Here are some hints for newbie declutterers like me. When I take a break from the actual decluttering I sit down and watch a few RU-vid videos about decluttering. It keeps me motivated!! It also reminds me to not overwhelm myself. It's okay to take a little break. Celebrate the progress I have already made. Enjoy it and remember that the effort was worth the reward. And it will be again on the next area that needs decluttering. Wishing us all a less cluttered 2024!!
Definitely by location! Love Dana’s visibility rule. Work in the areas we see and use the most. Kitchen bedroom living room entry room. Then dive deeper into closets and storage areas. Keep decluttering!!!
I went through and decluttered the whole house space by space as you described a couple of years ago. I still wasn't happy with the visual look of my house. I then started decluttering things by items. I think I had become blind to. I notices picture frames. I love the pictures but the frames were distracting when I gathered them altogether in one area, my desk in my office, I was shocked that there was over 100 of them. I only have 11 grandchildren so that meant I had around 10 pictures of each child. Aghhhh! I walked through my house and was amazed at the calming feeling I had. I did pick out one wall between my kitchen and family room to place just one picture of each child and one family picture of each of my children (4). I bought all 5 by 7 black frmes and placed them on 3 IKEA picture shelves. What a difference! The walk looks neat and beautiful. And now I can enjoy a clean clear spaces of my home. My next item is books. I can't wait.
Love the declutter by location and am a huge fan of Dana K White and her 5 step decluttering process! OHIO: Only Handle It Once "Don't put it down, put it away." And "Better is better"
Decluttering by location I think works best for me. I reviewed the Marie Kondo method and it seems overwhelming. I love Dana’s suggestion of put it there now. Thanks for another helpful video.
One of the biggest misconceptions about Marie Kondo's method is that people think she means doing it literally all at once. When she says that, she means 6 months! She had no intention of getting people to do it all in a week. You can tell by the 6 month time span that her method actually is supposed to do very small chunks at a time.
I think doing the declutter by category is great for your first time major declutter. It allows you to put in perspective how much you really have. But every declutter afterwards I believe is best done by location. I find it keeps me focussed on one area at a time. Great video
I tried the Marie Kondo method and didn't finish the pile of clothing on my bed and therefore, when it was time to go to bed, the clothes ended up on chairs and the floor. Love Dana K White's method and that's what I use along with the The Secret Slob's cleaning method. Love your videos - you are enthusiastic and motivating for me to get up and get started. Thanks! God bless you and yours.
Decluttering by category saved me when it came to starting on my basement. I had old clothes that no longer fit, teaching materials from a former career, seasonal decorations, etc. there were so much stuff down there, that it was overwhelming, but when I realized I could sort by category that’s what got me started!
I Marie Kondoed my entire home by category 9 years ago After tackling the masses I now do frequent location declutters throughout the year Either way, an accountability buddy or body doubling is extremely helpful! Much love to you as we start 2024! Always rooting for you!!!
I like to have my kids help. I tell them I need a runner, and they take the items to where they belong. I often give them a couple of dollars for helping. I like your approach. Dealing with things a step at a time really helps it not to feel overwhelming. Happy New Year🎉
Recently found you. Love your video format…great length awesome summary and explanation. Breaking things down definitely help us not to get overwhelmed! Thank you!!
I agree that both techniques have merit. I am mostly decluttering by location. It is less overwhelming and I have more instant gratification. However, this morning I just pulled all the gift wrap items together. I literally have Christmas wrap in one container. Non Christmas in another and bows and ribbon in another. I do NOT need that much wrap (or containers) in my life!! So that's my project for this morning. I'm going to allow myself to keep what fits in one container and the rest goes.
Decluttering by location in the start of the process helped me as it was a short time span involved per location and did not overwhelm me...kept me going...like the onion peel method...works everytime I work on cluttered areas of my home
I did category for the first couple of declutters. It was eye opening how much I had. Now I declutter by room or category (like Christmas decor) depending on what it is.
So I personally love the pile it up method because I know Im done when the pile is gone vs contantly looking back at stuff in the room like "is there anything else? It makes the first step fun cause I take everything I dont want to be in that spot and put it in the middle of the room. Now I know the room is clean with no hard thinking yet. Then I start with putting away either large items or large categories to make the biggest dent in the pile. I often set up a bunch of boxes so that I dont have to keep running around the house constantly. A bring to basement box, bring to bathroom box etc. When Im done theres usually some little weird things left that are confusing me and Im tired and I save them for later lol but my reward for being done is to take the boxes around the house and put everything away. Its fun to me to have a box of stuff I know all goes in this spot so theres no decision making left and all the "put it away" dopamine satesfaction feeling is at the end. I tought this to my kids when they clean their room. First make sure theres room for a pile so you have to pick up the largest items and categories (giant stuffed animals and a whole dresser of clothes) now it looks way better and just shove everything into a workable pile. This is when they start to feel proud of themselves and stop wining and are excited to clean the rest!
Decluttering by location is my only way! This method works so well and when you revisit the location after 6-12 months you get shocked on how much more you re-decluttered again!
I found marie kondo good for data of just how much stuff I had in categories but overwhelming. By location and even broken down to cupboard/shelf/drawer much better for 15 mins each day building the habbit and better progress. ❤
Her method is meant to do with HER by your side...which I could see really helping a lot with the overwhelm! I do love some of her concepts, but as someone easily overwhelmed, I like Dana K Whites method better!
