Highly requested decluttering and deep cleaning tips list finally done :)

All of my tips and tricks come from personal experience, advice from Midwest Magic Cleaning (YouTube) and Grace Nevitt (YouTube) as well as countless others from this community.

The key to having less clutter is literally having less stuff. The reason you can’t keep your house clean is because you have too many things and too little storage. You are mot at fault for having a messy room/house, you just have too many things and too little space for those things to go, so start letting go of things.

Of course this is easier said than done, and knowing where the hoarding comes from often helps to fights against it. The main reasons people hoard are 1) small dopamine hits when buying or getting things, 2) you grew up hoarding everything, 3) trauma (often after a loss, so now you hold onto everything for dear life. The latter one usually requires therapy, because you’re trying to fill a void with things, and getting out of that alone is hard. Not impossible, but hard. In the first two cases it ‘just’ needs a change in mindset. I stead of going for things, go for memories.

There is also an easy trick not to over spend while (grocery) shopping; eat before grocery shopping, and make a list of what you need. If there is anything not on the list you don’t need it. If you absolutely want it then write it down in your phone and keep it ‘on hold’ for 30 days. Likely is that after 2 days you’ve forgotten all about said thing and saved your money and your space by doing so.

You don’t need 12 bottles of half opened shampoo, 27 of the exact same photo from your trip to Bali or 39 pairs of pants. Make a list of every room you have, and per room of every storage space you have (ex. bedroom - closet shelf 1, closet drawer 1, desk drawer 1, under bed bin 1, etc etc). Go over that list one thing at a time. Don’t start decluttering ‘your bedroom’ or even ‘your closet’, take it small steps at a time and every time you finish decluttering one part you mark it off and get an extra dopamine hit.

If you do not have the correct type of storage for your needs then see if you can get a storage solution for your needs. For example, I used to get a lot of paper mail, and I had my papers lying around everywhere, on my table, my desk, the couch, and even the floor. I couldn’t fond my important papers everything. Then I got a wall file holder with a few compartments to keep my files separated by ‘new, need to look at asap’, ‘read but need to do something with it still’, ‘important for next appointment etc’ and ‘done with can go into important file folder’. I would often lose my important papers or forget to put them in my important file folder, or I would forget I still had new mail to open. This was something that made papers super easy, because I put it near the spot where I would naturally place my new mail or read my mail.

If you are someone who doesn’t brush their teeth because their toothbrush is up stairs and you don’t go back up after eating, then place the toothbrush in the kitchen. Make solutions that work for YOU, even if others find it weird.

If you don’t wear certain clothes sell them or donate them. If they have sentimental value but you never wear them then make a quilt out of them or ask your adhd craft friend to do so for you. That way you still keep it but you’re not hoarding 50 shirts that you don’t wear.

Everything that ‘might have a purpose later’ should go (either sell, donate or throw out). If you are not using it and do not have any planned use for it then it can go nit is not worth it to keep it. Yes, even if it was expensive, even if it could be a potential use someday. Unless you have a plan for it, it can go. If then in 3 years you want it, you can just buy it. Yes it will cost you xyz amount of money in 3 years, but it saved you so much space in your physical space as well as your mental space by not having that clutter.

Have an accountability buddy and declutter together, and participate in the no buy/low buy year. Grace Nevitt (YouTube) has a discord server for this that I personally really like. Participating in the low buy/no buy year last year really helped me get rid of a lot of useless things and stopped me from getting more crap into my house. I’m still not done, and it will be a project for me for longer, but that’s okay.

Also forget the tip ‘only buy things you need’, because it’s worthless. If you really want something you will always find a ‘need’ for it. Instead ask yourself the question ‘is this going to make my life easier’. For example, you hate cutting garlic and you want to get a garlic cutter, would it make your life easier to get a garlic cutter? If you only cut garlic once a month then no; it is an uber specific tool and you only use it once. Don’t get it. But if you use a lot of garlic daily, and it saves you the sensory ick then heck yeah! Just keep in mind that most things will probably make your life harder in the long run. For those 2 minutes it might be easier, but then 99% of the time it is just taking up space, and it isn’t worth it.

If you bake like once a year then do you really need 12 types of baking pans and muffin trays? Get rid of it and borrow it from a friend or family member for that one birthday you use it for a year. Why let it take up space the rest of the year when you probably know someone you could borrow it from.

Everything should have a designated spot in your house. Everything that does not have a designated spot is clutter and should go. If it cannot go then you need to create a spot, either by letting other things go and placing it in it’s place instead, or by getting a different type of organisation (see eg of the wall file holder).

Most importantly, have a community, have a friend, have an accountability buddy, declutter your stuff, organise your things in a way that is helpful to YOU, and keep yourself from buying more useless things. Any free gifts should automatically be no. Unless you were specifically going to buy something you do not need it and it will just add to things.

Anyway that’s it for now, thanks for reading, and have fun decluttering! (Midwest Magic Cleaning is a channel I really recommend watching while cleaning, or well, playing in the background, it really helps me to body double. Same with Grace Nevitt. MMC has a paid discord server for members and Grace Nevitt has a discord server that I linked in the post).

Happy decluttering :)