7 Mistakes That Make Decluttering Your Home Take FOREVER | clutter-free + minimalist home

I get a lot of questions about how to declutter fast, so this week, I'm sharing a list of decluttering mistakes to AVOID if you want to declutter your home and keep it clutter-free! Consider this your complete guide on how NOT to declutter -- after 8 years of minimalism and decluttering, trust me...I've been there, done that, and made them all! So here are the decluttering tips I wish I'd known sooner to make your decluttering journey faster and easier for you -- let's dive in!

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ABOUT A TO ZEN LIFE
Along my journey to let go of 30 years of clutter, I accidentally became a minimalist and it was life-changing.

Before, I was an emotional hoarder with nothing but the clutter from lost loved ones — and $25,000 of debt — to my name. Now I have a beautiful home in Europe, a happy family, live debt-free, and — best of all — wake up to a life that I’m EXCITED to live every day.

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[tammypearson]

OMG you said something that hit me... "You don't waste your money getting rid of some thing. You waste your money buying some thing!" 😳🤯 what a way to change a thought process!

[grannygrumbles]

Thank you for this. While I know I'll never be minimalistic, I am now a recovering hoarder. For me, the worst was that I had to come to terms with guilt over sentimental things. I will be 70 in 2 weeks, and just last week, I hired some men who came in to declutter my house. They worked three days to clean out my house, basement, and garage. Mostly, I didn't want to leave my son with all the mess, but now I've been left with quite a huge cleanup. I'm very disabled so I'm going to tackle what I can each day. Eventually, I will get there. But least now, with literally 90% gone, it's not so overwhelming. I can do a closet, a drawer, a shelf, each day. You're encouraging me. Thank you, my young friend.

[daniellecarney]

“Remember that you wasted the money when you bought [the item], not when you [get rid of it ]! You are the best minimalist coach on YouTube, hands down! I love your videos .

[andreasteinmann]

Yes! 👍🏼 Guilty of leaving bags clothing donations in my closet. Then driving around with them in the trunk of my car for months. 😅

[PatriciaCarrier]

#6 I do not have this problem any more.
My solution I monthly scheduled a dropped off time to remove entirely all my unwanted items.
Every 15th of the month, I schedule a specific time to remove all collected unwanted items from my home, car, and garage. This method has been incredibly effective for me over the past three years.
Benefits:
Clutter-free space: For at least 24 hours, my home is entirely free of unwanted objects.
Consistent maintenance: I never accumulate more than a month's worth of declutterable items.

[CatherineHurley-wkef]

# 6: Yes! My "decluttered" sewing machine sat around my basement for 2 years, because the local recycling center does not accept old, metal electrical goods. A friend found one out of town that does take these, and I am happy to report that, this afternoon, I finally decluttered it. Yay!

[andreaviehhauser]

👍 I have boxes of clutter that I decluttered like 5 years ago that did not make thier way out of the house, still living in my attic

[effie]

👍 My biggest problem when decluttering is the guilt of throwing things out that I would love to recycle & knowing they can be recycled but also knowing they're not recyclable where I live, like old cds for example. So I hold on to them as if by doing so, sooner or later a solution will magically appear!

[TishNaz]

Oh myyy 👍👍👍 Hahaha now I'm not always the person to comment at all, but when you said "Come on, who's done this? I know you have" I just felt so spoken to lmao. Ashamed to say that my decluttered clothing items have been sitting in the bedroom for almost 3 years in a huge bag because of wanting to sell them and it being complicated 😬

Your channel is amazing and eye opening. I love what you do, please don't ever stop 🥰

[MariaStellino-jv]

I’ve always had fear of making a mistake

This video helped thank you

[vivio]

👍 I am procrastinating on selling some big items. The photos, creating the post, the "is this available?" and having strangers in my home

[eileencarroll]

