Living Clutter Free Forever - decluttering tips, professional organizing, minimalist living

10-minute daily decluttering habits for a stress-free life #117

• Caroline Thor - Professional Organizer - KonMari® Consultant

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Is your home causing you stress? Does the clutter feel like it’s taking over, making it impossible to relax?
We’ve all been there.
The overwhelm of organizing and tidying up can feel like too much to handle, especially when you’re juggling everything else life throws your way.

But what if I told you there’s a simple solution? A way to declutter and regain your peace of mind in just 10 minutes a day. Yes, you heard that right—10 minutes!

In the latest episode of Living Clutter Free Forever, I dive deep into the power of 10-minute daily decluttering habits. These are not just tips—they’re game-changers.

Ever wonder why clutter seems to sneak back into your life no matter how much organizing you do? Or why the KonMari method isn’t just about getting rid of everything? Tune in and find out.

I’ll be busting some of the biggest decluttering myths that are holding you back. And I’ll share how just 10 minutes a day can help you create a stress-free, organized home that you love.

Imagine walking into a space that feels light, clear, and totally you. A home where clutter doesn’t stand a chance. Sounds amazing, right?

You don’t need hours to make a difference. You just need a strategy—and I’ve got plenty to share.
So, are you ready to start your 10-minute decluttering journey?

Listen now and take the first step towards a clutter-free, stress-free life.
Your future self will thank you!

I would LOVE to hear from you. Text Message me here.

Thanks for listening! For more organizational motivation, support and free resources:
Join my online membership Clutter Free Collective
Join my podcast Facebook group Living Clutter Free Forever Podcast: KonMari® Inspired Organizing | Facebook
Visit my website www.caroline-thor.com
Come and say 'hi' on Instagram @caro.thor
Follow me on Facebook @carolineorganizer

Speaker 1:

Hi there, I'm Caroline Thor, professional organiser, konmari consultant, teacher and mum of three. I started off my life as a mum feeling overwhelmed, disorganised and desperately trying to carve out some time for me amongst the nappies, chaos and clutter. One day, one small book called the Life-Changing Magic of Tidying changed everything and I began to learn strategies for making everyday life easier. Today, I have the systems in place that means life can throw almost anything at me, and I want to share them with you. If you're an overwhelmed mum struggling to keep it together, then this is the podcast for you. Grab a coffee and settle in for a quick chat with someone who gets your reality. Hi, I hope your week is going really well, whatever day you happen to be listening to this episode.

Speaker 1:

My name is Caroline and I'm the host of the Living Clutter-Free Forever podcast, and today I'm going to be talking about something that I am always banging on about in my membership Clutter-Free Collective 10-minute daily decluttering habits. I feel so strongly about the difference 10 minutes can make in your life that I've decided to devote this whole episode to talking about it. It's probably going to be quite a short episode. I had thought it would be fun to try and fit it into 10 minutes. So I'm going to talk really fast and see what we can get through, but I have got a sneaking suspicion I'm going to go over that 10 minute mark. But I think you're going to find what I have to say today absolute gold when it comes to building, decluttering, organizing or tidying into your life. So we all know what the benefits of decluttering are they can reduce stress, they can increase your productivity, they definitely increase and promote a sense of calm in your life.

Speaker 1:

But there are so many myths when it comes to decluttering and I'd just like to address three of the big ones before I get started today. Today, I'd love to debunk these. The first one is that decluttering takes a lot of time. Yes, it can do, but it doesn't have to. And I think what a lot of people make the mistake of thinking is it all has to be done in one go. And if you do it all in one go, then, yes, it is going to take a lot of hours at one time to declutter a category. If you're using the KonMari method, which is what I recommend you use, or if you're doing a room decluttering, it is going to take hours if you were, for example, doing your kitchen, and I do this with clients. If I am working with a client and with me, they're much faster than they would be on their own.

Speaker 1:

I need at least five hours to declutter and reorganize a kitchen, so it does take a lot of time, but you can find short 10 minute patches of time where you can do the next step in the decluttering. And this is where a lot of people get it wrong. You don't have to get everything out and do it all in one go. You can say to yourself right, we're doing the kitchen, let's start with cutlery, and if you find you've got 10 minutes, just do the cutlery draw. The next time you've got 10 minutes, just do the cutlery draw. The next time you've got 10 minutes, do pots and pans. And you can gradually work your way through the whole kitchen category, doing it in 10 minute little bursts throughout your day, week, month, whenever you get some time, and it therefore does not have to take a large amount of time in one go.

