How to Declutter Your Home: 6 Best Room-by-Room Methods (2024)

Organizing

Decluttering

Set the overwhelming feeling aside by starting with small steps

• 01 of 06

  The Bathroom

  

  • Medicine cabinet: Take everything out, and discardoutdated medications, makeup, and skincare products. Put everything you're keeping immediately back into the cabinet, storing the items you use most often at eye level.
  • Cabinet drawers: Remove everything, and quickly evaluate what you're keeping and tossing. Put the items you're keeping back into their drawers, with the items you use most often in the top drawers.
  • Shower, tub, and bathroom sink: Pull everything out from these areasand declutter the items there.

  Lastly, everything that did not have a home can be quickly sorted into the bins you have staged for the purpose.

• 02 of 06

  The Bedroom

  

  First, make your bed. It's hard to feel any progress decluttering a bedroom while an unmadebed stares you in the face.

  • Nightstands: Remove anything on them that doesn’t belong there, and add it to your put-away bin. This may include books you’ve already finished reading, pens, paper,and mail. Throw out or recycle anything you no longer use, such as empty tissue boxes, pens that have gone dry, or chargers that no longer work.
  • Tops of your dressers, chests, and bureaus: Pay careful attention to any strewn clothing. Anything that needs folding or hanging goes into the put-away bin. If you're afraid it may wrinkle further, you can lay clothes on your bed.
  • Drawers: Take everything out.Pull out anything no longer worn, and put it in your donation bin. Fold and store the clothing you're keeping.
  • Desk or vanity table: Resist the urge to shove things back into drawers; instead, put them in your put-away bin. Toss or recycle any garbage or anything you haven’t used in six months.

  Return items to their proper places. Fold, hang, and store any clothing. If you're now eyeing your closet, we'll tackle that next.

  See Also

  Marie Kondo: How to clear out sentimental clutter

• 03 of 06

  Closet and Clothing

  

  OK, deep breath. It's time to declutter your closet. The easiest way to tackle a closet is to declutter your clothing by type. It’s much easier to decide whether to toss or keep a pair of jeans if you’re looking at your entire jeans collection at once. So start pulling out different types of clothing, and choose what you'll toss and keep.

  Once you’ve gone through each type of clothing, you will have fourpiles to deal with:

  • Organize: Put away anything that was in the wrong spot for example, if you had a pair of socks in your closet, put them in your dresser.
  • Launder: Put dirty laundry into the hamper, or bring it to the laundry room.
  • Repair: Anything that needs to be repaired from holes, tears, or missing buttons should go to the tailor or dry cleaner.
  • Donate: To eliminate clothes, take them to a donation center or consignment store.

• 04 of 06

  The Entryway, Mudroom, and Foyer

  

  You may not have a traditional mudroom or foyer, but you likely have an entryway. No matter its size, the best way to make an entryway most functional is to declutter it regularly.

  • Desk, console, or side tables: Go through each drawer,remove the contents, and decide to toss or keep each item. Go over the tops of each desk or console as well. Do you have a space for your keys and other important items? Make sure everything is accessible and not too crowded. This makes it easier to leave the house each morning with what you need.
  • Hall closet: Declutter it like any other closet: Start with shoes, boots, and jackets,followed byaccessories.

  The entry is another area that picks up a lot of clutter from other rooms. Spend time putting away things from other rooms that have made their way to the entry.

  Continue to 5 of 6 below

• 05 of 06

  The Kitchen

  

  Keeping your kitchen clutter-free can be challenging because different activities occur there—cooking, eating, and socializing, especially if your kitchen is on the smaller side. As a result, the kitchen has numerous types of items stored in it.

  Tip

  You can choose to declutter your kitchen by focusing on one category of item at a time (cutting boards, glassware, utensils, or bakeware, for example) or going through each part of the kitchen zone by zone.

  • Pantry, cabinets, and drawers: The first step is to empty each space, assess each item, and put everything back where it belongs. Start with your powerhouse storage spaces, such as the pantry and upper cabinets. Then move onto the lower cabinets, drawers, and the space under thekitchen sink.

• 06 of 06

  The Living Room

  

  The living room is one of the hardest rooms in your home to keep neat daily. That's because it gets a lot of use, and living rooms don't usually offer many storage features. You may have some bookcases and a TV console, but they don’t hide much. The key is to:

  • Decide on permanent storage spaces for commonly used items, such as remote controls, magazines,and books.
  • Declutter this space regularly.

  Large furniture: Start with bookcases, consoles, and side tables. Then move on to your coffee table and entertainment center.Empty them, assess the items they store, and then return them to their proper storage spaces. Put books away, reduce paper clutter, or return remote controls to their proper place.

  Electronics:Remove everything not connected to your television or home theater system. Are you using it? Does it work? Store items such as chargers and gaming equipment where you use them.

  Toys: Assess every toy for wear and tear. Does it still function? Do your kids still play with it? Recycle or store each toy.

  Grab your put-away bin, and return everything that belongs in another room to its proper storage space.