10 Ways to Find Time to Declutter Your Home this Spring

After five years of minimalist living, if I was to offer one gentle suggestion this time of year, it’d be this: find time to declutter your home.

While spring cleaning and spring organizing are helpful to an extent, the real home reset comes from spring decluttering, or more specifically, spring de-owning. Letting go of the excess physical stuff residing in your home is where the real lightening, freeing, rejuvenating sense of the spring season is found. 

In short, if you’re investing in the state of your home this spring, don’t organize your clutter, don’t spring clean your clutter… declutter your clutter. Get rid of it!

Why?

Decluttering and letting go of excess possessions, studies show, reduces the amount of time spent on housework by 40% in the average home.

Let that stat sink in for a minute—that’s almost half the amount of housework-dedicated minutes of your life. 

If you spend 10 hours a week cleaning, organizing, and maintaining things, with less stuff you will spend 6 hours. What would you do with 4 extra hours a week? (An extra 16 hours a month; an extra 208 hours (8.5 days) a year). Anything you’ve been wanting to do but haven’t had the time! Connect with your kids, take up a new hobby, spend more time with friends, read books, exercise, cook—it’s all waiting for you once your living environment contains less. 

In my experience, finding time to declutter your home is one of the best time investments you can make. The return on your investment is phenomenal—invest a bit of time up front in decluttering your home and soon you have less stuff-related “to do’s,” resulting in much more free time in your daily life. 

Truth is, finding time to declutter your home in the spring can set you up for a year filled with less stress and more focus on the things and people in your life that matter.

Here are 10 ways to make time to declutter your home this spring:

1. Reduce your distractions 

Studies show we spend an average of 3 hours and 30 minutes a day on our phone (over 2 of those on social media) and over 4 hours watching TV. Could you use one of those hours decluttering you home daily? I’m guessing so. You might miss your favorite reality show or seeing what your old high school friend made that night for dinner. But, remember, time invested in decluttering now means much more time for all that later (if that’s how you choose to use it). Keep time spent on your phone to a minimum by deleting your social media apps for a while or by keeping your phone somewhere you can hear it ring but not see it. 

2. Schedule it

Find time to declutter your home by scheduling weekly or bi-weekly decluttering appointments with yourself and show up for them. On time and ready to simplify. If you have children, hire a sitter during these times or ask family or friends to help with child care—just like you would for a real appointment. Decluttering is an investment in your relationship with your kids. Again, time spent decluttering today means more free time in the future, which you can spend fully engaged with them. 

3. Get up earlier/ stay up later

For those of us with small kids, finding time to declutter your home while they are sleeping is a great option. If you’re a morning person, get up an hour early. If staying up late is more your thing, do that. Or do a bit of both. While I’m not one to overlook the importance of sleep, sacrificing a little here and there can go a long way toward decluttering your home. 

4. Habit stack

According to James Clear, author of Atomic Habits, habit stacking is intentionally pairing a new habit with a current one. Use this as a tool to find time to declutter your home. 

If you brush your teeth for several minutes each morning, spend that time looking around the bathroom in search of empty/expired/unused product containers you can declutter. When getting dressed, look for one or two wardrobe items you can let go of. If you drink coffee, let go of an unloved mug while searching for your favorite one to fill. 

List out 4-to-5 habits you do daily, then write a corresponding decluttering action-step next to each habit (ex. Make coffee—declutter kitchen items). Every day, when you perform your habit, let go of a few items. This will build your decluttering momentum, help you see areas of your home in a fresh lens (your brain gets used to clutter… now you’ll be asking “What can I let go of?”), and integrate decluttering into your schedule. 

5. Think outside the box

One of my favorite ways to find time to declutter during our initial purge was by playing hide-and-go-seek with our daughters. I’d have a donate bag and a trash bag out on the kitchen table. When it was my turn to count, I’d take an extra long time finding them and would slowly work my way through a kitchen cabinet or a closet during the game. I still like to play this game for maintenance decluttering (it’s a great way to clear counter tops during the day).

6. Focus on one area

Let go of the expectation that you should declutter your entire home this spring, especially if this is a busy season for you. Choose one cluttered area of your home that you’ve been wanting to tackle. Maybe it’s your closet, your paper piles, or your kitchen. Put a box in the corner of the room (or on a closet shelf if you have small kids!) and begin filling it with unloved/unused stuff. When it’s full, donate it. Once this area is decluttered, move to another room of your house. (If a faster decluttering method is more your style, click here).

7. Designate decluttering weekends

Begin committing large chunks of your weekends (or whatever days you’re off work) to decluttering your home. You could even use a day or two of vacation time and make it a long weekend. If you have small kids, you can declutter while your spouse spends quality time with them. Or, if your kids are a bit older, you can involve them in the decluttering work too. You can still mix in leisure time, like sorting through the contents of a junk drawer while watching March Madness. Downtime is certainly important, which you’ll have much more of after making time to declutter your home. 

8. Let go of a commitment 

Temporarily withdraw from one of your regular commitments. Maybe you stop volunteering at your child’s school for a few months, stop attending an optional meeting, or postpone a regular get-together with a friend. The fewer extra things you do for a season, the more time you’ll have to declutter your home and minimize your possessions.

9. Watch for windows of time during the day

Enter each day ready to watch for free moments where you can find time to declutter your home. Maybe your kids are playing well together after breakfast. Tackle a drawer of clothes. Or maybe you have free time during their naptime. Go through a shelf in the hall closet. Keep decluttering at the top of your mind, and take action when the moment is right.

10. Stop buying more unneeded stuff

Buying less stuff results in less time spent decluttering. Every item you bring into your home has a claim on your time in some way. Plus, if you allow a steady influx of stuff into your home, even if you’re decluttering frequently, your home will likely stay cluttered.

In the words of author Rachelle Crawford, “It doesn’t matter how much you get rid of if you don’t also stop the flow of material items into your home.” 

Assess your buying habits—do they need to change before your home can become clutter-free? Asking questions before making a purchase is a great way to become a more intentional consumer (read how to do that here).

In conclusion

J.R.R. Tolkien said, “All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us.”

Decluttering your home is one use of your time that, before long, actually gives you more time. Owning less stuff means less time spent caring for it. Desiring less stuff means less time spent shopping for it, returning it, and thinking about it. Less time spent on your stuff means more free time to spend on what truly matters.

If you’re looking for a home reset this spring, consider what you can de-own. Then, plan to find time to declutter your home, and make it happen. 

Any time dedicated to decluttering today will soon deliver more peace and free time in your life, every day.

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Julia Ubbenga is a freelance journalist whose teachings on minimalism, simplicity, and intentional living have reached over 1M people worldwide through her blog. Julia also practices what she preaches in her Kansas City home. She resides with her husband, two extremely lively young daughters, three-year-old son, and baby girl. You can also find her on Facebook.

Do you want to get serious about decluttering your life? My signature course will show you how to declutter your inner and outer environment for good. Now is the time to choose change. Now is the time to live lighter. Learn more here.