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If you’re anything like me, you heard about minimalism, got inspired, and did a big home declutter. But then…you hit a wall. You have less clutter than before. But you still have enough stuff that it stresses you out. That’s what happened to me. Then it hit me that I was going about the decluttering process all wrong. Below, I’ll explain how to declutter backwards for significantly better results.
Before I learned how to declutter backwards, decluttering was a labor-intensive – and emotional – process. Dwelling on each item in your entire house is exhausting. By the end of a session, you’re full of guilt and questioning things. Sure, there’s some low-hanging fruit you can clear out quickly. But then you get into the painstaking process of deciding the fate of every possession. And decision fatigue is real!
But is there an easier and less fraught way to do it? Yes! I’ll explain below.
What’s Wrong with Traditional Decluttering Methods
So, what’s wrong with traditional decluttering methods? I’d say nothing is “wrong” about them, exactly. They’re fine if you just want to do some light spring cleaning. But if you want to significantly simplify your life, traditional decluttering only goes so far.
Let’s take the method I was using as an example. I would painstakingly examine each item in my home. I’d ask myself questions to decide if I should keep it or toss it. “Do I use it often?” “Would I buy it again today?” “Does it spark joy?” There are tons of great questions to ask to help you get through a purge of your belongings.
But here’s the thing. The average American home has 300,000 items in it. Do you really have the time, energy, and wherewithal to pick up and thoughtfully consider the value of 300,000 items? And even if you did somehow, would you be making objective decisions by the end of all that?
I’ve noticed these issues with traditional decluttering methods:
1. It Takes Forever
Think back to the last time you decluttered an area of your home. You likely pulled a bunch of things out of a closet, drawer, or cabinet. Then you arranged them on the floor or a surface. You picked up each one and questioned its value. You separated “keep,” “maybe,” and “discard” piles. Then you probably hung on to the “maybe” pile for a while, only to pull it out and start the process of considering those items again.
This process is slow. You can easily spend years gradually tackling small, manageable areas of your home whenever you can find the time.
Even using the KonMari method to rapidly declutter all in one go, you’ll need to dedicate several full days. Which most of us can’t commit to.
2. It’s Exhausting
In addition to taking a lot of time, this process also requires immense energy. You need physical energy to empty closets and drawers, pull things apart, arrange them into piles, bag up “discard” items. And finally put all the stuff you’re keeping back where it came from.
But you also need mental and emotional energy to tackle a project like this. Many useless items you’ve held onto for too long are sentimental. That’s why you haven’t gotten rid of them before! This could be because they belonged to a loved one. Or they could simply remind you of another time in your life that’s now passed.
Picking up each and every item, remembering why you bought it or who gave it to you, is emotionally taxing. And making decisions about each item is mentally exhausting.
Of course you’re not going to get far with these methods. When on earth do you have the time and energy to do this for an entire home?
3. You Feel Guilty
I mentioned above that traditional decluttering is emotionally exhausting. That’s true for a lot of reasons. But one of the primary ones is feeling guilty about every…single…thing that you discard.
When you’re examining every possession in your home, asking yourself tough questions, even thanking it like Marie Kondo suggests, you’re going to spend a lot of the time feeling guilty.
There are so many reasons to feel guilty about discarding something. You never should have spent money on it in the first place. You “should” use it more but you don’t. Someone gifted it to you. It belonged to someone you loved. The list goes on.
Feeling guilt about all these little things is emotionally tiring. But it also leads to my next point…
4. You End Up Keeping Way Too Much Stuff
After weathering this whole painstaking traditional decluttering process, you still end up keeping too much stuff.
When you consider each thing you own, feelings like guilt or even just decision fatigue can get in the way of making objective (or even ruthless) decisions.
You also have to contend with the “endowment effect” – the bias that leads you to overvalue things just because you already own them.
When you pick up an item you already own and consider its value, you can ask lots of questions to get to the bottom of how much you really need it. And those questions can do a great job of eliminating a portion of your possessions. But you’ll still end up overvaluing many others. You’ll keep them because they could be useful one day, because they were expensive, because they’re “perfectly good.” Basically, all the reasons I discussed in my post about 10 Bad Reasons You Hold onto Junk.