I think by location is great bc u can get a chunk DONE in less time with less overwhelm. HOWEVER 😅 the take things to the place right away does not work for me! If I walk away from what I am doing ppl around here start asking me for stuff.. I am suddenly "visible" so they start finding me things to do in a way. And other than that, I am ADHD so if I leave something I am doing I have alrdy broken my concentration and will probably COMPLETELY forget that I was doing it OR see something somewhere I am dropping things off so I start doing THAT instead!! 😅 For me I work in a location and put things aside.. usually it isn't too much stuff so I can make lil piles like "bathroom/bedroom/kitchen/sis room" etc and just drop them off in those rooms at the end. If I don't have time to put them away in there at the time (or it's someone else room and I'm not gonna dig around in their stuff) I'll set it down on a counter and deal with it when I see it next. (When I use restroom/go to cook or wash dishes etc) My most difficult area to declutter is my craft supplies so I have been trying to stick to the "container method" and also trying to keep track of what I have and see what I actually use, now that I know what I have. But leme tell you! 😶 I have taken literal TRUCKLOADS of JUST resin molds out of this house!! 🤯 Not to mention anything else craft related!! 😅 And that was AFTER I did some sell off destashes!! Wow!! 🤣 Just know, you guys.. you may not be able to declutter some areas in one go thru, it's perfectly normal! 🥰 When you find something at the other end of the house and take it to your craft area for instance.. hold it and decide then if you need it or not.. maybe it's a duplicate.. maybe this one's better than the one in there now 🤷 These one off decisions still help and can make progress in decluttering of an entire house without the overwhelm! 🫂💕 I had to do the "onion method" with my craft supplies.. going thru things multiple times until I got it down to something workable 😊.. while in other areas like the kitchen... One good run through and done! I still have multiple pairs of scissors and pens in strategic locations all over the house, but I use those things THERE and they go there. So don't feel bad about that either 🥰 It's about what makes YOUR house function best! 🤗💕💕
I think that different ways of decluttering depend on certain circumstances....Is this the first time you've ever decluttered, do you have a massive amount of something, are certain things in multiple places, etc. For some things, I firmly believe in categories and other things, location. After you've decluttered a couple of times (or more for some), you'll find out what works for you.
Declutterring by category results in getting rid of more and makes your house tidier because when your finished choosing what stays, like items get stored back together
For my ADHD the doesn’t-belong-here basket is really helpful. If I do an immediate relocate I get distracted and start cleaning out the space I’m relocating it to. I try not to do that but it happens every time. So I have the basket and toss everything that doesn’t belong in the space I’m declutterring into the basket. Then I set the basket aside until the next day, and usually most of the items in the basket get declutterred. I find if I was regularly using those items they would have been where they belong in the first place.
I think to start with by location is better. Once you go through all the areas however many times….when it starts to shape up and become easier to manage (usually seems like by then organizing comes kind of organically and is much easier), I think then is the best time to start going in by category. This is of course over time and on and off with breaks in between.
I think decluttering by space works best when you're already in an overwhelming state of clutter. Once you've cut a ton out, and you're either stuck or maintaining, then the Konmari, pile up by category, can be useful, because like you said, you realize how much you have of one thing. I think Dana's method overall is better for most people, especially folks with disabilities and neurospicy brains. But there are some people who work better under pressure, who if they have to get their bed clear of a huge pile by bedtime, are more driven to get it done (and won't sleep on it like a dragon, push it all on the floor, or get frozen by overwhelm, like yours truly).
I can't seem to find trash all in one go. Easier to check things as i find it. I like relocating as i find things. It's off my mental to do list that way. Just decluttered the area benath a shelf in one of our storage areas and now have a home for the vacuum cleaner for the first time in 18 years!😊
I'm decluttering by item for all my knitting stuff ehich is in several spots around the house and decluttering by location for everything else as i like contained areas instead of stuff strewn throughout the house.
I declutter by location. That seems to work for me so far. I have a hard time with taking the item to its location because I get distracted (squirrel) at times. Will try to focus on that for 2024.
Okay yes, that is so TRUE that you can get distracted easily when relocating on the spot (I relocated a tote bag to my master closet and am now on my computer typing this reply! lol)
The relocate items are lost and gone forever in my head too! Then I find them and it’s a nightmare. I’ve tried having the kids sort it and it explodes every time.
Well presented, but decluttering by location did not work for me.. I was not successful with decluttering until I went with decluttering by category. I did not dump everything in to a big pile (that would have been stressful) rather I just put all the boxes etc in one physical location and worked with sub categories such as just fabric or just thread using Dana's container concepts. It's easier to decide what to get rid of when everything is together. Looking at all my thread at once made me realize I had way too many spools of blue thread. I live alone and have entire weekends to work on my stuff, so my method might not work for someone who is busy.
Thank you for sharing your experience! I love hearing how different decluttering methods work for different people! I am wondering, where your things fairly grouped by category when you began? Or was your sewing stuff strewn throughout the entire house?
@@FancyThatwithCandice things were in various places all over my apartment. Fabric, extra sewing supplies in closet; sewing machine and supplies in living room, cutting supplies dining room, unfinished projects in various places. Same with scrapbooking and art supplies.
Hi there sweetie pie hope you are well just take one day at time declutter by location is the best way to go Happy New Year to you and your family love from Eugenie your friend 🎉🌟🏡🌹
Why do none of y’all remind people that when they are getting to the point of exhaustion and frustration, to take a break? That in my opinion, is the biggest reason people don’t finish a project.
