10 Minute Decluttering Tasks You Can Do Today!

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This list of 10 minute decluttering tasks will help to remove the overwhelm that often comes with any decluttering project. Set a goal of one task a day and watch your home transform from chaotic to simplified in a short time.

Add this list to your guide to simple living and use it to streamline the rooms in your home.

The biggest complaint I hear with decluttering is “I work so hard cleaning out a room and before I know it it’s right back to a mess again.”  And I totally get it, really.

Cleaning out a room or even your entire home is just part of the process. You then need to maintain that home to ensure that things do not get out of control again.

Transforming a home is hard work and my goal today is to help you find a way to keep it that way with easy decluttering tasks that take 10 minutes or less to complete.

There is a crazy aspect to decluttering. We work hard to set things right. Putting things away and clearing off counters and tables.

We then go about our days minding our own business and without even realizing it, the clutter sneaks its way back in.

Our once neat and tidy kitchen counter is slowly getting buried once again under a mass of random piles. 

And this can be more than just annoying, it can be costly.

It costs us time and money. And those are two things that are too important to just let slip away. And that is what this article is all about. A list that will save you time, countless amounts of money and your sanity too.

10 Minute Decluttering Tasks you can do today

This list is meant to take away the overwhelm allowing you to weave decluttering throughout your day. Work your way down this list completing one task at a time and watch your home begin to take shape with stuff sitting out and more put away.

#1  Clean out a junk drawer. (5 minutes)

It just might surprise you to know that I have a junk drawer. To be perfectly honest I actually have two of them, one for me and one for my husband.

Being clutter-free does not mean you are living under strict rules that forbid junk drawers. Actually, the opposite is true.

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Being clutter-free means you have a place for everything and when you are finished using an item it is easy for you to put it away. This is the basis behind every single decluttered home out there.

Having a specific home for each item even if that home is a junk drawer, or in our home, a kitchen utility Drawer. 

I have one of these drawers in my kitchen and inside I keep things that help me to run my day. The heart of our home is the kitchen so for that reason, I have a drawer in there that holds a few key items that I might need to use but do not need to dedicate a specific space for.

Here are a few examples:

1. Pens, pencils, highlighters
2. Scissors, tape
3. Post-it notes, a pad of paper
4. Large black magic marker
5. Clothespins (I use these everywhere. They are simply the best invention ever!)
6. Notecards, paperclips, rubber bands
7. Nail file, band-aide, chapstick

As you can see these are items specific to me that I like to have nearby just in case I need those things. Being efficient means having the tools you need nearby and that is what a utility drawer does.

If you have a drawer that is crammed full of random things, this first project will help you to sort those items out keeping only the things you know you may need.

How long will this decluttering hack take? 

Sorting, cleaning, and organizing a junk drawer should only take about 5-7 minutes.

Action Steps:

1. Remove one item at a time and sort into two piles. One pile if for anything that belongs somewhere else and the other pile is for anything that will stay in this drawer.
2. Toss any trash as you find it.
3. Once the drawer is empty, wipe everything down giving you a clean slate to work with.
4. Use small basket or containers to help keep your drawer neat and more organized.
5. Return any items to the drawer that are staying.
6. Finish up buy putting away any items you put into pile one.

Done.

#2  Clean out your coat closet. (10 minutes)

This is one area of my home that if not kept an eye on can get out of control and to be honest I really have no idea why.

A coat closet is for coats only, even the name even confirms it. So how on earth soccer balls, shopping bags, and pet toys find their way into our closet is simply beyond me.

If your home is like mine then this area needs you to keep an eye on it, and you can do this in just under 10 minutes.

Action Steps:

1. Remove any items that belong somewhere else in the house. I like to use a clothes basket to hold things until I am able to put them away where they belong.
2. Remove any out-of-season items and put them away where you normally store them. This could be a tote in a storage area, under a bed in a guest room, or on a shelf in a linen closet.
3. Keep working until you only have current outerwear for the season you are in.
4. If you can, clean the closet floor and shelves.
5. Use organizers that will help to keep your closet neater.
6. Once you have things put away, finish up by unloading the items that belong in another room. Walk your home, laundry basket it hand and deliver those items where they belong.

Done.

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READ: SIMPLE RULES FOR CLEANING OUT YOUR CLOSET to get easy tips for organizing where you keep your clothes.

#3  Organize your silverware drawer. (3 minutes)

If you are brand new to decluttering and you are looking for an easy project that will make a huge difference in a room, the silverware drawer is it.

It is a super simple drawer to declutter and an even easier to keep neat and organized. Take a look at your drawer now and inspect what you have inside. If you see there are items that do not belong there, that is a clue it needs your atteniton.

The good news is, this job is so quick you can do it while you are cooking dinner.

Action steps:

1. Pull everything out of the drawer and place the items on a dish towel to corral them together.
2. Wipe down the inside of the drawer being sure to get any crumbs.
3. Wash and dry your silverware organizer.
4. Return only the items that will stay in this drawer.
5. Toss the trash and put the other items away right now.

Done.

I used to have a plastic organizer but for some reason I found it stained up quickly and just looked awful. I then switched to this steel mesh one and I just love it, much easier to keep clean.

#4  Delete photos or videos from your smartphone. (10 minutes)

This is my favorite decluttering mini-task because you can do it anywhere. If you are you stuck waiting for your son to finish up football practice, sitting in the orthodontist’s office for the 2nd time this month, or waiting for an appointment, this is a great decluttering task to work on.

The thing about this decluttering task is it needs to be done every month, making it a great project to work on whenever you have a bit of down time.

