What’s the Difference Between Decluttering and Organizing?

When creating a more functional and tidy home, most of us know that we need to declutter to get organized. While these two activities may seem like one and the same, they are not. In fact, these two processes are quite different. Understanding the distinction between decluttering and organizing can help you tackle your home organizing projects more efficiently and effectively.

We all know how rewarding it is to clear space by letting go of the excess. It’s tempting to stop “organizing” once you finish decluttering. After all, your home will look and feel so much better, and you might be too exhausted to go any further. However, if you declutter without organizing, the chaos will return sooner than you expect. Downsizing is something that most people can master if they focus. However, setting up organizing systems to maintain a tidy home is not intuitive and may require help from a professional organizer.

What is Decluttering?

Decluttering or downsizing is the process of removing items you no longer need, use, or want from your space. It’s sorting through your belongings and making decisions about what stays and what goes.

When you declutter, the goal is to simplify your life by reducing the amount of stuff you have. It can involve:

• Getting rid of broken or worn-out items. (Believe me when I say you will never fix them!)
• Donating clothes that you no longer wear.
• Discarding irrelevant paperwork.

Decluttering focuses on subtracting as much as you can from your home to create space for the things that matter most. It alleviates the stress of excess clutter and the ensuing problem of trying to find what you need from amongst the chaos.

Keep in mind these three key aspects of decluttering.

1. Simplify Your Life. You reduce the number of items you own and only keep those you need or that bring joy to your life.
2. Make Quick Decisions. Determine whether to keep, donate, recycle, or discard items. Please try to avoid getting bogged down trying to donate each item to the perfect home. Resist the urge to overthink who might want your stuff. There is nothing wrong with giving clothing your children have outgrown to a friend with young children or passing along unwanted furniture to a family member who would love the piece you no longer want or need. But beyond that, simply take the rest of your items to your favourite charity.
3. Let Go. Releasing attachment to things that no longer serve you can bring you freedom. The more you can let go of physical clutter, the more space you will have for living.

Decluttering alone doesn’t automatically result in an organized space. However, it is most often the crucial first step to creating more room and making the organization process easier.

What is Involved in the Home Organizing Process?

Organizing your home (and your life) is the process of arranging your items in a functional and logical way. The goal of organizing is to create systems that make it easy to put things away and access them when you need them. Here are three key steps to creating an organized space.

Space Planning

During space planning, you decide where and how to store your items and designate a place for everything. You may need to customize some areas of your home to ensure they are functional for the long term. Please take your time with this step. Ideally, you should store items where you use them. Also, you should consider accessibility and frequency of use.

Setting up Proper Storage

During this step, you create storage solutions that ensure your belongings are easy to find and use. It’s best to place items in a way that makes sense for your daily life and routines. Unfortunately, there is no one-size-fits-all solution because every home is different, and every household runs differently. Overall, your space should be functional for your lifestyle, not just “tidy.” Additionally, it doesn’t need to look like a magazine photo; the storage solutions simply need to work for everyone in your home.

Designing Systems

Designing systems to organize your home can be challenging because you must adjust some of your habits and routines to maintain your organized space. And for some of you, changing those habits takes more work than the rest of the organizing process.

For example, let’s say you install hooks for keys at the entrance of your home so you can find them easily. In order for this new solution to work, you must stop and hang the keys on the hook each time you come home. It might sound ridiculous to point out, but if your habit is to throw your keys on the closest surface or leave them in a coat pocket, you need to retrain yourself.

You could put a sticky note on the front door to remind you to hang up your keys for a few weeks until you adopt the new habit. Ideally, you should do whatever it takes to help you change your habits, no matter how silly it seems. It will be worth it in the end. (See my posts on habits and routines for more information.)

The Difference Between Decluttering and Organizing

Most people believe the main difference between decluttering and organizing is that decluttering is a one-time task, and organizing is ongoing. In fact, maintenance is the key. Decluttering is an ongoing process involving continually letting go of old things as new things come into your life. Additionally, you need to maintain and even modify organizational systems to prevent future clutter from building up. Remember, you have done all this work, but without maintenance, you will not achieve your long-term goal of having a tidy and functional home.

If you’re ready to enjoy the benefits of a truly organized home but aren’t sure where to start, I can help. Contact me for a consultation, and let’s work together to create systems that help you maintain order for years to come.