How to Create a Year-Round Declutter Routine for Your Home

Got too much stuff? Learn how to create a year-round routine to declutter your home – including a list of what to purge in every season of the year.

If you have tried to declutter your home of items you don’t need before, then you may have realized that it didn’t stay that way forever. We are constantly bringing new items into our homes without actually getting rid of anything when we purchase those new items. This can often lead to more stuff than we ever intended to keep!

The best way to create a year-round decluttering routine is to start at the bottom – with new habits! This guide will look closer at that, but first, make sure to check out the Change Your Habits Guided Workbook! It takes you step-by-step through forming (and sticking to) healthy habits.

Wondering where to begin? Get our FREE guide, The 30-Minute Organizing Secret, and discover easy ways to overcome the chaos of clutter – even with kids at home!

Let’s face it – just the act of having too much stuff holds you back from having an organized and clean home. That’s why you need to declutter – but not just once, multiple times a year. 

Use The Printable Checklist

In this guide, you’ll see exactly how to split up your home maintenance tasks by season. Save yourself time and use the Take Action Printables Binder to track your goals. There are tons of printable checklists that you can save inside your binder or hang them up on your Family Command Center.

Declutter – A Year-Round Routine

Living an organized life requires maintenance. It is a lifestyle choice, and it can be a pretty simple one. This declutter routine is split up into 4 seasons.

There is a list under each season, describing what to get rid of. No more wondering, use this list to declutter your home every season. 

Use our Undated Printable Planner to schedule when you’re going to do each task. That way, you won’t forget.

Fall

During the fall months, you are likely transitioning from hot and humid summers to cold and chilly fall nights. During this time, you are transitioning between clothes and preparing your home for the cooler months. While the summer clothes and items are still fresh in your mind, use this time to purge the following items:

• Summer clothes: shorts, tank tops, short sleeves, capris, and any other summer clothes
• Swimwear: swimsuits, coverups, and swim gear
• Shoes: sandals and open-toed shoes
• Beach supplies: towels, toys, and anything you would take with you to summer vacation spots
• Spring and summer decor items
• Patio and yard tools
• Camping equipment
• Sporting equipment
• Outside toys

By focusing only on these items during the fall months, you can free up some of your space for the fall and winter items that you have on hand.  After you’ve purged, you can use space saver bags to store away “out of season” clothes if you’re still short on storage space. Check out our Complete Guide to Fall Organization for more ideas.

Winter

During the winter months, the weather may go from cold to frigid, and we will tend to find ourselves with more time indoors than we’d like. Use this time to purge the following items:

• Kitchen items: cookware, small appliances, etc.
• Toys: especially after the Christmas season
• Pantry, fridge, and freezer: take this time to empty your fridge, pantry, and freezer and remove anything that’s gone bad or you won’t eat to make room for holiday meal items
• Sentimental and long-term storage items: as you prepare for the holidays, consider going through your sentimental items and long-term storage items to remove anything you don’t need
• Travel items: luggage, travel toiletries, etc

Spring

During the spring months, the weather will start to warm up, and with the winter months coming to a close, it’s time to go through your winter items while they’re still fresh in your mind. Use this time to purge the following items:

• Winter clothes: pants, leggings, sweatshirts, jackets, socks, long sleeve shirts, and sweaters
• Winter accessories: coats, mittens, gloves, scarves, hats
• Winter shoes: boots, close-toed shoes, etc.
• Indoor activities and projects: board games, craft supplies, and other hobbies you may enjoy indoors.
• Holiday decorations: Christmas, fall, winter, and Halloween decor. Check out our best tips for storing your holiday decorations.
• Blankets and linens: take this time to go through your blankets and linens and get rid of any you don’t use.  These Linen Closet Storage Tips include great ideas on how to store them.
• Papers: since tax season is upon us, now is a great time to get rid of unwanted papers and any papers you need to organize.

Summer

During the summer months, it’s time to get outside and enjoy the summer sun! During this time, you may find yourself taking more trips, and going through your travel supplies. Use this time to purge the following items:

• School supplies you no longer need
• Spring and summer holiday decor: Fourth of July, Easter, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, etc.
• Party and entertaining supplies: balloons, candles, entertaining platters and servers, paper products, decor, etc.
• Home decor items
• Medicine and first aid

Getting rid of the excess in your home can be a great way to relieve the stress on your home, and also make it easier to organize. Follow these tips to create a year-round declutter routine for your home.

How to Declutter Fast

How do you declutter when you don’t know where to start? It’s very common to feel overwhelmed by all your stuff. Maybe you think your stuff is valuable, or maybe you think you might, maybe, use it someday.

But holding onto too much stuff will increase feelings of anxiety and make it more likely that you don’t finish your cleaning goals. 

Take a deep breath, and remind yourself: You are doing this for you! When the room is organized and you let go of all your unused stuff, you will feel so much better! Follow these tips to declutter your home fast, without making it take all day.

Check out our tips for decluttering using the KonMari Method to help you decide which items you should really keep in your home.

1. Pull things out of the room

Take the items from the list above and pull them out of the room. It is easier to see how much you have and what you need to get rid of when you take it out of the room first. 

2. Sort into 3 piles

Next, sort the items into 3 piles: Keep, Donate, Trash. 

Keep – only items you have used before and are still usable belong here. One exception is for items that have priceless memories attached (like that baby blanket). 

Donate – give away anything that you had plans to use but didn’t. Make quick decisions. The longer you take to decide to let it go, the more stress you will feel and the less likely you are to let it go. 

Trash – if something is damaged or expired, trash it! Sometimes people find things in piles that became broken. So let things go. 

3. Trash or Give Away

Finally, take the trash and donation piles out of your house. Don’t wait. Throw away the trash and take the donation piles to a local thrift shop. 

The secret is to make a plan and follow through. You can declutter any room very quickly if you follow these tips.

Struggling to get motivated? Sign up to get our FREE guide, The 30-Minute Organizing Secret, and discover easy ways to overcome the chaos of clutter – even with kids at home!

More Organization Tips

Keep the home organization momentum going. Once you start, keep it up. There are lots of helpful articles here on Clutter Keeper, here are a few. 

• Bedroom Organization Ideas – Create a peaceful sanctuary in your bedroom with these articles. 
• Top 10 Places You’ll Find Clutter – Which of these places on the list do you find clutter in your home? 
• 5 Ways to Organize When You’re Too Busy – Yup! No more excuses, here is how to organize your home when you have no time to do it.