn the benefits of decluttering for your mental health, how to get started, and how to give away or repurpose the things you no longer need.

Decluttering vs. cleaning vs. organizing

While many people may combine the tasks of decluttering, cleaning, and organizing, they aren’t the same thing.

  • Decluttering: Removing unnecessary items from a space and either relocating or discarding them.
  • Cleaning: Removing dirt, dust, and other unwanted substances from surfaces or objects.
  • Organizing: Arranging items to make them more usable and accessible.

If you’re focusing on decluttering, save the cleaning and organizing until you’ve finished reducing or relocating your items.

Decluttering not only frees up physical space but also mental space.

Research from 2016 found that clutter has a strong negative impact on a person’s psychological sense of home and their perceived well-being.

A 2021 study in older people suggests that having a perception of your living environment as not clean and comfortable may be associated with increased feelings of depression.

Clutter may also affect your visual working memory by acting as a visual distraction. If you have a cluttered living environment, your brain might be working harder to keep up due to extra demands on your visual working memory.

Reducing clutter in your living space may help:

  • reduce stress
  • improve focus
  • increase high positive emotions, even in people who find it challenging
  • improve psychological well-being and sense of home
  • support mental health and mood
  • improve sleep
  • difficulty concentrating and becoming easily distracted
  • sleep issues
  • low mood, including depression
  • negative life satisfaction
  • difficulty moving around
  • risk of falling and injury
  • difficulty cooking, cleaning, and moving through the living area

It may be more challenging to declutter and clean if you’re already experiencing depression or having trouble sleeping. The following tips can help you get started, and feelings of personal satisfaction may help you to continue.

Decluttering allows you to part with items you no longer need or want. It can be an exercise in determining what no longer serves you and what makes you feel happy in your space.

Room by room and section by section

Working on a specific room or a section of a particular room can help you avoid feeling overwhelmed and narrow your focus. This may also help you declutter more efficiently.

For example, start on one section of a kitchen counter and only move onto another section when you’ve completed the first. This also helps give you a sense of accomplishment as you go, which may boost your motivation to continue.

Whether you would like to declutter a specific room or your entire living space, it helps to start small and narrow your focus to specific types of items. For example, when decluttering a kitchen, you might focus first on getting rid of expired food items from the refrigerator. Then, switch focus to getting rid of expired pantry items. Finally, take out the trash.

If handling large-scale clutter, consider your starting point

When decluttering your entire living space, you may want to start with an area that doesn’t need the most work. Small successes can help boost your motivation to tackle larger tasks.

You may also want to prioritize areas where tidying will have the most impact, such as removing items from the floor (to reduce tripping risk) or decluttering areas where you spend the most time.

Focusing on what to throw away first

Removing trash and other items you can quickly throw away may free up space, and other items may become more visible.

Declutter in short bursts

If decluttering feels difficult, you can try setting a timer for 10 or 15 minutes. Setting a time limit (also known as the Pomodoro method) can help you stay focused on the task at hand. This can help increase your motivation when you see what you’ve completed in a relatively short time.

Aim for progress, not perfection

Decluttering is an ongoing process.

You don’t have to declutter your entire living space in one go. Aim to make a visible amount of progress that you can feel proud of. It doesn’t have to be perfect.

Using containers to sort items into groups

It may help to use bins, boxes, or garbage bags to organize your decluttering. You can use these to sort items you are removing from the space, such as those:

  • to throw away
  • that belong in a different room
  • that belong to others or that you plan to give away to family or friends
  • to donate or sell
  • you aren’t sure what to do with yet

Donating, selling, recycling, and trashing

When decluttering, you may be able to keep items out of the landfill with effective sorting.

When to recycle:

  • item is recyclable (paper, cardboard, unbroken glass, and certain types of metal, plastic, and packing materials)
  • item is clean and dry

When to donate, sell, or give it away:

  • item is fully functional
  • it could be useful to someone else
  • you can repurpose

When to trash:

  • item is damaged or no longer works
  • it’s soiled and you can’t clean it

There are many methods for decluttering. You can choose one that feels right to you.

Examples include:

  • The KonMari method: Author of four popular books on the KonMari method of tidying, Marie Kondo encourages you to remove items that “don’t spark joy.” She recommends going room by room and focusing on items in this order: clothes, books, papers, miscellaneous, and sentimental. She notes that you don’t have to hold onto gifts: “A gift has fulfilled its purpose by being given and received.”
  • The 12-12-12 method: This method involves choosing a space and selecting 12 items to throw away, 12 to donate, and 12 to return to their proper place. If this number feels like too many items to manage in one decluttering session, you can lower the number to suit your needs.
  • Full hands in, full hands out (FHIFHO) method: This decluttering method involves always entering and exiting a room with full hands to bring items to their proper place. You can use it while going back and forth to declutter rooms, but this method is more intended to reduce clutter buildup over time.
  • The 1-3-5 method: With this gradual method, you handle one big decluttering task, three medium tasks, and five small tasks daily. This method allows you to determine which tasks are easiest and most difficult for you to complete. It may help to target smaller tasks first for a boost of motivation. You do not have to do all of the tasks in one decluttering session.

Some tips apply specifically to decluttering clothing:

  • Try it on: When decluttering your clothing, it can help to try on different items and determine how wearing them makes you feel. If they don’t fit or feel uncomfortable, it may be time to part ways.
  • Gather similar items: If you have a lot of clothing, you may also want to gather all items of a similar type together (such as pants or shirts) before deciding what to keep.
  • 1-year rule: Not having worn something in the past year is a pretty good indicator you aren’t going to wear it in the next year, either. It might be time to get rid of these items.

You can donate clothing that isn’t damaged or torn. If you have clothing pieces that you cannot donate, you can consider recycling them through a textile recycling service in your area or a take back program with the company that created the clothing. This helps keep textiles out of landfills. However, many of these services charge a fee for donating clothing.

Decluttering may be especially important and also require additional precautions if you have certain health conditions. Mobility issues, chronic pain, cognitive impairments, or conditions like multiple sclerosis or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease may make it hard to do certain physical tasks.

It may help to:

  • Ask for help: If you have trouble decluttering on your own, consider asking a friend, family member, or community member to help you gather items that you can go through while seated. If it’s possible, you can also hire a cleaner or professional organizer to help you.
  • Work in short bursts: Focus on what you can declutter in short bursts of time in a small area. For instance, spend 5 minutes gathering items to a place where you can sit while you look through them. Avoid bending down to the ground if you cannot do so safely.
  • Take breaks: Avoid overextending yourself and take frequent breaks to rest. You can also spread decluttering a single area over a longer period of time instead of one session.

Hoarding disorder

If you have excessive clutter that affects your ability to live and move safely in your space, you may need professional help.

Hoarding disorder is a mental health condition that makes it difficult to get rid of unnecessary objects and may increase your desire to collect unnecessary items. Over time, it can contribute to an unsafe and unhealthy living environment.

If you (or a loved one) may have a hoarding disorder, professional help is available to manage these impulses.

Decluttering can benefit your mood, improve your sleep quality, and support your mental health. It can also potentially reduce falls and injuries.

To get started, consider starting in a single room or area of a room and removing items that do not belong there first.

You can try different methods of decluttering, including the KonMari method, which involves getting rid of items that don’t spark joy or serve you, or the 12-12-12 method, which involves finding 12 items to throw away, 12 items to donate, and 12 items to return to a more suitable place.