Evaluate your internal clock

How often have you stared at the junk cupboard in your home and promised yourself that you’d come back to it ‘when you have the time’… only to never get round to doing anything about it? Spellman and Jansen insist that “timing is everything” when it comes to decluttering your home, so it’s important to pay attention to your internal clock and when you’re most likely to have the time, space and energy to sort out your stuff to maximise your chances of success.

“Ask yourself if you are a morning, afternoon or evening person,” they explain. “Do you do your best work as soon as you’ve woken up or do you have more energy and time in the evening? Maybe you don’t have the slightest chance of making progress during your working week and your decluttering efforts need to be scheduled at the weekend or during the holidays when you have support.”

Ultimately, they suggest, you need to treat your decluttering time as an appointment like any other work or home commitment, otherwise it will never get to the top of your to-do list.

Use a timer

When approaching a big task, it’s a good idea to consider how long you can normally work before you start to flag, suggest Spellman and Jansen. Timers can be a useful tool here: you want to focus for as long as possible, but not spend hours in an endless loop of decision-making. “Lots of people make the mistake of starting to declutter with no end in sight and not stopping until hours later. It’s much better to use short bursts and take regular breaks to keep the momentum going.”

Give decluttering the attention it deserves

Nothing harms progress more than dipping in and out of organisation – one cupboard here, a drawer there – but never completing a whole room or area of your home. “The last thing you need when you are in full flow of decluttering decision-making is to be taken off track, so minimise distractions by turning off notifications on your phone,” Spellman and Jansen say. “Treat each decluttering session as if you were in a work meeting, and give it the time and focus it needs.”

The 7 rules for successful decluttering that everyone needs to follow, according to the authors of Reset Your Home