If you are decluttering, how much time do you spend a day?

[klmama]

Today dh and I helped the dc declutter their rooms. It took about 4 hours, but the job still isn't completely done. I expect to spend another hour or two with dd tomorrow, and dh will have to spend 3-4 more hours with ds. (We ask them to make the choices, which is why it takes sooooooo long.) The family room/play room is going to take about that long, too, some other day. Then there's our room, our storage area, the laundry room, the closets, the kitchen, the garage.... If we did this in smaller chunks, I'm afraid it would never get done, but in large ones it's exhausting. How much time do you spend a day when you are decluttering?

Edited November 30, 2008 by klmama

[Peela]

I go in spurts. Sometimes its 15 minutes, sometimes is an hour. I have learned not to keep going until I am exhausted, though. There is always another day, always more to declutter. I just see it as an ongoing thing, and try and declutter something regularly.

Being afraid it will never get done is still a fear- its not rational, unless you never do anything. its amazing how Much you can do in 15 minutes, or chunks of 15 minutes, if you are consistent about it.

[Melinda in VT]

For normal decluttering, I like to do it in smaller chunks of time. Fifteen minutes, a half hour.

 

However, some jobs just have to be done in one fell swoop. For example, this summer I did a major decluttering of our main room (office, living space, dining room) that involved not only tossing massive amounts of stuff but also rearranging furniture and assembling some new pieces. I chose to do that in one awful weekend, because it was imperative to put the space back together as quickly as possible.

[Ottakee]

I find that for kids bedrooms, playrooms, etc. we need to do it all at ONCE......otherwise we get some stuff out and more stuff wanders in to take its place. I know it is tiring. I am facing this again.

 

I would love to dejunk my house majorly before the holidays. I honestly don't buy a great deal but my kids are given lots of stuff and my 11dd esp. is a collector of anything and everything.

[JessMcG]

I've got my house fairly decluttered (although there are always places that could use some extra work!). So mostly I do daily maintenance decluttering. I can usually get it done in 15 minutes or less. Once a week, when I deep clean the house, I get more thorough (check under beds, put away all the books that have spread throughout the house, straighten up the desk, etc).

[Mommyof4ks]

I usually spend one Sat. morning a month decluttering something, and then 30 minutes to an hour a day straightening until piles of papers and things get put away (ok that or I spend that time online :D).

 

It does depend on what it is though. My dc rooms must be done all at once, so it may take a whole day to get one room done. We usually give some sort of reward for getting it done in one day such as a trip to the video store, and that is usually a good motivator. For rooms like the kitchen I just do one cabinet at a time until they are all decluttered/wiped down, and then I take one Sat. morning to rearrange if necessary (usually once a year or so depending on our needs).

 

We also started doing 'clutter drill' which is an idea I got from the KONOS videos, and it works great. We all clean up the toys at night and then I say clutter drill. Everyone goes around and picks up 10 things that are out of place and put them back up. Sometimes we do this nightly and other times we do it once a week. I find that the kids stay busy for about 15 or 20 minutes with this activity, so I can get several piles of stuff decluttered. It is really nice when hubby joins in too, 5 people cleaning at once can get alot of stuff cleaned up.

[happyWImom]

Decluttering is a total nightmare!!! I spent 2 hours doing my bedroom yesterday, and still need to tackle my closet-that will probably take even longer.:eek: The kids rooms always take forever, also, and in the past we have always done it until it's done. From now on, I am going to use the tips from "motivated moms" (whoever posted the info for this-thank you:001_smile::001_smile:). You just do a small amount in different rooms different days. I love motivated moms! Check it out: www.motivatedmoms.com.

[joannqn]

I've been in the process of decluttering for a while.

 

I find that doing a room as a big project works best for me. I spent a few hours here and there on it rather than every day. When I really NEED to get it done, I buckle down and do it. Then I don't do any decluttering for a while. I just try to maintain with daily pick-ups.

 

I just finished our school room which has been unusable for several months. It's nice to have it back and the kids are excited to be able to use it again. My motivation for getting it done was two-fold: we're trying to get my daughter into her own room by January and I need space cleaned for Christmas decorations. It helps to have motivational deadlines.

[NorthwestMom]

Not enough!

 

I have a 3yo, so no project goes "unhelped", which means it takes 100x longer. So I don't try to pull off more than a few minutes at a time. Also, if she figures out I am planning to get rid of stuff she instantly becomes attached to anything (pots and pans, my old clothes that I haven't worn during her lifetime) and refuses to give them up!

[Guest snmseo]

Almost every weekend of mine goes for clutter cleaning and the house looks good. but on the sad note the house is same messy at the end of the week to make me work every week for decluttering. the best thing is that the simple tips and tricks from a book named declutterfast, the task becomes bit easy. For most visit http://speedydeclutter.com/

[asmall]

I'm not great about house cleaning and clutter, so I follow Flylady. I do the 27 fling boogie. At least it's a start!:D

Al