The act of considering everything you own will inevitably end in keeping a good number of things you don’t actually use, like, or need. And that’s why it’s vital to learn how to declutter backwards. Let me explain…
A Better Way: Declutter Backwards
After hitting a wall following my first foray into minimalism for all the reasons described above, I realized I was going about things the wrong way.
How to declutter the traditional way is to pull out everything you own, question its value, and decide its fate – keep or discard.
But here’s the method I eventually learned: Focus on what you know you use and love. Separate that from all the other junk. Then, put everything else in the “discard” pile without spending time examining it.
For example, let’s say you’re decluttering your bathroom. When you’re done using a toiletry item or makeup product, put it in a box. Do this in the morning and again at night. By the next day, you have a box containing the vital things you regularly use.
Now here’s the interesting part: You dump what’s left without thinking too much about it.
I know what you’re going to say. There are things you use “for special occasions,” or once a month as a special treatment.
But…do you actually need those things? Would it make any difference at all to your appearance if you stopped using your occasional hair mask or sugar scrub? Are those really worth the cluttered space?
Whatever you end up deciding, those are questions worth considering!
Option 1: How to Declutter Backwards – the Quick and Ruthless Way
The best example I’ve heard of this technique is from Ryan Nicodemus of The Minimalists. He packed all his belongings into boxes as though he were moving. Over the course of three weeks, he unpacked things he needed as the need arose.
What was the result? Apparently, 80% of his things remained in boxes after three weeks. And he donated them without even looking at them.
Now, that’s probably the most effective example of how to declutter backwards. But most of us won’t really follow through on that. (Unless you happen to be moving anyway, in which case this could be a great idea!)
If you’re not willing to pack and unpack all your belongings, you could do something similar this way:
Open boxes in each room of your house. As you go about your day, place items you use in the box when you’re done with them. Keep this up for a set time frame – say, a month. After the time frame has passed, quickly pack up everything else to toss or donate.
Now, this will be a bit arduous. If you use your toaster every morning, you’ll be placing it in the box and pulling it back out every day for a month! But if you have the patience to go through with it, you will be a minimalist by the end of the experiment.
But if the ruthless way sounds a little too intense, I’ll suggest a gentler method for how to declutter backwards below.
Option 2: How to Declutter Backwards – the Gentle Way
If you want to make sure you don’t declutter anything you use occasionally but not often, you can do this in a less literal way.
For example, let’s say you’re decluttering a kitchen cabinet. Skip taking everything out, evaluating each item, and putting them in separate piles.
Instead, look in the cabinet and pick out everything you know you use very often. The mug you drink coffee from every day, the four plates and forks your family uses daily, the water bottle you take to work daily. This can even include cooking utensils you have a fresh memory of using within the past week – or month.
Basically, imagine your daily kitchen routines and grab everything you would habitually use for those.
Put all these items aside. This should be a quick process because your most-used items will be towards the front.
Then, without thinking about it too much, quickly sweep the rest into a “discard” pile.
The primary difference between this method and traditional decluttering is your mindset. You’re focusing on the positive, on what you know you want. Not acting as though everything is equally worthy of careful consideration.
You’re also saving time, energy, and guilt by skipping the part where you pull out each item and evaluate it.
When you first start, you’ll worry that you’re going to discard something you actually need every once in a while.
But I can tell you from experience – this almost never happens. You can find so many stories online from minimalists doing major declutters. And their shocking finding is always the same as mine: we didn’t miss any of the stuff we used to think we needed.
What Do You Think?
How do you approach decluttering? Have you ever decluttered backwards? I’d love to hear about your experiences in the comments!
You May Also Like…
Minimalist Mindset: How to Go Beyond Decluttering to Become a Minimalist
One Mindset Shift that Will Turn You into a Minimalist
10 Unexpected Things that Happened When I Became a Minimalist
How to Declutter for Good: 10 Bad Reasons You Hold Onto Junk
