Five Five-Minute Unclutterers

Subscribe to your favorite sites, then clear them out of your bookmarks. I don’t like reading feeds, so I subscribe to the email service if a site offers it. Otherwise I spend a lot of time bouncing back to the site just to check. This way I declutter and get rid of distractions! If you belong to a lot of message boards or Yahoo groups then put those on daily mailings as well.

Go into a room and pick up the first thing you see that doesn’t belong there. Go put it away. When in the new room, pick up the first thing you see that doesn’t belong in that room, and put it away. Repeat until you have put one thing away in each room in the house. Unless your house is McMansion huge, it shouldn’t take more than five minutes. The trick is to only take one thing from each room, otherwise this quickly becomes overwhelming. You can also do this with things to donate. Go through the house with a bag and grab one thing from each room to give away.

Make a cup of tea or a pot of coffee. While you are waiting for the water to boil or the coffee to brew clean your kitchen. If the dishes are already done then wipe down the counters. If the counters are already clean then use a damp rag to spot clean the floors. If the floors are already clean then have a cookie.

Set a timer. One Bag Nation is working on cleaning out her basement, five minute a day, every day. If you have a spot you can’t bear the thought of tackling then try the timer method. After all, it’s only five minutes and you can stop afterwards!

Write a five-item to-do list. With a to-do list as a plan of action you now know which jobs need to be tackled and you can methodically work your way through them. Limiting the list to five items prevents it from being too overwhelming. Plus, checking things off a list is so satisfying, isn’t it?

Have any quick decluttering tricks? Share them here!