How to Stay Clutter Free: 10 Simple Clutter Free Tips At Home​

These tips I have for you are all very tangible things you can implement to stay clutter free at home. We all know clutter can be very overwhelming so you are not alone if you are feeling this way about any clutter you may have at home.

This is something that a lot of people deal with and the clutter just comes from a lack of systems and organization.

Before I dive into all of the helpful tips I have for you to help you stay clutter free I do want to mention that in order to stay clutter free, in addition to following these tips, is you are going to have to work on your habits. When you have clutter you usually have counter productive habits. So going from clutter to clutter free will not necessarily be an overnight change, but something you continue to work on over time.

We all know habits take at least 3 weeks to form so the sooner you start the faster you can start living a clutter free life. So this is going to be a journey but it is very doable, you just have to make it work for you.

Now let’s get to those tips for living clutter free!

Tip #1 – Start With Low Hanging Fruit, First

If you have things like piles of trash, DIY projects that you have started but never got around to finishing, or a storage space, and these things have been around for months or even years, these are your low hanging fruit items.

These things are clutter and unless you are going to finish that project SOON, it is not going to happen and these projects are most likely taking up a decent amount of space. So it is time to clean up the clutter because this is just adding to the stress and feeling of being overwhelmed you may be experiencing.

Low hanging fruit are the easy things that can just automatically go to free up and give you back your space. Purging these things are a very tangible exercise that you can implement right now to keep the clutter at bay and reclaim your space at home.

Tip #2 – Using Containers or Bins

Using containers, bins or even furniture pieces helps you set limits on the quantity of items that you are trying to keep. One good example of this is you are working on organizing your t-shirts in your closet into a bin and not all of the shirts can fit in the bin, then some of the items have to go.

The idea behind using containers and bins is to collect items in the same category and honor the limitations of that space. So when you start to notice you have an overflow of items, maybe your drawers don’t close because you have too many clothes you are trying to fit into that space, some will likely need to either be decluttered or find another home.

Maybe the lid to your bin that you are already using doesn’t close all the way because you are trying to fit too many things into a space that isn’t large enough.

If you are using something like a bin to contain your items and it starts overflowing this really forces you to think if you can’t fit it into the space, then you probably don’t need it or maybe you should pull something else out that is not really intentional or not something that you absolutely have to have.

When you see professional organizers bringing in bins, baskets and containers there is a method to the madness. We do this so that we can help you honor the limitations of your spaces and to keep items in the same category together. When doing this, if the container isn’t big enough, either you need to sort through the items and decide what is no longer needed or you will need to get additional containers to be able to fit everything you want to keep.

Tip #3 – Monitor Your Drop Zones

What are drop zones? These are areas that can get really cluttered really quickly if you are not being intentional about creating a system or some solution that is going to work for how you utilize that space. So for instance, if you are walking in the door and you don’t have a certain drop zone for maybe your keys, wallet, or phone, that space can get really cluttered really quickly.

So you really have to monitor your drop zones and pay attention to what is not working and create a system to make it make more sense and more functional for how you want to utilize that area or space in your home.

Maybe you just need to hang a few hooks on the wall for your keys or get a small table to put inside your door with a bowl for your items you want to drop when you come inside the house to contain your items in one place, and in the same place every day.

Tip #4 – Ensure Everyone Has A Job To Maintain Your Home

This tip is really helpful for those who have a family or are not living alone and might have roommates. Everyone living in the home should be responsible for their things and their space. Also everyone should be responsible for the space as whole to make sure that it functions well, looks good, and doesn’t become overrun by clutter.

Everyone should have a job in the home. It is not just one person’s responsibility to maintain the home when other people live in the space. If everyone is responsible for their own items it helps keep the home less cluttered.

So if it is not something that is intentional, not something that you love, that you need or absolutely have to have you need to figure out where it needs to go. It either needs to be rehomed or it really needs to be something that you find joy in using. Also, if you are living in a home with young children, if they are of the right age you want to be teaching them these things.

You need to equip them with the tools they need to make decisions on how to honor their space and their things. Also teach them how to let go of things when it no longer serves them. Now for the adults, people usually learn by example.

If you lead, people will follow your actions in terms of honoring the space in which you live and letting go of things that no longer serve you. This is definitely a journey but it is all learnable and teachable.

Tip #5 – Put Stuff Back

This one is very simple in terms of thinking about being clutter free. Putting things back when you got them helps big time when it comes to trying to stay clutter free. If you don’t have a habit of putting things back then you build the habit of leaving little trinkets of clutter throughout the space because you don’t have a good practice of putting things back when you are done using it.

This is going to be a habit you are going to need to adjust to especially if you are not in the habit of doing it already. But by doing something as simple as putting an item back where you got it when you are done using it, this will massively help you keep the clutter at bay. Habits and routines are key to keeping a neat and tidy space.

Tip #6 – Declutter Often

What do I mean when I say declutter often? What I typically do is declutter my home/space at least once a month. If spaces get hard to maintain and hard to access, if you don’t use the things or wear the things, I am just letting stuff go.However if you are someone who does struggle with decluttering and letting go of things, start with areas that overwhelm you in terms of your day to day access. 

