8 Tips for Decluttering Every Room in Your House in a Day, Straight From Organizing Pros

KEY POINTS

Focus on the most visible and stressful areas and skip small items to make fast progress.
Toss obvious clutter, group what stays by category, and delegate tasks when possible.
Noticeable change lower stress and motivates you to keep your space manageable.

While organizing your whole space in 24 hours might seem impractical, certain tricks make it possible; it just requires some creativity and resourcefulness.

Ahead, we tapped two pro organizers for their top tips to declutter your entire home in one day in a way that doesn’t feel daunting and that you might even enjoy.

MEET THE EXPERT

MaryJo Monroe is the owner and professional organizer at reSPACEd.
Isabelle Wood is the founder and head organizer at Organizing Engineers.

Focus On the Most Visible Spaces

Front view of an open organized linen closet — Credit:
The Spruce / Leticia Almeida

Decluttering an entire home in a day means you can’t get too nitpicky—so instead, it’s best to focus on bigger items in the most visible rooms of the home like your kitchen, living room, or bathroom.

“This is not the time to sort through your family photos, memorabilia, old tax documents, or mismatched socks,” says MaryJo Monroe, owner and professional organizer at reSPACEd.

Focus on Stress-Inducing Spaces

Stylish and organized entryway — Credit:
The Spruce / Jason Donnelly

Another good starting point is to identify which areas are causing you the most stress.

“By prioritizing and decluttering these spaces, the relief of seeing progress will be rewarding and motivate you to keep going through the rest of your home,” says Isabelle Wood, founder and head organizer at Organizing Engineers.

If you feel like the entire home is stressing you out, Wood suggests trying out the kitchen or entryway first.

“These rooms are used so often and also by various members of the household that once you declutter them, it will make a great positive impact on everyone's daily life,” she says.

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Organized storage bins with household items books and slippers on a rug

Get Rid of No-Brainer Items

Swedish death cleaning donation box — Credit:
The Spruce / Jason Donnelly

Once you’ve decided where to declutter, it’s time to focus on what to declutter. For Wood, this means getting rid of the obvious, "no-brainer" items.

"For example, trash, empty boxes and containers, packaging, and items that are expired, broken, or stained,” she says. “Decluttering these objects won’t require a lot of decision-making on your part, which will make the process easier and faster.”

Get Everyone Involved

Decluttering multiple rooms is no simple undertaking, so it’s best to delegate tasks to other household members or friends who can help you out.

“One person can walk through the room with a bag for trash and a bag for recycling, grabbing those kinds of items in every room,” Monroe suggests. “Another person can walk through the room with a couple of laundry baskets: one for gathering up things that go upstairs (or downstairs) and another for gathering up things that stay on this floor, but live in another room."

Decide If This Works for You

You run the risk of not being able to find items or having things accidentally thrown away when you get more people involved—so Monroe suggests discerning if efficiency or accuracy is more important to you.

Create Time Blocks (and Break Blocks)

Allocate a certain amount of time to tackle each of your priority rooms, and then track those time slots as you go through the decluttering process.

“I recommend giving some extra time to work on the rooms that require more effort, like kitchens [and] big closets,” Monroe says.

You’ll also want to designate time to take breaks so you don’t burn out.

“We recommend setting a timer to go off every hour on the hour to remind everyone to sit down, eat a snack, drink water, [or] use the bathroom,” she says.

Sort Items by Category

Front view of an open organized small pantry — Credit:
The Spruce / Leticia Almeida

For items that need to live in your room rather than be thrown out, the tried and true trick of sorting them by category is always helpful. The key with categories, though, is that each one gets a designated home.

“For example, gaming equipment goes in a drawer by the TV," Monroe says. "Craft projects can be individually packaged into gallon storage bags, stacked in a bin, and stored near the craft table. Pots and pans get stored next to the stove.”

Leave Time for Cleanup

Decluttering may just seem like a game of putting things in place, but there’s bound to be certain tasks needed for a final tidy. So, Monroe recommends setting aside an hour at the end of your decluttering day to clean up.

“During the last hour, take out the trash and recycling, put away the bins of things that live in another room, and load up donations in your car to take to a charity,” she suggests. “You might also use this time to post items to Buy Nothing or on an online selling platform.”

Don’t Make Plans for After

When all is said and done, it’s unlikely you’ll have much energy post-clean-up. Instead, reward yourself with rest.

“You will be very tired after an all-day decluttering sprint, so don’t plan to have people over or go out that evening,” Monroe says. "Plan to order in food."

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