Speaker 1:

The second myth I would like to debunk is you have to get rid of everything you don't love. That's not entirely true. It's about functionality too. Sometimes we don't absolutely love an item, but it's functional, and I'll use the kitchen again here as an example. I have got various things in the drawers in my kitchen which I don't love. I wouldn't necessarily feel, oh, I have to have this, but the functionality of it means that I can produce food that I enjoy eating, or I might be able to bake something that will bring joy. So the functionality of it means that I don't have to get rid of everything I don't love. I can hang on to those things because they are serving a purpose and they are helping me create my ideal lifestyle.

Speaker 1:

And the third and final myth I would like to debunk at the moment is that decluttering is a one-time event. It is not. I started my KonMari journey 10 years ago on that fateful day when I read about Marie Kondo's book the Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up in a copy of Good Housekeeping up in a copy of Good Housekeeping. And 10 years on, we are still decluttering because things come into our home which mean that we perhaps need to sort out something else, that we've got to make space for it. Or the kids have got older and clothes no longer fit them, or I've put on weight and clothes no longer fit me, or things that sparked joy for us four years ago don't spark joy for us anymore. I think I mentioned in a previous episode that my husband and I have recently been back through our books and realised that we still had a lot of books that four years ago definitely sparked joy for us and we were clear we wanted to keep them before a house move. And four years on we've realised actually they don't spark joy for us any longer and we have let them go with gratitude.

Speaker 1:

It's a continuous process. It's not a one-time event, and this is the big mistake that a lot of people make thinking it's a one-time event, and then they wonder why the clutter starts to come back again. It's the law of nature that things are going to come into your home. It's not like you never buy anything again, having done the KonMari process, so you need to keep on top of it. So what is the power in 10 minutes?

Speaker 1:

The concept of 10 minute decluttering sessions can be totally life-changing. It can help you, as I said at the start, if you've got a big decluttering job to do, to break it down into 10 minute chunks of time that you can just do when you find you've got 10 minutes free and you gradually work your way through the category that you're trying to declutter. What I really like to emphasize, especially with the people in my membership Clutter Free Collective, is that once you have decluttered and organized a category or an area of your home, building in 10 minutes a day to keep on top of it and put things back where they should be will mean the areas you've done are not going to fall back into disarray and get cluttered again. And when you are working on a big decluttering project and you take the 10 minutes a day approach or 10 minutes whenever you find it approach, then you've got to be consistent about it Because, of course, if you start off just doing 10 minutes here and there and then aren't consistent, you will never get finished. So you need to be consistent.

Speaker 1:

I'm working with a client in the US at the moment, one on one, and she's been doing an amazing job of decluttering years and years of papers from her family, stuff from the kids, from art stuff down to school reports, certificates that her kids have got for sport and stuff Just boxes and boxes and boxes of papers. And we built it into 10 minute decluttering so that she could work on it over a period of time and it didn't feel like a massive overwhelming job that had to be done over like two or three days and it's taken her longer. But it stops you feeling overwhelmed and you do get a little feeling of accomplishment after each session, after every 10 minutes that you do, because you really really concentrate for that 10 minutes, because you know I've only got 10 minutes. You get much more done than if you perhaps did an hour or two hours and you lose your focus and you start flicking around on your phone and wasting time. Very often we're like, oh, I spent an hour on this and it was so hard, such hard work, but how much of that hour did you really focus for the whole time, whereas if it's only 10 minutes, you're going to be super focused for the whole of that 10 minutes and it's amazing what you can get done and you will feel so, so accomplished. So there are other decluttering strategies what you can get done and you will feel so, so accomplished.

Speaker 1:

So there are other decluttering strategies that you can use that will really fit well into this 10 minute rule. One is the one touch rule. So, for example, if you've got items around your home that are lying around, put it in your hand and just make a decision Do I put it away, do I donate it or do I discard it because it's broken and that is a really good way of getting through stuff quickly. It reduces decision fatigue and it really streamlines the process. Another great strategy is the one that the KonMari method is based on, and that's to focus on categories. So if you're focusing on a specific category, you know that every day you're going to go back to that category for 10 minutes and do a bit more work on it. It could be your jewelry, so you might go to your jewelry box and you're going to go through perhaps for 10 minutes earrings on one day and bracelets for 10 minutes on another day. It prevents you from feeling overwhelmed by tackling everything at once.

