Declutter Your Home: The 7-Day “Stuff” Cleanse That Will Change Your Life

It might not feel like spring quite yet, but we’re already having spring cleaning fantasies, in which we fling open the windows and flit about with a feather duster, sweeping a winter’s worth of build-up particles off the baseboards. The problem is, along with dust, clutter also tends to pile up during hibernation season, making it challenging to deep-clean or air-out much of anything. Decluttering is the obvious answer, but the declutter-verse itself is now such a cluttered space—with so many methods and so much #CleanTok content, it can be hard to decide where to start.

That’s why we’re loving a cleanse-like approach that’s like a 7-day declutter-your-home countdown, only you’re actually counting up. Our bite-sized take on the viral 30-Day Minimalism Game, this week-by-week mind game empowers you to start tackling clutter now, without all the usual overthinking and overwhelm. How it works: Choose one room or clutter hotspot (like a bursting bureau or overflowing junk drawer) and make it your focus for one week. On day one, throw out one item. Yes, just one! On day two, toss two items. On day three, three items. On day four—you get the idea. It might sound too easy to make much impact, but by day seven, you will have purged 28 items, which can make a serious dent in most spaces—and seeing this progress will probably inspire you to get rid of more stuff. After the week is over, you can repeat in the same room if needed, or move on to the next.

The main reason that this deceivingly basic method works: Decluttering in designated portions lets you feel an instant and constant sense of accomplishment—rather than spending hours wading through piles of stuff, getting worn down by decision fatigue, and still ending up with a lingering mess. By making decluttering a no-guesswork, low-effort daily practice, you build confidence in the process as the days go by, rather than feeling defeated. You’ll also make real, ongoing progress; unlike 15-minute or one-hour cleaning bursts trending on social media, this method keeps you on a schedule, so you maintain decluttering momentum. Yet this plan is still realistic about your schedule—there’s always enough time to make decisions about a handful of items, whereas a top-to-bottom declutter sesh can easily require a dedicated weekend (and who ever has that?). Ready to get counting? Here are a few space-specific tips that’ll help you apply our clutter count-up to any room or nook, from the easiest to the most notoriously chaotic—plus advice on what to actually do with all the stuff you purge.

Decluttering “easy” spaces

If you’re emotionally scarred from failed attempts to declutter your home, choose a manageable spot to take on this challenge. One great choice is your bathroom—a contained space with limited storage that tends to contain lots of easy-to-purge items (ahem, beauty products that totally didn’t live up to their promise … or cute packaging). It might even be difficult to toss just one overly greasy moisturizer or unflattering brow pencil on your first day. Other easy-and-satisfying zones of the home: an overstuffed linen closet (it’s hard to get too sentimental about sheets and towels), a coat closet or mudroom, or the living room (time to recycle all those non-functional smart remotes!). Another quick start idea is to begin with a category of item rather than a physical space; if you still have every book you’ve ever owned, dating back to high school, editing this collection could have a huge impact on your available storage space.