How Long Will It Take to Declutter?

Decluttering isn't meant to be a never-ending task ... but it can feel that way! However, if you underestimate how long this process can take, you may feel like you're doing something wrong. But chances are that you're working at just the right speed for both you and your home. These four factors determine how long it will take to declutter. 

by Susan McCarthy
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One of the questions that I’m asked most often as a professional organizer is, “how long will this take?” Even though someone has been dealing with clutter for a while, now that they’ve decided to declutter, they want the task done. And the sooner the better!
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The speed and ease you’ll experience when decluttering is influenced by a few factors.
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One - The Amount of Stuff You're Dealing With

Of course, this is the reason you’re decluttering. However, what you’re starting with is what you’re starting with.

If you have a spare bedroom that’s packed to the door with the things you’ve been putting in here for years, you’ll be sorting through all these things. Each item you remove means that you’ll deal with less stuff during your next decluttering session.

But, still, when faced with the prospect of starting to declutter your home or a room, it can feel overwhelming to open a door or drawer and view all this stuff. This is when the question, “where do I start?” hits you.

Roll a sheet of paper into a tube. Look at the room you want to declutter through this tube. This shows you the benefit of narrowing your focus. 

You don’t have to stretch your attention to everything in a room (or your home). Instead, you’ll focus on one small area at a time. 

You know the other tasks exist, but you aren’t working there, on those things, and that creates a sense of relief. All you must pay attention to is what you are doing now.

With the Minimal Mess Method, you’ll eliminate the overwhelm of viewing everything that you need to deal with by focusing on the task you’re doing at the time.
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​Two - The Time You Can Give to Decluttering

If you think that you need to block off hours to declutter, you’re not alone. Most people put off decluttering until a weekend or a day off with few other things on the schedule.

The idea is that you want to get things done and the best way to make that happen is to devote several hours to decluttering.

This means that if you can’t block off six or more solid hours of work, you might put off decluttering. Unfortunately, you’ll just end up looking at the clutter in your house, perhaps feeling helpless because you don’t know when you’ll find the time to get it done.

The other problem connected to time is that it’s very difficult to judge how long it’s going to take to get through any decluttering project. And just because it takes two hours to declutter and organize your linen closet, that doesn’t help you to judge how long it will take to go through your clothes closet.

Oftentimes, we determine how long a project will take us based on how much time we can work on that project. So, if you have four hours to sort through your bookcases, you’ll decide that this task will take four hours.

Now, a time limit can help make us work faster, but it must be a realistic amount of time. You can’t do a two-hour project in 30 minutes and be satisfied with the results.

So, of course, what happens in this case is that you tell yourself you’ll work on the project using the Overhaul Method, and you pull everything out of the space. 

As you sort through things and box up what you don’t want and return what you’re keeping, you may start to realize that you aren’t going to finish in your allotted time.

You might try to work faster, but you’re making decisions, not sweeping the floor, and so faster doesn’t work.
You run out of time. The project isn’t done. Stuff is everywhere. You feel anxious because now you need to block off more time to finish the task.

You feel like you failed when the only thing that really happened was that you underestimated how much time the project was going to take.

The Minimal Mess Method gives you a workflow that creates a, well, minimal mess. You don’t empty an entire closet or dresser or cabinet at one time and so you aren’t faced with an overwhelming task. You’ll move from one focused task to the next.

It doesn’t matter if the project takes longer than you expected. You won’t be left with stuff everywhere. Yes, you’ll still need to return to the space to finish decluttering and organizing, but there won’t be those disheartening piles of stuff in the middle of the room that you didn’t have a chance to work through.

Three - How Quickly You Can Make Decisions

You have the stuff you have. You make the time that you can. The other factor is making decisions about each of the items you are sorting through.

This is another aspect that varies in a way you can’t predict. You might make decisions about clothing with ease but struggle to sort through your books.

Many decluttering systems suggest leaving sentimental items for the end of the decluttering process. This makes a lot of sense because by then you’ll have practiced your decision-making skills. So, you’ll experience a lot of flux while decluttering simply because your decision-making process varies.

You might pick up a green sweater and immediately toss it in a bag slated for donations but then you’ll hold a blue sweater and debate about keeping it.

It might feel like you’re thinking through what decision to make for many minutes, but it may really just be several seconds. And you can always set something to the side and return to it during your decluttering session.

Know that the more decisions you make, the more your skills will develop. It may take a while in the beginning to figure out what to do with something. You may end up returning things to the space you’re decluttering only to find yourself letting go of some of those things later.

Don’t worry, this is perfectly normal. In fact, some of the things you find important to keep now may become less important to your life in a year or a few.

For example, one day, while walking past my bookshelves, some books caught my eye, and I realized that I had last read them twenty years earlier – it was a topic that no longer grabbed my attention or time. I had moved those books (nearly three full shelves of them) six times – packing and unpacking them – without noticing that I wouldn’t miss them if I didn’t own them.
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We get used to the things that surround us, even if they have no place in our life. 

Four - How Quickly You Bring in More Things

For years, I've talked about the first three factors when people ask how long it can take to declutter their home. The day after I posted this article, I realized that there was a fourth factor related to shopping.

People will ask my advice about getting rid of the things in their homes. But the moment I suggest buying less, I find myself in an argument. I'm not suggesting that you never shop. However, decluttering reduces what you have in a room or your home. Buying things adds to what is in your home. 

I was in a class with a woman who was detailing her decluttering efforts. She had health issues that made decluttering more physically taxing. Then she struggled to find a charity that would pick up the boxes of items she wanted to donate.

Everyone was saying encouraging things to her. Then she mentioned the boxes coming from Amazon filled with the new things she was going to decorate her home with now that she'd cleared out the decor that she'd become bored of.

​The group fell silent. I don't think I was the only one who realized that she was redecorating, not decluttering. 

You can adopt the One-in/One-out rule where you maintain balance by eliminating something for each new thing. This can save you from watching your home become cluttered. And you can do Spontaneous Decluttering where, as you move about your day, you notice items that you no longer want and pop them into a box slated for donation. 
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Factors that Determine How Long It Will Take to Declutter Your Home

1. How much stuff do you have? If you have only a narrow path to make your way through a room, it's unlikely you'll declutter that room in an afternoon.
2. How much time can you give to decluttering? Fifteen minutes a day adds up to over 90 hours in a year. There's no need to wait for a weekend with nothing else on your schedule but time to declutter.
3. How quickly can you make decisions? The more decisions you make, the more confident you'll be in making decisions.
4. Are you shopping and bringing in new items faster than you are decluttering?

Know that decluttering tends to take more time than you think it will. This isn't meant to be discouraging. Instead, it's a reminder that each item you declutter and each minute you give to declutter does make a difference.
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Ready to see clear, organized spaces throughout your home? Learn how to Jumpstart Your Decluttering Journey.