Action Steps:

1. Quickly go through and delete any bad, unfocused, or duplicate photos. This one step alone may be just enough to really clean things out.
2. Next, delete any photos that you no longer need. Screenshots that were needed in the moment but not meant to be kept forever.

Once you have the excess off then you can organize what you have left.

1. Set up files on your phone sorting things into categories. This option will only work if you have a phone that supports this. If not you can instead send those pictures to your computer and organize them there.
2. Begin moving photos to the appropriate file creating new files as you find you need them.

Done.

#5  Email clean-out (10 minutes each)

It is amazing how quickly an email account can fill up with spam and useless clutter. Here too I try to spend a few minutes each week to keep on top of things.

You can take this tip one step further and each week or month unsubscribe from all unnecessary emails. If you have a gmail account, they have made it very easy to unsubscribe with a one click link at the top of each email.

Even though this is a time-consuming task, it is one that has a big return on investment. The less useless emails you have coming into your account the more time you will save.

Take this task one step further and set up folders to better organize the emails that you do want to keep. 

Some folders to consider are:

1. Bills
2. Statements
3. Financial Investment Records
4. Kids Records
5. Medical
6. Pet
7. Receipts
8. Taxes
9. Warranties

If you have older children, you may want to have a file for each of them that includes their name and year.

Total time you spend on this task can vary depending on the number of emails you have to go through. To keep this from getting overwhelming, set a timer for 10 minutes and work in chunks throughout your week. 

Done.

#6  Clean-out your makeup (10 minutes)

Depending on how much makeup you have this 10 minute decluttering task might only take 7 minutes for me, this task only takes 3.

I am not a big makeup wearer so that means I do not have a lot of makeup at all. This area still requires my attention. This is the key to keeping a home clutter-free. There simply is no fix it and forget it clutter remedy. You need to keep on top of things, all of the things, so you do not find yourself in a huge mess.

Action Steps:

1. Sort through each item. Toss any makeup that is expired or dried out.
2. Set aside any make up that is good and you routinely use.
3. Clean out the container or drawer where you keep your makeup.
4. Use organizers to keep things neat.
5. Put it all back in an organized way.

Done.

#7  Organize your movies. (7 minutes)

Even though we have streaming services for the shows we watch, we still have a large library of movies. Keeping our dvd’s organized not only helps to keep our family room looking neater it makes it easier for us to find a specific movie we want to watch.

If you are looking for tips on how to save money on streaming, you can READ: HOW WE DITCHED CABLE AND STILL WATCH GREAT TV for some unique ideas.

Action Steps:

1. Gather any movies that are piled up around your home.
2. Check each movie quickly to make sure you have the correct disk inside.
3. Set things up into genres. You can keep things simple or get really indepth depending on how many movies you have.
4. Use labels to remember what DVDs belong where.
5. Put each movie back in its genre.

Done.

#8  Clean your shoes (5 minutes)

Whether you keep your shoes in your closet, in a mudroom, or entry room you will want to do this task routinely.

Shoes are something that gets messy easily but takes minutes to fix.

Action Steps:

1. Have an everyday area to hold shoes that are worn routinely. A boot tray works perfectly for this.
2. Keep the kid’s shoes close to their coats. If you have the room, install a heavy duty hook on the wall to hole a coat and book bag. Below you can have a tote or basket for shoes. This will make getting out the door in the mornings so much easier. 
3. Keep dress shoes or other shoes that you wear sparingly in a bedroom closet.
4. Remove any shoes that are unwearable, do not fit, or you no longer love. Put them into a bag for donation.
5. Find a spot for outdoor shoes. If you have a barn or garden you may want a place in a garage or mudroom to house messy boots or shoes.

Done.

Get even more organizing tips for a family with a command center. Read How to Set up a Family Command Center that Works for our best tips for setting one up.

#9  Gather up that trash (7 minutes)

This is by far my favorite decluttering hack out there. So many times quite a bit of our clutter is simply trash. Trash that we fully intended to toss but just never got around to. Take a bag or a wastepaper basket and start walking your home.

Gather up all the crumpled papers, read newspapers and/or magazines, junk mail, kids papers, flyers, useless receipts, empty plastic shopping bags, food containers and anything else you can find. Recycle what you can, shred what you should, and toss what is left.

Done.

#10  Purge the unmentionables (10 minutes)

It might sound silly, but this 10 minute declutter task is another one of those decluttering chores that take just minutes but can make a big impact.

Socks and underwear is an area in a home that often gets overlooked. Many times we keep old items hiding in the back of a drawer things that definitely need to be thrown away.

Keeping not only your things free of old, torn, snagged items will free up space for the good things you prefer to wear.

Action steps:

1. Sort through things tossing any items that are stretched out, stained, or torn.
2. Toss anything you no longer like or doesn’t fit (and sadly never will again).
3. Toss any socks that have lost their mates or have holes.
4. Once empty, take a cloth and wipe things down.
5. Use organizers to keep things in their place making it easier to get dressed in the morning.

Done.

Do this with your younger children and even your spouse if they are okay with that.

Decluttering a home can be a bit tricky starting out, but when you break things down into 10 minutes projects you can start to make progress in different areas throughout your home.

Use this list as a starting point and look for more 10 minute decluttering projects you can fit into your day.

Keep this list of simple mini projects close so you can refer to them anytime you want to work take another step closer to living a simple life.

MORE DECLUTTERING RESOURCES:

• How To Declutter Your Home When You Are Exhausted
• How to Start Decluttering When Feeling Overwhelmed
• How to Live Clutter-Free