70 Things to Declutter This Year

To declutter 70 things this year, work from a written list rather than a mood: 12 clothing items, 10 kids’ items, 12 kitchen items, 8 paper items, 8 sentimental items and 20 digital items. Readers who want the longer version usually start with what to declutter in the new. Start where volume is highest, usually with the quickest toys to remove, then take one group at a time.

Write the list down before you open a drawer

Seventy items sounds like a weekend. The number matters less than the order, because each group gets finished before the next one starts.

A written count also ends the warm-up problem, where sorting turns into shifting objects from one room to another.

Six groups, one list, and nothing opens until the category is chosen.

What counts as one item

The count only works if an item is defined the same way each time. A pair of shoes counts once, and a boxed set of glasses counts once.

Duplicates count separately, which is the point. Two identical spatulas are two items, and only one of them needs to stay.

Large furniture is out of scope here. Seventy small items leave a house faster than seven big ones, and the small ones are what fill the surfaces.

A fixed number beats a free afternoon

Most clear-outs stall because the task has no edge. A target of twelve items gives the pass a finish line that arrives in the same session.

A free afternoon invites rearranging. Rearranging is the most common way a clear-out ends with nothing leaving the house.

The list also settles the order. Clothes, kids, kitchen, paper, memories and phone runs from the largest volume to the smallest.

Clothing is usually the biggest single win

Wardrobes hold more than people expect, and clothing responds quickly to a hard count.

Twelve pieces can leave without touching anything worn in the past week, and a ten step clothes edit keeps the decisions in a fixed order.

Three signs do most of the work: it does not fit, the repair has waited a year, or it is a second version of a favourite that gets worn more often.

Coats, shoes and bags sit outside the wardrobe count and are usually the easiest to judge, because damage shows.

Clear the kids’ rooms in one pass

Children’s belongings multiply because very little leaves. Ten items is small enough to finish with a child in the room, and that is the version that holds.

Sort by type, not by memory

Tip one bin onto the floor and group by type: figures, cars, puzzles and craft supplies.

Duplicates show up fast when five identical cars sit in a row, and a child usually spots them before an adult does.

Broken pieces go in the bin without a debate. Nothing that still works is being taken away, which keeps the mood calm.

Toys bought for an idea

Some toys were bought for an idea of a child rather than the child in the room. Those are the easiest to release, because no game is interrupted.

The same applies to sets that need an adult to set up. A single open bin of current favourites gets more use than a shelf of complete sets.

One bin in, one bin out works well with children, because a rule is accepted more readily than a judgement.

School paper and artwork

School paper is the hardest category for parents, and guilt keeps it in the house longer than any toy.

Deciding which art to keep by date rather than by child keeps the pile moving and each decision small.

A term’s worth fits in one folder. The folder is the limit, not the pile.

Keepers need a home before the box closes

Anything that stays needs a named place, or it lands back on the floor within a week.

• One lidded bin per child, small enough to sit on the shelf it belongs to
• A folder for the current term, emptied at the end of it
• A display shelf for the models and makes that are still in use
• A single box for hand-me-downs that have a named next owner

Handle the kitchen, the paper and the sentimental eight

These three groups add up to 28 items, and they fail for different reasons: duplicates, daily arrivals and guilt.

Kitchen duplicates and single-use tools

Open the utensil drawer and count peelers, openers and spare spatulas. Anything with a twin is a free item for the list.

The harder twelve are the appliances that live in a cupboard and come out for one recipe. A counter holding only daily tools stays clear without effort.

Mugs, food containers and water bottles are the other reliable source, usually because lids and bases have separated.

A container without a lid is not storage. It is a decision waiting to be made every time the cupboard opens.

Paper that never needed a file

Most paper in a house is not a document. It is a receipt, a flyer or an envelope, and it goes straight to recycling.

What remains gets one tray, one folder and a weekly sort, rather than a filing system with labels.

Eight paper items is a low target on purpose. The aim is a habit that keeps the tray empty, not a perfect archive.

Sentimental objects and the loft box

Sentimental objects deserve a slower pass, and a hard count still helps.

Decluttering like a minimalist means keeping the object that carries the memory rather than every object attached to it.

A photograph of an item can replace the item when the memory is the part that matters.

Loft boxes hold most of this group. Anything still packed after a house move has already answered the question.

Gifts that were never displayed are the other common set, and guilt is the only thing keeping them.

Cut 20 digital items without deleting anything in use

Digital clutter is the cheapest group to clear, because nothing needs a bag, a box or a trip to a donation point.

Three screens to clear first

The home screen

Delete the apps opened once and never again. The account behind each app is the real item, so close it in the same pass.

Two rows of icons is enough for a phone used as a tool rather than a feed.

The camera roll

Screenshots of receipts, product pages and old messages make up most of a phone’s photo library. Clear them by month, in batches.

Anything worth keeping goes into a folder for the year. The rest can go in the same sitting.

Downloads and desktop

Files saved for one task, such as manuals, tickets and draft versions, can go once that task is finished.

Twenty items across three screens is a realistic count for a phone that has never been cleared.

Close the accounts, not just the apps

An app removed from a home screen keeps its account, its emails and its card details.

Closing the account is the part that reduces spending, and it takes a few minutes per app.

Store subscriptions renew without a reminder. Each one closed removes a reason for the phone to buzz.

Shopping apps deserve the first pass, since they exist to reopen a basket that was already abandoned once.

Give the phone’s jobs back to other objects

A separate alarm clock, a real camera and a sketchbook each take one job off the phone.

Fewer reasons to pick it up means fewer apps, fewer notifications and less to clear next year.

Notifications off is the single setting that changes how often a phone gets lifted from a table.

Habits that stop the list from refilling

Seventy items leave once. Without a habit the same volume returns within a year, usually through the front door and the inbox.

One in, one out, with a delay

A new item replaces an old one rather than adding to it, and the replacement waits until the new thing is in use.

The delay cancels a good share of buying on its own, because most purchases are decided in a shop rather than at home.

The rule covers small things too: a new mug, a new cable, a new notebook. Small items are what fill the drawers.

A weekly admin hour

One hour a week handles mail, school paper, receipts and the small repairs that become clutter when they wait.

1. Open the post and recycle anything that is not a document
2. File or photograph what has to be kept
3. Note the repairs and returns, then book them
4. Empty the recycling and reset the tray

The hour is short enough to keep and long enough to clear a week of paper.

A box by the door

One box by the door collects donations through the week, and it leaves the house when it is full.

A box kept in the loft delays the trip, and a delayed trip is usually a cancelled one.

The same box works for returns, which are the most common form of clutter that still has value.

The unglamorous version of saving money

The habits that save money are rarely interesting: unsubscribe from store emails, cancel the subscription used twice, repair before replacing.

The harsher truths about staying decluttered come down to the same point, that a house holding less is cheaper to run and easier to keep.

Using the camera, the alarm clock and the sketchbook already owned is the plainest version of that habit.

None of it is dramatic. It is the difference between clearing 70 items once and clearing them again next January.