How To Declutter Your Entire Life In 12 Simple Steps

Want to free up space for important stuff? Take these 12 steps to declutter your life and get rid of every pesky thing that serves no purpose to your being.

A good life is one where every possession serves a purpose, each commitment brings joy, and every space exudes serenity.

But you kill your chances of creating this balanced life for yourself the moment you let clutter accumulate around you.

I’m not just talking about unmade beds, strewn papers, and a disorganized wardrobe.

Every area of your life, from your relationships to your digital devices, is prone to being cluttered.

If we had an abundance of energy, this clutter wouldn’t be so harmful. But our mind can only muster a limited amount of energy per day.

Spaciousness and freedom act as energy givers for the mind, and anything that has no purpose acts as an energy taker, whether it’s a person or a bad habit that just won’t go away.

That’s why it’s important to declutter your entire life from time to time.

You need room to breathe, to think, and to come up with life-changing ideas, and decluttering is the most practical step you can take to make space for meaningful things.

In this post, we’ll look at 12 steps that will help you declutter your entire life.

We’ll start with digital decluttering and then move on to your home to clean up your personal spaces.

Next up, we’ll declutter the negative parts of your daily routine and finish off with a soothing mental decluttering process that you’ll later thank me for.

If you’re ready to simply, streamline, and thrive, then dive into my 12-step guide on how to declutter your life.

How To Declutter Your Whole Life

Declutter Your Digital Life

1. Unsubscribe, Uninstall, And Unfollow

Your email inbox must be cluttered with unread emails that you don’t even remember subscribing to.

Unsubscribe from all such newsletters that you never open to make your inbox clutter-free.

Hit uninstall on all the apps you haven’t used in months.

While you’re at it, organize the remaining apps by category (like social media, shopping, entertainment, productivity) for easier access.

Finally, open all your social media apps, and unfollow the channels and people whose lives you don’t need to be updated on.

Don’t miss: How To Do A Digital Detox: 8 Steps For A Screen-Free Time

2. Backup And Delete

Important documents and cherished photos deserve safekeeping. Use cloud storage or external hard drives to back up these files.

Once you’ve secured your memories, ruthlessly delete duplicate photos, unused downloads, and unnecessary files.

This will free up storage space on your devices and make it easier to find what you need on time.

Recommended post: 10 Smart Ways To Reduce Your Screen Time

3. Organize Your Folders

Now that you’ve dealt with the unnecessary and safeguarded valuables, it’s time to organize everything in your storage.

Go through all the folders in your phone and laptop, and shift items around so that things belonging to one category are all together.

The goal here is to make your files easily accessible. You shouldn’t have to jump from folder to folder looking for that one document that you need urgently.

The more organized your digital world is, the calmer you’ll feel while using your devices.

It’s an underrated yet foolproof way to create a healthy relationship with your digital devices.

Declutter Your Home

4. Create A Checklist Of Things To Declutter

People procrastinate cleaning their physical space because it can be an overwhelming task.

Where do you start? How do you do it without your house turning into a junkyard?

I get the confusion and panic, but there is a simple way to take command of your decluttering routine — write it down first.

Create a checklist of all the things that need to be decluttered, and then go about decluttering those items separately.

This is what my checklist usually looks like:

Clothes
Books
Grocery
Shoes
Tools
Products

I first start with my clothes, and once I’ve dealt with all the clutter from there and packed it away, I move on to my books and repeat the process.

This way, everything is handled neatly without any mess. Plus, it’s super satisfying to tick off each item and see the proof of your accomplishment in writing.

Related post: 15 Lists To Make To Organize Your Life

5. Get Rid Of Clothes That Don’t Bring You Joy

Once your checklist is in order, I recommend starting with your wardrobe first.

It’s because all your clothes are stored in that one place, and it’s also an interesting place to start with.

If you’re anything like me, you might tend to hold on to clothes out of sentiment even though you hardly wear them.

This would beat the purpose of decluttering.

To avoid this, here’s what you need to do — Hold each piece of clothing in your hands and ask yourself if it brings you joy.

If not, thank it for its service and let it go. I realize this might seem super silly, but it really works.

Your wardrobe will end up with a healthy mix of super comfy, stylish, and feel-good clothes.

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6. Use The One-Touch Rule To Declutter The Remaining Stuff

After your wardrobe, it’s time to tackle the rest of the stuff in your house.

Go back to your checklist, pick a category (like books), and then start decluttering.

Using the one-touch rule can be a game-changer here.

When you handle an item, make a decision about it immediately.