Speaker 1:

Another great one that you can fit into 10 minutes is what I like to call the one surface challenge. You can choose one surface and dedicate 10 minutes to clearing it completely. If you really focus for 10 minutes, it's totally possible. So you can put things away, you can discard clutter, you can wipe down the surface for a fresh start Absolutely brilliant. The digital declutter dash this one has been happening a lot with the members of my clutter-free collective. They've been spending 10 minutes, when they find it, focusing on their digital spaces. So things like deleting old emails, unsubscribing from unused newsletters, organizing files on their desktops or on their phones, and they are getting digitally much more organized Absolutely fantastic. So those are four things that you can do the one touch rule, focusing on a category, the surface challenge or looking at your digital clutter, and those are all things that you can keep going back and picking at if you find you've got 10 minutes available to you.

Speaker 1:

So what are the actionable steps that you need in order to make this 10 minutes work really well for you? I always recommend setting a timer. If you set yourself a timer with a definite 10 minute time frame, you are more likely to stay focused and get the job done and have a couple of empty boxes available. It's always worth the whole time that you're decluttering, having a box available just to put sentimental items into, and that box can stay with you for months or even years as you keep decluttering, add sentimental items in. Don't let yourself get stuck by sentimental items and the other box you could have is a donation box. So if you find something that you decide doesn't spark joy for you anymore or isn't functional, you can put it in a donation box. And my third actionable step would be to reward yourself.

Speaker 1:

Celebrate your progress after each session Within the membership. That very often involves hopping into our Facebook group and people writing down what they've done so that we can celebrate with them. You might go make yourself a cup of tea that's my favourite thing to do Maybe you will allow yourself to go out for a walk, maybe you will sit down and just have some mindful time or do a bit of yoga. Whatever for you, is a celebration of your progress after each session. Make sure that you do that and reward yourself.

Speaker 1:

Okay now, if you want to do a bit more decluttering in 10 minutes, here are some more fun ways to do it. You could do an expired item sweep. Now. There are various areas of your home where there are items that are going to expire. One is your pantry, your bathroom or your medicine cabinet, for example, so you could look for expired items for 10 minutes and then discard them responsibly. You could have a one-in-one-out rule, so that when you bring something new in, you've got 10 minutes to find something similar to declutter. To maintain the balance, you could have a catch-all container, so if you've gone around the house tidying up, you could put everything into a container and then you could spend 10 minutes either. And then you can spend 10 minutes either putting things away or discarding unused items that have been left lying around and creating designated storage areas. For the rest and that's something that you can very easily do in 10 minutes you could also tackle paper clutter for 10 minutes, sorting mail receipts and bills. You could recycle paper or shred it or file important documents if you decide you need to keep them. So those are lots of ideas for you of things that you could do with 10 minutes of your day.

Speaker 1:

If you find you've got 10 minutes free and for those of you that are saying I don't have 10 minutes free, you do if you didn't scroll on your phone through Instagram or Facebook or through the news channels, then you would find 10 minutes. And you can always, for 10 minutes, have the timer on and listen to a podcast, for example, while you're doing the decluttering, because that will make the time go even more quickly and for lots of people, listening to something while they're decluttering will actually help them stay really focused. So my key takeaways for you from this episode are. There are many decluttering myths out there. Most of them aren't true. You can spend 10 minutes taking any of the strategies that I've explained in this episode and applying them to really make the best use of that 10 minutes that you have, and my actionable steps were to set a timer, to have a sentimental and a donation box ready and to really make sure you reward yourself at the end of your 10 minute session.

Speaker 1:

Okay, I think I've gone over 10 minutes. I haven't dared to look at the clock as I've been chatting away because I wanted to make sure I got through everything, but I would really encourage you to start on your own 10 minute cluttering journey. As I said, it's something that we're really big on in my membership clutter free collective, and next week, on that note, I have got some super exciting news coming for you. So make sure you listen to next week's episode to hear the exciting news. And until next time, please send the link to a friend you know would appreciate it, subscribe and leave a review. I look forward to bringing you more organizing tips next time, but if you can't wait until then, you can go to my website or find me on instagram, at carothor or on facebook at caroline organizer. Thanks for listening and I look forward to guiding you on your journey to find your clutter free ever after.