This week, I realized that I miss all my vinyl music albums that I decluttered 10 years ago. BUT I miss "having" them. I do not miss "playing" those albums because I could play a lot of the music on Spotify but I have not. I have gained space from the decluttered albums, turntable, speakers and dusty wires, and I gained time by not having to maintain them.
Similarly, I "miss" some larger size jeans that I decluttered last time I lost weight. TWO LESSONS: 1. I regret the weight gained after a death in the family, not the decluttered bigger jeans. 2. The 3 pairs of bigger jeans I bought to accommodate the weight gain is the right quantity for my ongoing capsule wardrobe. And, if weight fluctuations become my new reality, retaining my more flexible designed items might be a better choice. My elastic waistband knitwear got me through a hysterectomy, weight gain and weight loss. The jury is still out on wide-leg jeans, but low-rise and skinny-jeans are gone.
The longest I have hung onto something that I decided to declutter is 8 months (so far). I am afraid I made too big of a project out of decluttering an entire set of dishes and serving pieces. I plan to take them back to the auction where I bought them used. I now have enough boxes for all the pieces including the serving platters and big bowls. My goal is to photograph and pack the boxes into a wagon this afternoon, then figure out when the auction house can receive the boxes. If that gets too complicated, I will take the whole set to a charity shop and they can make some money for their good cause. Even though each platter is selling for more than $100 on eBay, I have gotten more than my money's worth during the 30 years I used them. And I am not the right temperament to sell things on eBay myself.
In the meantime, I am proud that I have been using Mom's good China to the point that some of the silver trim has worn off and I chipped one bowl. Yes, I am proud that I am not saving it only for special occasions. I am also proud of a little wear on a single set of gold trimmed China plates that I have been using outside instead of paper plates. I have been using Grandma's cloth napkins inside and outside too... even with BBQ sauce.

[lindamcdermott]

👍…. I keep a decluttering bin; whenever I find something that needs to go, I put it there. When the bin is full, it moves to the car, where it lives until I can drop it off when I have another errant or appointment. Batching my trips saves time and gas. Decluttering is an ongoing process, I like things organized and am always looking for ways to improve. I’ve practiced this for years. I look forward to your videos for tips and validation for things that I already do. The other thing you mentioned was shopping, I simply don’t go into stores unless I have a specific purpose or list.

[roxannetart]

Yes! Wait to organize till after you've decluttered. I've recently realized this and it has been a game changer!

[potsylvania]

I keep bag or a box to one side of the desk, kind of on the way out to the car. I then add things I find to donate to that until it is reasonably full, then I grab it and put it into the car going out the door on one of my town trips, and it becomes one of the errands that I am taking care of that day. Not going to lie, I have been working for a few years on this whole declutter journey, so I may take me a week or two to fill up the bag or box. Depending.
I have other areas that are more problematic, like mail type items that come in without me doing anything to get them here. Then I have to make decisions about what to do with them. Grrrr. An aside here, I loved it when I lived in Guatemala, they didn’t and don’t have junk mail. Something that impressed me and I always thought “ why can’t we do that in the US”.. I think the way it worked there was, that one paid not only to send but also to receive something .Can you imagine what would happen if you had to “pay” to receive mail? You would probably just refuse to pay for stuff you didn’t want. So no more junk mail. Stopping the clutter at its source. Brilliant !

[akontilis]

👍 Stuff does accumulate, but we now have a family process. We have a space in the garage, the 'donation corner' until I have enough stuff to warrant a trip to make donations. The 'corner' is on a small rug and that limits how big the pile can get. (As my husband and I cull through our books, we stack 'books-to-go" in an indoor box to keep them from humidity, but when the box is full, we take it to a local bookshop that gives us "credits" (for future purchases) or they just recycle what they don't keep.
This is what works for us.

[sciorty]

Dear Marissa, you helped me so much!
Thank you for your work, I started my decluttering 1 year ago listening to your story and your voice and now I feel so much peaceful in my house!
Unespectedly also my 2 teenagers are now decluttering their own stuff ...incredible! I'm so ❤

[MscMarci]

👍🏻🙋🏻‍♀️🙋🏻‍♀️🙋🏻‍♀️
I’m used to park bags of stuff to be donated close to our laundry downstairs… the issue is that they are in a room close also to our main entry ; so my daughter sometimes goes there and pick again something already decluttered 😱🤯😅
Regarding mistake #1, some years ago i listened my new mantra for buying or decluttering stuff: “if you are in doubt, the answer is NO”. This rule saved me from purchasing new items and helped me on decluttering many!
Ciao Marissa, it’s always a pleasure watching your videos🫶🏻

[roborob]

Thanks to your tip to focus on not just one room at a time but one small area I knocked out a lot just today. Thanks Marissa!!! 👍

[dostopitnow]

The trunk of my car holds my discards too long because I don’t want to go out. My home is almost completely decluttered and I’m pretty happy with the results. Where I am challenged the most is in the area of my knitting supplies. Crafts and hobbies are my biggest challenge because I don’t have a social life or much interaction outside my home, so my crafts and hobbies fill the voids of not being socially active. They keep my mind and my hands busy so I don’t feel lonely.