Put it away in its designated spot, toss it out if it’s broken or unwanted, or set it aside for donation.

It’s a simple method that will save you time and avoid the build-up of ‘deal with it later’ items.

Declutter Your Routine

7. Ditch Your Three Bad Habits

Out of all the 12 steps in this post, this is perhaps going to seem like the hardest.

It isn’t easy to quit your bad habits. They can be sticky and persistent.

But it’s only by discarding your toxic habits that you can make space to adopt better and healthier ones.

The result would be a better daily routine and more productivity.

Pick the top three bad habits that you want to work on. It can be anything from waking up late or consuming too much sugar.

Write down your intention to stop these habits, and over the next week, try your best to stick to your resolution.

Might help: How To Break A Bad Habit – 7 Smart Ways

8. Get A Daily Planner

Invest in a daily planner and start using it to create order in your day.

A classic planner usually gives you the option to set your top three priorities for the day, create a timetable from morning to bedtime, and create a to-do list.

It isn’t hard to see how filling these things every morning would help your daily routine.

You’ll be able to stick to your good habits, avoid the bad ones, and work on stuff instead of putting them off.

I’ve been using a daily planner for the past year, and it’s hands-down the best tool I have in my wellness box.

My days are super easy to navigate and command because of it.

9. Create A New Morning Routine

As I just said, I use a daily planner, but I don’t map out every single hour of my day, as it can make things too tight and I like being flexible.

But the first two hours of my morning are always spent the same way every day.

A morning routine helps you start your day on solid ground.

You get to set a positive tone for your day by indulging in all kinds of rituals for your mental health, physical wellness, and productivity.

Give your routine a good cleanse by establishing a new morning routine based on your current lifestyle needs.

Here are some morning habits I recommend for you:

Drink a glass of warm water when you wake up.
Do yoga or stretching.
Read one page of a self-help book.
Drink your coffee while journaling.
Fill in your daily planner.
Make yourself a healthy breakfast.

Declutter Your Mind

10. Do Mind Dump On Paper

You can be the neatest and most organized person in this world, but all the tidy spaces around you don’t mean much if there is a ton of worry accumulated in your brain.

To be clutter-free in every sense of the word, you need to give priority to mental decluttering as well.

Start by doing a quick mind dump.

Pick your journal or some pages if you don’t keep a journal, and write down everything that’s currently on your mind.

Don’t filter or organize your thoughts; just let them flow onto the page effortlessly. This little exercise will help you discard your random and troublesome thoughts and free up space in your head.

You’ll love: 5 Best Things I Did To Improve My Mental Health

11. Assess Your Relationships

We don’t realize this, but our mental energies are heavily influenced by the relationships in our lives, whether they’re positive or negative.

There is always some turmoil in our minds regarding the people in our life and what they mean to us.

Free yourself from this confusion by assessing your relationships without any hesitation. Create a list of five people who are the closest to you.

Next, list down 5 people who are not as close but lie in the second orbit for you. Keep expanding your orbits until you run out of the people in your life.

Once you’re done, reflect on your relationship with each of these people.

Ask yourself who you want to be more loving toward, and who you want to be less involved with.

People change with time, and it’s only natural that your bond with them will change as well.

By wisely assessing the nature of your relationship from time to time, you can free yourself from unnecessary relationships and keep nurturing the bonds that truly make you happy in the now.

Might seem like too much work and also a little cruel, but it’s the best thing you can do to keep your social life decluttered and set healthy boundaries.

12. Tune Into A Cleansing Guided Meditation

After all the work done and all the sweat shed, there really can’t be another way to end your decluttering routine than to tune into a guided meditation.

Sit down in a quiet spot, hit play on a guided meditation, and let the narrator’s voice guide you to a peaceful state of mind.

I suggest picking a clip from the YouTube channel ‘Great Meditation’.

Their meditations are just pure bliss and do flawless work of bringing you closer to your higher self.

Ready To Free Yourself From A Cluttered Life?

Is decluttering a boring task? Probably.

But is that any reason to not do it? Absolutely not.

Your home needs it, your mind needs it, and even your soul needs it for a simplified life that is easy to make sense of.

Use the 12-step routine in this post to declutter your whole life and streamline everything that’s important to you.

You can finish these tasks in a single day or take your time and take things one day at a time.

The pace is up to you, but the result will be the same — Healthy digital habits, neat surroundings, properly structured days, and a happier mind.

You just read a guide on how to declutter your life. I’d love to know your thoughts on it. Share a few words in the comment box below, and I’ll get back to you as soon as I can.