Decluttering by category instead of by room took me 4 weekends, but wow

I tried cleaning my apartment room by room for about a year and stuff always came back. Last month I did the whole KonMari style thing where you grab every book, every shirt, every random cable from all rooms at once. It felt insane at first because my living room looked like a tornado hit it for two days straight. But seeing 47 duplicate phone chargers and 19 almost identical black hoodies in one pile made it click. I donated 8 trash bags and sold a few things on Facebook Marketplace for $130 total. Has anyone else tried sorting by category and actually kept it tidy long term?

2 comments

2 Comments

wyatta309d ago

And the cable pile is what got me too, I found like 30 of those stupid mini USB ones from old gadgets I didn't even own anymore. I did the same thing with my kitchen stuff and realized I had three different measuring cup sets but only ever used one. The key for me was putting the "keep" stuff back in a way where I could actually see it, so my chargers went in one clear bin by the door instead of scattered in every drawer. Six months later my bathroom drawer is still not a black hole of sample products, which never happened with the room by room method. I also started doing a quick 10 minute sweep every Sunday just to catch the random junk before it multiplies again.

elliots499d ago

Did you notice if the stuff you donated was mostly stuff OTHER people gave you, not stuff you bought? That was the big realization for me, gifts and freebies are the real clutter trap.