I know that I have shared so many great tips with all of you through the years. I hope you have been able to declutter and focus your mind while reading and thinking about my posts. I know that I have had some success decluttering my own house while sharing some of the tips with you.

I was thinking the other day, though, that I have not shared my effort in a while. So I have decided that most Fridays I am going to share with you one space in my house that I have spent ONLY 15 minutes working on!

It’s minimal time with maximum effort!

Decluttering is all about the grind, no matter how much redoing of the work you have to do. It is, in fact, a process. The house becomes a mess, then it gets tidy, and then it gets messy again! You’re never done! So, if you set your sights on finishing, you will always be miserable. Think more about sticking with the process. Stick with the habit of decluttering, tidying, and cleaning.

I have been feeling more and more lately like my house is getting way out of hand again. I have been feeling more and more like I can’t clean the house because there’s too much stuff to move first.

It’s time for an overhaul.

The best way to do a big overhaul is to do it with a friend – or with many!

We can work together! I will share my before and afters, I will share things that are hard to declutter, emotions that are common pitfalls to your success, and tips on how you can get out of your own way so that you can end 2024 with the house that you so desperately want to live in and enjoy!

Here’s the catch…

You can only work in 15 minute blocks!

It may sound crazy and too short of a time to truly be productive. But it can work! The idea is to work small but as thoroughly as you can.

You have 10 minutes to declutter (make decisions like toss, donate, sell, or keep – keep bins handy for these categories) AND put stuff away in their actual home. Only work for the duration of the timer! Once the 10 minute timer goes off, set a 5 minute cleaning timer. Clean the whole area! Vacuum it out, dust it, wipe it, scrub it if you need to. Again, you gotta work fast because you only have 5 minutes! If you do one space every day (or more if you can!), that is SEVEN decluttered tidy, and clean spaces every week!! Sure, it might be a drawer or a step or a shelf or some other small space, but tidying and cleaning those small spaces will make the bigger spaces easier to tackle.

Don’t get discouraged if there is an area that must be done every week! It will likely happen! But that’s why building the habit is key. Eventually, you may not have fingerprints and boogers on the glass window. Eventually, you may not have Lego as a staircase jungle gym. Just stay focused on the task and the habit!

Use this process as a way to find hope and success in your effort. Saying that you’re going to clean the whole room or the whole house literally sets you up to feel like a failure over time. It will take hours to not even finish the job! Life happens, even while you are decluttering! Do short sprints as opposed to trying to go for the marathon!

Years after COVID, it’s time to get back ahead and stop wasting your time being a slave to your stuff and your house. Take control of your time by working on your house for 15 minutes per day. Together, we can declutter our whole houses, from the tippity top down to the basement, including all the outdoor spaces!

We can do this! We just need to stick together and stay the course!

What can you do in 15 minutes? Here’s what I did:

It’s not about reaching perfection. It’s just about working hard for a short time and making it better than it was. Life will wreak havoc again anyway once the kids get home!

Thanks for coming home!