How to Declutter Your Home: 10 High Impact Decluttering Strategies

Today’s post is all about how to get the most “bang for your buck” as you declutter your home, using these 10 high impact decluttering strategies.

These decluttering strategies and tasks will help you clear the clutter from your home and give you immediate, noticeable results. They are the best tips to help you learn how to declutter your life and home in ways you’ll notice and see the benefits of right away!

Declutter your home: big impact, less work

When you’re decluttering your home, you may not always have the time or inclination to declutter your whole home at once. Or you may be looking for decluttering projects to tackle that will make the biggest impact on your home as quickly as possible.

That’s what the decluttering tasks in today’s post will help you do. They’ll show you how to make the biggest impact on the way your home looks, feels and functions. Simply by removing key sources of clutter and stress.

You’ll be able to save yourself time, stress and frustration. All while making your life easier and helping your home feel more spacious, tidier and easier to manage.

These high impact decluttering tasks are all about giving you the biggest decluttering results. With the least amount of time and effort required!

Declutter your home: 10 high impact decluttering strategies

You can use these decluttering strategies in any order. They will all help give you noticeable benefits and results as you clear the clutter and simplify your home.

If you have limited time to declutter and want to make sure you’re using it as wisely as possible, these decluttering strategies are what you need!

1. Clear surface clutter

Surface clutter is one of the biggest culprits making your home feel cluttered, messy, chaotic and stressful.

Surface clutter is exactly what it sounds like – clutter on the surfaces in your home. It can be found on places like countertops, coffee tables, dining tables, desks, nightstands and even the floor.

The surface clutter might be things left out on your surfaces that don’t belong there. Like paperwork or mail that needs to be dealt with. Or it can be decorative items and knick-knacks out on display on your surfaces.

There are two big reasons surface clutter causes such a problem.

First, surface clutter adds a lot of visual clutter to a space. It’s a lot of “stuff” for your brain and your eyes to take in all at once.

Second, clutter seems to have a way of attracting more clutter. So, the more stuff you have out on the surfaces of your home, the more other stuff tends to end up there too.

Clearing the surface clutter can completely change the look, feel and function of your home. It’s an easy way to instantly make your house look and feel tidier and more peaceful. But it also gives you space to use the surfaces in your home more easily.

An example of clearing surface clutter

Take your kitchen for example. When there is a lot of clutter and “stuff” on your countertops, your kitchen can feel messy, overwhelming and stressful. Not to mention it’s a lot harder to cook and clean when you have to work around a bunch of stuff.

Simply clearing the clutter and “stuff” off your counters gives you space to cook and clean. And it also makes your kitchen look and feel tidier immediately.

How to clear surface clutter

Start by looking around your home and identifying your clutter catching surfaces where “stuff” tends to pile up.

Next, look for items you normally keep on your surfaces that you could get rid of or store elsewhere to reduce the amount of stuff on your surfaces.

This might involve putting away or finding new homes for things that belong elsewhere. Or simply getting rid of things you don’t use, need or love.

As you work on clearing some or all of the surface clutter, pay attention to the impact it has on the look, feel and function of your space.

Once you’ve cleared the surface clutter, get in the habit of keeping those surfaces clutter-free on a regular basis.

2. Keep floors clear

As I mentioned, surface clutter on your floors can make your home look and feel cluttered and messy quickly too.

But keeping your floors clutter-free can have a big impact on the look, feel and function of your home as well.

My goal is to only have our furniture legs touching the floor. Everything else needs to have a home so it’s not sitting out adding visual clutter to a space.

3. A place for everything and everything in its place

I include this tip in so many posts because it’s such an important way to get your home clutter-free. And keep it that way.

When things don’t have a home or a place to keep them, they tend to be left out on surfaces and floors. Adding clutter to your home.

When each item you own has a designated spot to keep it, it’s a lot easier to keep your home tidy because it’s easier to put things away where they belong.

As you’re decluttering, make sure to find a spot or a home for each item you’re keeping.

4. Store things out of sight

As you’re finding homes for the things you own and clearing the surfaces in your home, you’ll likely end up with stuff that used to live on your surfaces that you need to find a new home for. One easy way to help your home look and feel less cluttered is by storing things out of sight.

Whether it’s in a cupboard, in a basket, in a closet, etc. The more you are able to limit the number of things your eye sees in a space, the less cluttered it will look and feel.

Of course, the first step before you start organizing things out of sight is to go through and declutter anything you no longer use, need or want. You won’t simplify your home or your life if you’re simply shifting clutter from a more visible spot to a less visible spot in a cupboard or basket.

Always declutter first, then organize what you decide to keep!

As you organize what’s left, the fewer things you keep out and visible, the less cluttered your home will appear. Storing the things you use and need out of sight, instead of somewhere visible is a great way to help your home look and feel less cluttered and more peaceful. Simply because it removes some of the visual clutter from your home.

5. Do a quick clutter sweep

One of the easiest ways to start decluttering and make an impact on your whole house quickly is doing a quick clutter sweep.

Grab a box or a laundry basket and go through each room of your house. Look for anything and everything you can get rid of.

Look for all the easy stuff to get rid of. It can be garbage that needs to be tossed, décor items you don’t love or want anymore, things that need to be put away elsewhere, etc. 

The goal is to work quickly and make quick decisions. Essentially, you’re noticing and removing some surface clutter from each room.

It’s an easy way to start decluttering because there’s no pressure to declutter an entire room. You’re working quickly and looking for any of the easy clutter to get rid of.

But the great thing is, removing this first layer of surface clutter from each space will have a big impact on the look and feel of your whole home.

