Another variation of this method without the Undecided box can be found from Joshua Becker on Becoming Minimalist. This version allows for some flexibility by using the Undecided box if you’re not sure what to do with a particular item yet. Then process each box according to the name. Pick up clutter in the room and place it into one of the four boxes. By sorting the clutter into four categories, you’ll make a decision on every out-of-place item.īasics: Set up four boxes in a room and label them: Put away, Give away, Throw away, and Undecided. This method is a flexible way to deal with all the items cluttering up your home for however long and whatever frequency you prefer. After a long day of work, the last thing you may want to do is find 25 items to declutter that day. Towards the end of the month, you’ll need to find a good number of items each day. Much like Tetris, the difficulty increases each level, and it can also be difficult to keep up if you’re inconsistent. This allows you to build confidence in your decision-making abilities and get increasingly better letting go of stuff.Ĭons: A major downside of minsgame is that you have to stay consistent each day otherwise it’s easy to fall behind. Another important aspect of this decluttering method is that it starts small and increases over time. Pros: After a month, you will have decluttered of a ton of stuff! Removing almost 500 items from your home is no small feat, and you can play as many months in a row as you’d like. This game works best when you challenge a friend or family member and see who can keep going the longest. By the end of a 31-day month, you will have removed 496 items from your home if you play all the way through. One item on the first day, two items on the second day, three on the third, and so on. It’s a popular decluttering method with hundreds of people using the #minsgame hashtag on social media every month.īasics: Beginning on the first day of a month, the number of things you declutter corresponds to the day of the month. Introduced by Ryan Nicodemus and Joshua Fields Millburn of The Minimalists, this is a method that gamifies the decluttering experience. Instead of focusing on a room or two, you’re pulling things from the entire house so it has the potential to completely uproot your home.

It’s an effective way to make a lot of progress decluttering in specific categories across multiple areas of the house at once.Ĭons: The KonMari method is time-consuming and requires sorting through an entire household of stuff. By doing this, you are able to get rid of any duplicates and compare less-liked items to better ones you may have. Pros: This decluttering method is incredibly thorough, and allows you to compare all items of a similar type. Hold, feel, or wear each one so that you can get a good sense of how it makes you feel. For example, get every t-shirt that you own and put them on the bed. With over four million book copies sold, it’s no surprise that her method has gotten so much attention.īasics: The core principle of the KonMari method is that instead of deciding what to get rid of, you choose what to keep and declutter the rest. To get started, collect every single item you own in a particular category and put them in a big pile. This method was made popular by Marie Kondo, the author of The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up, and is arguably one of the most well-known decluttering methods out there. Subscribe for the latest videos! 1 / KonMari Method If you prefer video, click play on the video below or click here to watch on YouTube. Whether you’re new to minimalism or looking for ways to further your minimalist lifestyle, these methods below are frameworks to help guide you. It can be intimidating to know where to start, but choosing one of these six popular decluttering methods can help. It wasn’t until Amy and I found a decluttering method called The Minimalist Game that we started making consistent progress towards getting rid of the clutter in our lives. While minimizing will likely require significant time and effort, having some good decluttering methods up your sleeve can make all the difference. As desirable as those results may be, the thought of decluttering a home can be overwhelming with a lifetime of stuff collected in basements and closets. It creates more space and ease in our homes. Owning less stuff means having more time for the most important aspects of our lives. The thought of living with less clutter is appealing to many and the benefits are well-known-but most of us aren’t aware of the many decluttering methods.

Minimalist declutter guide