How to get a declutter done in 1 hour
The fastest declutter I've seen so far
I recently had a decluttering job where we gathered 15 contractor garbage bags in 1 hour.
We’re talking about up to 100 pounds per bag.
It was the fastest declutter I’ve ever seen!
Why did it go so quickly?
First let's look at how the room looked before we started.
The room was at least 1000 sf
The clutter was all at one end of the room.
The rest of the room had a lot of empty space, which gave us plenty of room to work.
That did help make things go faster.
But it's not the main reason.
The main reason this declutter was so fast is subtle
Read carefully
Decluttering is fast when decisions are fast.
The more concentrated space you have, the easier decisions are to make.
Fast decisions were easy in 1000 sf.
Cut the room in half to 500 sf (with the same amount of stuff.)
Decision making will be harder.
Cut the room in half again to 250 sf (with the same amount of stuff.)
Making decisions will be brutal.
This room came with concentrated space.
In most decluttering jobs, I have to build concentrated space to get decluttering momentum.
When momentum gets cooking, people make decisions quickly, and they feel empowered.
Cherry picking decluttering is the opposite of empowered
It’s slow, emotional and frustrating.
Cherry picking results in small random bits of space throughout the clutter.
Even if you’ve done a lot of work, it will feel like you're not getting anywhere.
Cherry picking decluttering means working emotionally.
You stay away from decisions that make you uncomfortable.
To win at decluttering you need to build concentrated space.
Build concentrated space by working systematically, rather than emotionally
I do this by working through small adjacent squares of clutter.
I call them Magic Squares (even though they are usually rectangles.)
After completely vetting every single item in one Magic Square, choose the next square adjacent to the just-cleared space.
Clear the Magic Square. Pick the next Magic Square.
Repeat until the clutter pile disappears.
It’s simple, but you have to stick to these rules.
- No cherry picking.
- No decide later-s.
- Magic Squares are decluttered in an adjacent order.