And even better, it will hopefully fuel your decluttering momentum and motivation to keep going and continue clearing the clutter!

6. Tackle the area causing you the most stress first

I’ve often mentioned tackling a smaller, less overwhelming space first when you’re decluttering. It’s a great way to build your decluttering confidence and momentum.

But if you’re looking to make the biggest impact with your decluttering time, sometimes it’s best to tackle the space that’s adding the most stress to your life first.

Getting rid of that clutter and the stress it adds to your life will make a dramatic difference in your daily life. As well as the way your home looks, feels and functions.

Take some time to think about what area or areas of your home are causing the most stress in your life right now. Then work to simplify and declutter those spaces first.

The biggest source of stress caused by “stuff” in your home will be personal and unique to you. It could be the toys, your clothes and closet, the kitchen and its endless piles of dirty dishes, etc.

Whatever it is, identify it, then tackle it. Simplifying that area will have a big positive impact on your life at home right away.

7. Set up a system for paperwork

Paperwork can be one of the biggest sources of clutter in many households. Mail, school papers, papers to deal with, lists, etc. are easy to leave out on surfaces. And add clutter, visual clutter and often attract more clutter!

Simply dealing with paperwork and keeping it somewhere contained and/or out of sight is a great way to dramatically clear the clutter from a space.

The solution to paper clutter is often setting up a simple system to deal with paperwork. One that allows you to deal with it quickly and easily. And avoid ending up with papers sitting around adding clutter to the surfaces in your home.

There are a lot of options out there for systems to deal with paperwork.

The most clutter-free option is scanning and filing paperwork digitally.

But if you prefer keeping hard copies, or you need a place to corral paperwork until you can scan and file it, having some sort of basket or filing system to put papers in is a great way to keep them from adding clutter to your space.

The key is to keep up with your system for paperwork on a regular basis though! No system will work if you don’t use it and maintain it regularly. Choose a system that works for you and is easy for you to keep up with to keep paper clutter from piling up.

8. Clear off the front of your refrigerator

Another easy, but impactful way to declutter is clearing off the front of your refrigerator.

Again, this focuses on clearing surface clutter from your space to make a big decluttering impact.

When your refrigerator is covered with notes, pictures, calendars, paperwork, invitations, lists, etc. it adds a lot of visual clutter to the space. Removing that visual clutter can make the whole space look tidier and simplified. And it only takes a few minutes to make this high impact change!

Start by taking everything off the front of your refrigerator. Notice the difference in the way your kitchen looks and feels with a completely clear refrigerator.

From here there are two options.

The first is keeping your refrigerator completely cleared off. Either filing, getting rid of or finding new homes for the things that used to live on the front of your fridge.

The second option is putting a few things back on your fridge. But being very selective about what you put back. Only putting back the things you love looking at every day or are absolutely essential for you and your family to keep on the fridge.

Either way, I encourage you to keep your fridge front clear for a few days. Just to get used to the impact keeping this surface clutter-free can have on your space.

9. Make your bed

Another simple way to make a big visual impact on a space with very little time and effort is making your bed.

Taking a few minutes each day to make your bed can change the whole look and feel of your bedroom. It instantly helps the space look tidier and more inviting. And it can often inspire you to keep the whole bedroom (and beyond) a little tidier and clutter-free too.

Try keeping your bedding simple if making your bed isn’t something you enjoy. Simplifying the number of blankets, throws, pillows, etc. on your bed can make it quicker and easier to make your bed. Then you can help your whole bedroom look tidier and more put together, quickly and easily by doing this one simple task.

10. Simplify décor

Decor items are great ways to add your personal touch, warmth and hominess to a space. But sometimes décor can end up making the room feel busy, cluttered or over-decorated.

The last high-impact decluttering strategy to declutter your home is as easy as simplifying your décor.

Myquillyn Smith, the author of The Cozy Minimalist, suggests starting out by “quieting the room”. She suggests removing all décor items from a space. Then living with it for a few days to allow your eyes and your mind to adjust to less.

Then, after a few days, very slowly and intentionally start adding one item of décor at a time back into the room. Until the space feels like it has enough. To her, enough equals cozy and inviting, but still simple and clutter-free.

I love this idea because often you get so used to seeing a room as it is that you don’t even notice all the visual clutter your décor is adding to the space.

Starting from scratch and slowly adding décor items back in is a great way to see the space with a fresh perspective and avoid adding clutter for the sake of décor.

Use fewer, larger décor items

Another great recommendation from Myquillyn, is using fewer, but larger décor items.

For example, instead of having a bunch of small pictures on your wall, opt for one or a few larger, statement pieces. Or use a large vase instead of a bunch of smaller items.

This approach allows you to decorate a space, but still keep it simple without adding clutter or visual clutter.

Declutter your home with these high-impact decluttering strategies

I hope these decluttering strategies will help you choose tasks to simplify and declutter your home in high-impact ways, with less time and effort required.

Not every decluttering project will be quick, easy or high-impact. Parts of decluttering are slow, more challenging and things you’ll likely be the only one who notices the difference. Those decluttering projects are still important and will help simplify and declutter your home and your life.

But if you’re looking for ways to make big, noticeable changes in your home, even if you don’t have a lot of time to spend decluttering, these high-impact decluttering strategies are for you.

And sometimes it’s just nice to tackle a quick decluttering project that makes a big difference right away.

It feels good to see the immediate and noticeable results of your efforts. And is a great way to stay motivated to continue decluttering. Or rekindle your motivation to get back to simplifying and decluttering your home!

Which of these high-impact decluttering strategies are you going to try to declutter your home? Leave a comment and let me know!