The vast majority of decluttering tips and methods expect you to pick a time, settle in, and make hard choices about whether to keep or get rid of every item in a closet, drawer, or room. Sometimes, you do need a little urgency to be productive, but I’ve always found that buckling down too hard is stressful. In fact, I tend to procrastinate if I know I’m supposed to be sitting down and going through all my stuff, making quick decisions on what stays and what goes. What’s helped me a lot more is an alternative method: I just use a bag and declutter over time.
All you need is a garbage bag
Of all the cleaning and organizing techniques I’ve written about, the one I believe most strongly in is cleaning in spurts. It’s my job to write about cleaning. I also really hate cleaning, which is what makes me such a great judge of which methods work best for people like me. There are people out there who love tidying, scrubbing, mopping, and organizing, but those people don’t need my articles!
It’s hard to do a task you dislike for a long period of time and even if you manage to stick with it for hours, the quality of your work will surely decline as you go. Working in quick, 15-minute blasts takes longer overall, since you won’t see results for at least a few days, but it keeps your motivation high and your output efficient. It’s probably best to use a schedule and accomplish these bursts on some kind of structured, daily timeline, but sometimes, I just clean when the mood strikes me. If I’m sitting on my couch and notice a shelf is in disarray, I’ll pop up and give it a 15-minute workover. My bathroom, my kitchen—nothing is safe from my sudden bursts of inspiration and motivation.
That’s worked great for me, but it always left a noticeable gap in my results. I wasn’t decluttering much, since I wasn’t going to take a single shirt to the donation center every day. Thus, I started keeping a garbage bag in my closet. When, in the course of my cleaning, I happen across something that could be donated, I just toss it in the bag. Once the bag is full, I scan to make sure nothing in there is pure trash, then donate the rest.
Why this approach to decluttering works
This works for me because I find it a lot easier to assess items on a one-by-one basis than I do all at once. If I’m sitting down to actively declutter a drawer, I start making excuses about why I should hold onto certain things I come across. I get burned out, overwhelmed, and annoyed—and don’t end up tossing out stuff that really should get the boot. But if I come across something in the course of a normal day or cleaning cycle, I can objectively analyze it without any stress. More often than not, I get rid of it.
The bag is especially helpful when it comes to clothes, which is why I recommend storing it in the closet. Getting ready, I try on all kinds of outfits and, typically, find at least one thing that doesn’t even fit me anymore. Having a designated bag where I can toss those things is perfect. If I were actively decluttering my closet, I probably wouldn’t try on every single thing, so I’d miss a lot of the ill-fitting garments and probably keep them. When I put them on with the intention of wearing them, I can discard them the moment I realize they don’t fit. Most of the time, my decluttering bag is comprised largely of clothes, with a few other household goods tossed in when I come across one that should be gotten rid of.
I recommend keeping the bag around until it’s full. You can set a timeline if you want, taking it to the donation center every two weeks or so, but it will fill on its own at its own pace, so it’s better to just commit to bringing it to the drop-off location as soon as it’s ready. The longer you do this, the more you can pay attention to what usually gets tossed out, so you can start to keep the bag in a location that works best for you. Mine stays in my closet now, since that’s where most of my donation items are coming from, but if I noticed a heavier concentration of kitchen items going in there over time, I might move it to the cupboard under my sink, for instance.
