Having a clutter free home makes you feel so much better about your surroundings, and your state of mind. However, sometimes no matter how much we need to declutter an area of our home, we just don’t have the time or energy to tackle it.

If you’re currently in need of decluttering your home, but you don’t have a lot of time, then here are 7 ways to declutter your home fast, that will enable you to feel happy with your surroundings, and spend more time doing the things you love.

HAVE SOME DECLUTTERING RULES

When you’re decluttering your home fast, have some decluttering rules in place to help you stick to your time frame.

There are four main ways to deal with items when you’re decluttering, which are:

1. Throw out / recycle
2. Donate
3. Sell
4. Keep and put away

Some examples on how to use these rules include:

• If something’s broken throw it out or recycle it
• If you haven’t used something for 12 months donate or sell it
• If you don’t like the place where something is kept, and you don’t have another place for it, donate or sell it

I recommend that you only sell an item if you have the time to list it the day you decide to sell it, if you don’t then donate it.

Also, once you’ve gathered your donation items put them in your car immediately, and donate them as soon as you can.

If you stumble upon other people’s clutter, put it in a bag and let them deal with it.

START IN A ROOM THAT BOTHERS YOU THE MOST

One of the best ways to declutter your home fast, and to get the momentum you need to declutter other areas of your home, is to start your decluttering efforts in a room that’s really bothering you, or a room where you spend most of your time.

These rooms could include your kitchen, living areas, bedroom, bathrooms, or even small places such as a junk drawer, or baby accessories.

Decluttering areas that bother you the most, or that you live in the most, provides an instant sense of accomplishment, which gives you the motivation you need to continue to declutter other areas that you have wanted to declutter for a long time.

SET A TIMER

There’s no rule saying you have to finish decluttering an area the day that you start, sometimes we know we’ll never find enough time to finish decluttering an area of our home, and this shouldn’t stop us from starting.

Instead, if you want to declutter an area that you know you’ll not be able to finish in a day, then consider setting a timer. You could set a timer for as little as 10 minutes, and once you’ve decluttered for 10 minutes and the timer goes up, you can either set another timer if you have time, or stop the timer completely and set it again on another day you find yourself with some more decluttering time.

REMOVE THINGS FROM ROOMS THEY DON’T BELONG IN

Another great way to declutter your home fast is to do it in little bits every day.

Often we find ourselves looking at things in a room that belong somewhere else, a great example of this is finding kid’s toys in the kitchen.

To solve this decluttering issue, once a day get a bag or a laundry basket and take 10 minutes to walk around your house and put anything into the bag or basket that needs to be moved to the room it belongs in.

You could also take this one step further, and if you see something that belongs somewhere else, before moving it to the room it belongs to think about if you really want it, need it, or if you have a place for it.

If not, then put it in a to donate bag. Once the to donate bag is full, take it to a donation centre.

STOP IF IT BECOMES TOO OVERWHELMING OR HARD

If you become overwhelmed whilst you declutter your home fast, or you feel like you’re loosing momentum, don’t be afraid to stop and start again another time, or try taking a break to see if you want to start again on the same day.

SMALL DECLUTTER PROJECTS ARE GREAT MOTIVATORS

Often when we think of decluttering, we think of large areas of our home, but decluttering takes practice, the more you do it, the better you get.

The best way to build decluttering skills and decluttering momentum is to start small.

Some smaller areas to practice your decluttering skills on include:

• Kid’s toy boxes
• Table surfaces
• Pantries, food drawers, fridges, and freezers
• Bathroom cabinets
• Coat closets

Related posts:
Toy room declutter and toy storage ideas
How to organise your fridge

STAY FOCUSED ON ONLY DECLUTTERING

Stay focussed purely on decluttering when you are trying to declutter your home fast, don’t start to organise items, think about storage solutions, or move items around.

You don’t have a lot of time, so focussing on decluttering and getting items out of your home will allow you then move on to the next steps of organising and maintaining, which I discuss in how to organise your home in 3 easy steps

Related post:
11 ways to declutter your home

The best thing to do when undertaking any decluttering project is to just start, just starting is a great way to build momentum and keep going.

You really don’t have to have a large amount of time to declutter, you can declutter your home fast by doing any of the things mentioned in this post, and if you do start to feel overwhelmed or loose interest for any particular reason then take a break, or get back to it another time when you feel more up to it.

How do you plan to declutter your home fast?
I’d love to hear what you’re planning to do in the comments.