11 easy ways to declutter your home as a busy mom (more approachable and less time consuming)

Is your living space cluttered and unorganized? Do you complain that there is never enough time to get things done? If this sounds like you, then consider these 11 simple ways to declutter your home. Even with a busy schedule, you can easily make your living space more inviting and easier to manage without feeling like it took up your entire day.

Having a cluttered home, especially with little ones around can be especially paralyzing. No matter how much time you seem to spend cleaning there is always an endless amount of clutter around. Toys everywhere, the kitchen counter has become a junk collector, shoes piled by the front door etc..

Even though the clutter may seem overwhelming to you, figuring out how to organize or declutter probably seems even more overwhelming. It did for me at least! There are some simple and time sensitive ways you can incorporate decluttering into your everyday life so you aren’t stuck with a cluttered home for yet another day and also aren’t spending an entire day doing it.

These 11 tips are not only incredibly helpful but also time sensitive and efficient to help you declutter your home quickly! Maybe you’ll even have time to relax afterwords – who knows? Have fun trying!

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Table of Contents

11 (approachable) ways to declutter your home

1 – If you don’t use it, get rid of it

Seems simple enough but it comes down to actually doing it. When you are trying to declutter your home it is important to pay attention to what you keep and what you get rid of. It’s all too easy to accumulate things just because they were given as a gift or something you purchased and never ended up using, but if you don’t use them or love them then really have no reason to be taking up space in your home. This can be hard, but it’s time to let it go.

If you really, truly believe something will come in handy one day then it is ok to hold on to it. However, don’t forget about any clutter that has been piling up, if you haven’t touched or used them in a year get rid of them.

2 – Start with the easy stuff first

When you declutter your home start with the kitchen junk drawer instead of the basement that has been the catch all for the last 5 years. Starting small will give you a sense of accomplishment and will help you stay motivated to tackle the big stuff later on.

3- Pick one task a day

Don’t spend an entire day decluttering (unless you are up for the task) But as busy moms with not a lot of time to spare, time is precious and we certainly don’t want to be spending it going through our junk. Pick one task each day. Start with the kitchen junk drawer on the first day, the linen closet the next and clearing the kitchen counters of clutter the day after that.

This way you are checking one item off your list each day that probably won’t take you more than 30 minutes, and by the end of the week you will have accomplished a lot! You will see your home transform and will feel so much better.

4 – Have a place for everything and put it there immediately

When you go to utilize an item, ALWAYS put it back in the right spot. This way when things get cluttered again, you can quickly check where something belongs and then return it there without.

This isn’t necessarily a decluttering tip but it will help you stay more organized once you have decluttered!

Tip #1: Provide a basket, drawer, locker (whatever it may be in your house) that kids can drop shoes, backpacks and any miscellaneous items when they get home for the day. This will eliminate extra clutter throughout the house due to them dropping items wherever. Going through these baskets each night will help you prepare yourself for the next morning.

Tip #2: Have a designated spot for important items like car keys, wallets etc.. so you aren’t franticly searching for them when you are trying to leave in the morning.

Tip #3: Having a charging station outside of the bedroom where everything can charge for the night is helpful so you get in the habit of plugging everything in before bed. This also helps promote more restful sleep so you aren’t scrolling your phone before bed!

5 – Sort like items together

This will help keep like items together and you won’t have to search for anything. So put all of your cookbooks in one place, all of your shoes in another, kids toys in the playroom or their room etc… When you get the point where you are decluttering to this level it becomes so much easier to keep up with it.

Some Ideas:

- Having a dishwasher paylod that has compartments is helpful because when you are putting away dishes when the dishwasher is empty it will be easier to put them in their proper places. Same goes for tupper ware and other food storage containers.

- When toys start to accumulate and you aren’t sure what to do with them; organize like toys together in bins and store the ones away that they don’t seem interested in. You can rotate some out in a few months when you feel they are getting bored of the current ones and it will feel like Christmas to your kiddos!

6 – Tackle one room at a time

Like I said above, start small. Don’t tackle the whole house at one time. Start with one room and finish a small task like organizing the nightstand drawers and then the next day move on to the closet. Once you have completed one room that means it’s time to move onto the next.

If you are doing random projects in multiple rooms in your house you are more likely to either not complete the task or end up making a bigger mess then there was to begin with!

7 – Create a schedule and stick to it

This is one way you can make sure that you are tackling your space once a day at the same time. For example, do dishes every night after dinner or tackle one room on Saturday mornings. Whatever works best for you! Organize your decluttering projects by room and pick a day to accomplish those projects.

8 – Don’t overuse baskets and bins

I love a good basket, who can resist the cute ones they have at target? Its okay to use these but make sure they serve a purpose. What happens a lot of times is that these baskets or bins become a catch all for random items which may be a quick temporary “pretty” fix. But it is not keeping you organized in the long run.

Quick note: Out of site out of mind is a real thing, if you have kids that are not able to clean up their messes or do things for themselves yet, then you can use bins but make sure they know what goes in them before leaving them.

9 -Take before and after photos

Have fun with this step! You will thank yourself later when things are starting to feel unorganized again. Someone gave me this tip a long time ago and I thought it was sort of silly at the time but now I always make sure to do it! It keeps the motivation going.

10-Just start doing what you can with what you have

I made the mistake of trying to go out and spend tons of money on new organizations tools, but instead start working with what you have and you will start to get a much clearer picture of the things you actually need.

This is another one that I wish someone would have told me years ago. When you are ready to tackle the bigger clutter spots like your closet or kitchen cabinets go online and order some containers ( I really like container store stuff) but they can be pricey, but worth it! Or if you don’t want to spend lots of money on new things

11 -Don’t give up

Things might not happen overnight but keep at it. There is so much joy you will feel once your home is feeling less cluttered and more functional!

Decluttering doesn’t have to be overwhelming

I hope these tips will help you to get started! As you can see, I didn’t mention anything about the amount of time it takes for this process. For me, it’s all about what you need to keep your sanity! Everyone has different needs but remember it is important to be able to enjoy your home and not feel bogged down.

At the end of the day, everyones idea of organized is going to be different, and your level of organization may be different from someone else’s. We hope these tips can help you start to declutter your home in a more approachable way.

Start small and do small projects first in the limited time that you have, and work your way up from there. You will soon start to see things transform, and that will help keep up the motivation to keep things decluttered and organized in the future.