For example, maybe it is something like under your kitchen sink. If it is always a mess and you are always looking for something, that is a really good opportunity for you to pull everything out and pair things down.

Go ahead and get these kinds of things out of your home and make sure you are in the practice of letting things go often. By doing this on a regular basis you can access the things you truly want when you need them and it will get easier over time.

The frequency in which you declutter can also be something you develop over time. For me, like I said, I typically like to try and do this once a month, but this will look different person to person and home to home. Overall I want you to get really friendly with this concept of letting go so that you can implement this practice a little more often with the focus of keeping the clutter at bay in your home.

Tip #7 – Deal With Paper As It Comes In

If you are overwhelmed with clutter I can almost guarantee you have piles of paper lying around somewhere in your home. The best way to stay decluttered, especially when it comes to paper, is to deal with it when it comes in and don’t let it pile up. We don’t want to let paper pile up because paper is one of the harder categories to declutter and really organize.

So if you nip it in the bud and deal with it as soon as it comes in, you are going to do yourself a huge service by not allowing it to pile up.

So as paper is coming in, make decisions on it in that moment. For example, if it is mail, for me if it is junk mail, it doesn’t even come in the house it goes straight into the trash. If it is a bill or something I need to tend to, I put it up on my bulletin board so that it is always front and center. Then, when I am done with that bill, whether I have paid it or disputed it, whatever the case may be, I go ahead and discard the paper.

I don’t need it in my space. Also, a lot of bills I have automated so I get the automatic bill or it is all paperless. So deal with the paper as it comes in to keep it from ending up in piles around your home as clutter later.

Tip #8 – Minimize Impulsive Shopping

Now I know this is definitely not a popular tip but I have to mention it anyway because it is solid and I do think you should take head to it. It is time to start minimizing all the shopping. The recreational shopping, impulse buying, the I am in my feels shopping, etc. We have to eliminate it because it starts to accumulate as clutter.

Especially when it comes to impulse shopping, the things are not intentional. You most likely haven’t processed why you are buying it until you are at the store, at checkout buying it. Then it becomes clutter because it is not truly something you need in the space, and they are not things you can even find a place for, right?

So they end up in the garage, a storage unit, under the bed, etc. So time to limit the shopping! But what I do recommend if you really really want something is take a couple of days to make a decision on if you really have to have it.

Then in that processing time really identify in your home where that thing is going to live. We know that to have an organized home that is not overrun by clutter everything needs to have its own designated space. And who knows after 2-3 days you may realize you don’t even need that item, or you have already forgotten about it.

But if after 2-3 days you are still thinking about it then it may be something you really need to have and you have taken time to plan where it will live in your home. So before buying something new, always ask yourself: Is this thing intentional?

Do I absolutely love, use, and need it? When I bring this new thing into my home, will it have a designated place to be? If you can answer all of these questions positively then go for it and bring it in. If you can’t then it is probably a recreation/impulse buy that will eventually turn into clutter over time. So limit your buying stuff ya’ll!

Tip #9 – Say No To Free Things

If you want to bring something into your home because it was a gift, someone wanted to give it to you, or it is free, it’s really not free. It is going to cost you space in your home, energy to maintain that thing, and it is going to cost you time again to entertain that thing. Whether you are cleaning it or finding a home for it or so on and so forth.

IT IS NOT FREE – SAY NO TO FREE THINGS. When you are thinking about bringing things into your home they have to be intentional. If it is a free thing it is kind of like that impulse buy except for you didn’t spend money on it, someone gifted it to you. Eliminate all of the stress that is going to cause you later because it is going to turn into clutter.

And ya’ll it is ok to say no thank you, thank you so much for thinking of me and wanting to give me this, but I really don’t have the space for it so I am going to pass on this one. You do not have to say yes… even if it is your mother-in-law. Just keep it friendly and nice but still say no. You feel me?

Tip #10 – Reset Your Home To Baseline On A Consistent Basis

So it is not expected that our homes are 100% perfect all of the time, right? They are not going to be organized all throughout the day or 100% clutter free all of the time, right? And it is not to say that even though I am an organizer that my home doesn’t get a little overrun by clutter sometimes too.

However, I know that I can reset my home to baseline consistently. What that consistency is going to look like is daily, weekly, or monthly. Every single night I am tidying up my kitchen. I don’t want to wake up to a messy kitchen so I reset my kitchen daily. Every week I am doing my laundry. I have laundry that piles up over the course of the week.

So I don’t let that go too long because it starts to be cluttered, right? These are just examples. On a monthly basis, maybe you are going to wash all of your linens for your furniture. So work on resetting your home back to baseline on a consistent basis. Establish a schedule that works for you and your family (or roomies) and make sure that it gets done.

This is going to help you keep your clutter at bay and just make your home feel more functional and organized and just have better energy!

I hope you found all of these tips helpful. Which of these are you going to work on first? Drop a comment below and let me know! I am more than happy to respond to any questions you may have as it pertains to any of the tips that I’ve shared about staying clutter free in your home.

Ya’ll know I love all things decluttering and organizing so you can feel safe that I am not going to be judging your questions, comments or anything.